This was the fourth job that the Gray Man had done with Niall Lynch, and the official start to a long term partnership. The Gray Man had not expected to find a shoot-out to be fortuitous, but perhaps if not for that first job going so far South he wouldn't have truly met Niall.

Niall paid well, and as much as he tried to build himself up as something mythological in nature he none the less came across as someone decidedly down to earth. More reasonable than some people the Gray Man had worked for. It certainly lead to going to interesting places, meeting interesting people, and sometimes (rarely) killing them.

It was a little strange to hire a hitman when you had no interest in murder, and as the Gray Man tried to explain there was a difference between a bodyguard and a hitman, but none the less here he was. Venice, Italy. The Gray Man had never been outside of the United States before, but Niall had provided a passport for him under a pseudonym that was an impressive forgery. The lack of familiar territory put him a bit on edge, but as he looked out the window of the hotel room they had he also found himself strangely contented.

It was refreshing to know there was an ocean between you and the one thing you feared at a primal level for the first time. A sense of safety, completely alien from anything ever experienced. Whatever he faced, there was no way that particular demon would be here.

He stepped back and pulled the curtains back over the window. He hadn't bothered to unpack his suitcase, but the Gray Man almost never did. He packed light by habit, was ready to get out of dodge in a moment's notice by habit. The only thing he fetched out of it was his gun, which was safely stowed in the holster hidden under his jacket.

"Settled in?" he called out to Niall.