The door to the room Maximilian and his mother were hiding in is easily battered down by men using a door ram. He quickly notes a particular characteristic that the men have while they drag his terrified mother and him to the lobby.

‘They’re all wearing suspiciously clean suits’

Despite the alarming circumstances Maximilian felt no fear, his initial panic forgotten. Choosing to silently observe how the situation develops.

‘If they haven’t shot us already then we’re going to be fine. I haven’t heard any gunfire aside from the first few shots so father should still be alive.

They are forced to kneel down on the ground in the lobby along with several others. A couple of the black-suits threateningly pointing their handguns in their direction.

Slowly their group grows larger and larger as more and more people are dragged from the building and unceremoniously tossed on the floor. Amongst them are guards that have been carefully restrained with rope, one of whom is Maximilian’s father. There are also appraisers, storage managers and other staff vital for the functioning of the building as well as several unlucky fellows that had chosen to exchange their goods at a bad time.

Julia sneakily approaches her husband.

“Karos.” She whispers his name “Where are your guns? I thought that all of you were armed.”

“I don’t know, when we turned up today to receive them they told us that one of the clerks had messed up the shipments and sent them instead of the intended cargo. The owners told us to work without them for today.”

“Are you kidding me? Now of all times?”

“Do you think we would've been able to do something even if we had them? Quiet now, they’re going to get suspicious.”

‘How very suspicious.’ Maximilian thought upon hearing the exchange between his parents. ’Someone must have gotten a fat stack of cash for their 'mistake'.'

Julia, heeding her husband’s words, moves away from him.

Meanwhile, Maximilian has locked his eyes onto the man he believes to be the leader of the black-suits.

‘He’s looking for someone.’

“Alright.” The leader says as he puts the pictures he’d been holding back into his breast pocket.. “Has everyone been cleared out?” He asks one of his men.

“Everyone in the building has been gathered here.” The man responds.

“Good.” He walks forwards. “Now. Him, him and her, pull them out.” He points to three specific people in the group. They’re swiftly dragged out and held in front of the leader. Maximilian notices how he puts his right hand on the gun strapped to his hip, making it look like a natural movement.

‘The owners?’ Maximillian hears his mother whisper under her breath.

“Friends, what happened? I hear that you’ve stopped paying your taxes?” The leader says in the most condescending way possible.

One of the owners shouts at the man standing in front of him, anger plainly present in his voice.

“Bastard! What taxes are you dreaming about? This is plain fucking robbery, you’re lucky that the security were left without guns today or you’d be regretting intruding on our turf! Who do you think you are that can just come here out of nowhere and act like you own us? Well guess wha–”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

Ultimately the man would never get to finish his sentence as he is shot directly in the head. The action performed without warning. Maximilian watches from the side how the man twitches for a few seconds after he’d been shot and suddenly goes limp like a marionette with its strings cut.

“Are you really that stupid? It’s hard to believe that someone with your level of intelligence is so high up the ladder. It happens I guess.” He motions with his head “Toss him out boys. We wouldn’t want the floors to get too stained.”

The men that had been holding the owner heed his words and move to leave the building with the body.

During it all none of the hostages screams, none of them move. Everyone just wordlessly observing.

'Honest to god, I can't tell if they're too scared to move and act or if everyone is just so used to witnessing scenes like this they just couldn't care less.'

“See, we’re a respectable institution that aims to bring civilization back into these wastes. And in order to continue our efforts we need a constant supply of resources. Isn’t that right James?” The man in charge speaks up again. The person standing next to him, presumably James, responds.

“That’s right boss.”

“See? James may not be the sharpest tool in the shed but even he knows that society can’t run without people paying their due diligence. Taxes are after all the price that must be paid in order for civilization to exist.”

“Now then.” He moves on to the second owner.

“Mister Boril was it? Is there any particular reason why you haven’t been an upstanding member of our society? Please do tell us, despite the way I act I’m actually a very fair and honest person. I understand that sometimes there are forces going against us that way above our control.”

“P-please spare me! We just don’t have anything more to give you. We were already losing money before you came here, any more and we'll be forced to close down.”

Maximillian hears a couple of the people around him grunt in displeasure, one of which is his mother.

The leader raises his eyebrow. "Really now?" He turns to James “You hear him? He said that they’re not making enough money to keep this place open.”

“I did, boss.”

“Do you think me too fucking stupid to do math?!” The leader shouts in in the restrained man's face.

“N-no. I would neve–” A punch to the gut cuts him off.

“James, why don’t you tell me what I had you do last week for me.”

“Yes, last week you sent me and a couple others here anonymously with our work truck to buy some materials we required back in the Bastion.”

“Yep, and how much money did you pay for said goods?”

“About four times the amount of taxes we request from them each month boss.”

“You hear that mister Boril? Four fucking times the money. I made sure that you had more than enough, that you were overflowing with cash, and you still didn’t deliver. And that was just one truck, the man I’d stationed here told me that trucks have passed by here to load materials on at least fifteen separate occasions over the last month, and those were just the ones he saw, let's not even speak of small time buyers. Even if they weren’t as generous with money as we were, you'd still have more than enough to pay us.”

“You know what that means Mister Boril?” The leader brings up his handgun once more.

“Wait. Wait! I’ll pay, I’ll pa–”

*Bang*

Another gunshot reverberates throughout the lobby. The closed space making it much louder than it otherwise would have been. “Throw him out.” He says coldly, his words once again heeded by the black-suits.

“And finally–”

“Please!”

The last owner left, a brown haired woman pleads with the leader.

“Please, I’ll do anything. I’ll pay you back everything that we owe you, I’ll give you back everything that we owe you. Please just don’t kill me!” From the side one can see her physically shaking, like she’s in the middle of a snowstorm with no clothes on. The difference being that the shaking is not induced by the cold but by fear.

“Hmm…” The leader ponders for a few moments before showing what could be best described as an angel's smile. It looks exceptionally unnerving on him considering his facial features.

“What the hell, why not? You seem to be an honest enough woman. I can trust that you’ll pay us back. In fact, James, doesn’t it look like the only reason she wasn’t able to deliver on her payment is because those two criminals were preventing her from doing so?”

“It would appear so, boss.”

“Th-Thank you.” A spark of hope lights up the woman’s face

“Don’t mention it, lady.” He claps his hands twice before commanding his men “Our work here is done, untie the guards and don’t forget to grab the rope, you wouldn’t believe how expensive that thing is in this shithole.”

'Eh, just like that?' Surprised by the unexpected turn of events Max directs his gaze away from the man. Truly, the black-suits listen to their leaders words, already untying the ropes from the guards' limbs. Not remaining stationary, the leader approaches the last remaining owner of the exchange to speak with her, quietly, so that nobody but the two of them could hear it.

“Keep in mind that the only reason you’re alive right now is just because I couldn’t be ‘arsed to find a new owner for this place. If you force me to come here a second time I’ll make sure that you suffer before I kill you. I'll have no problem cutting the breasts from you body and feeding them back to you, understand? You will not get a quick end like the other two."

The owner just silently sits there and listens, not moving a muscle.

“...But then again, that’s only if you decide to step out of line a second time. As I said, I am a fair person. We won’t be having any more of that, will we love?”

The woman shakes her head. “I’ll make sure that you’re paid back by tomorrow.”

“That’s what I like to hear.” he gives her a pat on the head.

Leaving her with those words, he exits the building. Followed by his underlings shortly after