"Now?"

"No, not now."

Feet shuffling, a stifled cough; they watched the dark figures continue their slow patrol, their silhouettes stark against the pale durasteel wall. A nightbird whooped in the distance and one of the guards stopped and glanced towards them, his blaster at the ready in the comfortable grip of a professional soldier. They held their collective breaths, as if doing so would help them merge even more into the foliage that provided their hiding place. Perhaps it worked - the guard turned back to his fellow and they continued their steady pace along the wall. Fifty meters, a hundred...

"Now??"

"No. Not. Now."

The guards turned a corner and the sound of their rhythmic footfalls receded into the distance. Another nocturnal avian ‘whoop’ was followed by an echo and a flurry of wings. The watchers continued their vigil...

"Now????" Plaintively.

"No. Not. Now!"

A door slamming briefly broke the quiet of the night. They counted in their heads; a window was suddenly illuminated from the inside, right on schedule.

"Now?" Whiny.

*sigh* "Okay, now."

"Woohoo!"

The entire warehouse erupted in an enormous ball of flaming orange and yellow, hurling them all to the leaf-strewn ground. Chunks of superheated metal flew over their heads, decapitating several nearby trees and sending the remaining wildlife running frantically for their lives. Flames leaped skyward with a roar, as if some unworldly demon had been awoken from its millenium-long sleep.

The glare of the blast almost blinded them, and the wall of noise it created left them temporarily deaf.

Kell Tainer gave a satisfied smile.

Finis

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