George, the genius dabbler, feels implicated in religious troubles in the Middle East. George talks with someone, he meddled with in the past, who hands him an interesting present.

The desert citadel rallies to Mehmed's call for battlefield supremacy. However, even as Mehmed issues his commands he has to admit there are contradictions between his faith and his actions.

George has a mission to find someone who he thinks is important, someone who will relieve his guilt about one of his technological actions. When he finally locates the Mister 'X', he undergoes a compulsion to start owning up; has he been brainwashed? After all, there is such a thing as mind control, isn't there?

Brook remains, as ever, vulnerable to strange happenings and the evolution of the human form. Something happens between her and Raith, which is of lasting significance.

Then there is the question of the Bible, but which one? Can anyone of them allude to the question of consciousness, and what it really means?

This book is written in UK English.