Child prodigy Hiroki Sawada—who, by the age of ten, is already a MIT grad student and has developed a DNA Tracker software—has been under the guardianship of Thomas Schindler, owner of the software giant Schindler, Inc., since his mother died. One night, in a heavily guarded room at the top of the Schindler building where Hiroki lives, he finishes an artificial intelligence system, Noah's Ark, and sends the software through the telephone lines. The guards become suspicious when he does not respond. They bust open the door, but discover that Hiroki has disappeared, apparently having leapt off the building.