Beyond the Breaking Point - Chapter 9

Chapter 9.

Finn hurriedly drew the gun he had retrieved from the man he had initially fought in the Egypt room and fired off a shot. It wasn't aimed at anything, in fact, it was aimed at the ground. But it did enough to the masked man. Who began sprinting away as fast as he could. Finn gave chase. The man was fast, Finn gave him that, Finn found himself unable to gain any ground on him.

Finn also found that it was getting lighter. He could easily see now, was he drawing near to the end of the maze? Finn turned two more corners, neither gaining nor losing any ground on the surprisingly nimble man in the Guy Fawkes mask, before he reached a small central room. That seemed to be the end of the maze.

“Stop!” Finn practically screamed the command at the man in the Guy Fawkes mask. He wasn't sure why he had done it. The end was here, he had gotten rid of the men chasing him, unless there was more, his job had been completed. Why did he have to draw this man, obviously the leader, into a possible gun battle. It was probably because Finn wanted to end the evil this man might have started. An image of the the main area of the museum; the room with the Mammoth, ground littered with dead bodies, flashed in Finn’s mind.

The masked man stopped in his tracks. He turned around slowly. The ever smiling Guy Fawkes seeming to laugh at Finn despite the current scenario.

“Why hello Finn, how are you doing today,” Finn almost didn't realize the man was using his real name. That voice, that politeness. Finn had heard it somewhere before.

“Drop your weapon.” Finn decided to be more specific. “On the ground. Slowly,” Guy Fawkes continued to smile as the masked man drew his weapon from his belt and pressed a button above the safety to expel the clip and all of the ammo in it on the ground. The room Finn was in now was almost all of the way illuminated, it contained a few scattered artifacts from the medieval age. An antique cannon lay with its barrel pointed at Finn menacingly. The masked man actually started laughing. His hands dropped to his sides, the now empty gun still in his hand.

“My dear Finn, didn't Zach teach you never to get into a fight you can't win,”

The second Finn stood there completely dumbfounded granted enough time for the masked man to throw the empty gun at Finn’s head. The gun made two or three revolutions in the air before Finn vaguely felt the sensation of falling and stars exploded and danced in front of his closing eyes.

The masked man rushed at Finn but the room was too large and Finn recovered too quickly. Blood trickled down the side of Finn’s face as he yelled at the man to stop from his position on the ground, feet facing the Masked Man. The man didn't stop. Finn was on the ground but the gun hadn't left his hand. Finn’s finger tightened around the trigger and the shot rang out. The man stopped dead in his tracks as Finn now moved the aim of his gun to the man’s chest, only four feet away. “Back away.” The man did as he was told and the gun didn't move away from the masked man as Finn struggled to his feet and held the gun pointed straight at the man’s heart.

“You won't shoot me.” Finn gritted his teeth, tried to ignore the blood trickling down his face and onto the corner of his lip. Guy Fawkes just smiled at Finn in his predicament.

“I can. I will.” The masked man straightened his back as he replied.

“I merely ask one question to you, my dear Finn. What would Cassie think if she found out you killed a man.” Finn’s mind felt like a drum, constantly being pounded by none other than Guy Fawkes.

“How do you know about Cassie!” Guy Fawkes smiled in response. Finn could faintly hear commotion behind him. It sounded like many men making a clamor and running towards him, of course he hadn't gotten rid of everyone, and even then, he had only knocked the south african man out with the pen Tony gave him. He would have woken about now, but he seemed to be accompanied by almost twenty people this time. The masked man began laughing quietly.

“You look concerned Finn, do you not want to meet my friends?” Finn began making his way in an arch around the man, the gun never leaving the man’s chest. The man started laughing outright as Finn began backpedaling towards the exit.

“You were always weak.” The man’s voice rose in tone to almost a high pitch children’s voice. “Too soft…” The man’s voice came back down to a normal level “How disappointed Zack must have been to have you as a brother.” Finn couldn't take it anymore.

“Shut up!” He fired a round into the ground next to the man. The man didn't flinch, Guy Fawkes just made fun of him, taunting him from it’s position on the man’s face. Finn had made a complete circle around Vandal and the door to leave the room was directly behind him. The gun never left Vandal’s chest as Finn reached behind him and pushed open the exit. Leaving the room and the despicable man in it behind him. The door opened into a maintenance closet. Finn pushed through a stack of “caution, wet floor” signs and a cart with a mop in it and opened the next door. Finn felt something in his eye, and when he reached up to investigate, his hand came back soaked in blood.

The door in the closet opened into the main lobby area. No one was anywhere to be seen. Finn dropped the gun on the ground and put a hand to his head, attempting to stem the flow of blood from a gash in his forehead while he pushed through final two glass doors and entered the regular world. Finn was beginning to wish he had listened to the skittish man that told him to run.

***

The gentle beeping of the heart monitor beside Andrei Sokoloff’s bed seemed to be counting the few seconds Andrei had left to live.

Finn was sitting next to Andrei Sokoloff’s bed. Waiting to hear the inevitable news from the doctor. He never arrived.

Andrei stirred, his eyes flickering open.

“Finn? Is that you?” Finn was wearing a patch of cloth wrapped around his head but other than that he escaped unharmed. Finn thought about how much worse Andrei had it as he got off of the chair he was sitting on and walked to side Andrei’s bed.

“Yeah.” Andrei’s breathing came in at irregular intervals, he sounded like each breath pained him in a special way.

“I… Never told you where Vandal was…” Andrei coughed quietly. “Because I didn't know, not yet. I was almost done with the puzzle. I do love puzzles.” Andrei smiled weakly, Finn found himself smiling with him. “I did find out something, I found out that Vandal has a son.” Finn’s head felt like an overstuffed drawer. “You… have, to catch him. He’s so, powerful. Don’t underestimate him,” Andrei seemed to barely croak the last sentence, he didn't have long.

Finn looked with sorrowful eyes on Andrei’s pathetic body. The doctor said he had been shot five times. Andrei closed his eyes. He seemed to be finished. He had relayed his news. He was finally done. The heart monitor relayed a sole, unbroken tone and Finn knew Andrei had died.

Finn left Andrei’s side. Then, brushing away a single rebel tear away from his cheek, he left Andrei’s room. Finn walked down the hallway, entered into the waiting room, only to leave that room, entering the main lobby and informing the receptionist at the desk that he was leaving before walking through the automatic sliding doors and out onto a sidewalk that wound its way around the building and to the parking lot on the other side but Finn wasn't going there. Finn was going home.

***

Two and a half days later, Finn was walking through NYC, heading for Linda’s apartment in brooklyn and the suddenly all to welcoming embrace of peace and calm when the phone rang. Finn was walking along a 6th street, going at a walking pace when the phone booth he had just past began to ring. Finn had stopped in his tracks and gave the plastic phone booth a stare. He wasn't even sure that you could call a phone booth, and even so, why? Realization dawned on Finn. Suddenly he knew why the phone began ringing when he walked past and he also thought he knew who the caller was.

Finn began walking towards the phone booth as if in a trance. A burly man that looked like a construction worker pushed past Finn, his shoulder brushing against his. Finn didn't notice. He was now ten feet away. Finn then past a light pole on the side of the busy road to his right and opened the door of the phone booth. The phone was still ringing. The inside of the phone booth had scratch marks all over it. Numerous hearts with initials inside or things like “K + R” covered the inside. Someone had also taped a newspaper to the outside of the phone booth so that if Finn would have taken the time to look, he would have saw the front page of a newspaper from eight months ago. Finn didn't notice any of this. The second he picked up the phone, he wished he wouldn't have. The voice that came on didn't sound very much different from the owner of the voice in real life. Cold, calculated, monotone.

“So you made it out of the museum alive. I’m almost impressed, one-hundred seventy casualties and you managed to avoid that number completely. Comendible.”

“Hello Finch.”

“Hello Finn.”