 Billy Zane is Mr. Palinove, a grunt cop in the totalitarian government s Media Police, who confiscate illegal television programming. Meanwhile, he has begun suffering from delusional seizures, apparently induced by exposure to media. These may be caused by an implant that has been secretly put into his brain. He s offered a post to the elite CKS corps, so as to masquerade as a sadistic smuggler and infiltrate their organization in Megaville. Once in Megaville, his seizures become more vivid, and he suspects that the horrifying memories of the smuggler have been downloaded to his mind. His mission is revised to make a deal to import the outlawed VR drug Dream-A-Life. It becomes clear that he is not Palinov disguised as the smuggler, but the smuggler with Palinov s personality overlayed upon his own personality with a version of Dream-A-Life. Torn between external alliances and internal morality, he strikes back that the agency that used him.