Eric vaguely remembered where the syndicate headquarters were, but he began walking in a direction that he thought that it might be in. He arrived at a building that was three stories high and resembled the headquarters. He then opened the door and walked inside, but to his dismay, he was greeted by a sales clerk.
"May I help you sir?" The sales clerk asked Eric.
"Uh, no no, I was looking for something else."
"Very well sir, might I interest you however in something that we have here. I guarantee that it might be of some interest to you."
"Oh I don't know, I feel it might be a waste of time for you."
"That is no bother for me. I work by the hour so I am usually sitting on the bench being paid." The sales clerk gave a strange chuckle.
Then, Eric thought of something for a split second. What salesman works on the hour? Eric then, to make sure that it didn't seem too strange to all the sudden accept the salesman request he reluctantly agreed. "Oh why not. Show me what you got."
"Right away good sir."
The salesman brought Eric to the back of the store and whispered something towards whatever it was that they were selling.
"What is the secret to man's madness?"
Ah, there it was. Eric knew that it was code, but he didn't quite know what to answer it with, so he gave his best attempt.
"Disobedience, loneliness, and rage."
The salesman gave a confused look towards Eric, but then said to him, "Close enough." The salesman then changed his whole attitude and took Eric towards the stairs. "Now I think the things that you would be interested in are probably in our basement. Would you care to take a look?"
"Certainly not." Eric replied. They then both started walking down the stairs, and with each step, the salesman's demeanor slowly changed from that of a blue collar worker to a guard of some ancient treasure.
"Why have you come today?" The newly discovered guard asked Eric.
"Look, I know that you are probably doing your job because you are in debt to the syndicate. Besides I don't remember that whole deal up there." Eric replied.
"It's something new that the syndicate added not three months ago. You still haven't answered my question."
"I've come here… I've come here… I've come here to end this. All of this shenanigans."
"I can't let you do that."
"You must! You and I both know that this cannot continue any longer. I was in debt to the syndicate as well."
"No. If I let this happen then the syndicate will kill me."
"But if there is no syndicate, then there is no one to kill you."
"How could you possibly ever kill this machine? When one part breaks they just replace it with another one."
"I will."
"Again, I cannot allow you to do that. In fact, put your hands up! you're under arrest." The guard pulled a gun from his pocket. Eric however was too quick, and the moment that the guard pulled his gun, Eric shot him right in the chest. He then whispered something into the guard's ear.
"Too many people have died for me to stop now."
Eric kept moving. He kept descending down the never ending staircase until he reached the bottom with the doors that led to the entrance of his greatest task yet.