“Hey, it’s me. Talia. I know it has been a while, and I have no idea where you are, but you always said…6457 Chatwood Drive, Riverside. There’s a little boy there named Trey. It’s too late for me but, please, get there. Keep him safe. I’ll never forgive myself if anything happens to him.”

Just minutes after finishing a job on the outskirts of greater Los Angeles, Ham receives an urgent request from her employer. A voicemail was just left from a mutual friend named Talia Reinke they once worked with on the opposite side of the globe. A woman who, at the time, was a journalist imbedded with their unit in Afghanistan.

Someone who, in the years since, has built quite the reputation as an investigator, rattling cages throughout the area. An exhaustive search for the truth that has now claimed her life and threatens to consume many others as well.

Ham arrives at the address to find the beginning of a massacre already at hand. A firefight she dives directly into, working to extract the young boy and get them both away to safety.

An opening battle that proves to be the first of many. Skirmishes spread throughout much of Southern California as Ham and her colleagues work to uncover who killed their friend and to keep the young boy safe. A multi-pronged approach requiring them to scour through more than a decade of Talia’s previous work. Articles attacking everybody from shipping magnates to local politicians, energy providers to zoning commissioners.

People all accustomed to using money or stature to avoid the consequences of their actions.

A lack of accountability Ham will not abide for a moment longer.

“I’m Ham, so you don’t have to be.”