Partnered with the good-natured and charismatic Mexican Sid Gomez, the two make up a good cop/bad cop partnership with Cardigan's past continually being brought up as a foil for his new career - most honest people he meets distrust him, and most dishonest people attempt to kill him for perceived slights in the drug trade. In the first few novels Cardigan is portrayed as a recovering Tek-user with several lapses, but this aspect diminishes as the novels progress - it is implied in later novels that to break the addiction for even a light user is impossible. In return Bascom wishes to employ him as an expert in a series of Tek-related crimes, mostly in Greater Los Angeles, referred to as 'GLA'. Having been sentenced to 15 years' cryo-imprisonment, his release is brought forward by Walt Bascom, the head of private investigation agency Cosmos, who has uncovered the framed charges and exonerates him. The protagonist, Jake Cardigan, is a former police officer framed for dealing the drug four years prior to the start of the first novel. The drug creates a simulated reality (and in the films and TV series taps into 'the matrix' hyperspace). The 22nd century universe is centered on 'Tek'-an illegal, addictive, mind-altering digital drug in the form of a microchip. It was later adapted into four television movies, a video game, comic books, and a television series. He turned to Ron Goulart, who took this idea and ghost-wrote nine TekWar novels.

TekWar began as an idea of William Shatner’s.

Shatner tekwar