Story: "The Readiness to Die" (38 Pages)

Credits:

C.J.Henderson (plot, script)
Will Rosado (pencils)
Prentis Rollins (inks)
John Costanza (letters)
Chris Matthys (colors)
Dan Thorsland (edits)

Feature Character:

Arsenal IV (Roy Harper; last in Titans Secret Files #1/4; next in Batman Plus #1)

Guest Appearance:

Sarge Steel (next in Power of Shazam! #15)

Other Characters:

Sing Lu (former drug baron)
Mr Feng (Hong Kong tailor and possible US agent; first appearance of both)

Synopsis:

Roy Harper is imprisoned in Hong Kong's Sa'qua prison. He got there by being sent on a mission by Sarge Steel to bring HK criminal Sing Lu to the US for trial. He soon falls afoul of Lu, former drug baron and apparently now a weapons dealer, who injected him with heroin, to which Roy was addicted some years ago. The drugs in his system lead him inexorably to jail.

Escaping by the simple stratagem of feigning death, he makes his way back to Sing Lu's place, encountering on his way an array of armed guards before fighting his way through to Lu. Here both men soon realise they've been lied to. Lu is most certainly not an arms dealer, and Harper is not - as Lu was led to believe - here to assassinate his daughter. Harper is not best pleased and has a violent confrontation with Steel on his return to the States, bringing one Mr Feng (who, it seems, has an old grudge against Steel) over with him in Lu's place.