Two Idiots and a Deathwish

[Kuzuru]

It was around six o’clock that the three checked into Motel ala Bell. The place charged by the hour, a perfect setup for drug deals and hookers. And while the sight of two grown men checking into a room with a young girl was enough to turn heads, Tier Six was not the place to ask questions. Room 106 was on the ground floor of the two story complex, but they had instead rented the room directly above 106. The bay windows gave them a good view of the main parking lot. The room itself was as drab as expected. A single king size bed no doubt infested with all manner of alien creepy crawlers. The faucet was plagued with a constant drip and if one listened closely they could hear roaches scuttling behind the cracked and peeling wallpaper. A radiator, perhaps as old as the Omniverse itself, sat in the corner of the room humming.

"Ah, ain't nothing in the world like a good motel," Charlie said as they turned on the lights.

Mallory rolled his eyes and nudged Sam through the doorway. Using a pocket knife he cut the riot cuffs that bound her hands and told her to sit in the corner. Charlie shed his trench coat and sat on the windowsill.

"You think that druggie is actually going to deliver our message?" He asked his companion.

Mal shrugged and answered, "I mean she's probably as reliable as anyone else down here, but who knows, three-hundred credits is quite a payday for someone like that, I'm sure if we asked her to rob a bank she probably wouldn't think twice about it if we offered her a bit of cash."

"I just don't like relying on something so unreliable," Charlie said.

Mallory didn't answer, instead he shucked his own coat and spread it open on the bed. Underneath the man's coat was a series of three holsters, two of them holding different kinds of pistols and the third cradling a sawed-off Remington. One-by-one he drew the weapons and set them down atop his cot. His belt held a few shells of twelve gage buckshot and his hip held a few magazines of 9mm ammunition. He also produced Sam's taser from his pocket and tossed it onto the pile. The bounty hunter frowned and turned to Charlie.

"We're a bit low on hardware Charles, what did you bring?" Mal asked.

Charlie chuckled and produced his big ol' hand cannon.

"Just that?" Mal asked.

Charlie nodded and answered, "if I would've known we were going out for more than just groceries I would've brought a bit more heat, but as they say, hindsight's twenty-twenty."

"Well shit," Mallory said, "we're going to have a helluva time if Ameara decides to scrap."

The pink-haired girl piped up, "she's not going to come alone y'know, and she'll have molten metal poured down your throats for fucking with me."

The two hunters shared a quick look of both disbelief and amusement. Charlie stood and rummaged in the pockets of his coat, after a few seconds of searching he produced both a cigar and a lighter. With a chuckle he lit the cigar and took a long draw. He held the smoke in his lungs and savored the aromatic flavor of the tobacco and spices. A cloud escaped through his nostrils and he walked over to the girl. He crouched. The cigar hung loose between the edge of his lips. He brought his hand up and formed a finger gun and pointed the barrel at Samintha's head. Instinctively she pulled away and tried to brush away his hand.

"You think we're some kind of amateurs?" Charles asked, his voice dropping into a low gear, "you think we don't know who we're up against do you girlie?"

She said nothing.

"When I first came to this hellhole of a universe, guess where I landed?"

Again she did not speak.

"Right in the middle of Tier Six, smack dab in the shit girlie," he took a puff of his cigar and continued, "and guess who picked me up? Ameara.”

Charlie paused for a moment to let that sink in before continuing, “that’s right, for the first year or so I was Ameara’s enforcer, her number one badass skull cracker, and you know what? When the Empire came calling she threw me under the bus, that bitch has no loyalty, not to me, not to you or your siblings. So unless she’s changed in the past year, which I doubt, you’re fucked girlie.”

The brute offered a smile before standing and turning back to his companion. He finished off his cigar and extinguished the butt in an ashtray on the nightstand. Mallory shook his head and went back to messing around with his gear. Charles threw on his coat and moved for the door.

“Where are you going?” Mal asked.

“That was my last smoke,” Charlie said as he opened the door, “don’t worry, I’ll be back.”

Mallory sighed. He looked at their hostage and then back at the door.

“You hungry?” He asked, “think I’m gonna order a pizza before shit goes down, what kinda toppings do you like?”