[Coda]

In this world, there was no Industrial Revolution where powerful machines transformed how things were done.

In this world, instead medical science entered that role -- modifying beasts to do labor, stitching together different body parts to create a non-intelligent, obedient work force with increased strength and stamina, that kind of thing.

The protagonists are a boy undergoing a chemical treatment to let him learn new skills very fast, a girl grown in a vat with a totally rewritten DNA who looks innocent but is actually a lethal killer, a boy with a photographic memory that gets connected to a network of brains to create a gigantic organic database, a girl who was modified to be effective with throwing knives and concealed weapons, a boy who was engineered to be the perfect physical specimen -- tall, handsome, strong, agile, and a girl that's completely unmodified by science but happens to be a prodigy in the study of medicine. And they all work as a team for the government as spies and covert agents.