Major Cooper, Asuka, and Napoli have finally succeeded in dismantling the dark network of stolen antiquities. But when the judge inexplicably takes the guilty party's defense before dying of a stroke, the three investigators understand that the high spheres of society are affected by a conspiracy of unsuspected magnitude. They begin a race against the clock to join the abandoned networks of the city in an attempt to survive and to secretly pursue their mission as would-be guardians of humanity's free will. Fortunately, the alchemists--protectors of a new version of the city's original quantic computer intelligence--come to their aid. However, their artificial intelligence has a conscience and with it, an immense amount of power. Who will be the master and who will be the slave?