For the first time in Russian - the newest novel by the famous author of “Terror” and “Drud”, “Hyperion” and “Endymion”, “Ilion” and “Olympus”, “The Song of Kali” and “The Dark Game of Death”. This time, the renowned chameleon of modern literature, who has long ago and convincingly proven that he is capable of any genres and styles, turns to the near future - frighteningly close. In this future, the United States has lost the status of a world power, crushed by an unbearable national debt, and several states, after a successful reconquista, went to Mexico, Russia, where the permanent “Tsar Vladimir” rules, continues to blackmail its neighbors with raw materials, Japan competes for world dominion with the new World Caliphate, which has crushed Europe and even Canada are under their control, and most Americans are in the grip of a drug called flashback, which allows them to vividly, as if in reality, relive any events of their own past. And so Denver detective Nick Bottom, an experienced flashbacker, is approached by Hiroshi Nakamura, one of nine Japanese federal advisers, the most powerful people in the United States. Six years ago, Keigo Nakamura, the son of an adviser who was filming a documentary about the American flashback epidemic, was murdered and the crime remained unsolved. Nick Bottom led the investigation, but it was not this failure that cost him his career, but the flashback, which he began to abuse after the death of his wife. Now he is the only one who can, in a flashback, restore all the materials of the case and finally get to the bottom of the truth. A truth that - unless a miracle happens - will cost him his life.