Some Time Ago pt.5: North Dock
25 Oct 2019Maul Montresor
A loud thud could be heard echoing down the halls of North Dock. Darius' face was being held down against his desk as Maul stood over him, pushing his head down with one hand and holding Darius' dreads with the other."Alright alright, I'll handle these for ya, jeez! I was just trying to poke a little fun at ya. Take a chill pill. Damn. I think the green hair looks cool! I didn't mean anything by it."
Darius was rather small and not very muscular which allowed Maul to overpower him fairly easily. He let's go of Darius and steps back, throwing down a credit chip.
"Sorry Darius."
Darius nods and slides the chip off the desk.
"What the hells got you so bent outta shape?"
Maul sighs and flops down into one of the chairs in the office. The sound of tape could be heard ripping as it fought to contain the foam inside the chair. This office was a mess but so was Darius. Perhaps that's what made Maul like him so much, their taste in decor was pretty similar.
"Just been a rough day, man. I had to hack into this node at a settlement so I could intercept the traffic and I wound up getting shot at and running for my life."
Darius lights a cigarette and sits down in his chair to log into his computer.
"Damn dude, I remember when we met earlier this year, you walked out of here saying that you'd never see me again, but here you are paying me to make more of your problems go away."
Darius flicked the ashes off his cigarette and looks at Maul who was relaxing with his head back and eyes closed.
"You're still working to pay off that big bounty you got on your head, aren't ya? That's what all of this is about." Darius puffs from his cigarette and shakes his head. "You might as well give up, man. Ain't no way you'll ever afford to pay that one off. You'd need to rob the fucking Bank of Zaonce or maybe find someone who'd be nice enough to lend you the credits." The sarcasm was almost dripping out of his mouth as he spoke.
Maul opened his eyes, giving Darius a bit of a stink eye.
"You know, I actually worked for a gal a few years ago who was filthy rich. She was sweet but a bit nutty. Maybe she could..." He stops short, knowing that there was no way he would willingly get anyone else mixed up in this. "Nah never mind."
Darius clacks away at his computer as Maul sits silently.
"Alright brother," Darius spoke, startling Maul. "Your fines and bounties are now gone and you are a few credits lighter, my man." Darius smiles at Maul. "Oh, when I say they're gone I mean all of them except...you know."
"Yep, I know, the big one." Maul says as he slowly gets up with a groan and heads for the door. "I'll see you later, Darius."
"Be safe out there, man!" Darius replies as the mechanical door slams shut.
Maul hurried through the halls of North Dock to get to his Krait. He needed to get back home to Ray Gateway and check that the backdoor he installed had actually worked. He quickly boards the ship and heads home.
***At Maul's Apartment***
The mechanical door whooshes open after the satisfying beep of a successful passcode entry from the other side.
"Welcome home, Ghoulie." The warm welcoming voice of Ashley comes through the loudspeakers.
"Ashley, start up the computer." Maul demands as he kicks his boots off in random directions.
"Okay. Ghoulie are you feeling alright? My sensors indicate that your heart rate is a bit high."
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just hoping this worked is all." He says as he sits down at the computer.
He opens his program and to his relief, the hack was successful. The backdoor worked perfectly and he was receiving every bit of data that was passing through White Settlement. With a sigh he navigates to the chat room to let TerraBites know that the job was a success.
"Terra, it's done. I'm receiving all the traffic passing through the node. I'm going to set it up so our shared server starts receiving all the data and get this shit off my computer."
After a few moments Terra responds.
"OMG Gh0uli3! You really freaking did it! How the eff?...Ya know what, never mind. I don't wanna know. I'll let this run for a few days and have my A.I. scour through the transmissions for anything neat. Your payment should be arriving soon. I'll send ya extra if my A.I. finds something cool. Thanks Ghouls, I love ya to pieces xoxo"
Maul rolls his chair back away from the computer and leans his head back. After a moment he pulls his pad from his pocket to check his credit balance. It was a large sum but nowhere near enough to pay off "The Big One" as he and Darius called it. He started to wonder what would happen if he could even pay it off. Would the Corporation actually stop, or just use that as an opportunity to track him down and finish what they started.
He tosses his slate as well as his entire body over onto the couch, briefly fighting to situate his cover and pillows into a comfortable position.
"Ashley, I need my sleepy tunes." He calls out, his voice being slightly muffled by the pillow that was partially covering his face.
Music begins to fill the apartment, drowning out the sound of the outside world.
"Good night, Ghoulie." Ashley says softly over the low rumble of Maul's snores.