It is deep night.
John Hawkley - the Marquis Velshekar - walks along the gravel path.
His henchman Oliver Segel, the young man with blond hair and an angelic face, walks behind him.
The path leads from the entrance gate, through a large, neglected garden.
The garden is brimming with weeds and overgrown vegetation.
At the end of the path, the enormous three-story villa of the marquis rises in the most desolate outskirts of New York.
John is dragging by the collar the body of an elegant Asian man, half-way between life and death.
He is Liang Zhen, known as the red fox, a prominent member of the Chinese mafia. Less than an hour before, he has been the victim of an ambush by John and his men.
Liang murmurs something. He curses, tries to bribe them, makes offers, then curses again.
But nothing works. John and Oliver do not even listen to him.
They are caught up in conversations of a completely different nature.
