Chapter 5 - Hunter/Prey
Riddick had been watching the girl for the better part of the day, what time he hadn't been able to watch her, he'd spent looking up what he could about her in the public terminals without sending off any stalker alarms. It wasn't much. There were 47 Phillips, A.J. listed in the station directory. Cross-referencing it with the engineering staff, he was able to narrow it down to just one. Audrey J. Phillips, Engineer. Taking out a piece of paper, he wrote down the address given in the directory and tucked it into his pocket. If he wanted to know anything else about her he'd have to get into his ship's computer and try to hack into the station's system, but that could be messy and since he wasn't going to have any fuel, therefore he wouldn't have any way to get the hell of the station in a hurry, he'd probably not go that route. He preferred to use the hands on method of finding out information anyway.
He followed her from a safe distance as she left work and headed back to the Pavilion where they'd 'run into' each other. She looked almost disappointed as she looked around, as if she'd expected to find someone there. Him? Maybe. Or maybe he was reading more into the look he'd seen on her face than had actually been there. After so long seeing enemies everywhere you looked, sometimes your perspective became skewed. He had decided that she probably wasn't a threat, since she hadn't set off any alarms or anything, but his instincts told him he should keep an eye on her. He'd learned a long time ago to trust his instincts. Sitting in the shadows not far from her, he watched her as she worked busily on her hand- held computer.
Whatever she was working on was certainly holding her interest; she hardly looked up from her computer. He could probably have been sitting right next to her and she wouldn't have noticed. Sitting back, he studied her. She wasn't hard on the eyes, that was for sure. As far as surveillance subjects went, he'd had a lot worse.
Her face shone with triumph as she dropped her computer back into her pack and fairly bounced out of the park. Riddick had all but decided to let the matter drop when he saw her heading toward the spacedock where the Persephone was berthed. That was more coincidence than he generally liked to ignore. *Shit. So much for letting it drop.*
Riddick watched her as she went past the Customs office, past the Dock Master's office, and through the airlock that led to the docks themselves. He supposed it was possible that she was there to see someone, a friend, one of the dockhands, but what were the odds of that? Then when she stopped in front of the Persephone, all doubt was erased from his mind. Now it was time to get that hands on information and find out what the hell she wanted with him.
Extracting himself from the darkness, Riddick strode purposefully across the dock, his booted feet sending dull echoes ringing through the cavernous room. He didn't look at the small figure now crouching in the shadow of his ship, instead he walked past the Persephone and over to one of the doors opening to an access corridor leading to self-storage style storage bins. If she followed him, he'd have her right where he wanted her. What he did with her would be up to her.
She was following him. Trying to be stealthy about it, but it wasn't like he didn't know when someone was following him. He sometimes thought that instead of having his eyes shined he should have had ocular implants in the back of his head, but after all this time it was almost a sixth sense. There were two possible reasons he could think of off the top of his head that a nice lookin' kid like that would be following someone like him down a dark corridor, and from the uniform she had been wearing earlier he very seriously doubted she needed to sell her looks to the highest bidder. That left option two, she knew who he was and wanted the money. "FUCK!" He really didn't want to have to kill her, but if it was a case of "me or thee" he knew who he was going to pick.
Moving around the next corner, he melded into the shadows and waited for her, pulling out the wide bladed, plexi-steel knife he kept hidden in his boot. Nice thing about plexi-steel was that it didn't show up on weapons scans, downside was you had to really know what you were doing to keep a good edge on one. That wasn't a problem for Riddick. Silent, still as death, he crouched there in the darkness, the barest hint of light glinting off the blade in his hand, and waited.
Since there weren't any security guys crawling up his ass he knew she'd not told anyone he was here. The mere mention of his name would have sent red lights flashing all over a station like this, lockdown protocols would have been instituted, he would have been fucked royally if she'd spilled. Apparently she hadn't. Either she had some other agenda, which he couldn't imagine what it would be, or she must be greedy as well as pretty. Bad for her. And she must be a cocky little shit too if she thought she could take him on.
Jack walked through the corridor cautiously. She knew enough to know that you didn't just walk up behind Riddick in the dark, not if you wanted to live through the experience. She also knew he realized that she'd recognized him. How could he not? She'd stood there, gaping at him, her mouth working like a dying fish before she'd finally recovered from the shock of seeing him, up close and personal, again. She mentally kicked herself. But he hadn't known her. That put her in a bad position. She knew what happened to people that knew who Riddick was and tried to cash in on it. She had to let him know who she was and that she wasn't going to turn him in. It probably would have been smarter to just hang by the ship and wait for him to come back, but seeing him walking away, she couldn't help herself. She had to go after him.
The thought that he hadn't recognized her preyed on her mind. She'd been nearly nose-to-nose with him and he hadn't even known who she was. That thought hurt just a little, well, maybe more than just a little. But how could she expect him to, really? He probably hadn't even thought about her in the last 13 years. Plus, she'd changed. A lot. For one she had hair and curves she hadn't had before. She knew he'd read her nameplate on her uniform, but it said she was AJ Phillips. A for Audrey, J for Jacqueline, she'd started going by AJ in high school, he'd have no way of knowing that. He'd never even known her first or last name. During the short time she was in his company all he ever knew her as was Jack. He'd never asked and she'd been reluctant to say anything about herself on the off chance that her parents might still actually be looking for her; and she'd still held out a faint hope that he might take her with him. But, surely he would remember her if she told him who she was, right? The first hint of nerves fluttered through her. If not, she was screwed.
Thinking it would be best if he knew she wasn't armed or anything, she dropped her pack by the door and held her hands loosely at her sides. It was almost funny, like trying to get a wild animal to trust you by showing them you weren't going to hurt them when you knew all it would take was a little provocation and they could tear you limb from limb. *Just show him you're a little, helpless, girl who doesn't mean him any harm and you'll be just fine.* He wouldn't hurt an unarmed person, right?
*Wait for it,* Riddick told himself as the girl came around the corridor, looking from side to side, *just a few steps more.* She walked right past his hiding spot, looking directly at him without seeing him. He could have been standing right next to her and she wouldn't have known he was there. Looking her over, head to toe, as she passed, he couldn't help the appreciative grin that spread over his face as he watched her. Nice curves, long legs, she looked strong but soft in all the right places. The tight fitting pants and top she was wearing not only showed off her body pretty nicely, but it also didn't leave any doubt that, unless she had some serious tricks he didn't know about, she wasn't armed. *Now why would a sweet young thing like that be walking around down here unprotected?* he wondered, *Bait?* No, unless they were invisible there wasn't anyone else with her. *Stupid?* Well, he supposed that was a possibility, though in order to land an engineering job she must be fairly intelligent. Everything about this was wrong, it just didn't add up right.
Waiting until she had moved just a little past him, he stepped in behind her. He could kill her now and she'd never even know it was coming. It'd be quiet. No muss, no fuss. But he wanted to know why. Why she was following him, why she hadn't sounded any alarms if she recognized him, and if she did recognize him, then why she was following a convicted murderer down a dark corridor completely unarmed. He tried to tell himself that curiosity killed the cat, but he was intrigued.
Jack felt a slight shift in temperature behind her, her senses telling her that someone was back there a second before a large forearm closed around her chest. Instinctively she fought it, clawing at the arm and trying to remember everything she'd learned in her self-defense classes. She stilled as she felt the sharp tip of the knife pressed against her throat, felt his warm breath on her ear as he spoke. His voice was low, husky, sending her heart beating wildly, though from fear or excitement she wasn't quite sure. "You wanna tell me what a nice little girl like you's doing following a guy like me around?"
He noticed that she'd stopped fighting, but that wasn't what disturbed him. Anyone with half a brain would stop squirming when they felt the tip of a knife pressed to their throat. What disturbed him was the fact that this girl seemed almost to relax when she'd heard his voice. *What's wrong with this picture?* Maybe he was just losing his touch. That thought kind of pissed him off. If he couldn't scare a little unarmed girl, how the hell was he supposed to keep the other wolves at bay? "Well?"
*OK,* Jack thought, *which answer is least likely to get me killed right away?* She had to fight the urge to laugh, and wondered if she was having a complete and total mental meltdown. Her voice sounded odd to her own ears as she spoke, quiet, almost calm. "I want to help you."
Well, that got his attention. "You want to help me?" What kind of game was she playing anyway? "What makes you think I need your help?"
*Think quick, Jack,* she told herself. "I know your ship is stuck here for at least 5 days while we're waiting for a fuel shipment. In case you haven't noticed, we're pretty state of the art around here. You keep walking around the station for 5 days and someone is bound to recognize you." She knew it was a bluff. Orion station was huge, he could probably get lost in it for the next year without someone recognizing him as long as no one was looking. She knew he probably realized that too, but it sounded good and that was all she had.
He liked the way her heart sped up as he tightened his hold on her. He could feel it pounding wildly in her chest. He could also smell a bluff a mile off. *Don't kid a kidder, sweetheart,* he thought, smiling as he pressed his lips closer to her ear. Damn, she smelled good, sweet, like flowers he couldn't put a name to, and vanilla, and an underlying hint of fear. He breathed deeply, letting the scent of her fill his senses, and found himself wishing he had time to enjoy it, but he didn't. "And just why should I trust you? If you know who I am, then you know how much I'm worth. What's to keep you from turning me in, hmm?"
OK. This was it. Moment of truth. He'd either remember her or kill her now. She had to show him she wasn't afraid of him, that she trusted him, then maybe he'd trust her. Completely relaxing in his arms, she let her hands drop to her sides and leaned slightly back into him, relieving some of the pressure of his arm on her chest. "Because one time I was afraid of the dark and you chased the monsters away."
The cryptic answer wasn't what he'd expected; he also hadn't expected her to relax so completely. *What?* Then it all fell together. The feeling he'd seen her somewhere before. The look on her face when she'd seen him. Suddenly he was back on that transfer station 13 years ago, with a teary eyed 12 year old begging him to take her with him. He abruptly released her, taking an involuntary step back. His knife blade had been pressed into her throat and even now she trusted him not to hurt her. "Jack?"
Riddick had been watching the girl for the better part of the day, what time he hadn't been able to watch her, he'd spent looking up what he could about her in the public terminals without sending off any stalker alarms. It wasn't much. There were 47 Phillips, A.J. listed in the station directory. Cross-referencing it with the engineering staff, he was able to narrow it down to just one. Audrey J. Phillips, Engineer. Taking out a piece of paper, he wrote down the address given in the directory and tucked it into his pocket. If he wanted to know anything else about her he'd have to get into his ship's computer and try to hack into the station's system, but that could be messy and since he wasn't going to have any fuel, therefore he wouldn't have any way to get the hell of the station in a hurry, he'd probably not go that route. He preferred to use the hands on method of finding out information anyway.
He followed her from a safe distance as she left work and headed back to the Pavilion where they'd 'run into' each other. She looked almost disappointed as she looked around, as if she'd expected to find someone there. Him? Maybe. Or maybe he was reading more into the look he'd seen on her face than had actually been there. After so long seeing enemies everywhere you looked, sometimes your perspective became skewed. He had decided that she probably wasn't a threat, since she hadn't set off any alarms or anything, but his instincts told him he should keep an eye on her. He'd learned a long time ago to trust his instincts. Sitting in the shadows not far from her, he watched her as she worked busily on her hand- held computer.
Whatever she was working on was certainly holding her interest; she hardly looked up from her computer. He could probably have been sitting right next to her and she wouldn't have noticed. Sitting back, he studied her. She wasn't hard on the eyes, that was for sure. As far as surveillance subjects went, he'd had a lot worse.
Her face shone with triumph as she dropped her computer back into her pack and fairly bounced out of the park. Riddick had all but decided to let the matter drop when he saw her heading toward the spacedock where the Persephone was berthed. That was more coincidence than he generally liked to ignore. *Shit. So much for letting it drop.*
Riddick watched her as she went past the Customs office, past the Dock Master's office, and through the airlock that led to the docks themselves. He supposed it was possible that she was there to see someone, a friend, one of the dockhands, but what were the odds of that? Then when she stopped in front of the Persephone, all doubt was erased from his mind. Now it was time to get that hands on information and find out what the hell she wanted with him.
Extracting himself from the darkness, Riddick strode purposefully across the dock, his booted feet sending dull echoes ringing through the cavernous room. He didn't look at the small figure now crouching in the shadow of his ship, instead he walked past the Persephone and over to one of the doors opening to an access corridor leading to self-storage style storage bins. If she followed him, he'd have her right where he wanted her. What he did with her would be up to her.
She was following him. Trying to be stealthy about it, but it wasn't like he didn't know when someone was following him. He sometimes thought that instead of having his eyes shined he should have had ocular implants in the back of his head, but after all this time it was almost a sixth sense. There were two possible reasons he could think of off the top of his head that a nice lookin' kid like that would be following someone like him down a dark corridor, and from the uniform she had been wearing earlier he very seriously doubted she needed to sell her looks to the highest bidder. That left option two, she knew who he was and wanted the money. "FUCK!" He really didn't want to have to kill her, but if it was a case of "me or thee" he knew who he was going to pick.
Moving around the next corner, he melded into the shadows and waited for her, pulling out the wide bladed, plexi-steel knife he kept hidden in his boot. Nice thing about plexi-steel was that it didn't show up on weapons scans, downside was you had to really know what you were doing to keep a good edge on one. That wasn't a problem for Riddick. Silent, still as death, he crouched there in the darkness, the barest hint of light glinting off the blade in his hand, and waited.
Since there weren't any security guys crawling up his ass he knew she'd not told anyone he was here. The mere mention of his name would have sent red lights flashing all over a station like this, lockdown protocols would have been instituted, he would have been fucked royally if she'd spilled. Apparently she hadn't. Either she had some other agenda, which he couldn't imagine what it would be, or she must be greedy as well as pretty. Bad for her. And she must be a cocky little shit too if she thought she could take him on.
Jack walked through the corridor cautiously. She knew enough to know that you didn't just walk up behind Riddick in the dark, not if you wanted to live through the experience. She also knew he realized that she'd recognized him. How could he not? She'd stood there, gaping at him, her mouth working like a dying fish before she'd finally recovered from the shock of seeing him, up close and personal, again. She mentally kicked herself. But he hadn't known her. That put her in a bad position. She knew what happened to people that knew who Riddick was and tried to cash in on it. She had to let him know who she was and that she wasn't going to turn him in. It probably would have been smarter to just hang by the ship and wait for him to come back, but seeing him walking away, she couldn't help herself. She had to go after him.
The thought that he hadn't recognized her preyed on her mind. She'd been nearly nose-to-nose with him and he hadn't even known who she was. That thought hurt just a little, well, maybe more than just a little. But how could she expect him to, really? He probably hadn't even thought about her in the last 13 years. Plus, she'd changed. A lot. For one she had hair and curves she hadn't had before. She knew he'd read her nameplate on her uniform, but it said she was AJ Phillips. A for Audrey, J for Jacqueline, she'd started going by AJ in high school, he'd have no way of knowing that. He'd never even known her first or last name. During the short time she was in his company all he ever knew her as was Jack. He'd never asked and she'd been reluctant to say anything about herself on the off chance that her parents might still actually be looking for her; and she'd still held out a faint hope that he might take her with him. But, surely he would remember her if she told him who she was, right? The first hint of nerves fluttered through her. If not, she was screwed.
Thinking it would be best if he knew she wasn't armed or anything, she dropped her pack by the door and held her hands loosely at her sides. It was almost funny, like trying to get a wild animal to trust you by showing them you weren't going to hurt them when you knew all it would take was a little provocation and they could tear you limb from limb. *Just show him you're a little, helpless, girl who doesn't mean him any harm and you'll be just fine.* He wouldn't hurt an unarmed person, right?
*Wait for it,* Riddick told himself as the girl came around the corridor, looking from side to side, *just a few steps more.* She walked right past his hiding spot, looking directly at him without seeing him. He could have been standing right next to her and she wouldn't have known he was there. Looking her over, head to toe, as she passed, he couldn't help the appreciative grin that spread over his face as he watched her. Nice curves, long legs, she looked strong but soft in all the right places. The tight fitting pants and top she was wearing not only showed off her body pretty nicely, but it also didn't leave any doubt that, unless she had some serious tricks he didn't know about, she wasn't armed. *Now why would a sweet young thing like that be walking around down here unprotected?* he wondered, *Bait?* No, unless they were invisible there wasn't anyone else with her. *Stupid?* Well, he supposed that was a possibility, though in order to land an engineering job she must be fairly intelligent. Everything about this was wrong, it just didn't add up right.
Waiting until she had moved just a little past him, he stepped in behind her. He could kill her now and she'd never even know it was coming. It'd be quiet. No muss, no fuss. But he wanted to know why. Why she was following him, why she hadn't sounded any alarms if she recognized him, and if she did recognize him, then why she was following a convicted murderer down a dark corridor completely unarmed. He tried to tell himself that curiosity killed the cat, but he was intrigued.
Jack felt a slight shift in temperature behind her, her senses telling her that someone was back there a second before a large forearm closed around her chest. Instinctively she fought it, clawing at the arm and trying to remember everything she'd learned in her self-defense classes. She stilled as she felt the sharp tip of the knife pressed against her throat, felt his warm breath on her ear as he spoke. His voice was low, husky, sending her heart beating wildly, though from fear or excitement she wasn't quite sure. "You wanna tell me what a nice little girl like you's doing following a guy like me around?"
He noticed that she'd stopped fighting, but that wasn't what disturbed him. Anyone with half a brain would stop squirming when they felt the tip of a knife pressed to their throat. What disturbed him was the fact that this girl seemed almost to relax when she'd heard his voice. *What's wrong with this picture?* Maybe he was just losing his touch. That thought kind of pissed him off. If he couldn't scare a little unarmed girl, how the hell was he supposed to keep the other wolves at bay? "Well?"
*OK,* Jack thought, *which answer is least likely to get me killed right away?* She had to fight the urge to laugh, and wondered if she was having a complete and total mental meltdown. Her voice sounded odd to her own ears as she spoke, quiet, almost calm. "I want to help you."
Well, that got his attention. "You want to help me?" What kind of game was she playing anyway? "What makes you think I need your help?"
*Think quick, Jack,* she told herself. "I know your ship is stuck here for at least 5 days while we're waiting for a fuel shipment. In case you haven't noticed, we're pretty state of the art around here. You keep walking around the station for 5 days and someone is bound to recognize you." She knew it was a bluff. Orion station was huge, he could probably get lost in it for the next year without someone recognizing him as long as no one was looking. She knew he probably realized that too, but it sounded good and that was all she had.
He liked the way her heart sped up as he tightened his hold on her. He could feel it pounding wildly in her chest. He could also smell a bluff a mile off. *Don't kid a kidder, sweetheart,* he thought, smiling as he pressed his lips closer to her ear. Damn, she smelled good, sweet, like flowers he couldn't put a name to, and vanilla, and an underlying hint of fear. He breathed deeply, letting the scent of her fill his senses, and found himself wishing he had time to enjoy it, but he didn't. "And just why should I trust you? If you know who I am, then you know how much I'm worth. What's to keep you from turning me in, hmm?"
OK. This was it. Moment of truth. He'd either remember her or kill her now. She had to show him she wasn't afraid of him, that she trusted him, then maybe he'd trust her. Completely relaxing in his arms, she let her hands drop to her sides and leaned slightly back into him, relieving some of the pressure of his arm on her chest. "Because one time I was afraid of the dark and you chased the monsters away."
The cryptic answer wasn't what he'd expected; he also hadn't expected her to relax so completely. *What?* Then it all fell together. The feeling he'd seen her somewhere before. The look on her face when she'd seen him. Suddenly he was back on that transfer station 13 years ago, with a teary eyed 12 year old begging him to take her with him. He abruptly released her, taking an involuntary step back. His knife blade had been pressed into her throat and even now she trusted him not to hurt her. "Jack?"