Strictly Business

[t0l]

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about it," assured Tal, who shifted his grip on the detonator a few times before tilting his head down and holding his flat-khaki boonie cover to his head, "Just hold onto your teeth!"

He shut his eyes and tightly squeezed the detonator's "explode-y lever", as he so affectionately called it for lack of a better term, and waited for a bang and that damn ringing sound in his ear, but somehow, in a completely anti-climatic manner, neither came. Gradually, he opened his eyes and loosened the death grip he had on the detonator, listening intently for any kind of delayed explosion, but still, none came. Thinking that he didn't press the lever hard enough, he gave the trinket two more clacks, using all his strength to squeeze the life out of the device both times, but yet again, there was no explosion.

Quickly, he looked up and brought the device into view, flipping it around several times in order to visually inspect it. From his observations, it looked like it should've worked, but for some reason, it didn't. Eager to blow the damn thing and loot the temple so he could go home while simultaneously not wanting to go up to fiddle with a live explosive charge that he may or may not have just "set off", he resorted to beating the device with the palm of his gloved hands, the rough, thick fabric of Ageira-brand assault gloves producing an audible thwack with each hit. In the aftermath of each thwack, however, he swore he could hear a resonating jingle of some kind, and he looked at the device again to discover something that he probably should've checked from the get-go.

The safety pin was still in the detonator.

He didn't know how he could've missed it, as angling the detonator in certain ways reflected bright light from Delta's three suns into Tal's eyes and pissed him the hell off. Gritting his teeth, he pinpointed the location of the miniature key ring that acted as a grip for unplugging the pin, and fiddled with it for a few seconds as he continuously failed to get a solid grip on it with his gloves on.

By some grace of God, he was eventually able to skillfully put the little ring between his thumb and index finger, and with a quick flick of his wrist, the pin came out with ease. That done, he flipped the detonator around in his palm and gave it a good, full clack, which was followed up by a loud, sudden bang and a burst of white smoke that blew all the way from the temple to just over their heads, where it lingered for a bit before being swept away in a hot gust of wind.

Tal tensed up, ears ringing from the sound of what must've been at least a pound of det cord going off, and turned round just as the smoke cleared. Dropping a knee to go from a squat to a tactical kneel, he brought his shotgun up to his shoulder and rested the front of the weapon on top of the rock, ready to blast anything that stumbled out of the big cloud of dust and sand that had been kicked up in front of what might hopefully be a human-sized hole in the wall.

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