Chapter 20 - Now or Never
"Guess you don't feel so big and bad now, huh Riddick?" Gordon sneered, pulling back on his prisoner's arms so that Riddick could feel the bone and cartilage of his arms and shoulders groaning. "All tied up, going back to slam, and knowing that the men who captured you get your ship and your girl. Guess you're having a pretty shit week, huh?" He laughed, pushing the manacled man forward out of the transport tube.
Michael Gordon seemed fairly new to the mercenary/bounty hunting business. In Riddick's estimation he couldn't have been more than 24 or 25 years old, but he had a lot of toys. Stun rifles, batons, trancs, pulse and projectile weapons, as well as a wide assortment of restraints. He certainly seemed to be prepared for just about anything, but that didn't mean he was. What branded him as a newbie, though, was all those toys. Most mercs, real ones, traveled light. They didn't need a lot of toys to get the job done.
The plan, as it stood, was to take the Persephone and transport Riddick to the Jovian Correctional Facility on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. Well, Riddick knew there would be plenty of opportunity between now and the time they reached the Sol System for something to happen. He was a patient man, he could wait. The Persephone was his ship after all, that gave him the home court advantage. There were things about the old girl that no one but Riddick knew.
Riddick stood patiently, quietly, as his captor checked and re-checked his restraints. *Gettin' nervous, dickhead?* The asshole had shackled his hands behind him and added a restraint bar across the middle of his back, chaining his elbows together. His shoulders ached from the strain of sleeping that way, but he wasn't going to let the little shit know that. He also wasn't going to let Gordon know that it felt like there was someone pounding away with ball peen hammers behind his eyeballs. And he definitely wasn't going to let him know that his stomach was churning, protesting the fact that the only thing that had gone into it for the past twenty-four hours was his own blood. But, at least if he was bleeding and in pain it meant he was still alive. He'd survived worse.
As they passed through the Dock Master's office, Riddick caught a glance at his reflection in one of the mirror like windows. Some bruising here and there, but nothing to indicate that Gordon had spent the better part of the evening testing his 'interrogation techniques'. He ran his tongue over the broken skin on the inside of his cheek where his teeth had cut into the soft flesh, tasting the coppery tinge of blood. Gordon certainly looked like he'd enjoyed beating the shit of him while he was shackled, and from the smug expression on the young mercenary's face he could see that he was proud of his handiwork. *Oh, I'm going to have fun with you once I get loose you little fuck.* Riddick usually went for the quick kill, he didn't see any reason to waste time, but in Gordon's case he'd make an exception.
Closing his eyes against the glare of the light, he tried to focus his mind on something other than the pain. Jack's face popped into his mind, unasked for and unwanted. He tried to imagine wrapping his hands around her scrawny little neck and squeezing, but the image didn't give him any satisfaction because he knew he'd never hurt her. He could think of a lot better things he'd like to do to Jack with his hands other than hurt her. Even if she did rat him out to that prick Carson and the Baby De Sade here, though he had begun to have his doubts about that.
Riddick supposed that some part of him had believed her declaration that she had nothing to do with the setup, even as Gordon was leading him away. Truthfully, he knew Jack would never rat him out. She hadn't done it thirteen years ago and he had faith that she didn't do it this time, he didn't have faith in many things, but Jack's loyalty was something he knew he could trust. He'd just been pissed at the time and that had been the easiest explanation. A rueful expression touched his otherwise stony mask as he remembered back to what she'd told him, that no one knew or cared who he was anymore and he had overestimated his importance in the universe. *Looks like you were wrong about that at least, Jack.* That thought didn't bring him any comfort either.
**************************************************
Crouching in the dimly lit access way just outside the docks, Jack watched through a grate as a handful of dockhands, maybe six, milled through the area. Due to the station wide lockdown, there weren't many people out and about, especially on the docks, not until Riddick was safely off the station. Most everyone had been cleared out so that Michael Gordon could escort his prisoner off the station, in Riddick's own ship no less. The man disgusted Jack, she'd done a small bit of research on him as Alejandro had carried out the first part of their plan alone. From what she'd found he was pretty new to the game, but it looked like he was a whole lot worse than Johns. That was pretty damn bad by Jack's estimation considering that Johns had wanted to kill her and cut her up into little pieces to keep the aliens away from the rest of the group. She'd learned about that little plan the same night she'd found out that Riddick had almost left them on the planet. If her faith in Riddick had ever been in question, it had been solidified that night. Even at twelve she could see that as a plan it might have worked. If Riddick had been the man that everyone had said he was, he would have done it without question. What was one more runaway kid in the universe more or less? Instead, Johns had died. That actually made three times that Riddick saved Jack's life.
Gordon had brought in four bounties during his short career, all small time shit, and none of them had been brought in alive. There was more than one they'd had to do a DNA test on to identify the body. Gordon wasn't a subtle man, but fortunately for Riddick he was worth twice as much alive. That worked in his favor. "The creed is greed, kid," Riddick had told her once, "and mercs are just criminals on the right side of the law." From her experience thus far, he was right.
Trying to take everything in - making mental notes to herself so that her plan would go off, hopefully, without a hitch - Jack noticed that there was a security officer standing inside the airlock entrance. That hadn't been entirely unexpected, but she'd hoped he would be stationed outside the entrance. Well, she'd just have to be very careful how she timed everything. She'd shoot the guard if she had to, she had known going into it that blood was going to be spilled, but if she could keep him out of it she'd prefer that. *Good thing I'm not trying to come in that way,* she thought, glad to have decided to drop through the ventilation system in the warehouses and enter the docks from there. Even wearing the uniform of a dockhand, it wasn't going to be easy to get onto the docks without being noticed, but she had to try. It wasn't an entirely foolproof plan, but they'd had less than twenty-four hours, this was the best they could come up with. Gordon was taking Riddick and the Persephone off Orion Station this morning. It was now or never. "Are we set?"
Alejandro moved up next to her, taking the hand-held computer from her and adding a few more codes. Handing it back to her, he nodded. "All set."
Jack looked back at Alejandro, there was a sadness in his dark eyes and fear, more for her than for himself. Offering him a reassuring smile, she hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Alej. I couldn't have done this alone." And it was true, they'd locked out all of her personal codes, her keys didn't work anything anymore. She was lucky they didn't have her in the detention wing. If it hadn't been for Alejandro, she never would have been able to gain access to the systems she needed, and he'd done the preliminary work on the docks. When she found out that Gordon was taking the Persephone, she knew what she had to do. She'd make sure that she and Riddick were the only ones on the Persephone when she took off. That part of it, at least, was almost too easy. The rest of the plan, like how to actually implement it, was slightly harder.
Alejandro returned the hug. "You be careful, ok?" He sighed heavily. "I'm going to worry about you all the time, you know."
Pulling back a bit, she kissed him on the cheek. "Don't worry about me, I'll be just fine. Promise." She sat back on her heels and put her hand- held into her pack. "Do me a favor?"
Smiling slightly, Alejandro scrubbed his hand through his hair. "Another one? The last one could get me five to life," he joked. "You know I will, anything."
Reaching into her backpack, she pulled out a currency chip. It was about the size of a deck of cards but only half as thick. Unlike a bank access card, this wasn't connected to a bank account. It had a self contained, encrypted memory that allowed currency to be downloaded onto it and used at any time just like cash. Basically self-contained hard currency; very popular with merchants, mercenaries, criminals, and other people who traveled all across the known sectors. Unlike a bank access card, it didn't require an account number of any sort. Unlike regular hard currency, it was compact and tamper proof. Plus, it was completely untraceable; you didn't leave a trail. The best of both worlds provided you weren't going somewhere you needed actual cash. There were always places that only took cash. Jack pressed the chip into Alejandro's hand. "Take this and make sure all my stuff gets to my father? Then, once the heat's off, use the rest and get yourself off Orion Station. Oh, and keep in touch with Imam, just in case... well, just in case I can't."
"AJ, you don't have to pay me to help you." Alejandro managed to look slightly offended, pressing the chip back into Jack's hand.
"I'm not paying you for helping me, no amount of money would repay you for that. I just want to know you're going to be ok." She gave him the chip back and held his hand for a moment. "There's 25,000 credits on this chip. It's more than enough to get you wherever you want to go. After today, even if they buy the story that I stole your access key, you're going to be watched. You can start over somewhere away from this sector with this."
"Jesus Christ, AJ." He stared down at the chip in his hand. "Where the hell did you get this kind of money?"
A smile touched her lips and a mischievous light twinkled in her eye as she closed his fingers around the chip. "Don't ask."
He stared at the chip in his hand. *Damn, this is a lot of money.* "Won't you need this?"
"No." She shook her head. "I've got more, I just need to be able to get to it." Looking back through the grate, she could see there was something going on. "Looks like showtime. You'd better get going. Oh, and tell Cassie I'm sorry I didn't say good bye."
Alejandro lay a hand on her cheek. "You take care of yourself, chica."
"You too," she said quietly as she watched him disappear down the access hatch. She hoped against hope that he didn't get caught up into this nightmare any further. It had been wrong of her to ask him to put himself at risk like this, but she'd had no real choice.
Pulling the pulse pistol out of the pack, she settled the pack onto her back. Taking a deep breath, she set the pistol to its highest setting. She wasn't playing games, this was for real. She willed her hand to stop shaking as she slid the pistol into the waistband of her pants and covered it with her jacket. Stuffing her long braid down into the back of the jacket, she pulled a knitted cap over her head. Sincerely hoping she'd look like just another dockhand, she slipped through the ventilation system and dropped down into the corridor that would take her to the door that opened onto the dock.
"Guess you don't feel so big and bad now, huh Riddick?" Gordon sneered, pulling back on his prisoner's arms so that Riddick could feel the bone and cartilage of his arms and shoulders groaning. "All tied up, going back to slam, and knowing that the men who captured you get your ship and your girl. Guess you're having a pretty shit week, huh?" He laughed, pushing the manacled man forward out of the transport tube.
Michael Gordon seemed fairly new to the mercenary/bounty hunting business. In Riddick's estimation he couldn't have been more than 24 or 25 years old, but he had a lot of toys. Stun rifles, batons, trancs, pulse and projectile weapons, as well as a wide assortment of restraints. He certainly seemed to be prepared for just about anything, but that didn't mean he was. What branded him as a newbie, though, was all those toys. Most mercs, real ones, traveled light. They didn't need a lot of toys to get the job done.
The plan, as it stood, was to take the Persephone and transport Riddick to the Jovian Correctional Facility on Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon. Well, Riddick knew there would be plenty of opportunity between now and the time they reached the Sol System for something to happen. He was a patient man, he could wait. The Persephone was his ship after all, that gave him the home court advantage. There were things about the old girl that no one but Riddick knew.
Riddick stood patiently, quietly, as his captor checked and re-checked his restraints. *Gettin' nervous, dickhead?* The asshole had shackled his hands behind him and added a restraint bar across the middle of his back, chaining his elbows together. His shoulders ached from the strain of sleeping that way, but he wasn't going to let the little shit know that. He also wasn't going to let Gordon know that it felt like there was someone pounding away with ball peen hammers behind his eyeballs. And he definitely wasn't going to let him know that his stomach was churning, protesting the fact that the only thing that had gone into it for the past twenty-four hours was his own blood. But, at least if he was bleeding and in pain it meant he was still alive. He'd survived worse.
As they passed through the Dock Master's office, Riddick caught a glance at his reflection in one of the mirror like windows. Some bruising here and there, but nothing to indicate that Gordon had spent the better part of the evening testing his 'interrogation techniques'. He ran his tongue over the broken skin on the inside of his cheek where his teeth had cut into the soft flesh, tasting the coppery tinge of blood. Gordon certainly looked like he'd enjoyed beating the shit of him while he was shackled, and from the smug expression on the young mercenary's face he could see that he was proud of his handiwork. *Oh, I'm going to have fun with you once I get loose you little fuck.* Riddick usually went for the quick kill, he didn't see any reason to waste time, but in Gordon's case he'd make an exception.
Closing his eyes against the glare of the light, he tried to focus his mind on something other than the pain. Jack's face popped into his mind, unasked for and unwanted. He tried to imagine wrapping his hands around her scrawny little neck and squeezing, but the image didn't give him any satisfaction because he knew he'd never hurt her. He could think of a lot better things he'd like to do to Jack with his hands other than hurt her. Even if she did rat him out to that prick Carson and the Baby De Sade here, though he had begun to have his doubts about that.
Riddick supposed that some part of him had believed her declaration that she had nothing to do with the setup, even as Gordon was leading him away. Truthfully, he knew Jack would never rat him out. She hadn't done it thirteen years ago and he had faith that she didn't do it this time, he didn't have faith in many things, but Jack's loyalty was something he knew he could trust. He'd just been pissed at the time and that had been the easiest explanation. A rueful expression touched his otherwise stony mask as he remembered back to what she'd told him, that no one knew or cared who he was anymore and he had overestimated his importance in the universe. *Looks like you were wrong about that at least, Jack.* That thought didn't bring him any comfort either.
**************************************************
Crouching in the dimly lit access way just outside the docks, Jack watched through a grate as a handful of dockhands, maybe six, milled through the area. Due to the station wide lockdown, there weren't many people out and about, especially on the docks, not until Riddick was safely off the station. Most everyone had been cleared out so that Michael Gordon could escort his prisoner off the station, in Riddick's own ship no less. The man disgusted Jack, she'd done a small bit of research on him as Alejandro had carried out the first part of their plan alone. From what she'd found he was pretty new to the game, but it looked like he was a whole lot worse than Johns. That was pretty damn bad by Jack's estimation considering that Johns had wanted to kill her and cut her up into little pieces to keep the aliens away from the rest of the group. She'd learned about that little plan the same night she'd found out that Riddick had almost left them on the planet. If her faith in Riddick had ever been in question, it had been solidified that night. Even at twelve she could see that as a plan it might have worked. If Riddick had been the man that everyone had said he was, he would have done it without question. What was one more runaway kid in the universe more or less? Instead, Johns had died. That actually made three times that Riddick saved Jack's life.
Gordon had brought in four bounties during his short career, all small time shit, and none of them had been brought in alive. There was more than one they'd had to do a DNA test on to identify the body. Gordon wasn't a subtle man, but fortunately for Riddick he was worth twice as much alive. That worked in his favor. "The creed is greed, kid," Riddick had told her once, "and mercs are just criminals on the right side of the law." From her experience thus far, he was right.
Trying to take everything in - making mental notes to herself so that her plan would go off, hopefully, without a hitch - Jack noticed that there was a security officer standing inside the airlock entrance. That hadn't been entirely unexpected, but she'd hoped he would be stationed outside the entrance. Well, she'd just have to be very careful how she timed everything. She'd shoot the guard if she had to, she had known going into it that blood was going to be spilled, but if she could keep him out of it she'd prefer that. *Good thing I'm not trying to come in that way,* she thought, glad to have decided to drop through the ventilation system in the warehouses and enter the docks from there. Even wearing the uniform of a dockhand, it wasn't going to be easy to get onto the docks without being noticed, but she had to try. It wasn't an entirely foolproof plan, but they'd had less than twenty-four hours, this was the best they could come up with. Gordon was taking Riddick and the Persephone off Orion Station this morning. It was now or never. "Are we set?"
Alejandro moved up next to her, taking the hand-held computer from her and adding a few more codes. Handing it back to her, he nodded. "All set."
Jack looked back at Alejandro, there was a sadness in his dark eyes and fear, more for her than for himself. Offering him a reassuring smile, she hugged him tightly. "Thank you, Alej. I couldn't have done this alone." And it was true, they'd locked out all of her personal codes, her keys didn't work anything anymore. She was lucky they didn't have her in the detention wing. If it hadn't been for Alejandro, she never would have been able to gain access to the systems she needed, and he'd done the preliminary work on the docks. When she found out that Gordon was taking the Persephone, she knew what she had to do. She'd make sure that she and Riddick were the only ones on the Persephone when she took off. That part of it, at least, was almost too easy. The rest of the plan, like how to actually implement it, was slightly harder.
Alejandro returned the hug. "You be careful, ok?" He sighed heavily. "I'm going to worry about you all the time, you know."
Pulling back a bit, she kissed him on the cheek. "Don't worry about me, I'll be just fine. Promise." She sat back on her heels and put her hand- held into her pack. "Do me a favor?"
Smiling slightly, Alejandro scrubbed his hand through his hair. "Another one? The last one could get me five to life," he joked. "You know I will, anything."
Reaching into her backpack, she pulled out a currency chip. It was about the size of a deck of cards but only half as thick. Unlike a bank access card, this wasn't connected to a bank account. It had a self contained, encrypted memory that allowed currency to be downloaded onto it and used at any time just like cash. Basically self-contained hard currency; very popular with merchants, mercenaries, criminals, and other people who traveled all across the known sectors. Unlike a bank access card, it didn't require an account number of any sort. Unlike regular hard currency, it was compact and tamper proof. Plus, it was completely untraceable; you didn't leave a trail. The best of both worlds provided you weren't going somewhere you needed actual cash. There were always places that only took cash. Jack pressed the chip into Alejandro's hand. "Take this and make sure all my stuff gets to my father? Then, once the heat's off, use the rest and get yourself off Orion Station. Oh, and keep in touch with Imam, just in case... well, just in case I can't."
"AJ, you don't have to pay me to help you." Alejandro managed to look slightly offended, pressing the chip back into Jack's hand.
"I'm not paying you for helping me, no amount of money would repay you for that. I just want to know you're going to be ok." She gave him the chip back and held his hand for a moment. "There's 25,000 credits on this chip. It's more than enough to get you wherever you want to go. After today, even if they buy the story that I stole your access key, you're going to be watched. You can start over somewhere away from this sector with this."
"Jesus Christ, AJ." He stared down at the chip in his hand. "Where the hell did you get this kind of money?"
A smile touched her lips and a mischievous light twinkled in her eye as she closed his fingers around the chip. "Don't ask."
He stared at the chip in his hand. *Damn, this is a lot of money.* "Won't you need this?"
"No." She shook her head. "I've got more, I just need to be able to get to it." Looking back through the grate, she could see there was something going on. "Looks like showtime. You'd better get going. Oh, and tell Cassie I'm sorry I didn't say good bye."
Alejandro lay a hand on her cheek. "You take care of yourself, chica."
"You too," she said quietly as she watched him disappear down the access hatch. She hoped against hope that he didn't get caught up into this nightmare any further. It had been wrong of her to ask him to put himself at risk like this, but she'd had no real choice.
Pulling the pulse pistol out of the pack, she settled the pack onto her back. Taking a deep breath, she set the pistol to its highest setting. She wasn't playing games, this was for real. She willed her hand to stop shaking as she slid the pistol into the waistband of her pants and covered it with her jacket. Stuffing her long braid down into the back of the jacket, she pulled a knitted cap over her head. Sincerely hoping she'd look like just another dockhand, she slipped through the ventilation system and dropped down into the corridor that would take her to the door that opened onto the dock.