
In the second volume, XIII is captured by General Carrington, who confirms XIII is Steve Rowland. XIII is rescued from XX's assassins by the FBI's Colonel Amos, who confronts XIII with video evidence showing him assassinating the President. However, XIII finds himself hunted by a contract killer, the Mongoose, working for a mysterious organization known as XX, which aims to mount a coup d'état against the U.S. Volumes 1 through 5 deal with "XIII" searching for his identity and past. The only links to his past are a tattoo "XIII" on his collarbone and a photo of himself with a woman identified as Kim Rowland, widow of U.S. The series begins with a man washing up on a shore in the eastern United States, suffering from amnesia. XIII chronicles the adventures of a man, dubbed "XIII", with memory loss who is searching for his past, and a group of his friends who are trying to unravel the mystery of his identity, which is tangled in conspiracies, secrets, and killers who are out to murder him.
