It was in an alleyway in an abandoned manufacturing district on Coalsack 3 where the mercs I was trailing finally caught up to him. At least, I hoped it was him. He had a coat on with the hood up and he was facing away from me, but I cold tell that he was a big guy—very muscular and tall. That fit the description I had. I guess one of the mercs must have caught a glimpse of his eyes. Or his goggles, since it was about noon and the sun was beating down on the wrecked city.
From what I'd heard of him, I didn't think two green bounty hunters full of winning-streak bravado stood a chance. Still, when they moved into position for the attack, I felt inexplicably anxious. Suppose this was the guy? Suppose they managed somehow to kill him before I even got a chance to ask him a single question. I automatically reached for my weapon under my jacket. They weight of the pistol in my hand made me feel a little better as I watched from behind a dumpster.
The alley dead-ended in a huge pile of industrial waste: twisted, rusting metal scrap, empty chemical barrels, and broken pipe collected in a deadly looking urban mountain. I watched the merc with the facial tattoos move toward the left and the one with the gold teeth slink toward the right. Mr. Shiny slowly drew his gun from beneath his jacket as Mr. Ink did the same. Mr. Shiny spoke first and I almost cringed hearing his overly confident tone.
"You've got two guns to your back. You can turn around slowly and come with us, or we can shoot you dead right now. Now, there's a pretty good bounty either way, but I'd prefer—"
Before Mr. Shiny could finish his threat, the mark reeled around faster than anyone I'd ever seen, slashing clean through Mr. Shiny's throat. He dropped his gun and grasped ineffectually at his gushing neck before dropping to the ground like a rag doll. Eyes wide, Mr. Ink held up his gun with both of his shaking hands. I leaned out just enough from behind the dumpster to get a bead on the remaining bounty hunter before he started firing wildly. I heard the pinging of gunshots glancing off the metal in front of me. Bullets ricocheted off the alleyway walls and I felt a sudden searing pain in my right leg. I managed to fire my gun at Mr. Ink before my knees buckled. I looked up to see Mr. Ink lying facedown a few feet from his companion with a knife handle protruding from his back. I watched as the (former) mark retrieved his knife from the fresh cadaver and walked toward me. I had been so worried that I wouldn't find him, and then that he might be killed, that I hadn't given much thought to the idea that he might be more interested in killing me, the girl keeping company with his would-be assassins, than in talking.
Crouching on the dirty ground next to me, with the knife in his hand he considered me through black goggles. "Now what," he said, "would you be doing here?"
"Looking for—" I said through gritted teeth. I had to get out the words. I knew I had to tell him who I was before he decided to kill me. The pain was just so immediate.
"Looking for. . ?" He began to clean the bloody blade on his pants leg as he looked at me. "A nice merc crew to join up with? An exciting gun fight with a big bad convicted felon?"
"I was looking for—Riddick that fought the monsters—Kyra's-," no, that's not right, "-Jack's Riddick."
He stopped the movement of knife against cloth and furrowed his brow. He inched his face a little closer to mine and his voice became more severe.
"What are you? Another little wannabe bounty hunter? Perhaps you didn't notice how quickly the fight was over with those two gentlemen over there." He pointed to Mr. Shiny and Mr. Ink's dead bodies.
"I—am not—a fucking—merc!" I retorted with as much force as I could muster through my clenched teeth.
"Then what are you? You'd better tell me quick"
"I just. . .need to find. . .to talk to. . .I need. . ."I was beginning to loose my train of thought and I felt light-headed.
"What do you need? I don't have time for this shit, kid."
"I need. . .a tourniquet." Looking down I noticed that I was accumulating a sizable puddle of blood around my injured leg. Riddick followed my gaze and got to his feet. I thought he was going to leave, but he walked over to Mr. Shiny and removed the jacket from his corpse. He walked back over and knelt beside me. He folded up the jacket and pressed it to the wound on my upper leg, but as soon as I felt the pressure of his hand against my thigh I snapped. I should have been able to control it, but my head was already swimming. I couldn't help it.
I shot straight up to a sitting position, shoved his arm away and screamed, "DON'T TOUCH ME!"
Then I blacked out.