Chapter 1

(Forty years before current times)

Galvin hung upside down outside the third story bedroom window of the residence of the mark he was supposed to take care of. If anyone couldn't have seen his blacked out face in the night sky they would have seen he looked very pissed off.

The building he was hanging from was home to a very wealthy family. In a world where everyone seemed to have their fingers in some form of crime, this family looked to be living very well, compared to the other various homes in the dirty city.

There were far more thieves and criminals than there were those who claimed to enforce the law. Anyone who claimed to be enforcing the law was only doing it as a front because most of the public officials were on the take from someone.

Everyone was out for themselves in some way shape or form.

All you needed to do was find out who they were fronting for to know what interest they served. It was hard to find anyone with a moral compass in this world. It was a place where everyone did whatever it took to get ahead.

While for Galvin this was just another job, he had really expected more from the target he was supposed to kill given the nature of who it was and how wealthy the target was supposed to be. Galvin even took the liberty of warning the target several weeks ago that he was being targeted by him for this job, but still Galvin was disappointed at the end result.

One of the biggest problems with those who made their money was that they were pretty frugal with it. They had to work hard to get it so they valued it more and often skimped when they shouldn't have.

Those who inherited it often spent it like it didn't matter, but they were soon without it so it was a short lived rich life. But those who earned it often had to step on many toes to get it, and often they didn't look back to see who they hurt in the process.

That's why he was here tonight.

Someone Reinhold had screwed over in a business deal wanted payback, and Galvin was who he used to get it. Galvin realized that he had no idea what Timothy Reinhold had done, nor did he remotely care. He wasn't being paid to be anyone's therapist or their conscience.

But he "was" being paid quite well to kill him.

As he hung upside down outside the window he looked inside at the sleeping pair. They hadn't even bother to take the most basic of precautions. He knew that his reputation preceded him, and that after having told them he was coming he expected far more from them

The first few weeks they added more guards and lit up the four sides of the three story building with lights, but that only lasted a week. After that they kept the guards, but added dogs and took down the search lights. Galvin was sure this was done because the lights interfered with Tim's sleep cycle, since Tim liked to sleep with the curtains open to enjoy his view overlooking the city.

Galvin grew tired of waiting for them to beef up the security even more to give him a decent challenge and grew pissed off that they didn't seem to take his threat seriously. Maybe Tim's children would understand that having threats made on your life by the best known assassin in the world wasn't something to skimp with security on.

Watching the sleeping pair for a few moments, Galvin decided to look around the room magically to see what was there. Having activated the spell before he lowered himself down the side of the building, his deep green eyes lit up and almost appeared to have a deep green glow about them as he looked around.

Looking he could see the magic enchantment used to sound an alarm if the glass was broken or if the window was opened. Shifting his gaze into the room he could see other enchantment on the floor as well as one about shoulder height around the room. At least his target paid for a mage to come in, but still this was the bare minimum he would have expected.

Tiring of putting this off Galvin decided to get to work. He was the type to only use his magic if he "had" to. Most times he preferred doing everything without it. In a world of magic it made it harder to track him since he normally did almost all his jobs by a non-magical means.

Starting with the window first he started exploiting some of the issues behind the magic used. There were many problems with this type of enchantment used. The enchantment on the windows for example was the type that couldn't be too sensitive because if the wind blew and it rattled the windows it would set off the alarm.

Taking out his glass cutting tool he applied the suction point to the glass and cut a tiny small circular opening in it. He moved slow and made the opening no more than a quarter inch in the glass. Since he was moving so slowly, and given the size, it would be weeks before anyone discovered the hole, and even then they probably wouldn't believe that he used this hole as the way to kill anyone as small as it was.

The second and third magical alarm was also easily overcome as he would never set foot in the place.

Quickly assembling his blowgun Galvin setup the length just inside the glass.

Reaching behind him Galvin removed what looked to be a glass sliver, but was in reality a tiny ice shard that was coated on the tip with a very fast acting poison. It would be fatal in less than 30 seconds. It would first paralyze the victim, and then death would soon come.

The poison would be found when the body was examined, but the point of entry would never be noticed, because it was such a tiny pin prick that barely broke the skin. At best it would be seen as a "reddening" of the skin before it disappeared. The small amount of melting ice would be thought of as perspiration if anyone even noticed it before it dried.

Once he was done taking his time to fit the blow gun together, it then took less than ten seconds to fire his shot into his target, watch the man slightly twitch when hit, and then Galvin watched as the shard melted and the poison was absorbed by his target's skin.

While he was waiting and watching as the target absorbed the poison, Galvin was quickly disassembling his blow gun. He then made sure that all his custom designed gear was secured and packed. It took him years to prefect all of what he had and he carried it in small pouches or stored it around his body as part of his outfit.

Suddenly without warning, just as he finished doing packing his blow gun, a magical alarm went off.

Galvin, thinking he made a mistake somewhere, quickly reviewed everything he had done. He was so sure that he had prepared for all situations. As he reviewed what he had done he quickly climbed up to the roof and waited.

Hiding, and now laying on the rooftop, Galvin magically enhanced his hearing to see what was said. He could hear the servants scurrying around below him trying to all talk at once.

"Something is wrong with Master Reinhold! He's stopped breathing! His personal ward went off to alert everyone. Call for his personal physician! Quickly, someone get him out of bed!" said someone below Galvin.

There were various other voices as well all running and screaming different versions of the same things, but he was sure that nothing that they tried would matter soon.

It seemed that Reinhold didn't totally skimp on everything. It seemed he figured that if he was attacked, perhaps that if something stopped his heart, he could have someone on site to quickly restart it for him.

But since they didn't know what was used, how it was done, or even how little time they had to save him, their chances of saving his life were non-existent.

Knowing that his intended attack was taken a little more seriously than he initially thought, Galvin smiled as he quickly secured the wire he used to scale the wall. He then secured his hanging harness into his now assembled blacked out glider and took a running leap off the building.

All of his equipment was setup to do multiple duties to reduce the number of things he needed to carry.

Shortly he would be away from the commotion that was directed internally towards the house and well away from where he would be and no one would ever be the wiser that he was there.

(Thirty eight years before current times)

Sitting at the table in the back corner of the bar he was in, Galvin chose this spot because it allowed him to both watch those coming in and see his client before their eyes adjusted to him.

While he didn't take pains to hide his face currently, he normally covered it up to his eyes during any jobs. It helped to keep from accidently leaving anything behind like spit or sweat that could lead anyone to him.

Almost everyone in the underworld knew him, even though he worked through three sets of fixers. They were the middle men who took a small cut to introduce perspective clients to ones able to do those illegal jobs for them. As such it took someone who knew someone who knew someone to even get in touch with him.

Although even then he might refuse the job if it wasn't interesting enough.

But he was well known as the top assassin in this world. He was someone that no one in the underworld wanted to be on his bad side. A few of the constables and various law enforcement agencies who might have known who he was also looked either away if he approached them.

Those in law enforcement never looked directly at him or tried to stop him for any reason. In the past Galvin had taken some jobs to kill some of those in law enforcement as well, and they never had any proof to use to hold him with.

Even they tried hard not to get on his bad side.

In all everyone, no matter who or where they might be in the world, was too afraid to cross him for any reason. Mostly it was because of their not knowing who might have taken out a contract on them. Everyone tried to stay on his good side hoping their good will might make him willing to pass on ending their life. As a professional Galvin had never failed to complete a paid contract, no matter how difficult it was.

As he sat surveying the bar he noticed when a young brown haired woman entered the bar.

It was easy for him to see that she didn't belong here.

While most of the women in the room were dressed in either an older style of clothing or were scantily clad, even the wannabes who were faking looking like they belonged, this young woman was dressed a nice but in a long sleeved form fitting light brown dress.

She was attractive, but in a fresh faced, young, and "innocent to the world" kind of way. In this world that look was hard to pull off.

He instantly noticed that she was also wearing gloves on her hands and barely showed any skin between the sleeves and gloves. Just who wears gloves anywhere, not to mention long sleeves in this heat Galvin wondered.

Galvin immediately was sure she was his client because she was like a beacon of light in a sea of darkness.

Following his instructions to the letter once her eyes adjusted, she immediately went to the table closest to the door and sat and waited for someone to approach her.

Seeing her sit at that particular table, several of the men who started to approach her with leers on their faces suddenly thought differently. Their faces paled and they melted back into the crowd in the bar. The noise level that had dropped noticeably when she entered soon rose again as she seated herself and everyone went back to their lives.

It wasn't hard to see by her actions that everyone in the bar quickly realized that she was a client who was there to meet with Galvin, and if they wanted to get any older screwing with Galvin's clients was a sure way to insure it wouldn't happen.

No one messed with Galvin's jobs or his money. Not anyone who lived to talk about it.

After she had been seated about ten minutes Galvin nodded at the bartender who then left the bar and approached the young woman.

"Ma'am what can I get for you?" asked the man politely.

"Nothing right now but I was told that later a salty drink is best for those seeking resolve," said the young woman.

Nodding the man said "Back corner table just under the stairs." And then he turned without looking back and headed back towards the bar.

Getting up the young woman started for the table and soon noticed the man seated there. He was casually dressed and, if it wasn't for why she was there, she thought that he looked the most normal of anyone there.

Even in the wane light she could see that he was a very handsome man.

He had black hair that was swept across his head, deep set green eyes, even though there was a little scar that ran diagonally across his left eye. He seemed to be quite muscular from what she could see of his broad chest, shoulders, and forearms that rested on the table.

As she approached Galvin could see that while she looked him over she returned to concentrate on his face. Galvin tried not to smile and keep his face neutral. He started doing these types of jobs at thirteen and on one of his first jobs he got over confident and narrowly escaped.

The scar was his souvenir from the one who trained him and was a reminder to always be prepared for anything.

Finally reaching the table, and then taking a seat, the woman began to softly speak.

"I wanted to hire you for a job to kill the governor of this area because he forced himself on me. I want him to pay and I want it done in front of his children. Can you do that?" asked the young woman.

"Well that depends, is he the only mark or are you wanting the family to pay as well?" asked Galvin.

Galvin didn't want to show his excitement, but it had been awhile since he assassinated a ranking public official and this would only be his third governor. They usually had very good protection and it would prove a decent challenge.

"Why, does that make a difference?" asked the woman suddenly startled.

"I normally make it a choice to not kill women and children unless they are the intended mark or part of the mark. I don't do collateral damage. So if you want the family done, I can do that, but otherwise it will be only who you contract me for," said Galvin.

"Can you do it as cleanly as you did Timothy Reinhold?" asked the young woman with a blank expression.

As she asked the question and Galvin was preparing an answer, something about how she asked it nagged at him. He quickly understood what was going on as he watched the young woman closer, and who now seemed to slightly tense up as she finished asking her question.

"Yes can, there is no profit or reason to kill women and children. As far as I'm concerned it's the men run the world and if you want to be top dog in a dog eat dog world like this you need to make sure that it's the "men" who fear you. Not that I have that much of an issue anymore. I'm the best for a reason," said Galvin.

"How gallant, I've found a killer with a conscious," said the woman dryly with distain.

The way she said it put Galvin now on instant alert.

Now watching her better he saw what he was looking for. It wasn't much, but a slight tenseness in her jaw line, combined with her how lightly the muscles in her left arm twitched told him what he needed to know was coming next.

Waiting for her to make the next move, she did exactly as he expected her to do.

Swiftly raising her left hand she smacked the side of his face.

Turning his head slightly he softened the blow, but didn't totally look away, and he was able to see a dagger spring forth from a forearm sheath as it tore through her gloved hand and she then extended her right arm and tried to stab him in the throat with it.

Easily swatting her arm down with the blade strapped to it on the table, Galvin trapped it with his greater strength and held it there before he started to speak. Galvin didn't even notice that none of the bars other patrons even turned around at the noise that came from his table.

It was easier for them to pretend that they didn't hear anything and go on living a bit longer since the event happened around Galvin.

"You're too young to be his wife so you must be his daughter. Is this how you expected it to go down? You would just walk into my place of business and take me out as easy as taking your next breath? You had to know I wasn't going to get caught off guard like this. Your very lucky there's no profit to be had in your death or I would have killed you where you sat," said Galvin casually.