A man chained into his wheelchair has been pushed into the middle of a busy road: someone wants him dead, and wants a message to be attached to the death. When Nightwing rescues the man (who has anyway died of a massive coronary), a gun-woman makes certain of his death before escaping. The man was Leonard Holcomb, a former commissioner in Bludhaven. Nightwing later discovers that someone had branded him with the number 1049. While he and Oracle begin to investigate, the masked woman brands Frankie Deever, son of Lunchmeat Deever and ensures that he is crushed by an incoming ferry. Then she sends a car over a bridge: with a branded ex-police chief aboard.