It's 2040, and humanity struggles in a dystopian society where only money buys power. The PTB business cartel dominates the world, controlling energy, communications and even water supplies. But H.G. Wheaton, a scientist made wealthy through his quantum computer empire, has become powerful enough to operate outside PTB's control. Now the cartel has set its sights on Wheaton's latest technological triumph--time travel.
As Wheaton fights to keep that technology out of PTB's hands, he races against time itself. He has sent many exploratory teams into the past, but only one to the future because of what was found there. And that must be kept secret. Knowing what the future holds, Wheaton and his wife, Lady Margaret, develop a clandestine plan that hinges on a pivotal point in history--1872 Paris.
By chance, a 200-year old diary finds its way to Lady Margaret. The diary contains valuable information about the life of legendary Erik Mercier who lived in the underworld of 19th century Paris. Erik's infamous legend portrays him as a cursed madman. Some had called him a murderer--even a phantom. But the diary discloses he was a creative genius with unusual talents. Lady Margaret convinces her husband that Erik could prove crucial to their desperate plans.
Events spin out of control when Erik is rescued from execution and transported to 2040, only to become the center of a power play. To discredit Wheaton, PTB conspires to have Erik put on trial for murders based on the lore surrounding his life.
In a Seattle office, attorney Kathryn Copeland meets Erik, a defiant, mercurial man, scarred in body and soul. He is evasive about his past and smolders at being used as a pawn in the war between Wheaton and PTB. Conflicted about defending him, Kathryn is also deeply suspicious of the Wheatons. What are their true motives? And what is Erik plotting? As she struggles to separate the truth about Erik from legend, Kathryn becomes increasingly trapped in a web of desperate schemes.
Ultimately mankind's fate is entangled with the outcome of Erik's trial--and overshadowed by our own impending phantom future.
Book One, Phantom Future, is a multi-layered story seen through the eyes of its many characters. Set in the future which humanity is already hurtling toward, this tale revisits our past, but with the daring hopes of a better world.
