A medic in the Vietnam war, Vincent Bayonne settled in Central City because he couldn’t go home. He’d seen too much death, barbarity, and destruction to believe in the things that led him to war.

In Central City, Bayonne found a calling. He donned a new uniform and sought to protect and serve. Law and order promised the possibility of decency, but he didn’t find humanity on either side of the thin blue line. Instead, he found himself maintaining the delicate balance between civilization and chaos.

After passing the detective’s exam, Bayonne saw in narcotics an opportunity to preserve society, to erode a driving force for chaos and barbarity. Unfortunately, life undercover as a disgruntled, self-destructive Vietnam veteran hit a little too close to the truth. Bayonne found precious few ways to preserve the promise of civilization and too many ways to erode the boundaries between his reality and his undercover identity.

Homicide provided the promise of all that made civilization sacred-the sanctity of human life. By solving murders, Bayonne sought a way to preserve the possibility of civilization’s promise. 

In Vietnam, he couldn’t stop the killing, but he could help heal the wounded. As a patrolman, he couldn’t stop crime, but he could defend the line between possibility and chaos. In narcotics, he couldn’t eradicate addiction, but he could hold the chaos at bay. In homicide, Detective Bayonne found the mission he needed, the ultimate riddle.

Why would one human kill another?

Bayonne had been asking himself that question since his first brush with death in 1964. No matter what someone had done, he’d never wanted another human dead.

Ultimately, Bayonne discovered himself incapable of preserving civilization. Try as he might, he couldn’t hold the center. Too many forces pushed against him, and the center kept sliding further and further into chaos.

Will Bayonne hold the line or will he cross the line he’d vowed to preserve?

Only time will tell.