Doc Destructo

A Quick Death in Texas - Chapter 2 Snippet

Added 2020-12-18 21:46:13 +0000 UTC

He wasn't a Maguffin. He's a bit frustrated about being mistaken as such.

“What about you, who’s the inner circle?” Van asked.

Taino gave him the slightest roll of his eyes, he knew what he was actually asking. “Tadji, his sister and their cousins. They’re rolling with me dressed as engineers and galley cooks. Their idea, not mine.”

“Good to hear,” Van let his hand slip. He wasn’t hearing his little brother placate him, he was hearing that little brother had picked a good man from a family of certified hide-takers to shadow him.

“Swear to you, it’d be stupid to try and take the Jungle out of that family, but even so,” Taino started.

“You’d wish they’d tone it down a notch,” Van finished, with a smile. “I get it, your neighbors are ninjas.”

Taino shrugged, tired in his soul from having been watched since birth. Being clan heir meant being on standby to assume emergency duties as chief in the result of the current’s death or incapacity, and moreover, meant running in the incumbent seat should the clan families call a moot in that circumstance. He was used to having people with guns and knives hiding in his shadow, but it didn’t make it any less grating.

“Hey, I think it’d be cool to have ninjas for neighbors,” Van said.

“It gets old,” Taino replied. “It’d be nice to change the bedclothes for once without having the guy hiding in the closet handing me the sheets.”

Taino is fine. A Good Man was the last you saw him as the vulnerable teenager. Now, he's paying big brother back, as his field intel handler. He's over with being someone else's problem, and is ready to be someone else's problem, if you get my meaning. Because after all, the Sendra Clan family business is trouble, and business is about to be very good...