Los Angeles, 1960. Their days are scored by rocket ships, oil rigs, and surfing boards; their nights by trinitite, solitude, and death. Two advertising executives get caught up in that year's presidential election: Jack Mercer, native Hawaiian, wealthy and idealistic, and Henry Bell, Ohio-born, a professional fixer for the Rockefeller organization. And when their superiors throw these men together to defeat a case of blackmail involving the finances of Vice President Nixon, they are soon stumbling across even more serious problems for not just their candidate, but also themselves. All around them, the world is changing. The state of California is being built before their eyes; new highways, new bridges, new cities and towns. Their wives and girlfriends are moving on without them. Their families and friendships are fading into the past. And a mysterious white paper from the RAND Corporation about game theory in the atomic age appears to be predicting their actions through that summer's political conventions and into the fall campaign. Because they are not just helping to elect Richard Nixon as president. They are chasing "the delta velocity of history" - and atoning for their sins, besides. Join these characters on their journey into the dark heart of American politics. GATE CITY: when you run out of options, all that's left is the truth.