First Among Equals by Whitnell, Marcus

Notes on the Work You want digital immortality? No problem… so long as you have ten mill for the op, ten for a new skin, and another two a year for storage and backup insurance. It’s twenty-six years since Eric Thorne tried to suppress the invention of a neural implant capable of digitising the human consciousness, and all his worst fears have come true. What used to be the western world is now governed by big business — and the only people thriving are the rich. But while the polycorporate elite manoeuvre for dead men’s shoes that’ll never become vacant…