Acknowledgments I summon to the winding ancient stair; Set all your mind upon the steep ascent, Upon the broken, crumbling battlement, Upon the breathless starlit air, Upon the star that marks the hidden pole; fix every wandering thought upon That quarter where all thought is done: Who can distinguish darkness from the soul. From "A Dialogue of Self and Soul" by W.B.Yeats (The Winding Stair, 1933) TO JONATHON, WHO WALKS THE STAIR WITH ME. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The staff: Dark, Mary, and Sherry. Chaos would ensue without them. Charles, who requested not to be Chief Security Officer as I put in the last acknowledgement, but to be Head Grunt. I should have remembered that his highest official rank had been sergeant. Sergeants work for a living; they are not officers. My writing group; The Alternate Historians: Tom Drennan, Rett MacPhearson, Deborah Millitello, Marella Sands, and Mark Sumner. Insanity ensues with or without them, but with them, it's much more fun. Chapter 1 I WAS SITTING IN AN ELEGANT CONFERENCE ROOM IN THE TOP of one of the gleaming towers that make up part of downtown Los Angeles. The room's far wall was almost entirely of glass, so that the