Roxy's Story: Chapter 5

Shamal was a bald headed Buddhist man, sitting behind a small desk in a shop, fiddling with some sort of paper work, when Roxy walked in. He looked up at her and stood from his seat, confused as to why she came in, since the sign on his shop said 'closed'.

"Roxanne? What are you doing here? I thought you said to--"

Shamal didn't have time to finish his sentence due to Roxy throwing a swift punch into his face and knocking him into the desk behind him. Roxy then picked him up by his shirt and threw him over the desk to land on the floor behind it, hard. She pinned him down where he was by pressing her foot against his collarbone.

"You rat! You stinking, no good, double-crossing rat!" she shrieked. "You ratted me out! You told that mercenary where to find me!" Roxy pulled out her gun and pulled the hammer back, only to scare him. "So how much did he pay you, huh?! How much?! Was it worth more to you than what this all means?!"

Shamal didn't answer any of her questions; he was shaking too much in fear. Roxy snarled at him and kicked him in the face, knocking out his front tooth, then pulled him up to his feet and shoved him over to the cabinets.

"Get them out! The names of the guides! Do it now!" Roxy hissed loudly. Shamal nodded and did as she told him, lifting out a single sheet of paper, which Roxy snatched from him. She glanced over it, then looked at Shamal.

"Lucky for you I know your sleeze-bags from my last trip up here. And as far as I can tell, there's only one good man on this list. But fine, he's all I'll need."

Roxy slammed her pistol butt into Shamal's skull, knocking him out and to the floor, then she left, picking up her cell phone and dialing the number given on the piece of paper to call for supplies.

"Hello? Mr. Farez? Yes, this is Roxanne Longworth; Shamal gave me your number. Listen, I know this is sudden, but I need to move the timetable forward. Yes, that's right. We leave first thing tomorrow morning."
~<>~
Shamal awoke to the sound of a telephone ringing in the corner of the room, and after gaining his senses, he stood up and picked it up off of the receiver and spoke.

"Hello?" he asked.

"Ah, Shamal, finally. Everything is going to plan, I trust?"

"No, not quite. I am sorry sir, but Roxanne… she must've gotten that mercenary to talk, she knew. She came here… took the list of guides and stormed off…"

"Are you sure? She may just be checking the list…"

"No, no, sir. She came with her gun out. She never has her gun out. She took the list, and I assume she and the Mr. Farez on the list will be leaving for the mountain trail very soon!"

"What makes you so sure it will be this Farez person she leaves with?"

"Oh simply sir, he's the only man I had on the list that wasn't convicted of criminal charges."

"Ah… How good of a guide is he?"

"One of the best, why?"

"Oh nothing… Except the fact that now we can just follow them. Get the team ready to move out by morning."

And then the line went dead on the other end. Shamal took the phone from his ear, looked at it, then put it back on the receiver. It was time to carry out his orders.