The Innocent (A 'Finder' Fanfiction)

Shadow of Pluto - 38 - Asami

Blood soiled his knuckles, though it was not his own. His fist hurt, yes, but he was pretty sure the other man hurt more by far. That one spat out now, splattering the ground with even more blood.

"Where is he?", Asami growled again, grabbing the man whom he knelt on at the collar of his vest. He was one of his father's guards – he could tell not only because he had been able to get a good glimpse of those figures working for Maxim in the recent months, but also because this guy adhered to the laws of his old man, who had always fancied uniform-like attire for the intimidation it caused in others. His victim was dressed all in black – army pants, long sleeve and vest.

"I don't know", the one on the ground panted through broken front teeth.

Asami raised his right fist again.

"Wait!", another spat. "Wait! Fuck! The basement! Basement!"

"I fucking know that!", he hissed and drew his arm upwards even further. Droplets of blood trickled down from his knuckles. "Where in the basement?"

"Somewhere ... maintenance, right wing ...", he broke off with a croak of pain.

Maxim had recommended the same area, but that was not as helpful as it might seem. The building was too fucking huge; the basement a labyrinth of parallel corridors and intersections that all looked the same. There was a board game for children that formed a maze out of some fixed and some moving tiles, in which each player had to get a treasure, while the others around tried to close off the paths to his goal by shoving the pieces around on the board.

Of course, the walls did not actually move down there, but the many staircases and doors and dead ends would be filled with his father's men soon enough – and those of Maxim who decided to follow the orders of the old man instead of those from the man they had been serving under recently. If at some point the instruction came from Richard Asami to end even his children, both his sons could probably not judge for whom the troops that had been stationed here in the mansion would opt. Maybe some of them might choose to stay on Maxim's sides, but there was no way of foreseeing this.

Already something was going on, Asami knew, since the lights had gone out. Very likely, his father had been informed of his or Maxim's flight. Or ... the other had screwed up.

Asami had to keep himself from closing his eyes for a second in a sudden urge of despair. These recent days had gotten to him like nothing had ever before. For a long while he had not been in control of himself. It had felt as if he had been thrown into a bleak dungeon, disconnected from the world. Knowing that pretty likely Akihito had indeed been in such a place had helped him climb out again. That ... and Fei Long.

But the latter had to wait now. He needed to find Mikhail first, because as far as the calculations of Maxim were anywhere near to reality, they were still two against about 30. And if his brother did as Asami had asked of him, then he would leave with Akihito for safety as soon as possible. However, that of course would leave him all alone. Yet somewhere in the goddamn basement, Mikhail Arbatov was – and very likely in a very sour mood. One that would only get worse, once he was informed about the old man's plans.

'One after the other!', he reminded himself, then dragged the men beneath him around, tore his arms onto his back and broke both of them. The sound as if old, thick wood was being ripped apart hit the ceiling and the walls as a flat noise but did not make it outside. Neither did the hoarse shriek that was muffled the next second by strong hands clapped onto the victim's mouth. Asami had shoved the man into one of the living rooms and had locked the door behind them, to not get found by anybody else.

His brother's cats sat on one of the armchairs and wondered about what was going on – yet did not really seem to care.

"You stay here in this room and don't make a noise. Maybe then no one will feel the need to kill you. And once this is over and the right people are still alive, you might actually make it out of here alive as well", he gnarled into the other man's ear, then took his gun and marched towards the door.