Carrying out the plan

Brenan walked down the narrow alleyway on the opposite of the street from the one which led to the outhouse, from which the two men that Spider Lady had assigned to stay behind and await any further developments were now busy observing it, feeling less than impressed at how they had first decided that they would garner less attention if they were constantly peeping out from a alleyway than if they had simply sat about right next to the street and looked bored or if they’d frequented the same seedy dive from which he’d spied on Spider Lady’s and Carrot Top’s tense stand-off a few hours earlier. As if they were bent on further ensuring that he would have absolutely no respect for them whatsoever, the two thugs proceeded to both keep looking out of the alleyway’s mouth without paying any attention to the fact that the way in which it ran between two streets meant that someone could sneak up on them from behind, which was why he had now managed to come within ten yards of them without having been noticed, the largest of his knives being held against his back as he prepared mess a little more with the plans of the Veertor Empire.

“Hold on a second,” one of the two men, the one who was slightly taller and thinner than his counterpart, suddenly let out, almost on key, “where do they think they’re going?”

“I don’t know,” his colleague replied as the two of them peered out further from the alleyway, observing how the wagon being helmed by Mr Michaels and with Tyler and Julien walking right next to it had begun to pull into the alleyway leading down to the outhouse.

“Should we go…” The taller man was suddenly interrupted by Brenan grabbing hold of his jaw and yanking it back with his left hand before the knife is his right one slid across the man’s throat, cutting it open and resulting in a sickly gargle rising out of his mouth.

“Deke!” The shorter, stockier man cried out in horror at suddenly finding himself face to face with Brenan while his partner fell down onto the ground, though he didn’t have time to try and pull up his own knife before Brenan had proceeded to jab the bloodied blade in his hand in between two of the thug’s ribs, puncturing his lungs and leaving in almost as bad as state as his friend.

As the second man was still alive and upright, Brenan pushed him up against the wall, pulled the knife out of him and went on to stab him several times over, driving the long knife into his stomach three or four times while using his left hand to muffle his screams, finally finishing him off with a quick stabbing movement that sent the blade sinking down into the base of his neck.

Moments later, Brenan had hidden the two corpses and was busy crossing the street without anyone challenging him or otherwise showing any signs of having noticed what he had just done, and he had soon caught up with his three crewmembers as they finally stopped the wagon carrying the explosives and two crossbows that had been supplied to them by Davy at a fairly safe distance from the small building.

“You two wait here,” Brenan informed Tyler and Julien, who simply nodded to show that they had heard while Michaels collected the satchel containing the bomb that he was intending to use to blow a hole in the wall.

The two men moved down the alleyway quickly and silently, with Michaels carrying himself with an agility that startled Brenan somewhat, and Brenan kept a keen watch on the door with his revolver fixed on it while Michaels set the charge and lit the fuse.

Moving back towards the wagon while Tyler and Julien had caused the crowd present on and around the street to start to dwindle through arming themselves with a crossbow each, the two men had just enough time to get there before a loud explosion could be heard behind them, and Brenan and Julien were rushing back towards the outhouse at full speed seconds later while Michaels stayed behind to try and calm down their horse in the wake of the explosion and Tyler was busy watching the street for any potential threats.

As he reached the hole that been blown in the wall, Julien just behind him with his sword drawn and the crossbow left in Michaels’ free hand, Brenan felt a pang of dread as he realized that he was about to find out if Sasha had avoided being killed or maimed in the blast.