"Perfect Dark Zero" is set in 2020, where a large percentage of the world is controlled by corporations. The most notable of these are dataDyne, headed by Zhang Li, and the Carrington Institute, headed by Daniel Carrington. The player is cast as Joanna Dark, a bounty hunter working with her father Jack and computer hacker Chandra Sekhar. The team is after Nathan Zeigler, an independent researcher who has been captured by a Hong Kong triad leader named Killian. Joanna and her father rescue Zeigler, but Killian manages to escape. Zeigler explains that Killian was trying to obtain his research, which contains information about a dangerous weapon. As Zeigler refuses to go anywhere without his research, Joanna is sent to retrieve it from a case in a nearby safe house. Zeigler then takes a device called a neurodrive from the case and uses it to implant his research data into Jack's mind. Before dying to his injuries, which were inflicted by Killian, Zeigler tells Joanna and her father that they must find a scientist named Dr. Eustace Caroll.