Book excerpt: In the raging flame of tragedy, men are sometimes forged into something more than human. So it was with millionaire, adventurer, and hunter Richard Henry Benson! After a terrible loss of family and humanity at the hands of criminals, he became a machine of vengeance... a figure of ice and steel, concealing genius and power behind a face as dead as the grave. The ultimate master of disguise with malleable skin and eyes like pale gray fire, Benson is the deadly scourge of the underworld: The Avenger! As darkness falls across Europe and the Pacific in 1940, The Avenger dedicates his fortune to building Justice, Inc., a crack team of scientists and adventurers dedicated to protecting the homeland from gangsters and terrorists. But in this increasingly dangerous world, even their headquarters can be infiltrated! Unknown assailants, nearly transparent and inhumanly strong, strike a fearsome blow at The Avenger's organization, subjecting a dear friend to a fate worse than death. What is the terrible secret of these invisible foes, and how does their far-reaching conspiracy threaten to drag America into war?