"Boss!" One of his men came running in fast, so fast that he was almost out of breath.

"What is it?"

"He's here in the building right now."

"Shit, he'll ruin everything. Once he sees him here, he'll kill him himself." All of a sudden he looked nervous. "Take him out to the balcony, I'll try to get him out of here as soon as I can."

I was grabbed by the arm and pulls outside to the balcony. He shut the curtain. There was dead silence until whoever it was had come into the apartment. I could hear the conversation through the door.

"What wrong with you Rob?" I had finally learned the boss's first name but whomever it was that was talking I couldn't recognize by his voice. "You look a little nervous to see me today."

"Not at all sir, just a little surprised to see you here. We had no prior notice that you would be here tonight."

"Oh you shouldn't be surprised at all, traitor." There was a stunned.

"I am not a traitor."

"Really, so you don't find going behind my back to help that old hag."

"I don't find helping Horne to be betrayal."

"She is not to be trusted. She sent the load of us to find that asshole Max Payne and what does that do, it got many of us killed."

"You listen to me, if she wants to find Payne, she will have to do it on her own. Some have already lost their lives in the last 72 hours because of her and I'll be damned if we're going to lose anymore." There was another few seconds of silence. "I know you've already got men out there searching for him, call them back."

"Yes sir." He said, sounding almost helpless in the matter. Whoever it was sounded like he was leaving and saw this as my chance while all of the focus from the people inside were not on me. I stepped on the foot of one of them men holding me, which loosened his grip and with my free hand threw the other one into him. I had only a couple seconds to think. I saw the dumpster below, which was about two stories down. I risked my life and jumped. "Get him!!" I heard one of the men say after I jumped.

I had a soft landing on top of all the trash bags. I quickly got up and ran for it. I ran for so long and so far that I was sure I had lost them all. But judging by where I was, I was lost myself. As I stopped to catch my breath, today's newspaper was on a stand across from me.

It didn't take long for my actions back at the hospital to take effect. Stacy had put a wanted label on me that was so huge that it not only filled the front page but also extended to the next one. The fact that she was able to put this in the paper only hours after it happened, told me she already had cops on the hunt after I had actually left the hospital. If she had known better she would have stayed out of the way because it would wind up getting many cops killed with Horne also looking for me. With no allies I had to find Horne on my own without her men or the police stopping me before I got to her.

CHAPTER 12: A MESS OF FLAMES

The moon was full and shined over the dark city. For some reason from my eyes the lights of the city were all off and all I saw was the stars and the road ahead of me. I was running on pure instinct at this point. My first stop was Aesir headquarters. I knew Horne wasn't going to hesitate to start. The police had the arrogance to think that they had already cleared out the Aesir building, but I knew better. The police had given up on the site several hours ago. Horne and her men would surely find a way in undetected. With no car it took me almost an hour to get there. To my surprise, there wasn't a single cop in site during the entire walk there.

Vans were parked outside the building. They definitely weren't S.W.A.T. vans. I was very hesitant to walk any closer to the building. With all of the windows, a sniper could easily be lying in wait of my arrival. Horne had to have known that I had gotten lose and was on my way for her. I walked a little closer to the building and headed for the vans parked outside the building. They were still running but no one was in them. Looks they were going to try to make a clean break after they were done. I wasn't going to allow that. I opened the back of one of the vans and saw nothing but guns and ammunition. I loaded up with what I could carry but I knew it wasn't going to be enough to get through all her men but it would definitely get through most of them. I checked the other vans but nothing one was in them. I headed in.

There was no one in sight on the first floor I had to head up. The building was at a scary silence. The ongoing cars on the outside were muted by the thick glass windows of the building. When I got a few floors higher I could finally hear sound from the outside because of the damage caused to the building earlier. I had reached the tenth floor and still found nobody.

RING RING!!

A phone rang in one of the offices next to me. I don't know what made me want to answer it. I picked it up.

"Hello Mr. Payne."The sound of Hornes voice came though and I knew right then and there that I had walked into a trap. "I just wanted this final moment to say goodbye." Then all of a sudden a clock appeared on the phone counting down from twenty. "It's been a pleasure." She hung up and I was off. I ran as fast as ever down the stairs but I wasn't even to the second floor when it went off. BANG!!!!!! The bomb was located on top of the building the explosion was so huge that it caused the top of the building to collaspe causing the rest of the building to start collasping. I had managed to get to the first floor and ran like hell. I made it outside. The sound of the building collasping was unbelievably loud and the dust and dirt in the air made it hard to see. I tried to run farther but lack of clean air was getting the best of me. I didn't know how far I had gotten before I completely passed out on the ground.

I woke up to the sound of doctors, policemen, and firefighters who had all shown up to the scene. When I finally opened my eyes I saw Myers standing right in front of me. I wasn't badly hurt, just a little coughing. It wasn't enough to kill me.

"I'm sorry to do this Payne but you're under arrest."

"I don't understand why."

"Assaulting a police officer."

"You can't fool me with that bullshit Stacy."

"It's not bullshit if it's true."

I was too angry to argue with her again. I let her handcuff me and stick me in one of the jail cells. I sat for about an hour befor Myers showed her face. I didn't make eye contact with her at first.

"I tried so hard to help you Max but you just had to strike out on your own." I didn't reply. "I don't understand why are you doing this."

I finally turned my head to look at her. "Do you know what it is like to hear your wife scream before she is about to get murdered?" She didn't answer. "How about hearing your baby cry before being silenced by a bullet." Again, no answer from her. "And then have the person you currently love shoot herself in the head. And this all starts because of one damn drug, one damn dealer. There are thousands of dealers in this city and one chose to ruin my life and that person is surprisingly still alive and you of all people think that I'm going to stand back and forget about it."

She just looked at me in shock at what she had just heard. She stared at little bit longer and then reached into her pocket and pulled out the keys to the cell and let me out.

"Go" She said, looking like she was holding back tears. "If this is what you feel like you have to do then do it, but you are on your own."

"I always have been alone." I walked back to the door and left. When I got to the street, I took my mind off of what had just happened and got back to business. I had only one place left to go. Since Aesir Headquarters was gone, all that was left was Aesir in Times Square. I took the subway. To my relief the subway was completely deserted, which was good, gave me enough quiet to think of a game plan.

When I got to Times Square, it was in a stunned silence. Thousands of people were watching the huge Televisions sets above, listening to the story about Aesir Headquarters. The Aesir building was surrounded by news vans, all wanting to Aesir's side to the story. I managed to get passed them and headed in. I was quickly stopped in my tracks.

"Hey, hey, hey! You are not allowed even near this building." I was greeted by Jason Williams, Aesir's big time attorney. We had a history and it wasn't a good one. We always met in courtrooms with me testifying against Aesir every time the company got into trouble. He obviously didn't like seeing me.

"How about treating an old friend with respect?"

"I don't know what you're here for Payne; in fact, I don't even want to know why you're here."

I grabbed him by his coat, which caused security to move closer. "I think you know exactly why I'm here. I almost got killed early tonight in that damn headquarters and I know who caused, now where is she at?"

"You think for a second I'm going to tell you?" Still holding him by the coat, I threw him against the wall. Security made their move but he signaled them to stop. He obviously didn't want to start an uproar with news vans and cameras everywhere.

"You better tell me. I've been through hell these last few days, now you tell or I'm going to leave you in so much pain, you're going to be begging to tell me."

"Alright! Alright! I'll talk but you have to promise not tell anyone I told."

I took my elbow and starting mashing his face into the wall. "I'm not in the mood to negotiate after what I been through and if you want to live to see your children tomorrow you'll tell me."

"Fine! She's been hiding at Aesir Headquarters."

"Aesir Headquarters is destroyed, tell me the truth!"

"I'm not lying, she's under the building." I let go of him to let him speak. "Have you ever wondered why cops never found the drug Valkyr in the Aesir building when they searched it? All the machines that made Valkyr were in a secret location hidden under the building. Even with the building gone, the cops won't find it.

"How do I get in?"

"There's a door under one of the sidewalk cement blocks, you can lift it up and you'll see the door."

I looked at one of the security guards. "Tell one of your guards to give them his guns."Out of fear he signaled over one of his guards and told him to hand me all of his guns. I finally let Jason go. "You better be telling the truth or else one of these bullets will your name on it."

I left out of the back door of the building; the only side of the building with no news cameras. With no mode of transportation I had to walk, but I had to walk up streets that were empty due to the amount of weapons I was carrying. To my surprise there weren't many people on the streets. The scare over Aesir had people frightened and almost everyone in New York stayed in their homes. When I got to Aesir, it was still pretty much a mess. The firefighters and police tried to clean up as much as possible in a matter of a few hours. I searched the sidewalk to see if I could find the door. I went all the around the building and when I got towards the end I kicked and one that moved. I lifted it up with all my strength and saw the door. I threw the cement block aside and opened the door. The stairs leading down seems to go on forever. I was amazed that so much was built underground. Judging by how far it looked, they built another three story's underground.

"Call down with Ms. Horne, we're are ready for testing." I looked down to see a few men working down in one of the labs down at the bottom. "Miss Horne, it is ready." One man got on his into a walkie talkie. "Ms. Horne we are ready."

Then I heard her voice. "Good, I'll be down, now if this fails as well, you won't live to do another test."

All of the men stood still nervously. "Don't worry ma'am, this one will work." Then right when he said that a door right above me opened and guards came out. I jumped into one of the darker corners and saw her and her men walking down. I wanted to jump out and kill her then but I knew better.

"Is our test subject ready?" She said very sadistically.

"Yes ma'am, she was tough to keep down but we managed to finally subdue her." After that one of the doors opened in the back of the lab and more men brought in a woman on a stretcher. After looking very closely I realized it was Stacy and she was completely unconscious.

"It was foolish of you to interfere in my business Ms. Myers. I'll make sure personally that you don't make that mistake again." Horne gave a very sadistic smile.

Although I was reluctant to get caught, I had no choice this time. I had to save Stacy.