Scratch

Scratch is a faith based movement that begins in 2069, assembled by Rosny Spanngen. Rather than lead in the open, Spanngen operates through the mask of Doctor Londes, a wholly fabricated figure who serves as the group's public prophet.

The organization sells its recruits a single seductive idea: that a person's consciousness can be copied into data and allowed to outlast the body forever. Growth comes one convert at a time through personal contact, and adherents are told to purify their spirit before a device known as the Brain Dream carries out the transfer. By 2071 the following swells to roughly twenty thousand and earns spots on television talk programs, yet nearly a hundred members take their own lives hoping to speed the passage. The deaths draw the ISSP, whose agents search the homes of senior followers without ever locating Londes.

Faye Valentine slips into the congregation under false pretenses, claiming the movement can erase her debts, and the members accept her so readily that she appears on at least one broadcast while hunting for its hidden leader. Spike Spiegel likewise probes the ranks, though the faithful rebuff him and doubt his motives. In the end the believers are left to discover that the man they worshipped has simply vanished.