[ WP ] Write an ending scene that hints at the enormity of the quest that came before it .

Tom stumbled into the barren living room noisily, his left foot dragging behind him with an unnatural obtuseness. the blood leaking from the sole of his sneaker smeared behind him where he passed. He cursed himself as his laptop blinked in the corner, the terminal reporting another line of the codec. too little, too late. 
 
 He rolled his body onto the mattress folded in the corner with a grunt, a crimson pool growing from his mishapen foot as soon as it was laid still. The run had probably done as much damage as the piston, but it hardly mattered now. A hospital might as well be the Lucadyn lobby, he thought bitterly. Without those files, either one was a tomb. 
 
 `` They were there,'' Jim said quietly. He was sitting with his legs crossed at the end of the desk, leaning on his right knee. Was he there when Tom came in? He groaned as he twisted to face the man that had told him of the Lucadyn codecs. 
 
 Jim was wearing his normal suit, but with white and yellow flower with a silver fixture pinned to his lapel. That ever-present worry that wrinkled his eyebrows had left, his face seemingly years younger. The voice was more identifiable as Jim's than the face; there was a knowing calmness Tom had never seen in the man. 
 
 `` You god-damned right!'' Tom spat, anger and confusion arguing for contol. The reality of Jim sitting in the chair here was cycling through his memories. He knew he'd been lied to, but by who and for what purpose? Jim was the only one of them that... 
 
 Tom's eyes narrowed as he focused on Jim's silent gaze. It was his knowing look that unnerved Tom more than anything. They glared without words for pregnant seconds. 
 
 `` I told you not to go.'' Jim reminded as he looked down at his fingernails, ignoring the communication of own presence in the room. How did he even find him here? 
 
 `` You said Linda would die if I did n't,'' Tom replied, desperate. The fight was leaving him. This was Jim's show now, he realized. 
 
 `` Actually,'' Jim stood slowly, straightening his suit, `` I said that Lucadyn had no reason to keep Linda alive if you could n't get those files.'' 
 
 Tom slumped against the mattress again. He was getting dizzy. 
 
 `` But you were getting them. Right here.'' Jim looks down at the laptop. 
 
 Tom looked at the blinking screen, then back at Jim. He scoffed `` a bit too slow, pop. it'll be years before that thing finishes.'' 
 
 `` I have years.'' Jim said, closing the laptop lid. `` And now, I have no reason to keep you alive.'' 
 
 `` You sonofabitch!'' Tom yelped, writhing to get up. 
 
 As Tom struggled to his feet, Jim reached for a handbag under the desk and removed a silver hand-gun. He trained the weapon on Tom as he slipped the laptop into the bag. 
 
 Tom stopped mid hobble, reality of pain and pistol sinking in. Leaning with one hand against the wall, he glared hatefully. 
 
 `` who are you?'' Tom choked, realizing he still did not know why Jim had done this. 
 
 whatever playfulness Jim's face held vanished. His eyes flashed gun metal. 
 
 `` I'm Luca, Tom.'' 
 
 T felt his chest tighten; but what about Linda? Jim was the one that called him, he was... 
 
 `` She'll be fine,'' Jim said. `` She was fine all along. She's in Cabo at a resort-stay she thinks she won on a raffle.'' 
 
 Tom fell back on the mattress, his good knee going out underneath him. His head pounded as he watched Jim cross the room to the double doors. He turned to face him before he left. 
 
 `` It was your choice, you know.'' Jim said, finally. The three shots snapped, off-rythm. 
 
 Luca lit a cigarette as he stepped from the step to the sidewalk. His driver stepped to attention from his lean on the limo. 
 
 `` It's a shame, he was a talented kid'' Luca said as the driver opened the limo door, `` not much for diplomacy, though.'' 
 
 `` diplomacy is important,'' the driver said agreeably. `` Where to?'' 
 
 `` The airport. Off to Cabo.''
