The company of our contemporaries is settling into the Russian Empire of the late 19th century. Having prevented an assassination attempt on Emperor Alexander 3rd, they create the Department of Special Projects - a powerful secret organization designed to implement the scientific and technological achievements of the next hundred years. Former journalist and historian Oleg Ivanovich Semyonov goes to Black Africa to solve the mystery of the inter-time portal; his son Ivan, together with his peer, Moscow high school student Nikolka, study at the Imperial Naval School, simultaneously helping officers of the Russian fleet master computers and modern communications. Adventures await the boys: maritime practice in the Baltic will turn into a night chase and naval battle in the Finnish skerries; and meanwhile, Ivan’s father will enter into battle with a Belgian adventurer in the wilds of the Congo... The book is a continuation of the “Coptic Cross” trilogy, previously published by the “Alpha Book” publishing house.