A year has passed since the Los Angeles riots, but Ian is still being hunted by the Pentagon. Extremely hostile treatment by the media has also made him a favoured target of a majority of American citizens. Tracked down by an ambitious reporter, the android gets in touch with an eccentric billionaire who promises to tell him what the Nome is - that super-powerful artificial entity with whom he seems to have a mysterious bond... A merciless cascade of new revelations follows.