Betrayed by his superiors and left for dead, XIII has definitely left the secret service in favor of a wandering life. In the hope of finding food and shelter, he went to Empire City and meets Betty Barnowsky, a beautiful activist involved in the fight against the major energy groups. Betty saving a police raid muscled XIII calls within the Veil, an underground organization led by Max Vargas. Veil attempts to expose openly the climate research center Hearpe (High Energy Auroral Refraction Protonospheric Emitter), whose real purpose is to influence the climate for economic reasons. Betty seduced both by itself and by his speech committed XIII agrees to help activists.

XIII crashes an ultra-exclusive birthday party to find the final letter. The host of the party, and the owner of the letter, is a Russian Oligarch with a penchant for collecting expensive items such as rare weapons and beautiful women, and using the former on the latter. Part of his collection includes one of the Tesla letters, and XIII finds he isn’t the only person who’s come looking for it.

Xu Corporation gives XIII the face of agent Victor Gong (XIII.2), which only intensifies his struggles with identity. Betty plots revenge against her father by trying to sabotage his efforts in China. Carrington watches his empire crumble around him.