Captain of the Villeneuve’s Revenge, an Adamist starship involved in trade throughout the galaxy. He goes to Tehama, an asteroid in the New California system that is highly successful financially and industrially. There he encounters Hasan Rawand, another trader, who insists that Andre pay him an amount of money he allegedly owes plus interest. Andre denies the debt. There is a fight in which one of Andre’s crewmembers is almost killed but for the last minute intervention of Erick Thakrar, a CNIS agent posing as a member of Andre’s crew. He volunteers his ship and crew for the mercenary mission against the “revolt” on Lalonde.
In escaping from the chaotic defeat in Battle of Lalonde, he takes the Villeneuve's Revenge to the Culey Asteroid. Erick Thakrar receives a full clone repair there at the cost of some 200,000 fuseodollars for which Duchamp has to foot the bill.
When Hasan Rawand and the Dechal land on Culey and seek revenge upon Erick Thakrar and himself, his crew quickly takes Erick from the hospital and places him aboard the Villeneuve’s Revenge. Their escape is made possible, ironically, by the intervention of CNIS agents attempting to prevent Erick’s departure. The CNIS end up in a shoot out with Rawand’s mercenaries in the airlock outside Duchamp’s ship. They kill their adversaries, but the Villeneuve’s Revenge escapes in the process by launching from inside the docking bay. Such action does heavy damage to the docking area and minor damages to the ship’s hull as it makes a ZTT jump away.
After his escape from Culey, Duchamp takes the Villeneuve’s Revenge to the Chaumont asteroid in order to secure a cargo charter of some kind. There he meets Iain Girardi, a representative of Al Capone’s organization. He takes Girardi up on an offer to go to New California and serve with numerous other Adamist starships like his as deterrence against attack. His crewmembers initially refuse to go along with the seemingly ridiculous plan. They narrowly escaped the possessed and now their captain wants to do business with them! But, suprisingly, Erick Thakrar agrees to it, realizing that he could gather useful information for the CNIS.
As part of the organization, he is ordered to Arnstadt along with 12 other vessels to help restart the planetary economy after its destruction during the organization’s takeover. The Villenevue’s Revenge is brought up to full combat readiness for the mission to deter the Confederation Navy from sneak attacks. Secretly, Duchamp plans to escape from the organization during this mission. There’s just one hitch, the organization will have a liaison officer aboard monitoring the intended resupply mission. And the organization has hidden a nuclear explosive aboard the ship to prevent acts such as the one Duchamp is planning.
He is mistaken in thinking that his skills at negotiation secured an authorization for his ship at the Ethenthia asteroid. Actually, Erick Thakrar allows the Villeneuve’s Revenge to dock by secretly contacting the local Confederation Navy bureau. Afterwards, Duchamp is threatened with imprisonment by Thakrar for all his debauchery unless he reveals the location of his antimatter source. Reluctantly, Duchamp complies. Later, he is approached by a freed Kingsley Pryor as possession quickly comes to the asteroid. Kingsley orders him to transport him on the Villeneuve’s Revenge on an unspecified mission, informing Duchamp that he has no free will, and never has since leaving the New California system. The original resupply mission was only a ruse for a more important objective. Duchamp has no choice but to comply, given the fact that possession is overwhelming the asteroid and this is his only chance to get his ship back.