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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ukma!red
From: red@ukma.UUCP (Red Varth)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Here's another book that needs identification:
Message-ID: <776@ukma.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 12-Feb-85 16:14:00 EST
Article-I.D.: ukma.776
Posted: Tue Feb 12 16:14:00 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 14-Feb-85 01:22:27 EST
References: <578@topaz.ARPA>
Organization: Univ. of KY Mathematical Sciences
Lines: 37

This book starts out about a professor whose wife has left him. He gets
depressed one night, and tries to commit suicide. He's saved by his hat.
His wife is a nurse, I think. 

Anyway, his sister comes to visit him (she's had a falling-out with her boss),
and ends up living with him for a while. Then she gets kidnapped. The prof just
about bankrupts himself trying to track her down, and finally pinpoints her
location. Then he gets caught by the same guy who kidnapped her.

At this point, the story shift to another person. This guy officially doesn't
exist -- he doesn't have the equivalent of a SS number. He's a burglar by 
profession (and a good one, too). Then he breaks into this apartment, and 
discovers that the tenant (a woman about 24-26) is trying to commit suicide.

[Note: This society has something very similar to the "tasp" from Ringworld,
except that anyone can buy one. They call it "wire-heading" in this book]

The woman had plugged herself into the wire, and was starving herself to 
death. The guy unplugs her, and saves her life (she breaks his nose in the
process). He performs a little rough psychology on her, and gets her unaddicted
to wire-heading. Then she decides that she wants to "get back" at the 
companies that make the wires. She wants him to help her, and he declines.
His reasoning is that a man who doesn't officially exist would be worth a lot
of money to those companies. He could do dirty work for them, and no one would
every know. Or words to that effect. 

To make a long story short, he discovers a good bit of his past, and yes, he's
the professor. Then he goes on a rampage to rescue his sister. End of story.
I don't remember anything about how he did (or didn't) succeed.


***** Any ideas? It's annoying to recall so much of the plot, but not
      the title or author. Someone suggested "The Steel Rat" (or something
      like that). I haven't read that, but it doesn't sound familiar.

				Thanx,
					Red