The Maintenance Man 9

The Maintenance Man 9
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Nissie and Sam were physical wrecks, Nissie had already been through this before with the
attacks, explosions, threats and general terror. Sam had just gotten her brother back after years
of him isolating him self from his family. To lose him this quickly was maddening to both women
especially as good as Mark was. Coughing from the dust and smoke, neither woman saw the shadowy
outline of a man walking through it all toward them. Neither saw when it stopped near by watching
them both for a moment, “I thought I told you two to go back to the room!” Mark said a little
irritated that neither had listened to him.


With a shout of relief and pure joy both women threw thenselves at Mark clutching him
tightly, kissing his entire face the tears flowing freely now. “Mr. Mark you scared the crap out
of us, when you said you might not be able to defuse the bomb we thought you were caught in the
blast, neither of us would know what to do if we lost you,” Nissie said wiping tears away.
Gently caressing both their faces he had to admit it had been close, even with the wrapping
enshrouding shield, the bomb had still had enough energy to take out the back wall and take his
breath away from the concussion of the blast. Kissing each woman he took them back to the room,
“please stay here for a while I have almost everything done, then I’ll be back, I’ll call you if I
need you there.” Mark said, still a little shaky


Mark walked into the comp room more than pissed off, obviously the little bastard was
starting to lose his mind, a maintenance man NEVER damaged good equipment NEVER. To Mark, Tantka
had broken the first unwritten rule of the maintenance man creedo. Checking all his equipment and
running his scans again he found no futher charges of any kind, with the comp finally clean he
installed a anti virus program 100 times better than what had been in place before. Finishing Mark
started back to his room the look of anger on his face causing many that met him to to slowly back
away. Mark wasn’t caring, all he could think about was stopping the little ass before he hurt
people that weren’t even concerned with this war between him and Mark.


Nissie and Sam though visibly shaken, were actually calmer than they showed, they sat
nearby in case Mark needed them after he came back in and pulled a mutitude of machines out of hie
bag and case. Setting up a network interface Mark began to scan the whole planet for anything even
remotely resembling Tantka and his tech. Moments later there was a knock at their door, opening it
Mark was greeted by the sight of a slender, somewhat thin almost wiry, redhead. From behind him in
the room he heard Nissie squeal “Assti!” at a full run Nissie flung her self into the arms of the
other woman. “Mr. Mark! I’d like you to meet my sister Assti!”
Mark looked her way and nodded still scanning trying to get a location on Tantka.
Assti stepped closer, her eyes suddenly wide in surprise, holy shit she’d never seen a scanner as
detailed as his! No wonder that little ass hadn’t got them yet. A new found respect for Mark began
to grow.


Sitting with her sister she decided to wait for Mark to finish and maybe get him to
upgrade her scanner. Mark had been at it for almost an hour when he started to get readings,
smiling he looked at Assti, “you’ve been after him with no let up, good!” Assti looked at the read
out holy shit! bio readings too? Who the hell was this guy? she’d heard he was good but not this
good!
“Yes, but I lost him when I landed here my scanner can’t pierce his damping field, ” Assti said,
Mark took hers removing the back and for half an hour tweeked and added parts, then handed it back
to her. Amazed she turned it on and was amazed again that it clearly showed where he was, the
weapons he had but best of all his current physical condition. Damn Mark was good, if her sister
didn’t have a claim on him she might go after him her self!


Mark sat and discussed what her plan was and filled her in om what he knew and had on
Tantka to date. Though not as detailed as her info, his tech more than made up for it. Hugging and
bidding her sister good bye, Assti left with just a few words to Mark, then Mark began to put his
own plan up. Mark knew that as long as Tantka was on planet he nor the women were safe, so he
concidered that they had no chose but to remain but with a few surprises of their own. Following
Assti with a drone he saw she was getting closer, Damnit! Tantka started to move not as fast as
before but fast enough seeing 2 shots being fired neither went down causing Mark to curse.