Chapter One: Fairytale of New York December, 1986 Manhattan Snow was falling over Midtown in a shower of fat, wet flakes. It was the kind of snow that really sticks, and was already coating the sidewalks and the awnings, the tops of buildings, and the shoulderpads of coats. As it fell, ‘Do They Know It's Christmas’ was playing from the outdoor speakers of one of the nearby blocks of shops. People of all types hurried to and fro down the street about their business, shouting, jostling, carrying bags. In a crowd like this, in New York, even the very unusual didn’t stand out too much. The six and a half foot tall man stood out from the crowd mostly literally, head and shoulders above some of the shorter pedestrians. He had shoulders that would be the envy of any linebacker and he was dressed in a heavy parka with a big ruff, the fur of which camouflaged his impressive blond side-burns, as they blended in with it almost seamlessly. With a crumpled dollar bill he bought a big styrofoam