Thames house is expecting an eccentric new recruit in the person of Chasha Jones, self-described (only partly tongue-in-cheek) as "the most intelligent woman in London." But on the day she's due to start work, there's no sign of her. Shockingly, it turns out she's joined an obscure cult run by an eccentric Briton called Hector Raynebow. Raynebow used to be a dedicated eco-warrior, but he's ditched environmentalism on the grounds that humanity, in its present form, isn't capable of saving the world: the rot has gone too far Yet no need to worry, he has a solution: Humankind 2.0, a new type of human being, developed by cutting-edge gene technology. John Mordred is assigned to investigate. But of course, he's not the only one. And to make things even cosier, the investigators are explicitly briefed not to get on with each other.