It was a world no one wanted to live in, except the terrorists. Their determination to make the rest of humanity conform to their view of the universe as far back as the 1980s had changed civilization. It was a slow change at first, and then like a bursting dam, the violence and irrationality of their vision was imposed on the rest of the world.
It was from this chaos and lawlessness that a terrified population came to embrace the concept of the Exceptionals: extraterritorial bio-enhanced bounty hunters, who could go anywhere, do almost anything in the name of law. Their lives were always at risk from the narco terrorists, tyrants and hate-mongers of this not-so-brave new world. After the death of the first ‘Exceptional'—The Harpy—because of a reporter's careless zest for ratings, the United States Government and then the United Nations mandated that the identities of future Exceptionals become a closely guarded secret.
Chosen first from existing elite law enforcement and military operatives by governments, soon it was a worldwide open competition, televised and hotly contested.
Before they were the Exceptionals they had lives, some in the dark and some in the light. But once they put on the mantle of service, they were in the glare of the public eye; marked men and women who lived a day at a time...