Chapter 37 - Bonnie and Clyde Ride Again
Riddick was beginning to think he'd have to re-evaluate his religious position as he counted the chips. Eleven total. *Eleven chips, twenty- five grand a piece, holy shit!* "There's two-hundred and seventy-five thousand credits in this box."
"And there's at least that much more in a numbered account at ZurichBanc in Ballan City on Callais." She smiled proudly as she neatly stacked her Riddick memorabilia to the side.
He was still trying to get his brain around the fact that Jack had been hiding almost three hundred thousand credits in a lock box under her bed, let alone having a numbered account somewhere. "A few hundred thousand more and you could pay my fucking bounty." It wasn't like he hadn't seen large amounts of money before, but how the hell had she gotten this much. He knew Imam wasn't rich and even if engineers were very well paid, she'd only been working for about six months. "Where the hell did you get all this money?"
Jack chewed on her bottom lip, she had really hoped he wouldn't ask her that. "Don't ask."
He looked up at her his eyes flashed silver in the low light of the room. "I am asking, Jack," he said, his voice deceptively low and calm, "where'd you get the money."
*Ok, so I'm a thief. He's a killer, he should cut me some slack.* Besides, she'd never used any of the money for herself. Until she'd given Alejandro that chip, none of the stolen money had been used for anything. She'd taken it in the hopes that one day she'd be able to help him with it. It was never about her own greed. "I stole it from The Company."
"Holy fucking shit, Jack," he said, blowing out a breath. "Do you just have a death wish or something?"
Now she could feel her temper rising to the surface again. "Look, you don't have to take any of the money if you don't want it. I'd thought maybe one day I could use it to get your name cleared. I just figured you could treat it like back pay, they deserved to pay for taking your life away." That was how she'd always justified stealing the money, it sounded good at least.
He could see she was getting pissed and smiled, which made her feathers ruffle that much more. He couldn't help it, every time she stood up to him she just reminded him of a kitten growling at a big bad tom-cat, not really smart but kinda cute. "That's more than five hundred thousand credits. Lieutenants don't get paid that much."
And with the smile he totally diffused the good mad she had going, damn him. "Hazard pay?" she said, a crooked smile on her face. "Well, it's been twenty years, Riddick, that's only twenty-five thousand, give or take, per year." She shrugged. "That isn't that much compared to what they've taken from you."
"Hmmm," he answered non-committally. "You still didn't tell me how you managed to take this much money from The Company. They're not exactly easy to get stuff over on." The thought didn't escape him that maybe they'd let her take the money in hopes that it might lead them to him one day.
She saw the look of concern on his face. "It's not like I went in and screwed with their accounts or anything. I can't see how they could even trace me." She went on to explain how she'd been able to filter off that much money. "Well, you know I like hacking, and I told you about that rebellious youth thing. It was part of that. One night me and a couple of friends were just hanging out, seeing how far we could hack into this wicked hard security system we'd found. We didn't know what it was, we just knew we wanted to get into it. Well, after a while, we found out it was a financing operation for some kind of geological survey or something. Anyway, I found a virus. It shouldn't have been detectable or anything, but I liked looking for viruses." She stopped for a moment and licked her lips.
Jack remembered nearly being expelled from school for infecting every computer in the school system with a virus that turned all the grades into smiley faces. It wasn't an irreversible virus, and that was the only thing that kept her from getting sent off to boarding school somewhere. Even Imam, as patient as he was, had his limits. She could laugh as she looked back on it now, but it certainly hadn't been funny at the time.
"So, I just kind of stumbled across this virus that was siphoning money from the financing operation. It was taking money in such small amounts that no one noticed, and it would automatically adjust the accounting software to compensate for the minute loss." She smiled at the complexity of thought that had gone into creating the virus. "I wish I could claim credit for creating it, it really was a brilliant idea."
"Can we save the Computer Virus Appreciation Society meeting for later," he only half joked.
Rolling her eyes, she continued. "It wasn't just a financing operation, it was a division of The Company." She shrugged. "When I found that out, I decided to adjust the virus slightly." Now she smiled with pride. "The original programming called for money to be sent to a numbered account at that ZurichBanc on Callais, all I did was double the virus back on itself. I set up another numbered account so that a tiny amount of the money the original hacker was stealing was sent to my account instead, and he'd think the company had just dropped their profit margin a bit. That was six years ago." *Tiny amount,* she thought to herself, *just imagine how much money that guy's making off with.*
"So you virused the virus." He raised his eyebrows, the kid really was very, very damn smart. If the virus was found, it would be the original hacker that was tracked, her signature would probably be lost in the shuffle. And she'd not technically been stealing from the Company itself, but from the other hacker, though that was a very loose technicality should she ever need to defend herself in court. Plus, if The Company really wanted her, they'd have her. He knew that for certain. Still, he was proud of her and in awe of her at the same time. *How the hell does she manage do that to me?* he wondered silently.
"Something like that." She reached into the box and pulled out a digital download device. "I've got a chip in my handheld that keeps me 'anonymous' for the most part, anyone who might be tracking me, well the best they'd be able to get would be the planet I was on. And with a planet as populated as New Sydney, I was pretty safe. I'd never use it here, though. And I probably wouldn't use it from the ship unless we were planning to do some major starjumps." She snapped the download device onto her handheld. "With this I can download real currency to the chips and never have to step foot onto Callais. Downside, I can only download one chip every six months without raising any alarms."
Riddick listened to Jack's explanation of her 'system' and it sounded pretty damn near flawless. Picking up one of the chips he turned it over in his hand, giving Jack a half smile. "So. What're we going to do with all this money, Bonnie?"
Jack smiled widely. Not only was he accepting the money, but he was accepting her as a partner. That meant even more to her. It was a long way from the relationship she wanted, but they had some things to work out, working together would give them the chance to do that. "I dunno, Clyde. I hear tell there's a big black-market thing for computerized eyeballs going on."
Shaking his head a bit, Riddick tossed her the chip. "I was thinking more along the lines of a refit for the ship, she could use some more shielding and a weaponry upgrade. Especially if I'm going to be hauling you around," he joked. "Trouble just seems to follow you wherever you go."
Jack's mood turned quickly serious again as she lay a hand on his arm. "Riddick. I really think you should think about this implant surgery Doc's been talking about. He's right, having your eyes shined is a major weakness for you. Sure it's great in the dark, and you could still have it for that, but most of the time it hurts you rather than helps you." She slid her hand down his arm and covered his large hand with her smaller one. "You could have your sight back."
"I see just fine the way I am." He snapped, mentally kicking himself. He didn't want to fight with Jack about this. "Look. I can't be down for six months. I can't stay here that long. And what happens when a merc comes gunning for me and I can't see at all? What am I supposed to do then? How can I defend myself, or you."
"I can take care of myself, and no one is going to come looking for you here. You said so yourself, this is the ass end of space and everyone thinks this place is dead. Don't worry about the other people, if Doc talks to them they won't make you leave." It pulled at her heart a bit to know that she could have stayed there for the rest of her life and no one would have minded at all, but Riddick would never be allowed to stay for any length of time.
He shook his head. "I can't take that chance, Jack."
Jack licked her lips, trying desperately to think of options. "Ok. How about this. We get that refit, get me the computer equipment I need, then you take me in close enough to hack the main Company computer. I can delete all your records, it'd be like you never existed for them."
"No it wouldn't." He appreciated that Jack wanted to help, he really did, but as smart as she was she was still very naïve about some things. "All that would do is erase my records, doesn't mean they can't still offer the bounty for my head. You can erase computer memory, but human memory is a lot harder."
Chewing hard on her bottom lip, she set her mind to work again. "Ok. In that case, what we need is something that makes them want to take you off the bounty hunter's black list. We need blackmail material, like the information you had on Sigma 3." She didn't actually know what he had, only that he'd had something.
"That shit's long gone and ancient history, Jack. No one cares anymore."
"Maybe not about that, but do you think the Company has really kept its nose clean all these years? If I had the right equipment, I could systematically hack into their files until I found something." She smiled at him. "And once I get inside and get what I need, I can still delete your records."
"You're pretty cocksure of yourself," he said, raising an eyebrow. "Remember, I tried hacking into their system. That's how Johns found me the first time."
She crossed her arms over her chest, jutting her chin out defiantly. "Well, you didn't have me that time."
Riddick couldn't help smiling at her. "I suppose you're just that damn good?"
A slow, confident smile spread over her face. "Yeah. I'm just that damn good. So after I do this, you'll let Doc do the implants? There won't be any reason why you can't stay on D2 while you recover if you weren't on the list."
There wasn't any question in her mind that she could do it, she was determined that she would do it, whatever it took. Riddick had to admire that kind of confidence, even if it could have dangerous consequences. "Yeah, Jack. If we can get through this crazy idea of yours alive and stay out of prison, I'll let Doc do the surgery."
Jack held her hand out to shake Riddick's. "Partners?"
"I don't do 'partners'," he said, raising an eyebrow. "Its my ship, I'm the captain, case closed."
Cocking her head to the side, Jack smiled. "It's my money." She could see that Riddick wasn't buying it. Her smile faltered and faded. "Look, Riddick, if you can't trust me with this, then maybe you should just take the money and go." It was a bluff, but she had to know he really wanted her there. She stood up and started to turn toward the door.
Riddick caught her hand before she could walk away. "Don't go." He hesitated a moment, as if not quite sure what to say. "Turns out I do need a good engineer after all. And a hacker wouldn't hurt either." He gritted his teeth, he found it was harder to ask her to go with him than he thought it would be. "I want you to come with me, I'm just used to doing things my way. I need to know that if I tell you to do something, you're going to do it. It's going to be dangerous going and I need you to follow orders, for your own good and the good of me and the ship."
Jack could see his point. "Ok. Deal." A smile tugged at her lips again. "Partners?"
Smiling, Riddick rolled his eyes. "Ok, fine. Partners."
He was still holding his hand in hers as she looked down at him. Catching her bottom lip between her teeth, she forced herself to ask the question. "So, where does this leave us? Just partners? Friends? Something else?" Rubbing his thumb over her smooth knuckles, he brought her hand to his lips and, turning it over, kissed the palm of her hand. She felt a thousand butterflies take flight in her stomach.
Looking back up at her, he shrugged slightly. "I guess this leaves us at the beginning, we'll just have to se where it goes from there."
FIN? I don't think so.
A/N I had no idea when I started writing this that there would be so much of a STORY for the characters to tell, but apparently they had different ideas. There is so much more that I want to do with them, but this has already gone on for 37 chapters. I will be starting a sequel to What Are The Odds that will be a continuation of the story and will tie up some loose ends and get into more of the story of Jack and Riddick against the system. Alejandro will be back, as will Doc and Amy, and you'll probably get a chance to actually meet Akemi and Sloane. So, for all my faithful readers, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support and encouragement and keep your eyes open for part 2.
Love and Hugs to all,
Shaz
Riddick was beginning to think he'd have to re-evaluate his religious position as he counted the chips. Eleven total. *Eleven chips, twenty- five grand a piece, holy shit!* "There's two-hundred and seventy-five thousand credits in this box."
"And there's at least that much more in a numbered account at ZurichBanc in Ballan City on Callais." She smiled proudly as she neatly stacked her Riddick memorabilia to the side.
He was still trying to get his brain around the fact that Jack had been hiding almost three hundred thousand credits in a lock box under her bed, let alone having a numbered account somewhere. "A few hundred thousand more and you could pay my fucking bounty." It wasn't like he hadn't seen large amounts of money before, but how the hell had she gotten this much. He knew Imam wasn't rich and even if engineers were very well paid, she'd only been working for about six months. "Where the hell did you get all this money?"
Jack chewed on her bottom lip, she had really hoped he wouldn't ask her that. "Don't ask."
He looked up at her his eyes flashed silver in the low light of the room. "I am asking, Jack," he said, his voice deceptively low and calm, "where'd you get the money."
*Ok, so I'm a thief. He's a killer, he should cut me some slack.* Besides, she'd never used any of the money for herself. Until she'd given Alejandro that chip, none of the stolen money had been used for anything. She'd taken it in the hopes that one day she'd be able to help him with it. It was never about her own greed. "I stole it from The Company."
"Holy fucking shit, Jack," he said, blowing out a breath. "Do you just have a death wish or something?"
Now she could feel her temper rising to the surface again. "Look, you don't have to take any of the money if you don't want it. I'd thought maybe one day I could use it to get your name cleared. I just figured you could treat it like back pay, they deserved to pay for taking your life away." That was how she'd always justified stealing the money, it sounded good at least.
He could see she was getting pissed and smiled, which made her feathers ruffle that much more. He couldn't help it, every time she stood up to him she just reminded him of a kitten growling at a big bad tom-cat, not really smart but kinda cute. "That's more than five hundred thousand credits. Lieutenants don't get paid that much."
And with the smile he totally diffused the good mad she had going, damn him. "Hazard pay?" she said, a crooked smile on her face. "Well, it's been twenty years, Riddick, that's only twenty-five thousand, give or take, per year." She shrugged. "That isn't that much compared to what they've taken from you."
"Hmmm," he answered non-committally. "You still didn't tell me how you managed to take this much money from The Company. They're not exactly easy to get stuff over on." The thought didn't escape him that maybe they'd let her take the money in hopes that it might lead them to him one day.
She saw the look of concern on his face. "It's not like I went in and screwed with their accounts or anything. I can't see how they could even trace me." She went on to explain how she'd been able to filter off that much money. "Well, you know I like hacking, and I told you about that rebellious youth thing. It was part of that. One night me and a couple of friends were just hanging out, seeing how far we could hack into this wicked hard security system we'd found. We didn't know what it was, we just knew we wanted to get into it. Well, after a while, we found out it was a financing operation for some kind of geological survey or something. Anyway, I found a virus. It shouldn't have been detectable or anything, but I liked looking for viruses." She stopped for a moment and licked her lips.
Jack remembered nearly being expelled from school for infecting every computer in the school system with a virus that turned all the grades into smiley faces. It wasn't an irreversible virus, and that was the only thing that kept her from getting sent off to boarding school somewhere. Even Imam, as patient as he was, had his limits. She could laugh as she looked back on it now, but it certainly hadn't been funny at the time.
"So, I just kind of stumbled across this virus that was siphoning money from the financing operation. It was taking money in such small amounts that no one noticed, and it would automatically adjust the accounting software to compensate for the minute loss." She smiled at the complexity of thought that had gone into creating the virus. "I wish I could claim credit for creating it, it really was a brilliant idea."
"Can we save the Computer Virus Appreciation Society meeting for later," he only half joked.
Rolling her eyes, she continued. "It wasn't just a financing operation, it was a division of The Company." She shrugged. "When I found that out, I decided to adjust the virus slightly." Now she smiled with pride. "The original programming called for money to be sent to a numbered account at that ZurichBanc on Callais, all I did was double the virus back on itself. I set up another numbered account so that a tiny amount of the money the original hacker was stealing was sent to my account instead, and he'd think the company had just dropped their profit margin a bit. That was six years ago." *Tiny amount,* she thought to herself, *just imagine how much money that guy's making off with.*
"So you virused the virus." He raised his eyebrows, the kid really was very, very damn smart. If the virus was found, it would be the original hacker that was tracked, her signature would probably be lost in the shuffle. And she'd not technically been stealing from the Company itself, but from the other hacker, though that was a very loose technicality should she ever need to defend herself in court. Plus, if The Company really wanted her, they'd have her. He knew that for certain. Still, he was proud of her and in awe of her at the same time. *How the hell does she manage do that to me?* he wondered silently.
"Something like that." She reached into the box and pulled out a digital download device. "I've got a chip in my handheld that keeps me 'anonymous' for the most part, anyone who might be tracking me, well the best they'd be able to get would be the planet I was on. And with a planet as populated as New Sydney, I was pretty safe. I'd never use it here, though. And I probably wouldn't use it from the ship unless we were planning to do some major starjumps." She snapped the download device onto her handheld. "With this I can download real currency to the chips and never have to step foot onto Callais. Downside, I can only download one chip every six months without raising any alarms."
Riddick listened to Jack's explanation of her 'system' and it sounded pretty damn near flawless. Picking up one of the chips he turned it over in his hand, giving Jack a half smile. "So. What're we going to do with all this money, Bonnie?"
Jack smiled widely. Not only was he accepting the money, but he was accepting her as a partner. That meant even more to her. It was a long way from the relationship she wanted, but they had some things to work out, working together would give them the chance to do that. "I dunno, Clyde. I hear tell there's a big black-market thing for computerized eyeballs going on."
Shaking his head a bit, Riddick tossed her the chip. "I was thinking more along the lines of a refit for the ship, she could use some more shielding and a weaponry upgrade. Especially if I'm going to be hauling you around," he joked. "Trouble just seems to follow you wherever you go."
Jack's mood turned quickly serious again as she lay a hand on his arm. "Riddick. I really think you should think about this implant surgery Doc's been talking about. He's right, having your eyes shined is a major weakness for you. Sure it's great in the dark, and you could still have it for that, but most of the time it hurts you rather than helps you." She slid her hand down his arm and covered his large hand with her smaller one. "You could have your sight back."
"I see just fine the way I am." He snapped, mentally kicking himself. He didn't want to fight with Jack about this. "Look. I can't be down for six months. I can't stay here that long. And what happens when a merc comes gunning for me and I can't see at all? What am I supposed to do then? How can I defend myself, or you."
"I can take care of myself, and no one is going to come looking for you here. You said so yourself, this is the ass end of space and everyone thinks this place is dead. Don't worry about the other people, if Doc talks to them they won't make you leave." It pulled at her heart a bit to know that she could have stayed there for the rest of her life and no one would have minded at all, but Riddick would never be allowed to stay for any length of time.
He shook his head. "I can't take that chance, Jack."
Jack licked her lips, trying desperately to think of options. "Ok. How about this. We get that refit, get me the computer equipment I need, then you take me in close enough to hack the main Company computer. I can delete all your records, it'd be like you never existed for them."
"No it wouldn't." He appreciated that Jack wanted to help, he really did, but as smart as she was she was still very naïve about some things. "All that would do is erase my records, doesn't mean they can't still offer the bounty for my head. You can erase computer memory, but human memory is a lot harder."
Chewing hard on her bottom lip, she set her mind to work again. "Ok. In that case, what we need is something that makes them want to take you off the bounty hunter's black list. We need blackmail material, like the information you had on Sigma 3." She didn't actually know what he had, only that he'd had something.
"That shit's long gone and ancient history, Jack. No one cares anymore."
"Maybe not about that, but do you think the Company has really kept its nose clean all these years? If I had the right equipment, I could systematically hack into their files until I found something." She smiled at him. "And once I get inside and get what I need, I can still delete your records."
"You're pretty cocksure of yourself," he said, raising an eyebrow. "Remember, I tried hacking into their system. That's how Johns found me the first time."
She crossed her arms over her chest, jutting her chin out defiantly. "Well, you didn't have me that time."
Riddick couldn't help smiling at her. "I suppose you're just that damn good?"
A slow, confident smile spread over her face. "Yeah. I'm just that damn good. So after I do this, you'll let Doc do the implants? There won't be any reason why you can't stay on D2 while you recover if you weren't on the list."
There wasn't any question in her mind that she could do it, she was determined that she would do it, whatever it took. Riddick had to admire that kind of confidence, even if it could have dangerous consequences. "Yeah, Jack. If we can get through this crazy idea of yours alive and stay out of prison, I'll let Doc do the surgery."
Jack held her hand out to shake Riddick's. "Partners?"
"I don't do 'partners'," he said, raising an eyebrow. "Its my ship, I'm the captain, case closed."
Cocking her head to the side, Jack smiled. "It's my money." She could see that Riddick wasn't buying it. Her smile faltered and faded. "Look, Riddick, if you can't trust me with this, then maybe you should just take the money and go." It was a bluff, but she had to know he really wanted her there. She stood up and started to turn toward the door.
Riddick caught her hand before she could walk away. "Don't go." He hesitated a moment, as if not quite sure what to say. "Turns out I do need a good engineer after all. And a hacker wouldn't hurt either." He gritted his teeth, he found it was harder to ask her to go with him than he thought it would be. "I want you to come with me, I'm just used to doing things my way. I need to know that if I tell you to do something, you're going to do it. It's going to be dangerous going and I need you to follow orders, for your own good and the good of me and the ship."
Jack could see his point. "Ok. Deal." A smile tugged at her lips again. "Partners?"
Smiling, Riddick rolled his eyes. "Ok, fine. Partners."
He was still holding his hand in hers as she looked down at him. Catching her bottom lip between her teeth, she forced herself to ask the question. "So, where does this leave us? Just partners? Friends? Something else?" Rubbing his thumb over her smooth knuckles, he brought her hand to his lips and, turning it over, kissed the palm of her hand. She felt a thousand butterflies take flight in her stomach.
Looking back up at her, he shrugged slightly. "I guess this leaves us at the beginning, we'll just have to se where it goes from there."
FIN? I don't think so.
A/N I had no idea when I started writing this that there would be so much of a STORY for the characters to tell, but apparently they had different ideas. There is so much more that I want to do with them, but this has already gone on for 37 chapters. I will be starting a sequel to What Are The Odds that will be a continuation of the story and will tie up some loose ends and get into more of the story of Jack and Riddick against the system. Alejandro will be back, as will Doc and Amy, and you'll probably get a chance to actually meet Akemi and Sloane. So, for all my faithful readers, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your support and encouragement and keep your eyes open for part 2.
Love and Hugs to all,
Shaz