Jack is one of the programmers at the controls of the most advanced computer in the world. The staff who work on it dub it the 'Crystal Ball' when they discover it has the power to predict events.
XytoCorp, the owners of the 'Crystal Ball,' tell their computer operators they will release this fact to the media and offer the computer's abilities for the good of mankind — at a price — but not until their own chemical companies had gained an unretractable foothold in industry by use of its powers.
It made good business sense to Jack, Vera and the other computer operators.
But Jack cannot resist the immense power he holds at his fingertips. He plays with that power. He enjoys that power. Until the day he pushes the 'Crystal Ball' to its limits. The day he presses it to make a prediction neither he, or countless others, could live with.
Jack asks the 'Crystal Ball' to predict how long he will live. The answer is a mere 10 years longer.
While Jack panics, Vera has the computer track the cause. The data-trail leads back to a chemical XytoCorp manufactures that is eating away at the outer ozone layer, increasing ultraviolet radiation and incidences of skin cancer.
To attempt to avoid the inevitable, Jack and Vera have to secrete data out to the media with the 'Ultraviolet' prediction and other known events the 'Crystal Ball' has predicted and turned to the advantage of XytoCorp. It means breaking a security system that is tighter and more deadly than that of the KGB or the CIA.
But Jack falters and the burden falls on Vera for the coolnesss and daring needed to try to head off the effects of what could prove to be the cruelest color on the spectrum: Ultraviolet.
