Prologue
Clarice Starling stood in Milan's fading light, lashes casting spiked shadows across her cheek, and what a stranger might call "smile lines" etched around her mouth. Those few souls that really knew her could explain that they were from years of her pursed lip look of determination. Starling was forty-three, looked her age, and made that age look damn good.
Nearly night now; the better to stalk her prey.
The hunt had consumed her these last six months, but it had been a decade in the coming. Because of him she'd had ten years longer on this earth than Christ; a fact she noted only because she knew he would. What had she done with them? For a few of them she'd continued to resentfully serve her equally resentful master; then on a Tuesday morning as shards of consciousness broke through her dreams she registered her resignation letter had been drafted in her mind for quite some time. It took her all of five minutes to type it up. And a day without a single second thought to submit it.
A/N~ Greetings fellow fanficers. What you've just read is the beginning of a writing collaboration between a dear cyberbuddy, MajorBachman, and me. We're following the trusty creative writing method of round-robin authoring. Hope you enjoy the ride ;o)