A woman’s scream. He’d never heard her scream before, yet he knew who the shrill sound belonged to even before he opened his heavy eyelids.
Then wished he hadn’t.
Unconsciousness, oblivion, had been far more pleasant.
‘Mariana!’ He tried to say her name, but all he heard in his own ears was an incoherent murmur.
‘Welcome back.’
Another familiar voice. Lozano.
A sudden rush of pain sent a wave of clarity to Finn’s head as consciousness returned with a vengeance, and he yelled in agony.
He looked down. Blood oozed from a gash on the knuckle of his big toe. He quivered as he tried to move but his legs and arms were held tight against the chair.
Finn looked from his foot to the blood-dripping hammer hanging a couple of feet above it, in the hands of a masked man. Another man stood, arms folded, next to him. Lozano was there too. And Minister Gonzalez. And Mariana…
She was on a chair in front of Finn, to his right. To his left, Minister Gonzalez shared a similar fate. The three of them were arranged in a triangle, facing each other, in a dank and grim, industrial-looking room, a tall leaded window on one wall.
Finn’s focus returned to Mariana whose pleading eyes bored into him.
But what could he do?
‘Please,’ Finn said, fighting through both mental and physical pain. ‘Don’t hurt her.’
‘Don’t hurt her?’ Lozano said. ‘OK. Him, then.’
He nodded to Gonzalez, and the man with the hammer moved over and smashed the hammer down onto Gonzalez’s right foot. Gonzalez writhed and screamed. A second hit, then another. Finn squirmed at the sight, the sound…
Lozano and his cronies gave Gonzalez the chance to find some sort of composure. Mariana stared at Finn as though imploring him to do something to help stop the horror. Or perhaps just blaming him for what was happening.
‘You don’t have to do this,’ Finn said. He got no response from Lozano. ‘She doesn’t even know.’
‘I don’t take chances. It’s the only reason you’re still alive, Finn Delaney. I need to know that what you told Comisario Martinez really is everything. And this will be the best way to find out. Trust me, I have experience of situations like this.’
‘Gonzalez is a minister!’ Finn shouted. ‘You can’t just kill him!’
He saw a flicker of emotion on Lozano’s face for the first time: a snide grin. But no words.
‘Please! Let Mariana go. Let them both go.’
Still no response.
‘You don’t have to do this,’ Finn said again.
Lozano moved up to him. Crouched down. ‘No? But I will anyway.’
He stepped back, next to the two masked men. He whispered into the ear of the one with the folded arms then returned his gaze to Finn.
‘They’re both here because of you,’ Lozano said. ‘You chose to tell them—’
‘I didn’t tell her anything!’
Mariana shouted out too now, begging, though Finn couldn’t focus on her words, his attention was on Lozano and the masked men.
‘Now you get to make another choice,’ Lozano said. ‘Which one dies first.’
Finn shook his head.
‘Five seconds.’
‘Fuck you!’
He had no clue where he found the strength to say that. But he immediately regretted it. Lozano looked amused, but the man with the hammer came forward again and smashed the head onto Finn’s already injured foot. He screeched in agony.
‘Make the choice,’ Lozano said.
The man raised the hammer once more.
‘Gonzalez!’ Finn shouted. ‘Just let Mariana go!’
He looked at her. At the despair on her face… What had he done?
Then, strangely, the masked man got to work on the ties on Finn’s right wrist. One of the men held him around the neck while the other pushed his elbow down onto Finn’s lower arm, keeping the limb in place. He took a handgun and forced it into Finn’s grip. Finn tried to resist. Tried to fight back.
He roared when he heard a snap and a shot of pain spread from his hand and up his arm into his neck. His thumb. The masked man had snapped his thumb.
Finn’s hand relaxed, though he didn’t know how much of the reaction was deliberate. He flinched a moment later when the gunshot boomed. His finger was on the trigger, even though he hadn’t tried to shoot.
Then the weapon was taken away as the men moved off him. Finn fought through his own pain and looked over to Gonzalez, who shook on his chair. Blood seeped through his shirt. The bullet had hit him in the gut.
‘Nice shot,’ Lozano said. ‘You did that. Now you’re a killer, Finn Delaney. Because that bullet would kill him…’
He spotted a knife in the hand of one of the masked men, moving toward Gonzalez. Finn looked away. Squeezed his eyes shut as Gonzalez’s screams filled the room and filled Finn’s head.
It went on for an age. Longer than Finn could bear. He didn’t look once even though he knew exactly what was happening.
He only wished he’d shot the minister in the head…
Then, a horrible silence, except for his own erratic breathing and Mariana’s continued sobs.
He focused on her. Anything but look at the lifeless mess of bloody flesh that used to be Gonzalez.
‘Let her live,’ Finn said to Lozano. ‘Please.’
Silence.
I love you.
Did he say that to her, or only think it? He couldn’t be sure.
‘This isn’t even about you,’ Finn said to Lozano. ‘I only wanted Victor—’
‘Enough of that. Another choice for you,’ Lozano said. ‘You. Or her.’
‘Me. Kill me. Let her go.’
‘You’d sacrifice yourself for her?’
‘I’d do anything.’
‘Anything?’
‘She’s innocent!’
‘Innocent of what?’
Finn shook his head. Lozano laughed.
‘Do you really not know about her and Victor?’ Lozano asked.
Finn looked back to Mariana.
‘Tell him,’ Lozano said. ‘Tell him what you do for Victor. What you’ve always done for him.’
Mariana shook her head. ‘I’m… sorry,’ she said to Finn.
‘Perhaps the images in your head, of them together, will make your next choice a little easier.’
The men had come back to Finn. The gun was placed back in his hand. His finger was forced onto the trigger once more. But not forced to shoot…
‘So,’ Lozano said. ‘This is your final chance. Anything else to add? Anything you… forgot to tell me or Martinez before?’
‘No!’ Finn screamed.
A pause. Lozano waited, as though seeing whether Finn would add to his response. But there was nothing to add. He was telling the truth.
‘OK,’ Lozano said. ‘I believe you. Thank you for your honesty.’
‘Please. Let her go.’
‘Now you get to make your final choice. Pull the trigger. Perhaps there’s a good ending here for you after all. Don’t pull the trigger and I’ll skin both of you alive. Her first.’
No. Finn couldn’t possibly believe that Lozano would let him live now.
‘Finn, please,’ Mariana begged.
‘Either way she dies,’ Lozano said. ‘Pull the trigger. Give yourself a chance at least.’
Finn’s mind rushed.
‘Pull the trigger!’ Lozano boomed.
So Finn did. But not before he’d done everything he could, used all of his strength to lift his arm and push the barrel off target in the split second before the gun fired.
The bullet missed Mariana, but it missed Lozano too, though it was close enough to the kingpin to cause him to cower away.
There was a moment of confusion during which Finn twisted the gun further up and around as best he could and fired again, hitting the masked man behind him.
The arm on his neck loosened. Finn tried to move, but he couldn’t – his other wrist and his ankles were still tied to the chair…
He reached across and sank his teeth into flesh. The man beside him screamed. He smacked Finn in the head, over and over. Finn pushed and pulled and prized, trying to get free…
The frantic movement of the two ripped the previously secured chair from the floor. Finn fell sideways and the masked man went with him.
Finn pulled his limbs free as the chair clattered down and broke into pieces, released his mouth from the man and writhed out from underneath.
He spotted the gun on the floor and dove for it. Gun in hand, he spun around on his back and fired two shots. Both hit the masked man bearing down on him. Finn turned the other way, to Lozano…
But he didn’t fire.
He clambered to his feet, moving slowly, as though a sudden move could be fatal…
Because in front of him Lozano crouched behind Mariana, a blade held to her throat.
‘Don’t—’
Lozano drew the knife across Mariana’s skin. Her eyes burst wide. Finn could do nothing as a gash opened up.
He heard footsteps outside the room. He looked for a shot at Lozano… he couldn’t. Not without hitting Mariana.
He found her eye for only a moment before the door was flung open and bullets pinged across the room, even before Finn had seen anyone beyond. He fired in that direction as he turned and raced for the window. The glass shattered from wayward bullets a moment before he reached it. He jumped into the unknown…
He fell ten feet or more to the ground below, landing painfully on his side and shoulder. He lost the gun in the process and thought his shoulder had dislocated. But he didn’t need it right now. Running on nothing but adrenaline, he somehow managed to find the strength to pull himself to his feet. He glanced up to the see the gun barrels and the men, Lozano among them, leaning out of the window.
Finn raced forward towards an edge and what he hoped was water below.
He made another desperate leap, with gunfire all around him. A bullet hit his right leg; another, his already throbbing shoulder. One whizzed so close to his ear he felt it.
Then he was falling… falling… the frothing water below calling him into a watery grave…
He went under the surface.
Nothingness closing in.
Nothing left to live for, anyway…
In his mind he saw flashes of Mariana. The look in her eyes, knowing she would die. Knowing it was down to him…
It’d be over for him soon too.
He only had to let go…
…No.
Not a chance.