Democrats

As the year approached when Great Britain was to turn Hong Kong over to China, there was great apprehension among the intellectual and business elite about their fate under a totalitarian government. An underground network of students, leaders, and fanatics was formed, in case the worst occurred. This network was organized by a man named Lo Wei.

The transfer of power happened smoothly. Lo Wei and his network made a few demonstrations, but nothing significant happened. The network faded away. Some reports indicate that its structure and some of its cells, along with some leaders, became part of the Triad, the Hong Kong crime syndicate.

Lo Wei turned his contacts into a small technology company. This company, impishly named Democratic Revolution, LTD, created a startling new application of microtechnology. A special implanter could place tiny transistors, smaller than the point of a pin, undetectably into any object. A scanner can then read the microtags from a large distance away, reading up to 2 kilobytes worth of information from the microtag.

This microtechnology makes theft and smuggling impossible if the valuable objects are implanted first with microtags. Lo Wei suggested, and the Corporation approved, a test case of the microtags on the project, to keep the Chinese government from unauthorized technology transfer.

The Democratic Revolution is a small private company. It has no combat capability. Presumably, Lo Wei could draw upon his network for physical help if necessary, but such help could only consist of untrained students.