Teaser Introduction

Christmas has come to New York and in Uptown Manhattan snow falls on carolers, singing on a corner to a gathering crowd. Children exchange volleys of snowballs as in the distance parents call them in with dusk falling.

The shadows deepen, the sewers stream and from a Harlem tenement music spills on to the streets. Across town in Hells Kitchen the restaurants are bustling, and so too are the bars & clubs south in Greenwich Village - the season of goodwill is doing brisk business.

In Times Square a mighty pine sags underneath the weight of glittering decorations and sparkling lights. Beside it a flatfoot stands guard, eyeing the warmth of the nearby taverns.

Through a bone chilling wind and across the Hudson River is Hoboken and further inland we find the sleepy village of Pennywell. After a quiet night at the 'Crown & Cross' the resident publican Harold Baker watches with interest the movements across the fields before him. The last of his regulars are gone and he pauses a moment, curious at the soldiers darting about in the distance. Pennywell has been home to a Barracks since the Great War and tonight all is not quiet.

The bright evening stars illuminate a commotion as the distant figures can be seen running to and fro. The publican laughs as his wife joins him - "I think the Army boys might have had one too many eggnogs, they're running about like headless chickens". "Surely they won't be out training on a night like this?"

Cracks of rifle shots blow in with the freezing wind, before a terrifying scream followed by a sudden silence. "Lord in heaven". The door is quickly shut and bolted.

The publicans wife shudders and peers through curtain into the night.

"You know what Harold, I don't think they're training!"