"1916: The Western Front. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on a fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong and the wind in the leaves. Where have the mud, blood, and blasted landscape of no-man's-land gone? For that matter, where has Percy gone?. 2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Police officer Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive -- some say mad, others allege dangerous -- scientist who seems to have vanished. Sifting through the wreckage, Jansson finds a curious gadget: a box containing some rudimentary wiring, a three-way switch, and...a potato. It is the prototype of an invention that will change the way humankind views the world forever."--back cover.