It was 1:17 AM. A cold wind, curling in from the Hudson River, swept across the rooftop of the old Hudson Tower, playfully tugging at strands of hair that had come loose from their bindings. He was kneeling, his palms braced flat against the rough concrete surface. Cradled in his arms was his modified Remington 700—held with the same obsessive devotion a mother shows her newborn. This rifle was not merely a weapon; it had become an extension of his very being. He had lived with it for years. He dismantled and reassembled it, polished every screw with a special cloth, replaced the barrel every six months, mounted the Schmidt & Bender scope himself with painstaking precision, and adjusted the trigger sensitivity to such a fine degree that even his breathing played a role in the split-second of the shot. For him, the gun was never just a tool—it was a deadly work of art, and every single detail had to be flawless.
Less than three hundred meters away stood the “Crosstown” Commercial Tower, its vast glass walls reflecting the city’s lights like a giant aquarium teeming with expensive fish.
The 40th floor. Behind a window that appeared to passersby as merely a bright speck against the horizon, sat Marcus Torrence—an arms dealer who, with every signature on a contract, fanned the flames of yet another war. Minutes earlier, he had vented his desires by tormenting a young girl—a gaunt, exhausted woman with tired eyes, wearing a short dress, who would stoop to anything for a mere morsel of bread. After savoring her terror and pleas to his heart’s content, he cast her aside. Sobbing and grief-stricken, the girl threw on her coat and fled the office.
Out of sheer arrogance, Marcus leaned back in his leather chair. He twirled an expensive cigar between his fingers, gazing at the sales charts for his new weapons destined for the Middle East. He was a man who had destroyed countless lives with the mere press of a few buttons—utterly unaware that in just a few more seconds, his entire world would be plunged into darkness forever.