Prologue

Samuel Renard could not get the ringing noise out of his head. It had been bugging him for days, but today in his office, hard at work, the ringing would not go away. Renard had not slept in weeks. He was so close, on the cusp of discovery; something was not right. It went beyond the constant surveillance. There was something that the government was doing. He knew it, if he could just find the plans, the right files that would prove his theory, and then he could be sure. Ahhh! The ringing had been getting worse. The ringing! That’s it! Suddenly it all made sense to Renard. Everything made sense. He knew it, he knew what was going on, but the ringing. Why wouldn’t it stop? It was growing louder and louder and- there was an explosion. Samuel Renard was dead. His brain destroyed in the office that he had worked in for twenty years, he lied, headless.