I got up slowly, trying to be as silent as I could. I paid close attention to what was going on while trying to head down.

"Would you like to do the honors Ms. Horne?"

"I would be glad to." She said as if it was a birthday gift. "Please, give me my brew. It's time to straighten this one out."

One of the men turned and went to the counter opposite of where I was but this proved to bold very badly for me because there was a mirror on that counter. I went to the counter and sure enough one look in the mirror and our eyes met. He stared for second in shock and then screamed like crazy.

"PAYNE!!!PAYNE!!!" Hornes men didn't hesitate. BAM BAM BAM!!! Bullets flew everywhere. I ducked just in time. Firing at the same time didn't help them as they ran out and had to reload. I reacted fast. I got to my feet. BAM BAM BAM BAM!!! My four shots with my gun sent three of them flying back.

"GET HER OUT OF HERE." I heard Horne shout. I had to get down there. When I looked down again, I saw one of the guards pull something out of one of the pockets in his uniform. He held it up and I could see it was a grenade. I had no choice but to run up again. I ran up to the door I saw Horne come out of. I heard him throw the grenade and I dived in. BANG!!! The whole set of stairs shook. I walked out to see all of the stairs below me completely gone and lay smoking on the ground below. Horne and her men had taken off with Stacy. I ran up the stairs as fast as I could to get to the outside. I finally got there to see Horne and her men speeding away in their vans and just like that, they were gone and I had no idea where they going.

Words couldn't express my shock and utter anger over what just happened. I don't how Stacy had managed to get into the hands of Horne but I could only guess that it was an investigation that went terribly wrong. I went back to the subway. The only place I could think to go was back to Time Square; back to Aesir. When I got back to Time Square the media had not died down, in fact, it had gotten even bigger. I went into the Video Game store next door to Aesir. The building was linked to Aesir. It was a good way for me to avoid security. I walked right in. There was no one in the stoor accept for one punk kid who worked there.

"Where's the door to get into Aesir?" I pointed my gun straight at him. He put his hands up.

"The door to my right." He said fast, looking like he was going to go to tears.

"Call any cops and this will be your last night playing video games."

The door led to the only staircase located in the Aesir building. The stairs were covered with dust because no one had ever walked up them. They only went up the elevators. The sixth floor was where Jason Williams's office was. However, when I got to the sixth floor, I looked out the little window on the door to see four security guards outside the door to his office. I had no choice but to get noticed, there was no going around them. I aimed my gun through the glass at the guard closest to me BAM! I had nailed him right in the shoulder and simultaneously the rest of them turn and fired like crazy BAM BAM BAM BAM! I ducked to the side and the force of the bullets sent the door flying of its hinges and it went sailing down the stairwell.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON OUT THERE!!" I heard Williams on one of the radios.

"It's Payne sir, he's in the building." One of the guards answered.

With him talking I jumped across the door and fired, nailing the guard with the radio and landed on the other side and out of the sights of the guards before they could fire. My beretta was out. I grabbed the shotgun. BAM BAM BAM BAM!!! But before I could get ready to fire I was forced to run further up the stairs from a mess of bullets coming through the wall from one of their machine guns. It finally stopped.

"He's definitely dead, there's no know way he survived that." One of the guards said. The voices were getting closer. They were heading my way, laughing, thinking they were going to find a dead body. I took aim and they came out. "SHIT!" BAM BAM BAM!! All three fell and I walked down and headed for Williams office. Judging by the sound coming from the guard's radio the rest of security of too busy trying to keep the press out of the building and hadn't heard what was going on. They were still requesting backup to help keep the press at bay.

I walked up to Williams's office door and with all the force I could muster; I kicked it almost completely off its hinges. But when I walked in, Williams was trying to escape through the window. I ran up to the window.

"You're not getting out that easily Jason." I shouted out the window while he walked on the ledge of the building. "All you have to do is tell me where she is and it will spare your life."

"I've told you all that I know." He said with the most sincerity. Judging by the look in his eyes something was really off. His eyes were become more and more glazed over. I looked back to his desk and saw an empty container on his desk with the Valkyr symbol on it.

"Damn it Jason, did you take that whole container?!" I asked. But right when I said it his legs collapsed and he fell forward and started to fall. "NO!!" He hit the ground with the most violent thud right in front of the press. I put my head back inside the building before the cameras could get my face and ran straight back down the stairs and left before anyone knew I was there. The employee at the video game store was still scared half to death and just stared as I left. I ran back to the subway and waited for the train.

"Not exactly what you were expecting was it?" A voice said behind me. I turned around to see James Mason walking towards me. I remained silent. "When I said kill Sax as soon as possible, I meant it. Now you are stuck in this battle."

"I've always been stuck in this battle."

"You didn't have to be." He walked closer to me until we were standing just a couple feet away from each other. "You loved her didn't you?" I gave him a look that could only mean yes. "I figured you did. I could tell when I first mentioned her name in our first conversation. Max, you can't let love interfere with you chance to live a normal life."

"It's too late for that now. Now, are you here to help me or are you just here to give me a lecture?"

He just stared as if he wanted to say something but kept stopping himself. Finally he let it out. "You want this case over or what?"

"You know I do."

"Here's the deal. You already know that Horne is part of this, now all you need to do is eliminate her and her men. Her army is very small right now; you need to kill it before she is able to add more to it."

"How do I do that?" This all seemed really ridiculous. He was giving me information that I already knew. "How do I do it if I don't even know where she is?"

"Follow me if you want to know." The old man led me back out of the subway and to his car. "Get in." I was hesitant, this could have all been a trap but in the end I had too because it was either do or die and I could only hope that the second conclusion would have no part in this mission.

We traveled for a few miles before he started talking again. "Horne has been hiding outside the city to avoid many of the police. She only had two hideouts in the city, both of which you have seen. Your friend Stacy Myers got a tip of the second location and headed straight for it, alone. Horne's men apprehended her and she is now the test subject of Horne's new version of V."

"What could be worse than the old version?"

"Everything, not only is this version ten times stronger, there are rumors that it either erases you memories or tortures you with them."

"Rumors, where exactly do you get your sources?"

"That is my business." The car finally stopped. "We are here."

We were at a shut down Pizza shop just outside the city. This part of New York was even worse than the city itself. Many of the city's crime lords and gangsters who had been run out by police lived here.

"Follow me Mr. Payne." I slowly followed and had the strangest feeling like we were being watched. When we walked into the shop, it was a torn apart. The ceiling looked like it was going to cave in and rat holes covered the walls. We walked further into the building and he led me to the door and when he opened it I couldn't believe my eyes. It led to a hidden room with nearly two dozen people in it, computers, surveillance monitors. "I would like you to meet my army."

Judging by what I saw on the monitors, they were not only watching me but Mona and Gognitti as well. "We've been keeping an eye on you for the past four months. We needed to make sure you were safe."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because you were the only one we knew of who could handle a job of this magnitude. With Gognitti and Sax out of the picture, Horne is the only target left to kill and then the war to stop Valkyr will be over." He walked up to on of the desk and pulled out a file. He handed it to me and I opened it. In it was the picture of what looked like a madman, with a killers smile. "This is Terry Johnson, one of the biggest crime bosses of the 80's. He was sent to prison for over twenty years and finally got out just a few months ago."

"What does he have to do with any of this?"

"Terry Johnson has been under Horne's wing since he got out. He is the only one who knows where Horne is." I stared eager to hear more. "We've been able to track him down since his release and know exactly where he is."

"Where?" I asked right away.

"On Trent St. the third apartment building number 2113, room number 15. He's there 24/7, never leaves the place but someone in a black Lexus has been showing up from time to time. Make sure before you go barging in that there is no one around."

I just nodded my head and headed out.

CHAPTER 13: FIELD OF TRAGEDY

I didn't know who this Terry Johnson was but I was more than willing to meet him under these circumstances. I was stuck walking back to the city but it was a great chance to think about how I was going to go through with this. Mason had seemed to tell me everything he knew but something told me he was leaving something out but with Horne on my mind I didn't even think about asking.

When I reached city, I walked back to the subway. I could hear several bells ringing from various churches when I got to the subway, singling that it was midnight. I hadn't slept in a while but with all of this I wasn't tired anymore. It almost took a half-an-hour to get to Trent St. from the subway but I didn't care, just as long as I got there. Trent St. was a quiet one, not the kind of place to be shooting guns in. I went straight to his apartment building and headed up the stairs. When I got to his room I didn't hesitate for a second. I knocked on the door.

Someone thin opened the door. As soon as he saw me he knew who I was. "OH NO!!" He tried to close the door on me but I beat him to it, with all my might I kicked the door and sent him flying backgrounds onto the floor. "Listen I don't know what you want but I swear that I don't know anything."

"Bad start Terry, you're already saying that when I haven't even asked any questions." I grabbed my gun, grabbed him by his shirt and pointed the gun at his face. "What do you know about Nicole Horne?"

"Nothing I swear." His eyes started to tear up.

"LIAR!!" I screamed as my anger began rising and my finger moved near the trigger. I moved the gun to his right eye "You either tell me where Horne is or the last thing you see is a bullet."

"OK OK, I'll talk just don't hurt me." I eased up a little bit and he began to calm down a little. "We've been having meetings outside the city at some mansion."

"Alfred Woden's mansion?" I asked

"No someone elses mansion someone younger and much more sadistic."

"Who?"

"I swear, none of us know his name. All we know is that Horne has been working under him since her return."

"Wait a minute; if he's in charge why you were spotted going to Horne first after you got out of prison?"

"She's second in command of our group. She's the one who decides who lives or dies in this group."

"Where can I find this so-called bosses mansion?"

"Staten Island, about a mile away from the conference house, it's the only mansion on that part of Staten Island."

"Thank you. He's going straight to hell."

Scared from the gun pointing to his head his reply was. "Whatever you say."

"And he'll meet you there."

"What? NO…." BANG!!

There was no sense on keeping any of these punks alive and judging by the empty containers in his apartment he would have died off of Valkyr anyways. I was surprised no one else heard the gunshot. I walked out of the building with more than enough to go on. I took the subway again, but this time all the way to the bridge to get me to Staten Island. I walked across the bridge trying to come up with a plan. It had just passed one A.M. there were hardly any cars in the street on Staten Island at this time. When I walked past the Conference House, my stomach began to turn and my nerves were actually shaky. I didn't know who this guy was and I didn't know what he was capable of. Since Horne was actually working for him, he could have been ten times more dangerous.

I finally got to the mansion. Johnson was right, it wasn't hard to miss, it was the only mansion on the whole block. There were several cars in the driveway, which meant something was going on. I began to walk around to the back. BANG! I was stopped in my tracks by a gunshot that landed right at my feet. There was a sniper on the roof. I ran behind the nearest tree. I peaked around the tree to see if I could spot him without being seen. I could actually see him lying down on the roof. I got out my berretta and turned around as quick as I could and began firing. BANG, BANG, BANG!!! The gunshots forced him crawl out of sight and I ran for it. I ran to the nearest door, opened and slammed it shut.

"FREEZE!" but my luck ran out and a guard was hiding in the shadows behind the door. "Drop you weapon!" without hesitation, I dropped it. He grabbed by the arm and forced me to walk down the hall. He led me into an office. "Sit down by the desk." I sat down and waited to see what I was sitting for. It felt like I had been sitting for hours when in reality it was only five minutes.

"Hello Mr. Payne." To my utter dismay the man standing before me was none other than James Mason. "What the matter? You seemed surprised." He smiled and then signaled the guard away.

"So Horne works for you?" That was the only question burning through my head at that point.

"Yes, I made her an incredible offer that would not only saved her beloved company but saved her life." He sat down in his chair behind his desk. "Money always talks to the simple minded." He laughed slightly but I didn't find any of this amusing and the look on my face changed his expression fast. "Look Max, if you had just killed your so-called love Mona, you would be in this mess right now. Can you deny that?"

I just stared and shook my head. "I guess not." I paused for a second. "Why'd you tell me to kill Horne?"

"Because I knew you would never find her. You would find me, and you didn't disappoint my expectations." He continued. "You're a great fighter Max, and have guts and that is commendable in my book. Now I am offering you one more chance. Now like I said before, money talks. I am willing to put up to ten million dollars in your account. You can leave town, start a new life."

I leaned back in my chair and thought about for a little while. I looked back with him with a grin. He smiled back. "Ten million dollars?" I asked.

"Yes, and I'm a man of my word Max."

I stood up and started to laugh and he laughed along with me. "You know something Mr. Mason?"

"What Max." He answered with a huge smile on his face.

But mine faded fast. "You need to teach your guard to search an intruder." I pulled out another Beretta out of my jacket and aimed it directly at his head. "Courtesy of one of your wonderful guards at Aesir. For someone who knows everything and watches Aesir very closely, you seemed to have missed me taking your guards weapons." Now the tables were turned and I gave the most evil grin I had ever given. "Money talks to the simple minded? I hate to break your heart Mr. Mason, I'm not that simple, I might fall into a couple of traps but I can dig my way out of any trap set before me. Unless you want to die now, you better tell me where Horne is."

"You are a relentless one Mr. Payne, I'll give you that." His smile started to come back. "But if you kill me, you'll never find out."

I played his bluff. "We'll see about that." I started to pull the trigger.

"Wait, wait, wait, I'll tell you."

After he said it there was a knock on the door. "Boss, you ok."

"I'm fine." He lied, he tried to sound as calm as possible. I heard the guard walk away. "Ok, they're at Aesir Labs."

"How could they be at Aesir Labs? We condemned that building and burned everything that was in that place after we believed Horne to be dead."

"You cops would think so wouldn't you?" He chuckled. "You always think that you have everything solved when all you're doing is adding to the fire that is burning right in front of your blind eyes."

"Too bad you won't see that fire anymore." BANG! The gunshot echoed throughout the house and all of a sudden I heard several guards running down the hall. I went to the window in the room, opened it and ran like hell. By the time the guards got to the room, I was already out of sight. They had surprisingly chosen not to look for me. I kept looking in back of me to check but no one was in sight.

Aesir Labs was the original building where Aesir had made all of their products before they had money to move into a bigger place. I had never actually seen it, I had only heard of bits and pieces from Bravura. When he and his men checked the place out after I had supposedly killed Horne, there was nothing but Aesir's old machines in it. But just to make sure there was no way Project Valhalla could be restarted, they burned everything inside to ashes and placed a fence around the building and condemned it for good. After a while we had forgotten the building even existed, which now turned out to be our mistake.

I walked all the way back to the city. I feared by the time I finally found where Horne was I would be too late and Stacy would be dead. I couldn't let that happen; I wouldn't let that happen. When I got back to the city I started to head back to the Subway, Aesir labs was only three blocks away from Aesir headquarters. I didn't even make two blocks until I heard a car heading my way. Judging by the look of the car it was none other than George Loreto, one of New Yorks finest cops, a legend of some officer's minds. I didn't like so much. He pulled up next to me and rolled down his window. "Get in." He said immediately. I looked around very suspiciously and finally got in.

"What do you want, I'm a little busy." I said with anger, I didn't feel like being taken away from my mission.

"You need to come back to the station with me." He said with a sense of urgency.

"I can't I'm trying to find…"

"Stacy, I know, we all know." He interrupted. "We need to get the whole station on this. You can't do this alone."

"Really, you mean that or do you just want another glory story on your resume." I said

"What it is you have against me Max. I've been on the force for over twenty years; I've busted my ass off."

"Really, that's not the man I remember meeting eight years ago. The only person I met was a washed up cop who didn't look anything like the hero that so many officers admired and looked up to."

"You should talk, the cop who is surprisingly not fired or in jail for killing hundreds of people between 2001 and 2003, some of them innocent bystanders, after the murder of his wife and child." He stopped at a red light and looked directly at me. "I know what revenge is Max but you're lucky to still wear that badge on your belt. Now, we can keep arguing or we can save Stacy, your choice." I stared at him for a little while, turned my head away and said "Pull over."

"What?" He said immediately

"I said pull over!" He quickly pulled over to the side of the road and I opened the door to get out.

"Max come on!"

"Hey you gave me a choice, argue or save Stacy and I don't want argue."

"You can't do this alone Max!"

"I've always worked alone and I'm not going to change now."

He stared at me with the most confused look. "What is it with you Max, we offer help and all you do is spit it back in our faces." He took a deep breath and continued. "You can change Max, everyone can change."

"I CAN'T CHANGE!" I said out of complete anger over what he had just said. "I can't, and I've tried to explain that to you, to Stacy and to everyone else on that damn force that has asked me nothing but questions!" I started to walk away and then I realized that I wasn't done yet and turned back around. "You all think that I can go back to the person I was five years ago but the truth is I am so far away from that side of me that I have no clue who I am anymore! And you're right, innocent bystanders have been killed because of me and another innocent person is being held by Horne and is going to die because of me and I'm not going to let that happen; even if I have to die trying! Goodbye Loreto!" I walked away.

"MAX!" I heard him shout, but I wasn't turning back for anything.