Maliq
Matthew Ryan Fischer
After the dustup and Club B, Maliq had been assigned to guard Yaz
and Junko and drive them wherever they needed to go. At first, he thought it
might be a fun assignment. Everyone had heard the stories about Yaz and the
wild parties he had been throwing. No one knew much about Junko but she hadn’t
been stopping Yaz, so Maliq figured there was a good chance she was down to party
too. Of course, after the police raided and cleaned out Club B, there wasn’t
much partying going on. Still though, he thought, it was a good way to impress
the bosses. Naxis was an important business partner and Yaz was an important
dealmaker, so sticking close to him would be a way to earn trust and respect.
But then Rama went missing. That was nearly two weeks ago. And now
Bagus, Rama’s protégé, was gone as well. Maliq didn’t like them, but he didn’t
want to see them dead. They needed fighters and Rama could fight. Times were
tough and getting picked off one by one wasn’t supposed to happen. Naxis was
supposed to help them grow, get strong, challenge for the city. But nothing had
gone right so far and now it seemed as if his gang was falling apart.
Maliq wasn’t supposed to listen in, but he couldn’t help it. He drove
them in a BYD T-3 seven-seater van, and even though Yaz and Junko sat in the far
back, he could still hear them. Yaz was boisterous and loud and they disagreed
a lot. When it was something important, Junko would try to speak in Japanese,
but Maliq knew a few words of that as well. He considered trying to record those
conversations and translating them later, but if he got caught, it might mean
his life. Still, he wanted to find out anything he could to help his bosses. If
Naxis had reconsidered its plans in Jakarta, he needed to know.
Mostly Yaz complained about being bored. He also liked to talk
about women and all the women he had slept with and planned on sleeping with. Junko
would often remind him about his father, and then they would argue in Japanese.
Yaz also liked to tease Junko about her sex life or lack thereof. Yaz seemed
very interested in her, or maybe he just liked getting under her skin and annoying
her.
The came the day when Maliq came to pick them up and Junko told
him to leave. Maliq waited for Yaz to say the same. No way was he going back to
his bosses without checking twice just to make sure. But Yaz wouldn’t get in the car
either. So, Maliq left them. But he made sure to follow them.
It was hours later on the south side of town. Maliq nearly lost them
when they turned into a parking garage and he couldn’t risk following them in.
Maliq drove around the block for close to three hours and was just about to
give up when he spotted them coming out of the building. They were with an old
woman who was surrounded by female bodyguards. He had never seen anything like
it before. He snapped a picture with his phone and took off. He didn’t know
what they were up to, but was sure his bosses would want to know.
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