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In the first volume of A Tale of Two Times, The Menace of the Ancient Foe, after a few adventures, such as taming the Fontana Few motorcycle gang and finding Soviet Atomic bombs stashed on American soil, Rhoda Knox unexpectedly encounters the Ancient Foe at the biologists' costume party in a stone cabin in Southern California. Rhoda and the god exchange hostile words over some very old, unfinished family business between her Clan and the god Sunderer's Circle. Their altercation causes the party to break up in a panic. Seeing the drastic course she must take, Rhoda strides out of the confusion she has precipitated, leaving Yohanna Okubo to handle the aftermath: The blow intended by the Ancient Foe to turn Rhoda into a Shade or destroy her, falls upon Isabel Tavares, a Portuguese mathematician studying at New City University. With the aid of Leo, Antonia and Hans, Yohanna succeeds in rescuing Isabel at the last moment. For days, the five huddle in Antonia's house during a Pacific storm, while Yohanna seeks, by drawing the others into the Clan's world, to hide them from death or capture by the Foes's agents. (121,000 words)

Rhoda and Ricardo now head the Clan's War Thing, opposing the Circle of the Foe. So, Martin is able to end Yohanna's lockdown at Antonia's house, and he and General Smith can deal with the nearby cache of Soviet-made atomic bombs. The atomic bombs fit into Rhoda's plan to deal with a political faction in the Soviet government in a way that dovetails with rescuing Evelyn from the clutches of the Foe. Now, Hans, Isabel, and Leo, who have learned the tragedy of Ottilie Kruger's War Thing, have time to work through their separate and dangerous life-changing opportunities to join the new War Thing. With a little help from Rhoda, Ricardo establishes himself incognito in the Keep of the Ancient Foe, adjacent to New City University.