privileged 24th century Londoners, who leave him in the care of their housekeepers so they can get on with their lives away from dismal, puritanical England. Alec affects all around him, especially machines. Given a highly controlled moral teaching unit at a young age, he is able to re-program it by instinct to become his personal assistant and, eventually, partner in crime. This entity becomes "The Captain", after the pirate Captain Morgan. They resolve to rule the oceans of the world, using smuggling to pay the bills. Since meat, alcohol, chocolate etc. are illegal in most of the developed world, this is both easy and lucrative. With the assistance of the Captain, Alec outwits the Company and becomes master of his own time machine. This is in no small part thanks to Mendoza, who disables the self-destruct device on the one he initially stole from the Company. However, at the peak of his achievements, he finds he has committed one of the most heinous crimes of history. He, Mendoza and the Inklings all become aware of their parts in this. All are left desolated, filled with self-loathing and worse. Characters Alec Checkerfield grows up in 24th century London, part of a privileged class of Administrators. Alec is different. He instinctively understands computers, and can impose his will on others to some extent. At first he uses these abilities to get the usual things, money, women etc., but then he comes to the attention of Dr. Zeus Inc., which operates openly at this time. Warned by his Artificial Intelligence companion, "The Captain", that a person he is talking to is a cyborg, he makes an exit from the Company offices, and begins to work on finding out the truth, while living off the proceeds of smuggling alcohol, chocolate, coffee, meat and other illegal commodities. Alec Checkerfield, Nicholas Harpole, and Edward Alton Bell-Fairfax are one and the same, or at least different versions of the same man, created for the Adonai project. Genetically they are tetraploid, which means that even if Mendoza were still human, there would be certain obstacles to her enjoying full connubial bliss with any one of them. The "New Inklings" are idle geniuses who have, at least in their own minds, designed and deployed, from their lofty perches in the 24th century, all the Enforcers, Facilitators, Preservers and other cyborgs working for the Company throughout history. Given how