Chapter 135 #53: Maya
Maya settles deeper into the leather armchair in the surveillance van parked three blocks away with her legs crossed and a tablet balanced on her knee. The feed from the six micro-cameras she planted throughout David and Nora's apartment is crisp, the audio clean enough to catch every breath and every word. She has watched David and Nora return from the federal building, watched him hold her too long in the foyer, watched them disappear into the master suite for what was obviously not a conversation. The rage that had simmered since the chapel wedding is now a steady burn in her chest, but she keeps it contained. Rage without control is useless. She has learned that lesson the hard way.
On the screen, Nora moves alone through the hallway toward the front door. She kisses David on the cheek just before she steps out, and promises to be back home soon.
Wouldn’t be so sure if I were you, Maya thinks to herself.
Nora steps out holding a black leather bound book that Maya is sure is the ledger, and gets into her car. They wait a few seconds till she’s down the street, then they start their own cars and follow, a safe distance away. Nora makes several turns until she’s on a familiar street Maya knows from all the research she’s done on Nora over the years.
She’s planning to hide it in the Red Room, Maya thinks. How fucking cliché.
“She’s heading straight there,” Maya says into the comms. “Carter, Ramirez, you’re with me. The rest stay on perimeter. We move the second she opens the safe.”
Three affirmatives crackle back.
She watches Nora pull up outside the familiar building and head out, making her way to the front. She pauses outside the red door, her hand resting on the frame for a moment as though she is gathering courage. Or saying goodbye. Maya leans closer to the screen. The woman looks exhausted with dark circles under her eyes and hair pulled into a messy knot, but there is something else in her posture. A misplaced form of certainty, but Maya dismisses it. Exhaustion makes people courageous.
Nora presses her thumb to the scanner. The lock disengages with a soft beep, then she steps inside and closes the door behind her.
Maya stands. “Now.”
They move fast and quiet through the service entrance she had left propped open earlier. The hallway lights are dimmed to evening mode; their footsteps are muffled by the thick carpet. Carter leads, holding a silenced pistol already drawn. Ramirez follows, his eyes scanning corners.
Maya brings up the rear, her own weapon tucked into the small of her back. She doesn’t plan to use it unless necessary. She wants the ledger safe with her first... then she'll finally put an end to that dumb whore.
They reach the red door. Carter tests the handle and finds it unlocked. Sloppy as usual.
He pushes it open but they're greeted by dim lights that barely illuminate the room.
Maya frowns. The room should have motion lights. She distinctly remembers seeing them during the brief period she visited the place years ago. She feels her hair stand on edge as she steps inside after Carter.
Suddenly, the door clicks shut behind them and every light in the building dies at once.
The entire place is total black.
Maya is just about to ask what the hell just happened when a voice comes from overhead speakers – it's soft, intimate, and almost amused.
“Welcome home,” Nora says. “You really thought the Red Room was where I’d hide it?”
Maya’s pulse kicks in her ears. She reaches for her phone to check the feed, but the screen is dead. The signal has been jammed.
Nora’s voice continues, calm and conversational, drifting through hidden speakers. “You planted bugs in my home. Nice work. Amateur hour, but nice. I found the first one in the kitchen vent five minutes after I walked in. The rest were easy after that. You really should hire better technicians.”
Maya feels the air shift. Someone moves to her left – Carter, probably. She grabs his arm to keep him still.
“Stay quiet,” she hisses.
Nora laughs softly through the speakers. “Too late for quiet. You’re in my house now. I know every inch of this place. Every creak in the floorboards. Every blind spot. Every way the sound bounces off these walls. And right now... you’re blind. I’m not.”
A muffled thud comes from the far corner. Then a choked gasp. Carter swears under his breath.
“Ramirez?” Maya whispers.
No answer.
Another thud sounds, closer this time, followed by something heavy hitting carpet.
Maya’s mouth goes dry. “Switch the lights on right now!”
Nothing happens.
A third sound comes again. It's wet and meaty, followed by a body collapsing.
Carter swings his pistol in a wide arc. “Show yourself!”
Nora’s voice answers from directly behind him. “Boo.”
He spins a little too late.
There’s a crack of knuckles against bone. A grunt, then a body dropping.
Maya backs up until her shoulders hit the wall. Her heart slams against her ribs. She can hear panicked breathing from the two remaining men somewhere to her right.
Then one of them fires. Muzzle flash lights the room for a split second, bright and blinding as the bullet buries itself in drywall.
“Stop shooting you moron!” Maya snaps. “It’s pitch dark. You’ll hit each other!”
Another shot. Another flash. And this time the bullet finds flesh. It’s followed by a high scream that’s cut short quite fast.
Then silence again.
Maya’s ears are ringing. She slides along the wall, trying to orient herself. The room they’re in is large. It's about twenty by thirty, with bookshelves lining two walls, a massive desk in the centre, and leather chairs scattered like islands. She's been here so many times that in daylight she could navigate it quite easily. In darkness, every step is a gamble.
Light footsteps circle somewhere near the centre of the room.
“You underestimated me,” Nora says, her voice moving. “That was your first mistake. Thinking I’d hide the ledger where you’d expect to find it. Thinking I’d let you walk in here and take it without a fight. You’ve spent years watching David. You never once watched me.”
Maya’s hand finds the grip of her pistol. She draws it slowly, her thumb flicking the safety off.
“You’re good at playing the victim,” Nora continues. “Poor Maya, always the bridesmaid, never the bride. But you’re not a victim. You’re a predator who finally met someone who hunts back.”
Maya’s breathing is too loud in her own ears. She forces it slower.
A soft scrape of metal on wood comes from her left and she swings the pistol toward the sound. But... nothing.
Then from the right, another scrape. She pivots towards it, but again, nothing but silence.
One of her remaining men whispers, “Boss?”
“Stay quiet!” she hisses.
Too late.
A rush of movement comes from her left, then a muffled cry, quickly followed by the wet snap of something that sounds like breaking bone, and the man drops with a heavy thud.
Maya is alone now.
Her heartbeat thunders in her throat. She backs toward what she thinks is the door. Her heel hits the edge of a rug. She stumbles, then catches herself.
Nora’s voice when it comes is much closer now. Almost intimate.
“You really thought you could come into my home, threaten my family, and walk out with everything you wanted? You thought I’d hand over the one thing that can bury you because you asked nicely? Sweetheart, I’ve been waiting for you to make this very move.”
Maya raises the pistol and sweeps it in a slow arc, waiting for the perfect moment to shoot.
“You’re scared,” Nora says. “I can hear it in your breathing. You’re wondering how many steps it is to the door. Whether you can make it before I reach you. You’re wondering if David will ever forgive you for what you’ve done. Spoiler alert: he won’t.”
Maya pinpoints the sound and her finger tightens on the trigger, ready to end this madness... when suddenly the lights snap back on, filling the room in blinding white.
Maya squints, then blinks against the sudden glare, trying to get her eyes to adjust quickly. As soon as they do, she spots Nora standing about ten feet away.
For the briefest moment, she’s convinced she’s staring at the devil himself.
Blood is streaking both her arms, her face, and her white tank top. None of it seems to be hers. Her hair is wild, eyes bright with something feral and focused. She holds a short black blade in one hand that's still dripping with fresh blood, and a silenced pistol in the other, pointed casually at Maya’s chest.
Maya’s own gun feels suddenly heavy.
The room is still except for Maya’s ragged breathing and the faint drip of blood hitting carpet.
Nora’s mouth curves into a slow, satisfied smile, but her eyes are more lethal than anything Maya has ever seen before.
“And then,” she says softly, taking a single step forward, "there was one.”