Prologue: Sometimes things take a turn for the better
It should have been a trivial job, one clean shot and he would have disappeared into the shadows of the night again, stopping by at the office of his client to grab his cash before heading to his flat. But Sebastian Moran had to learn, that plans do not always work out the way we expect them. Sometimes they go terribly wrong. Sometimes they go wrong but in the end, they take a turn for the better.
Sebastian's finger tickled the trigger of his gun as he waited. He was placed on the roof of a building across from the alley where a dark haired man in an expensive black suit and a black coat expected the meeting with Sebastian's target and wrapped a dark gray scarf tighter around his neck. The man glanced up to the roof, meeting Sebastian's eyes, just for a second. His shooting hand began to tremble as he could already hear the police sirens in his head. If he discovered me, this job is over. And I will end up in jail...or worse since that man must be some kind of master criminal...
But the man on the street looked down again to check his mobile phone as if nothing has happened, than turned to greet his business partner. Sebastian swallowed hard and tried to concentrate on his gun again, he must have been overreacting. No, seriously, …
His target had arrived. She was dressed as dark as the man, black high heels, black skirt and coat, nearly invisible in the darkness of the night, but her pale skin shimmered slightly in the moonlight. The crimson of your blood will suit your pretty little face fairly well when I am done Sebastian darted another glance at the man... I have work to be done he had to remind himself and aimed his gun at the woman. He couldn't allow himself to be distracted right now. He had to wait.
Only four minutes later, the perfect moment to pull the trigger came. He understood that exactly 2.5 seconds later than the other sniper at the window of an abandoned flat one floor down.
What happened next could be eventually described as a series of unfortunate circumstances. When the two people on the street heard the first shot, the woman reacted automatically and pulled the man down to the floor with her.
For Sebastian, it was too late to stop his bullet as he noticed the second sniper.
The woman had shifted her body out of the line of fire just in time.
The man, being rather startled by the attack, hadn't been quick enough.
For a moment they both lay there motionless, in a small but growing patch of fresh blood. This was not supposed to happen, how could this even happen? Who shot that fucking bullet?
Sebastian packed his things in a hurry as he heard the clacking of stiletto heels on asphalt and a small whisper that sounded like "I'm sorry, darling" down on the street. When he stepped out of the front door of the building, the other sniper was long gone, he had heard the heavy steps in the hallway. And so was the woman. Hell, the lady I was hired to kill is still out there and I shot that unlucky fellow. My client is going to skin me
The man made an effort to sit up in the middle of the pool of his blood just at the moment Sebastian slammed the door, breathing heavily. He pressed his left hand on the bullet wound on his right shoulder, trying desperately to stop the flow of blood. He looked up at the sniper with big puppy eyes for a moment and in Sebastian's chest something barely comparable to a guilty conscience started to grow. But it only lasted until the man's face turned dusky again. "What are you waiting for, do you want to watch me bleeding to death or are you going to bring me to a hospital now, Mr Moran?"
Sebastian opened his mouth to say something, closed it again, too startled to form a proper sentence. He took a breath and focused the man in front of him as he finally found his ability to speak again. "Excuse me, but why the hell do you know my name? Who are you?".
"I guess you underestimate my power and my knowledge, Sebastian." - the sniper twitched slightly as the stranger called him by his first name - "I have a job offer for you. But I would like to postpone that conversation to a later time, let's say when a doctor got your bullet out of my shoulder. Jim Moriarty.", he added and held out a bloodstained hand to Sebastian.