From the Introduction: You never thought it would go this far. Everyone has heard of The Syndicate; it's the biggest crime organization. It's a huge, scary, faceless threat-- getting involved in it takes baby steps, and once you've become part of that world, there's no going back. Maybe you tried to go back, maybe you never meant to get involved in the first place-- you could be a low-level thug who saw the wrong thing, or maybe a mild-mannered accountant trying to put your kid through college who cooked the books for the wrong person. Maybe you were about to go state's evidence. Problem is, The Syndicate sees all. Especially the big boss, Raven. No one knows his real name. When you need to speak of him respectfully, and that's less often than you'd think but more often than you'd like, his code name is Mr. Black. Raven's the one who sent the package to your house. Or at least, that's what you tell yourself. I mean, hell, you're not stupid. Sure, he probably has an army of flunkies and bootlickers to go to the post office for him, but in order to make yourself feel better late at night-- when you’re trying to sleep with a gun under your pillow or an innocent person slumbering peacefully next to you-- you tell yourself it was him, that the wildly incriminating material inside was far too delicate for him to trust to anyone else. This shit could destroy you in a thousand different ways! There are plenty of people who would want to see you dead if they knew what was inside that manila envelope. That was the reason you responded to the invitation that came with the goods, promising that there was a way out for you, and no way out if you didn't show up. It's the cocktail party from hell.