CHAPTER 10

Finn and Bella stumbled to their feet. They were both limping, but moved as fast as they could. They made it to an abandoned factory. They stumbled into the office at the back of the warehouse, where they couldn't be seen by anyone. They took off their vests and drank water. Finn's arm was bleeding profusely, so he sprayed disinfectant on it and started to wrap it.

"Could you give me a hand? I need eyes."

Bella immediately stood up and walked over to Finn.

"Hold that on there. Just hook it through there and then pull it back this way" Finn said, as Bella wrapped the bandage tightly around Finn's arm. Finn groaned in pain. She stepped back when she was done wrapping Finn's arm. Finn exhaled deeply. Suddenly, his phone went off. He answered it.

"Yeah?"

"We were played." He recognised Commander Sterling's voice. "The government is on the side of the drug lord. They ambushed our boat. John is confirmed to be dead."

Finn took a deep breath. "Shit. What about Jack?"

"He made it to the safehouse ok. The city's on lockdown. You got cover?"

"Yeah."

"And the girl?"

"She's with me."

"There's a clearing on the east side of Sultana Kamal Bridge, just outside the city. We can send Dirty and Clint's chopper and get you out."

"How far?"

"2 and a half miles." He paused. "But you gotta leave the kid behind, Hudson."

Finn didn't respond.

"Hudson?" "Hudson?" Commander Sterling asked.

"That's not the job." Finn snarled.

"The job is fucked." The Commander said in a surprisingly gentle voice.

Finn hung up the phone on his Commander and he sat back and sighed. This was definitely not how he thought he would be spending his summer.

"Are you gonna leave me in the street?" he heard Bella ask from the corner of the room. Finn turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

"Your phone… it's loud." She explained.

"No. Imma get you home."

They rested for the next 2 hours or so, before Finn's phone started buzzing again. "Yeah?"

"You are going to travel to safehouse A. Jack will meet you there. Then we'll talk about leaving the kid or not."

"Copy. I'm on the move." Finn said, before hanging up.

He walked over to Bella, who was asleep, and shook her awake. "Hey. Hey, come on. We gotta go."

They walked out of the safehouse and broke into one of the cars on the side of the street.

"Here, get in," Finn said and they climbed into the truck. The keys were already in the ignition so Finn started to turn on the car. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, Finn noticed the headlight of a motorcycle in the distance turn on.

"Get out of the car," Finn growled. The bike started coming towards them. "GO GO GO GO GO!" Finn shouted and Bella dived out of the car. Finn followed her. The bike drove by and sprayed the van with bullets. Bella hid behind a barrel, petrified, and Finn nodded.

"Stay there!" he said and he picked up a small steel pole that was lying on the street. As the bike came back around to shoot again, Finn rammed the stick into the wheel, sending the driver flying into the air and landing with a sickening thud. Finn walked over to the driver, and what he saw shocked him to his very core. It was a young boy, no older than 10. Finn took the gun from the boy, but the boy tried to resist. Finn hit him over the head, hard. The young child immediately went limp and Finn took his gun. Suddenly he heard loud voices. He turned to see 4 children advancing towards him, wielding guns and machetes. He turned back around to see the same thing on his other side. "The fuck?" Finn growled, confused. Suddenly, the boy with the gun began firing at him. Finn dived behind the truck, and threw two smoke grenades to help disguise his location. While the smoke was still dissipating Finn started taking them out one by one. He didn't kill them and it didn't take much to incapacitate them as they were only kids. Suddenly, a gun was put to his head.

"I'm gonna kill you," the kid said in Bangla. A knife was also held to his stomach by another boy. Finn slapped the gun, and when the boy fired, rather than hitting Finn, it hit the hand of the boy who was holding the knife. Finn then knocked both of them out with another metal stick he had picked up.

"Piss off," he growled, clutching his bad arm. "Fucking shits."

Suddenly, a voice coming from a megaphone broke the silence.

"You are surrounded. Please surrender to DMP or else you will be shot." Finn limped towards Bella, who had started to come out of her hiding spot.

"Fuck! Come on. We gotta move." They started running, and a spotlight from a helicopter briefly came over them. "Shit! Go, go, go, go, go!" They temporarily escaped the helicopter's beam and approached a manhole cover. "All right. Get in."

Surprisingly, Bella didn't even hesitate or complain, despite the fact that it smelt worse than anything Finn had ever smelt before. They dived into the sewer, just before a police cruiser turned onto their street. Bella started coughing. They started trudging through the sewer and both of them started gagging. Flies were buzzing all around them, attracted to the horrific stench. They rested at the end of a tunnel, where there was a small island. Finn called Commander Thompson.

"Hudson, talk to me." He said.

"Call Jack." Finn demanded.

"What's going on?"

"We just got attacked by the Goonies from hell. We made it about 4 blocks."

"I said get rid of the girl."

"I don't give a shit what you said. We're in the worst smelling sewer on the planet. There's about 200 cops over our heads. Just call Jack."

"Hudson, I don't think that's a good idea."

"He'll see it my way. And anyways, Lieutenant Colonel Brandt said it himself. The girl is our only priority. I don't give a fuck if I get killed along the way."

"Hudson, I…"

"Call him." Finn hung up the phone. He breathed heavily and groaned. The adrenaline rush that had previously filled his body, was gone now, and his arm throbbed painfully. Half an hour later, a car drove right next to the manhole cover and the cover was lifted, revealing Jack. "Jesus Christ," Finn groaned as he climbed out of the sewer and helped Bella out. They climbed into the back of Jack's car and they made it to the safehouse. Finn and Bella both took showers and Bella went straight to sleep after. Finn walked downstairs, refreshed from finally being out of the sewer and in clean clothes. He was wearing a makeshift sling on his left arm.

"Hey! How's it going?" Jack asked, as Finn came downstairs.

"Good. Better after the shower." They said at a small table in the kitchen. Jack poured him a drink.

"Cheers," he said, and Finn took a swig from his drink.

"It's good to see you, man. After John, I didn't know if anyone was still alive. My walkie talkie got smashed while I was fighting two guys."

"I appreciate you coming for us."

"The hell is wrong with you? Don't insult me. Of course I was coming. You hungry?"

"Yeah."

"Hey, how's that kid?"

"Uh, she's resting. So, where are we?"

"We are south of the city center. I told Thompson that an extraction is… it's not feasible. Well, you know, the city's surrounded by rivers. There are bridges going in and out. But every one of those bridges currently is blocked by a roadblock, because you are a very popular individual."

"What can I say? People love me." Finn said, rolling his eyes.

"I figure we lie low a couple days, let the panic dissipate. Then, we'll get going." They both finished their drinks in silence. "Ok I gotta go. I gotta go. But you stay here and rest up. And I will be back. It's good to see you, man. I missed you."

Finn grabbed the bottle of alcohol from the table and poured himself another drink as Jack left the room. He sighed. This had been a mission from hell. The chances of him making it home were decreasing day by day. By this point, he knew that the people after them knew that they didn't die from the explosion. He poured a bowl of soup from the pot and brought it to Bella's room. She had just woken up. Finn sat on an armchair on the other side of the room.

"Umm, sir?" Bella asked. Finn raised an eyebrow.

"Sir? Seriously?" Finn laughed. She rolled her eyes.

"Well, I don't actually know your name so…"

"It's Hudson. And if we manage to make it out, I'll tell you my first name. Gotta keep it classified for now though."

She nodded.

"And anyways, you're older than me. So if anything, I should be calling you ma'am." He pointed out. Her eyes widened.

"How old are you?" She asked, surprised.

"17 like you. But my birthday is in November."

Bella was curious now. "So did you drop out of high school or something?" She asked. Finn shook his head.

"I don't mean to freak you out, but this isn't even my job. This is just a summer job that went way too far."

She put her head in her hands. Finn felt bad for her. He knew that if the roles were reversed, he would want the best possible person taking care of him, not some random teenager who's not even out of high school yet. He put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

"Hey, I know I might seem unqualified. But I swear, you're gonna make it out."

She nodded and closed her eyes for a moment.

"Hudson?" She asked. Finn looked up again.

"Yeah?"

"If you had been killed today, it would have been my fault."

"No. It would have been my fault."

"You don't look like a Finn."

"Yeah, what do I look like?"

"A Brad."

Finn chuckled. "Wow!" Finn exclaimed, indignantly. She giggled.

"Were you always this way? You know… brave."

"I'm not brave."

"Of course you are. You rescue people."

"Sometimes. I've also killed a lot of people in the process, as you saw."

"Oh, come on. All heroes need to make tough calls. If you didn't, both of us would be dead. And I can't thank you enough."

Finn smiled at her.

"You have a family?" He asked. She nodded.

"A mom and dad. I'm an only child though. What about you?"

"A mom, step-dad and step-brother."

"What about your birth dad?" She asked. Finn clenched his jaw.

"He died when I was 9. He was a Navy SEAL, and a damn good one. He died while on a mission. His death almost killed me. I know it's sad, but my dad was like my best friend. He taught me how to play hockey, football, basketball, baseball, guitar, and he also taught me how to sing. I was coming undone after his death - like many 9 year olds would. I… I didn't even go to his funeral." He paused for a moment. "I told you, I'm not brave."

She listened intently to what Finn had just told her, and she thought for a moment. She remembered a quote that she had learnt in school a while ago.

"You know you drown, not by falling into the river, but by staying submerged in it."

Finn raised an eyebrow. "Who told you that?" He asked.

"I read it in a book in school."

Finn nodded and slowly left the room. He turned off the lamp and took Bella's soup bowl. When he went downstairs, John was already back. John poured two drinks and Finn took one. He gulped it down gratefully and accepted another. After his third, Finn started to feel woozy, so he stopped. John was talking pretty loudly, so Finn gestured to him to be quiet.

"I think she's asleep," Finn said, pointing upstairs.

"What a goddamn tragedy, hmm?"

"Tell me about it."

"That girl is a walking corpse. The Bangladeshis will never let her live. Think of the disgrace. You know what the best thing you could do, the best thing you could do, honestly, would be to go up there right now and just go put a bullet in her brain. Make it painless. Cause the animals out there, they're not gonna be as kind to her. They like to start with the ears. Then they cut off each finger at the joint."

"Mate, you're drunk," Finn said.

"I'm talking about mercy, Finn." John paused and Finn got up, starting to walk away but stopped when John continued speaking. "You know how much he's worth?"

"We're talking about a human, John."

"We're talking about an ambassador's kid. With a price tag of ten million on her head."

"You need to sober up, mate. We're not mercenaries. We're Army."

"Aren't you sick of this? Cause I am, and I… I do not wanna end it playing hero on some goddamn suicide mission."

"What are you saying? Our job is to rescue the girl. You need to help me."

"I am helping you. Ten million dollars. I'll get you to the border in a couple of hours. It's money in your pocket. I take care of the body. Painless. And it's the best that that girl can hope for."

Finn slowly stood up and faced the man.

"Did you call someone?" Finn asked, towering over John. John grumbled.

"Who'd you call?" he growled.

"Why are you such a hypocrite. You've got the blood of a hundred men on your hands…"

Finn lunged at him, sending a vicious uppercut into his jaw. "Answer me!"

"How dare you put your hands on me!"

"What did you do, John?"

"Asif, the Bengali leader, made a deal. He gets the girl, you get your freedom, and we both get rich."

"What do you want from me? You want me to walk upstairs and shoot the girl in the fucking head?"

"No. No," he whispered. "I'll do it." John picked up a pistol.

"Don't do this," Finn shook his head.

"You saved my life countless times on the last missions. Now I'm gonna save yours. Step aside."

Finn lunged at the pistol in his hands, and attempted to pry it out. Unfortunately, due to the copious amount of alcohol he had just had, he wasn't in top physical shape. They wrestled with each other for a moment. Finn lifted him and body slammed him through a table. Finn threw repeated punches to John's head and put him in a headlock. Due to John's size advantage, John was able to stand up and walk backwards, with Finn still holding him, crashing Finn into the fridge. They both went down. John started choking Finn from his shirt. Finn kept struggling though.

"Finn, Stop!" John yelled. Finn was still in the choke lock when he managed to grab the metal kettle from the kitchen counter and hit John firmly in the head with it. He released the hold, but managed to punch Finn in the neck. Finn went down, and John stood on top of him, holding a knife.

"What are we doing, man?" he said. Suddenly, there was a noise from the staircase and they both turned, revealing Bella, who was holding a gun. John got up and started stumbling towards her.

"Hey kid. I know it looks bad. I know it looks bad." he lunged at Bella, and she unloaded the pistol into his chest. John crumpled to the ground, clearly dead. Finn got up and took the hidden wire out of his pocket.

"You guys get all that?" he asked his superiors, who were on the other side of the line.

"We did," Brandt, himself, said. "And you did the right thing, Hudson. That back-stabbing traitor deserved it."

"It actually wasn't me. It was the girl who did it."

There was a silence.

"Anyways, Hudson." Brandt continued. "Eastwood is on his way to you guys. He'll be there by tomorrow morning. You and him will help the kid get to the border. Sucre will be waiting there, in a chopper. He'll get you guys out."

"Copy that. I gotta go." Finn said and turned off the walkie-talkie. Finn slowly took the pistol from Bella, who was still in shock of what she'd just done. She slid down to sit on the bottom step, tears streaming down her face. Finn sat down next to her. Bella started sobbing and shuddering, and all Finn could do was hold the poor girl as she cried.

"I want to go home," she cried.

"I'll get you home. I'll get you home."