Issue #0

The Rules of Silence

Plot

Titus Cain is living an idyllic life most can only dream about. He's a self-made multimillionaire and founder of a successful software company. His employees adore him. He has a warm and loving wife. His home is a large but unpretentious country house atop ten acres of beautiful Texas Hill Country. And Titus is the kind of man who knows he has a lot to be thankful for.Then Cayetano "Tano" Luquin walks into his life one summer evening escorted by three armed assassins. They've come for Titus, but this is no ordinary kidnapping. There are rules. Strict rules. Simple rules. And they must be followed. Or there will be consequences.Titus is free to go on living as he pleases - but he must make a series of "bad business investments" totaling $64 million over the next four days. If he misses a single payment, people close to Titus die. If he tries to negotiate the ransom, people die. If he contacts the authorities or warns his friends and family of the danger, people die. Silence is his only option.He complies with Tano's demands, frantically scrambling to liquidate millions of his company's assets in time to meet the first deadline. Payment is made with just moments to spare, and Titus can breathe a sigh of relief. Or so he thinks.He's about to discover that Tano is driven by stakes higher than he had revealed, and that he's willing to be more vicious and merciless than Titus had ever imagined. Trapped in a criminal enterprise with uniquely terrifying rules, and realizing that every decision he makes, every word he speaks, and every move he makes could cost the life of someone he loves, Titus decides to fight back. His only hope is to find an ally as cold-blooded and determined as his enemy.