10
Mayara Khepar, Allaik Tentau | Bay #6, Abandoned Shipping Harbor --------------------- RETURN: 0 --------------------- Google Doc | Previous Drabble (As a warning with many of the drabbles in this series, reader's discretion advised for brief scene(s) of violence.)
“We can get in through this side door. Main entrance is way too risky, even with no one watching-” Allaik whispered. “If you wanted to back out, this’d be your chance to do it.”
The duo finds themselves on the outside of town this evening, skulking around a more secluded entrance to a large, two-story building. From the outside, it looks abandoned- most of the windows are boarded up, and the main shutter bay is rusted shut.
Al looks back at Mayara again, tilting his head slightly. “W- what exactly do you even have there? The whole time, you’ve just had that and it looks suspicious as hell.”
“A sledgehammer. Never did get my hands on a pick.” She returns his puzzled look with a sly grin, shuffling the weight to her other shoulder. The ‘suspicious’ part he’s talking about lies not really with the hammer itself, but the weird paper bag strapped to the head of it. “Anyway, don’t worry about it. Let’s get this over with already, I’m sick of waitin’.”
“Worryin’ about it,” he replies. Instead of questioning her further though, he opens the door to let them inside.
Sliding past Allaik, Maya pokes her head into the newly-opened corridor, looking both ways before entering all the way. It’s eerily quiet, the only noise being the hum of fluorescent lights flickering now and then. She turns left and continues sneaking inside, her partner following close behind.
“Al.” she says in a hushed tone, “I know you said there’d be like, no one here tonight- but what the fuck. Where is everyone?”
He thinks for a moment before answering back. “Well, gone. After Mar went and claimed the lead seat for himself, it threw everyone into a tizzy. Splintered the group up, and he could barely keep a hold of ‘em. What with the stunts you’ve been pulling, most of ‘em saw him as weak. Thought they’d be better off doing their own thing.”
Mayara stops, looking back at Al blankly. “Yeah, probably right about that.”
“Probably,” he shrugs.
Down the hall and to the right with no one to stop them, the duo enter into a modified storage room. It’s a mess, various crates and boxes stacked around like tables and chairs. But like the rest of the place, it’s empty otherwise. Immediately, Maya feels the need to comment- not bothering to quiet herself any this time.
“Damn, you just got rid of all of my shit, huh?”
“Like you wouldn’t’ve in the same situation?” Allaik rolls his eyes, still keeping a hushed tone.
“No, no. If I were pissed, I’d’ve done the same thing.”
She ambles around the room, kicking crates around while looking down at the floor. In particular, she’s looking for an off-colored section of concrete- a clear sign of where she buried the stash of goods. “Ah. There we are,” she coos.
Maya steps back from the square, planting herself while she shifts the sledgehammer down. “Get ready, and y’ might wanna take a bit of cover. Psi can’t protect both you and me from this.”
“Protect- from what??”
Al panics, diving behind a particularly large crate as Mayara hefts the hammer over her head- swinging it back down full force. As soon as it makes contact with the ground, an explosion rings out from the point of impact. Dust and debris flies into the air from the force, and so does Maya. She’s just thankful she has a psionic barrier to absorb the impact from that and her fall.
As the cloud starts settling, she hops back to her feet to inspect the newly formed crater. Sure enough, it was enough to crack the concrete. A slightly dented (but intact) metal box sits just underneath the rubble as she shoves it away. Allaik rises out from his hiding spot, looking like he just saw a ghost.
“What the fuck! You could’ve told me that’s what you were carrying!” He’s yelling now, no real point in keeping quiet after a fucking explosion. “Don’t worry about it, you said. I had every right t’ be worried!”
Mayara just rolls her eyes as she reaches a hand into her sweater pocket. “Puh-lease, Al. You’ve seen me do worse-”
“Maybe I have, but carrying something like that around like it was nothing?”
“- It’s not even like it was that bad!”
“A warning would’ve been nice instead of being coy about it, asshole!”
She digs in her pocket again, searching for an item but unable to find it. “I ‘unno, I thought it was pretty damn obvious as to what I was doing. ‘Specially when I told you the plan ahead of time.”
“Maya,” Al’s tone shifts from livid to concerned.
“What!-” She finally takes a moment to look up at him, and realizes why the sudden change in attitude. …Fuck. Yeah, probably should’ve seen that one coming.
“Stay right where you are, Khepar.” a voice hissed out from behind Allaik. He didn’t dare move, unless he wanted a bullet in his back. The figure behind him must have snuck right up while they were arguing. If it weren’t for getting distracted, he might have noticed sooner.
Mayara forces a smile, still hunched over on her knees where she’s at. “Heeeey, Mar,” she calls out nervously. “Long time no see. Ya’ look good.”
“Oh, shut the fuck up. There’s no talking your way out of this one.”
Marote Meccay, the man himself. Five feet and eight inches of malicious authority. A shame he has such a baby face; it would be way easier to take him seriously otherwise. He also wasn’t supposed to be in tonight, but that obviously isn’t the case. There’s only one thing that Mayara really fears he’ll do- and of course, he starts doing it.
“Did you really think you could just sneak in here and do whatever you wanted? That I would just leave this place completely vacant? I knew you were after something here. I just needed to know what.”
He starts monologuing.
“I’m not stupid, Maya. Ghost problem, my ass. You’re the damn one that’s causing problems. You’ve always caused problems, ever since the beginning. I thought, maybe I’ll be nice. Maybe I can just keep you at your job here once I take over. But then that stupid fuck had to go and break your contract.
And since then? You’ve been offering to competitors, fucking with my own supply lines. So I- … what do you have there.” Marote’s speech is cut short by the realization that Maya’s other hand was reaching for the holster on her hip. “Don’t you fucking dare. Hands where I can see them.”
She obliges, a giddish smile starting to tug at the corners of her mouth. “Sure thing, boss.”
Pulling her other hand out of her pocket and raising both into the air, she holds a small device in one- a large button on the face of it depressed. It’s a dead man’s switch for the explosives they had set up. Technically, there were two of them- one for this building, and one for everything else. Unfortunately for her, Maya forgot which one was which. Call it a moment of panic.
“Oh messiahs, you did not just-” Al started, before being cut off by Marote.
“The fuck is that supposed to be?”
She giggles before answering. “Oh, just a lil’ switch. I wouldn’t worry about it too much-”
“I’m not buying that for a second. What’s it for?” he barks, interrupting her.
Maya is silent for a moment, that same smile on her face that she just can’t contain. “Since you wanna know so badly, it’s for this building. I let go, and the whole place goes up with everything else left in it.”
Allaik has a look of panic again, not able to tell whether his partner is dead serious or not. It’s not an empty threat, and he wouldn’t put something like this past her. Unfortunately doesn’t have much of a speaking position right now.
“... You wouldn’t.” Marote tries to call her bluff.
“Oh, but I would! You should know that by now, dipshit! If I’m going down for this, I’m sure as hell taking you with me,” she laughs. This is no bluff- besides the fact of not being sure which button she pressed.
“Did you think I was just here to steal? This was always part of the plan, I just hoped I’d be outside before this part! So put the gun down, Mar-mot- unless you wanna see what shrapnel in your good eye looks like-”
“-Wait! wait,” he interjects again- an attempt to de-escalate the situation at hand. He pulls the revolver he held away from Al’s back, making a vague gesture with that hand. “Surely we can talk a little about this, right?”
Mayara feigns a frown, pouting. “Didn’t you just say there was no talking out of this just a second ago? For shame, for shame.”
“I didn’t realize you had a fucking bomb! Maybe you should’ve led with that on the table?!”
“You have a point,” she agrees. “But it’s more fun this way, don't cha think? The fear? That little rush you’re feelin’ right now? No?”
“No, not really!” he wheezes, pointing the gun this time at Mayara.
“What’re you gonna do with that?” She questions, continuing her prodding at him. “Shoot me? Better not miss. Even if you don’t, it means I let go. There’s no way you’re surviving that. There’s enough explosives lying around here to make sure nothing’s left after the fire.”
“You would go through that much trouble just to see me burn? Is it worth that much to you?”
“It’s worth everything!” Mayara finally snaps. “You must’ve forgot that this whole operation kinda fucked over my life, right? Well I didn’t! I was even content to let it lie and pretend it never happened. But ya’ couldn’t let go, could you?”
Marote backs off, shoving Al away from him and to the ground as he backpedals for the exit. His last mistake. “You’re insane, you’re actually insane,” he repeats.
The only sort of response he gets back is a smile at first. “Duh! You just figuring that out now?”
But she’s not about to just let him get away. Mayara wants absolutely no chance of him coming back to haunt her again, and is well beyond giving any second chances. Her free hand snaps back down to her holster, drawing her own firearm. It takes less than a moment for her to find her mark. With one swift shot, the once-was leader falls to the ground, dead.
Maya stares ahead for a brief pause before snapping back to the present. “I can’t believe this dumbass was giving me so much trouble before. Not bringing any sort of back up to this thing, was he even thinking?” She continues mumbling to herself as she stands up, holsters her gun and hops over to check on Allaik before doing anything else.
“How’s the pusher doing there, bud?”
Al lets out an uneasy breath- “You had it stopped there for a minute, not gonna lie.”
“Eh, you look fine to me.” she beams. “But uh, hey. Let’s hurry the fuck up with this box, before this place actually does explode.”
Her thumb still has the button depressed, but she knows for a fact that it’s also on a timer just in case- in her own words- ‘some bullshit happened.’ She helps pull him to his feet before rifling through her pocket again, pulling out a key to the cache.
Inside the box is a medium-sized duffel bag, which she pulls out and slings across her body in a swift motion. Underneath it were various folders and smaller bags- none of which she bothers to grab. There just isn’t enough time to. Instead, she grabs hold of her partner’s hand and makes a break for the exit.
Upon clearing a bit of distance from the building, Mayara finally releases the tight hold she has on the switch. The abandoned store behind them combusts, further explosions sending shards of hot metal and burning wood into the surrounding area. With the flick of another switch and pressing of a button, it should set off the remainder of things they had set up.
There’s no signature of hers on this mess; it’s likely obvious enough who it was that pulled this off. She doesn’t stop to look back, continuing to drag Allaik along with her into the night. The further they get away from here, the better.