Notes: Here's the next, much-belated chapter. Life, it seems, is throwing
every sort of obstacle in my way so that I don't have time for my story!
Sorry, everyone out there. Abraxis, my solo reviewer, thank you for your
kind words. Everyone else who reads, all 3(?) of you.please review!
Chapter 7
A rodent skittered across the alley as Alex led Riddick to where Ty had directed her to go. Not a rat, really, but the Loku variant of them. These didn't get quite as big as cats, as some sewer rats had been known to be, but came very close. It was a mark of how neglected this neighborhood was, for the vermin of the city to wander around so freely. But also a measure of how inconspicuous any establishment might be. In a district of the city that already allowed criminals to roam free, where the law might as well not exist, the truly anonymous could go about their business at will.
It had taken well over an hour to get to their destination by foot, and keeping in mind that there might be a merc or two still around made it foolish to go by any other route. It was a marvelous city, really. Full of the dirt and grit and criminal, but also, as Alex had found herself musing on the walk over, full of people who would stick their necks out for you. The affection that she had to admit both of the men had for her and Jack not only surprised her, but it threatened to break through the wall she had once again created to lock emotions away. She and Riddick had both been preoccupied while walking over to the other side of the Loku district, and said little.
Alex turned the corner and walked out of the alley into a little better lighted 109th street. A massive building took up most of the block, the old warehouse, which had most probably housed the materials for fabrication of the buildings surrounding them. It was in the oldest part of the Loku district, and actually one of the oldest parts of the city. This close to the spaceport, the whine of transports taking off on their way to the satellite station was almost a constant din. Walking the length of the block, Alex came up to a lighted neon sign, which said "Parts: Buy, Sell, or Trade" above another which said "We Sell All Varieties." The outside windows of the shop were dirty and covered at all times by a metal mesh. Few shops were without it.
"This is it," Alex said, turning around to see Riddick warily examining the street around them. His eyes were hidden behind his dark glasses, but his head kept twitching as if he were scrutinizing everything as quickly as possible. "This is where Ty said to come."
At the mention of Ty's name, a casual smirk set on Riddick's face. "Ah yes, he was so very sad to see you leave," he said, almost sneering.
That touched off Alex's already short fuse. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? He's a good guy, took care of Jack a couple times, showed her net stuff. He's emotional about Jack." What else could Riddick mean? He didn't think.her and Ty?! That thought stopped her in her mental tracks. She took a quick mental runthrough of how he had been with her.
"No," she let out before she realized she was thinking aloud. But it was there. He had liked Jack, for sure, but had always tried to help Alex out especially. Shit. Double shit. There was no way she would ever, ever think of any man as anything more than a business relationship or a friend. So what if she hadn't noticed Ty. As her eyes flashed back at Riddick, she saw that laughing look on his face. Damn him. Always thought everything was a big fucking joke. It seemed like all she could feel right now was anger, and it was coming in waves. It must have showed on her face because she saw a flicker in Riddick's smile, but then she snapped her head back towards the door and entered the parts shop. As she stepped through it fell on her again why she was there. Jack. It only made her sad, and that made her angry. However, seeing as how she had to get into this netlab for Riddick to find the Tumioni location, she put anger aside and adopted her "nice" face.
As the door swung shut, a few miserable fluorescent bulbs illuminated the dirty floor, and long, barely organized shelves revealing everything one could possibly want to buy at an electronics part store. Alex scanned the room, deciding to ignore Riddick for the moment. Thankfully, there was no one visible in the large shop except the cashier, who was located at the middle of the shop. A tired-looking woman with dyed blonde hair, looking about in her forties, sat at the counter, her head instantly coming up when Alex and Riddick entered the shop and given them a look which almost went right through them. Seemingly satisfied, she went back to the computer in front of her.
Alex walked carefully to the counter. Carefully, because sometimes if you approached a counter too quickly without looking at anything in the store, you'd get a gun in the face without being able to explain that you weren't there to rob them. As she reached the counter, the woman glanced back up at her, with wary eyes.
"Help ya, hon?" the woman asked, shifting in her gray robes which hid a considerable bulk. Her face looked tired, but her eyes were sharp. Not some mindless secretary.
Alex smiled. "Yeah, I understand that you have net facilities here. I would like to purchase time, please, for two," she said, looking straight into the woman's eyes with her hands on top of the counter in full view. Definitely for two. There was no way she was going to sit by and let Riddick do all the work, even if she could barely make her way around the systems.
The woman shifted in her seat, sighing. "Oh, yeah sure, but it'll cost ya up front. Fifty an hour." She examined her nail polish, looking bored.
"I want high untraceability, and I want it at the regular's price. Ty Mercado told me you'd give me that." Alex said it in a no-nonsense tone of voice. She could almost feel Riddick tensing behind her. That was also a fighting tone of voice. But if Alex was right about Ty's reputation, they wouldn't have to worry. She was right.
Instantly the entire attitude of the woman changed. A half smile softened her features, giving a hint of how beautiful she might have been in years past. "Oh, Mercado sent you? Then you're okay, honey, it'll be half that for the two of ya." She pushed away from the desk almost cheerfully and made her way to the back of the store. "He hasn't been in here lately, last time he was with a little kid. Girl, she was, him and her were here for quite some time. Tell him hi from Taff, when you see him, for me?"
Alex nodded, considering that information. Huh. So Jack had not learned all the netrunning on her own. Interesting. She started to get irked at Ty, but then let it go. It was probably for the best that Jack had learned that, because they would have to be on the run for quite some time after this. If they found her. When they found her.
Riddick followed Alex and the frighteningly large woman towards the back of the store. It looked safe enough, and this Ty fellow had certainly not seemed like the type who would sell them out. Unfortunately, if Alex trusted them, he would have to trust them by default. It had given him a little bit of a laugh, to see how she had finally realized the big guy was soft on her. She could really be an icy bitch sometimes. And yet, her reaction to Jack going missing had let him see some depth of feeling in her. She wasn't all bad, and didn't talk to him hardly at all. Like Jack did, running on and on like she had a tendency to do. A swirl of anger rose in him, at what the mercs might be doing to that kid right now. She'd been able to take the nightmare of that planet, she could certainly take this. It didn't help, to think of her being frightened and him being stuck trying to find out where she was.
The door at the back of the store opened by keycard and fingerprint identification. A long corridor with several stairways led off of it, and they walked to the end to see a large glass window looking down on a huge room, what must be the warehouse next door, filled with terminals. They swung a left and faced a door with a keypad.
"Did he give you his passcode, dearie?" The blonde woman asked Alex. He saw the ever so slight tightening of her shoulders at the "dearie", but she kept her mouth shut and nodded. "Enter it here, then, and Ray will take care of the payment when you're done. These are the highest security, so you can do damn near anything on them. Ta-ta."
What an odd woman. She played dumb, but there was a real intelligence behind her eyes. Not something he would have seen normally. It was part of the attitude of netrunners. That woman was probably more experienced that he was, and if they showed a hint of trouble, she'd have been the first line of defense. Interesting. Alex entered the code and the door opened silently.
Alex had stepped aside as soon as they were through, leaving Riddick to go first. Finally, he thought, tired of having to follow her every which way. A skinny, balding man sat at the desk in front of them, nervously glancing at his screen and calling up information on it.
"Using Ty Mercado's passcode? Satisfactory. He usually uses tightest security, which are in that corner there," he muttered in a nasal voice, gesturing to the corner to their left. About twenty terminals lay in rows behind his desk, most separated into carrels, allowing privacy. The hum of the terminals was punctuated by the only three other people there, who sat intensely glued to the screens. "The understanding is that we will have no knowledge of your activities, and the history will be deleted every five minutes. Please proceed." The man dismissed them, turning back to his screen.
Riddick sat in the terminal closest to the corner, so he could see the entire room. A peremptory glance at the other patrons revealed no threats, and all had not even looked up when the door opened. Alex sat in the carrel next to him, staring at the screen as if it were alien. He had wondered at the request for two terminals, as he got the impression that she wasn't proficient on the systems. At all. He wasn't surprised, given what he had overheard that long time ago on the planet.
'I'm three hundred and twenty-four years old,' she had told the holy man, relating the story to him with tears in her eyes. Who would make up a story like that? No, it had to be true. Weird, fucked up, but definitely true. She didn't know he had overheard, she tried to act like a tough who had grown up in the streets all her life. But there were moments, when she was a little too formal, a little too hesitant, at times. It wasn't as noticeable, now. Her "old" life was probably a distant memory she tried to forget. But she intrigued him. And was now a business partner who was going to let him fly a ship again.
He set down to trying to find Jack. Database and codecracking, simple stuff first. After five minutes, he noticed that Alex had not been typing, but leaning back in her chair, watching his screen. He kept typing, trying to see where she was going with it. Suddenly, her eyes widened, recognition behind them, and she almost leaped to her terminal and started typing as rapidly as he was. It only caused a moment of concern, and then he bent back to the task at hand. He'd find out what that was, but later. After he found the kid.
Thirty minutes later, he took his fingers off the keys and leaned back in his chair. It would not be easy. The Tumioni stronghold was on the highly populated Vega 4, and they were essentially the only form of government in control. He had intercepted an unwisely-sent communication from some merc group going only under the name "Silver Nine" which had stated that they acquired the target at exactly the time which Jack had been taken, and were proceeding to agreed-upon coordinates. Those coordinates could be anywhere else, but he was absolutely sure it was Vega 4. He had cracked into the landing permissions at the Tumioni flight station (a difficult thing, to be sure) and found an open invitation for "Silver Nine" to arrive within the week. He started calculating. Definitely they needed hyper capabilities, and something as incognito as possible. Whoever this contact of Josef's was, if he was affiliated with the Loku crowd then he might have what they needed.
He leaned back into his chair to peer at Alex, who was hunched over her screen and typing quickly.
"Vega 4, within the week," he said in a low voice.
She gave no indication that she had heard except a nod, and then exited out of the program to leave a blank screen. The hint of a smile was on her face, clearly pleased. "That was educational," she muttered as if to herself, and then nodded and turned to him.
Educational? She spends half an hour on a terminal and it's educational? What was she doing, learning to crack a database in that amount of time, with no previous knowledge? But she didn't say another word, and the unreadable steely face was back.
"Vega." She said derisively. "Okay then."
Pushing away her chair, she went towards the desk, and he had no choice but to follow her. The nervous man gulped as Riddick came up behind the girl, but accepted her payment of 25 creds and waved them to the exit, a door which led out to a completely different side street. At the head of it was a fairly main avenue.
Alex turned to him. "Ready to get a ship?" she asked.
He nodded, and walked alongside her until they reached the main street. She paused, and then turned to the right. Towards the shipyards, next to the station, he remembered from his arrival.
Alex tried not to look as unsure as she felt, walking towards the shipyards. She had no idea how to bargain for a ship, even with Josef's contact, they would have to try and bring the price down. Hell, she had no idea what they needed. It bothered her, to place herself entirely in Riddick's hands; but then again, he was her partner now, and there would be no piloting for him if he did not have her to buy the ship. How tenuous was their connection? The poking around on the terminals she had done was very elementary, but five minutes of watching Riddick had completely opened her eyes as to how it was done, and how similar yet different the systems were to what she had grown up with. Yes, she could learn that from him. She would need to learn, so that she could protect herself and Jack when they would have to find a new home.
The dirty, shabby buildings of the Loku district gave way slowly to the whiter, better-built buildings of the Transport district. Transport district included the shipyards, the spaceport, very few residential areas for wealthy merchants, and the guildhouses of the shipping trades. It was an ancient word, "guild", but it fit the various trades quite well. "Apprentices" from outlying areas would come to the great cities, to learn all they could before becoming employed on a ship. There was also a United Coalition garrison on the outer edges, which held order in this district only, just as it was the only form of law up on the orbiting space station.
Alex had tried to memorize the map of the surrounding areas, but her memory was a bit patchy. To her relief, the enormous gray plasmetal hangars of the ship-sellers were visible to her right, highlighted by the second sun. This was no time to be stepping unsurely. As they walked towards the hangars, the buildings grew farther between, exposing them to the bright light provided by the twin suns. It had been awhile since Alex had been exposed to it, usually walking in shadows of buildings or at night. Her eyes squinted as she fumbled for her sunglasses, and she put them on with a sigh. No fancy light filters, these, she thought, remembering what she had once had to help her see. Just plain plastic. It kept the others on the street from seeing the emotion in her eyes, this total severing of her old life. Again. The bags she wore on her back seemed heavier, as if she were carrying not just clothes, but everything that she had built up on this planet. No longer was it a home, not if Jack wasn't there.
They reached the gate to the main hangar, and Alex consulted the directory for this Fred Towa. Ah, there it was. Hangar section 1C. But where was that? Alex had reached the end of her, admittedly, small bank of knowledge regarding the city. She tried looking at Riddick out of the corner of her eye, and realized that the moment's pause she had taken trying to figure out where section 1C was located was all he needed to take off in that direction. Clenching her fists, she followed him at the same easy saunter she had adopted on the walk over. What, did he think he would gain an introduction to this Towa fellow without knowing someone, like she did? Not like she would hurry her pace just for him to have the satisfaction of knowing it made her angry.
The hangar was full of people this time of day. A main atrium was surrounded by platformed floors, which went up and up and up. Small drones flew high above the crowd from seller to seller. People bustled on and off of simple escalators between the floors, everyone ranging from what seemed to be the scruffiest dregs of society to some even wearing the brightly- colored guildmaster robes. Most were, however, garbed in the grays and blacks of the spacers. Thankfully, neither Riddick nor Alex stuck out, like they might have in the other parts of the Transport district where whites and bright colors were a mark of station.
Each seller had his or her own entrance, leaving the floors without any ships actually visible but only a myriad of doors. As Alex slowed to where Riddick had stopped in front of one of them, she realized that Fred Towa must be quite a prosperous seller indeed. His section was huge, almost half of the floor was devoted to his storefront. Seeing as how Riddick had not paused for her earlier, she went straight past him and through the door.
It entered into a large, neat room, with photos of ships on the wall and chairs lined up below them, as sort of a waiting room. One third of the chairs were full. A man sat at a windowed desk at the end of the chairs. Alex had sized up the situation as she walked in, and went briskly to the man at the desk.
He looked up at her, his eyes going to the side where Riddick must be. "Yes?"
"My name is Alex Bennet, I'm here to see Fred Towa as soon as possible. I was told to say that Josef Kiwana sent me here."
The clerk's face brightened at her name. "Ah yes, Miss Bennet and business partner. Mr. Towa has been expecting you. Please step over to the door."
He indicated the double set of doors which were to their right, which were opening as he had presumably pressed the clearance code. Alex glanced at the other people waiting in the room, who sent both her and Riddick angry, yet wondering glances, that they should be admitted immediately.
Alex turned her attention back to the doors. As she walked through them, she came into an immense space which was filled with neatly organized ships. Mostly small, each one was still as large as a house, all gleaming. Alex had seen ships together before, but to see all of these sleek, new- looking models, took her breath away for a bit.
"Alex Bennet!" A voice called from her left. Alex spun, to see a tall, graying man walking towards her and Riddick from a large, plasti-glassed-in office, a large smile on his face.
He reached them quickly, and his smile was contagious. He put out his hand. "Fred Towa. Josef's just called me."
Alex smiled in return. "Alex Bennet. My partner, Kale Resta," she said, indicating Riddick, and this time she didn't trip over the name. Fred shook both of their hands. It seemed a strange gesture to Riddick.
Fred turned back to Alex. "You're lucky, Josef thinks very highly of you. He and I have known each other for years, and it's only every once in awhile that he bestows his good opinion on someone. He told me to take care of ya." He finished with a wink, like some benevolent giant.
A warm feeling started to grow in Alex's stomach. Josef thought highly of her? Well.
"Thank you, Mr. Toma," she said with a smile. He immediately insisted she call him Fred. "Fred, then. Josef has probably already told you, then, we need a ship as soon as possible?"
"Yah, he did mention that a bit. What did you have in mind?"
"Actually, Kale is authorized to bargain for all specifications," she said, giving Riddick a meaningful look. Best not to reveal that she was only the money, not the know-how in this deal. "I trust him," she said, and almost did trip over that. Trust Riddick, woman, are you mad? But they were in this together, and had been fine so far. Even Riddick seemed surprised at that. You better not fuck it up, Richard B. Riddick, Alex thought.
"Excellent," Fred put in, his attention turning to Riddick, all businessman. "What can I get for you, Kale?" Riddick cleared his throat, and went off on such a tirade of specifications that Alex just had to tune it out. Fred fired back questions and comments. This was one thing she was definitely not well-versed in. It's hard to learn a new technology from scratch, and there was nothing like this which she could have applied from her old life. The only thing she could have possibly thought of was cars. It was a shame that cars had gone down the wayside, she loved to drive. She had bought her own cars, then. But she had plans for learning about this ship, and how to fly it. After all, it would be hers.
After fifteen minutes of glancing around the hangar, it seemed like agreements had reached a conclusion. Alex came back over to the two of them from where she had been looking at the nearest ships.
"I've just the thing, it's over in supplementary hangar, I'll take you to it," Fred said. "Actually it's been sorta a labor of love, trying to see what we could get in it, but I think you'll find it's satisfactory." A wide grin broke out on his face. "I must say, Alex, your partner here knows what he wants and won't budge an inch. C'mon, hop into the cart, here, and I'll take you to see it."
He walked over to the golf-cart sized skimmer which had enough room for about six people, and started it up. Alex and Riddick got in, and Fred immediately took off, taking what seemed a breathtaking pace around the other ships in the hangar and the salesmen and clients looking at them. They came out the other end into the bright sunlight, and then almost immediately stopped at a much smaller, but still sizeable hangar. Fred pressed a com button, and the door to the supplemental hangar opened.
"This is where we keep our 'specials' ya might say," Fred told them, winking. What a jolly sort of man, Alex mused. Much like Josef, actually. How lucky that she had found such connections in the scrub of a city. "The ones we don't want UC to know all the specs for," Fred added, almost to himself.
The individual ships were separated by large curtains, so that they went past a few without seeing all of the others together. They stopped at a closed curtain.
"Ah, we're here," Fred turned off the skimmer and hopped out, walking quickly over to what was probably the curtain control box. He pressed a button and the curtain began to part. "Here she is."
********
Alfonso Roberto Tumioni, III, sat in the grand gilded chair, alongside his wife, Francesca Pitarra, in the beautiful, marble-encased room which had held in audience four generations of Tumioni. He reveled in his power, and in the luxury which he lived. As he sat in the position of power, awaiting the next minor family to seek his audience, he thought himself much akin to the kings of far-off Earth, an ultimate ruler. A ruler over his commerce, and over his family. His word was as good as law, and at times, more binding than that of the United Coalition. Francesca smiled at him, the smile of a wife who knows she is a queen, not only to her husband but to her underlings as well. The house of Tumioni had grown only more prosperous as the years progressed, causing his father's father to forgo the austere, clean lines of the modern architecture. Instead, he surrounded himself with rich metals and stones that were rarities on earth and on Vega 4. Only the best for the best.
The clicks of heels on the marble floor announced the entrance of his butler, a man who had served his father and served Alfonso now. He stopped just to the side of the great door, and bowed. Francesca had always liked the bowing.
"My lord and lady Tumioni, your clerk has had the most exciting news. May I present him?" The butler said in a fawning voice. At Alfonso's nod, the butler waved in Tomas Partido, Alfonso's most trusted clerk for years.
"My lord and lady, it is my pleasure to tell you that your daughter, Natelle Jaqueline Tumioni, has been found this morning and is, at this very moment, on her way here under the guidance of the Silver Nine group. It is expected she will arrive within the week." At this, Tomas bowed.
Alfonso turned to his wife, waving a dismissive hand at Tomas. His face was that of a cat who had caught the fattest mouse. "Well my wife, our wayward child is returning to us at last. I do believe she will be more willing to stay with us this time."
Francesca's smile could have chilled ice. "Oh yes, my dear, depend upon it."
Chapter 7
A rodent skittered across the alley as Alex led Riddick to where Ty had directed her to go. Not a rat, really, but the Loku variant of them. These didn't get quite as big as cats, as some sewer rats had been known to be, but came very close. It was a mark of how neglected this neighborhood was, for the vermin of the city to wander around so freely. But also a measure of how inconspicuous any establishment might be. In a district of the city that already allowed criminals to roam free, where the law might as well not exist, the truly anonymous could go about their business at will.
It had taken well over an hour to get to their destination by foot, and keeping in mind that there might be a merc or two still around made it foolish to go by any other route. It was a marvelous city, really. Full of the dirt and grit and criminal, but also, as Alex had found herself musing on the walk over, full of people who would stick their necks out for you. The affection that she had to admit both of the men had for her and Jack not only surprised her, but it threatened to break through the wall she had once again created to lock emotions away. She and Riddick had both been preoccupied while walking over to the other side of the Loku district, and said little.
Alex turned the corner and walked out of the alley into a little better lighted 109th street. A massive building took up most of the block, the old warehouse, which had most probably housed the materials for fabrication of the buildings surrounding them. It was in the oldest part of the Loku district, and actually one of the oldest parts of the city. This close to the spaceport, the whine of transports taking off on their way to the satellite station was almost a constant din. Walking the length of the block, Alex came up to a lighted neon sign, which said "Parts: Buy, Sell, or Trade" above another which said "We Sell All Varieties." The outside windows of the shop were dirty and covered at all times by a metal mesh. Few shops were without it.
"This is it," Alex said, turning around to see Riddick warily examining the street around them. His eyes were hidden behind his dark glasses, but his head kept twitching as if he were scrutinizing everything as quickly as possible. "This is where Ty said to come."
At the mention of Ty's name, a casual smirk set on Riddick's face. "Ah yes, he was so very sad to see you leave," he said, almost sneering.
That touched off Alex's already short fuse. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? He's a good guy, took care of Jack a couple times, showed her net stuff. He's emotional about Jack." What else could Riddick mean? He didn't think.her and Ty?! That thought stopped her in her mental tracks. She took a quick mental runthrough of how he had been with her.
"No," she let out before she realized she was thinking aloud. But it was there. He had liked Jack, for sure, but had always tried to help Alex out especially. Shit. Double shit. There was no way she would ever, ever think of any man as anything more than a business relationship or a friend. So what if she hadn't noticed Ty. As her eyes flashed back at Riddick, she saw that laughing look on his face. Damn him. Always thought everything was a big fucking joke. It seemed like all she could feel right now was anger, and it was coming in waves. It must have showed on her face because she saw a flicker in Riddick's smile, but then she snapped her head back towards the door and entered the parts shop. As she stepped through it fell on her again why she was there. Jack. It only made her sad, and that made her angry. However, seeing as how she had to get into this netlab for Riddick to find the Tumioni location, she put anger aside and adopted her "nice" face.
As the door swung shut, a few miserable fluorescent bulbs illuminated the dirty floor, and long, barely organized shelves revealing everything one could possibly want to buy at an electronics part store. Alex scanned the room, deciding to ignore Riddick for the moment. Thankfully, there was no one visible in the large shop except the cashier, who was located at the middle of the shop. A tired-looking woman with dyed blonde hair, looking about in her forties, sat at the counter, her head instantly coming up when Alex and Riddick entered the shop and given them a look which almost went right through them. Seemingly satisfied, she went back to the computer in front of her.
Alex walked carefully to the counter. Carefully, because sometimes if you approached a counter too quickly without looking at anything in the store, you'd get a gun in the face without being able to explain that you weren't there to rob them. As she reached the counter, the woman glanced back up at her, with wary eyes.
"Help ya, hon?" the woman asked, shifting in her gray robes which hid a considerable bulk. Her face looked tired, but her eyes were sharp. Not some mindless secretary.
Alex smiled. "Yeah, I understand that you have net facilities here. I would like to purchase time, please, for two," she said, looking straight into the woman's eyes with her hands on top of the counter in full view. Definitely for two. There was no way she was going to sit by and let Riddick do all the work, even if she could barely make her way around the systems.
The woman shifted in her seat, sighing. "Oh, yeah sure, but it'll cost ya up front. Fifty an hour." She examined her nail polish, looking bored.
"I want high untraceability, and I want it at the regular's price. Ty Mercado told me you'd give me that." Alex said it in a no-nonsense tone of voice. She could almost feel Riddick tensing behind her. That was also a fighting tone of voice. But if Alex was right about Ty's reputation, they wouldn't have to worry. She was right.
Instantly the entire attitude of the woman changed. A half smile softened her features, giving a hint of how beautiful she might have been in years past. "Oh, Mercado sent you? Then you're okay, honey, it'll be half that for the two of ya." She pushed away from the desk almost cheerfully and made her way to the back of the store. "He hasn't been in here lately, last time he was with a little kid. Girl, she was, him and her were here for quite some time. Tell him hi from Taff, when you see him, for me?"
Alex nodded, considering that information. Huh. So Jack had not learned all the netrunning on her own. Interesting. She started to get irked at Ty, but then let it go. It was probably for the best that Jack had learned that, because they would have to be on the run for quite some time after this. If they found her. When they found her.
Riddick followed Alex and the frighteningly large woman towards the back of the store. It looked safe enough, and this Ty fellow had certainly not seemed like the type who would sell them out. Unfortunately, if Alex trusted them, he would have to trust them by default. It had given him a little bit of a laugh, to see how she had finally realized the big guy was soft on her. She could really be an icy bitch sometimes. And yet, her reaction to Jack going missing had let him see some depth of feeling in her. She wasn't all bad, and didn't talk to him hardly at all. Like Jack did, running on and on like she had a tendency to do. A swirl of anger rose in him, at what the mercs might be doing to that kid right now. She'd been able to take the nightmare of that planet, she could certainly take this. It didn't help, to think of her being frightened and him being stuck trying to find out where she was.
The door at the back of the store opened by keycard and fingerprint identification. A long corridor with several stairways led off of it, and they walked to the end to see a large glass window looking down on a huge room, what must be the warehouse next door, filled with terminals. They swung a left and faced a door with a keypad.
"Did he give you his passcode, dearie?" The blonde woman asked Alex. He saw the ever so slight tightening of her shoulders at the "dearie", but she kept her mouth shut and nodded. "Enter it here, then, and Ray will take care of the payment when you're done. These are the highest security, so you can do damn near anything on them. Ta-ta."
What an odd woman. She played dumb, but there was a real intelligence behind her eyes. Not something he would have seen normally. It was part of the attitude of netrunners. That woman was probably more experienced that he was, and if they showed a hint of trouble, she'd have been the first line of defense. Interesting. Alex entered the code and the door opened silently.
Alex had stepped aside as soon as they were through, leaving Riddick to go first. Finally, he thought, tired of having to follow her every which way. A skinny, balding man sat at the desk in front of them, nervously glancing at his screen and calling up information on it.
"Using Ty Mercado's passcode? Satisfactory. He usually uses tightest security, which are in that corner there," he muttered in a nasal voice, gesturing to the corner to their left. About twenty terminals lay in rows behind his desk, most separated into carrels, allowing privacy. The hum of the terminals was punctuated by the only three other people there, who sat intensely glued to the screens. "The understanding is that we will have no knowledge of your activities, and the history will be deleted every five minutes. Please proceed." The man dismissed them, turning back to his screen.
Riddick sat in the terminal closest to the corner, so he could see the entire room. A peremptory glance at the other patrons revealed no threats, and all had not even looked up when the door opened. Alex sat in the carrel next to him, staring at the screen as if it were alien. He had wondered at the request for two terminals, as he got the impression that she wasn't proficient on the systems. At all. He wasn't surprised, given what he had overheard that long time ago on the planet.
'I'm three hundred and twenty-four years old,' she had told the holy man, relating the story to him with tears in her eyes. Who would make up a story like that? No, it had to be true. Weird, fucked up, but definitely true. She didn't know he had overheard, she tried to act like a tough who had grown up in the streets all her life. But there were moments, when she was a little too formal, a little too hesitant, at times. It wasn't as noticeable, now. Her "old" life was probably a distant memory she tried to forget. But she intrigued him. And was now a business partner who was going to let him fly a ship again.
He set down to trying to find Jack. Database and codecracking, simple stuff first. After five minutes, he noticed that Alex had not been typing, but leaning back in her chair, watching his screen. He kept typing, trying to see where she was going with it. Suddenly, her eyes widened, recognition behind them, and she almost leaped to her terminal and started typing as rapidly as he was. It only caused a moment of concern, and then he bent back to the task at hand. He'd find out what that was, but later. After he found the kid.
Thirty minutes later, he took his fingers off the keys and leaned back in his chair. It would not be easy. The Tumioni stronghold was on the highly populated Vega 4, and they were essentially the only form of government in control. He had intercepted an unwisely-sent communication from some merc group going only under the name "Silver Nine" which had stated that they acquired the target at exactly the time which Jack had been taken, and were proceeding to agreed-upon coordinates. Those coordinates could be anywhere else, but he was absolutely sure it was Vega 4. He had cracked into the landing permissions at the Tumioni flight station (a difficult thing, to be sure) and found an open invitation for "Silver Nine" to arrive within the week. He started calculating. Definitely they needed hyper capabilities, and something as incognito as possible. Whoever this contact of Josef's was, if he was affiliated with the Loku crowd then he might have what they needed.
He leaned back into his chair to peer at Alex, who was hunched over her screen and typing quickly.
"Vega 4, within the week," he said in a low voice.
She gave no indication that she had heard except a nod, and then exited out of the program to leave a blank screen. The hint of a smile was on her face, clearly pleased. "That was educational," she muttered as if to herself, and then nodded and turned to him.
Educational? She spends half an hour on a terminal and it's educational? What was she doing, learning to crack a database in that amount of time, with no previous knowledge? But she didn't say another word, and the unreadable steely face was back.
"Vega." She said derisively. "Okay then."
Pushing away her chair, she went towards the desk, and he had no choice but to follow her. The nervous man gulped as Riddick came up behind the girl, but accepted her payment of 25 creds and waved them to the exit, a door which led out to a completely different side street. At the head of it was a fairly main avenue.
Alex turned to him. "Ready to get a ship?" she asked.
He nodded, and walked alongside her until they reached the main street. She paused, and then turned to the right. Towards the shipyards, next to the station, he remembered from his arrival.
Alex tried not to look as unsure as she felt, walking towards the shipyards. She had no idea how to bargain for a ship, even with Josef's contact, they would have to try and bring the price down. Hell, she had no idea what they needed. It bothered her, to place herself entirely in Riddick's hands; but then again, he was her partner now, and there would be no piloting for him if he did not have her to buy the ship. How tenuous was their connection? The poking around on the terminals she had done was very elementary, but five minutes of watching Riddick had completely opened her eyes as to how it was done, and how similar yet different the systems were to what she had grown up with. Yes, she could learn that from him. She would need to learn, so that she could protect herself and Jack when they would have to find a new home.
The dirty, shabby buildings of the Loku district gave way slowly to the whiter, better-built buildings of the Transport district. Transport district included the shipyards, the spaceport, very few residential areas for wealthy merchants, and the guildhouses of the shipping trades. It was an ancient word, "guild", but it fit the various trades quite well. "Apprentices" from outlying areas would come to the great cities, to learn all they could before becoming employed on a ship. There was also a United Coalition garrison on the outer edges, which held order in this district only, just as it was the only form of law up on the orbiting space station.
Alex had tried to memorize the map of the surrounding areas, but her memory was a bit patchy. To her relief, the enormous gray plasmetal hangars of the ship-sellers were visible to her right, highlighted by the second sun. This was no time to be stepping unsurely. As they walked towards the hangars, the buildings grew farther between, exposing them to the bright light provided by the twin suns. It had been awhile since Alex had been exposed to it, usually walking in shadows of buildings or at night. Her eyes squinted as she fumbled for her sunglasses, and she put them on with a sigh. No fancy light filters, these, she thought, remembering what she had once had to help her see. Just plain plastic. It kept the others on the street from seeing the emotion in her eyes, this total severing of her old life. Again. The bags she wore on her back seemed heavier, as if she were carrying not just clothes, but everything that she had built up on this planet. No longer was it a home, not if Jack wasn't there.
They reached the gate to the main hangar, and Alex consulted the directory for this Fred Towa. Ah, there it was. Hangar section 1C. But where was that? Alex had reached the end of her, admittedly, small bank of knowledge regarding the city. She tried looking at Riddick out of the corner of her eye, and realized that the moment's pause she had taken trying to figure out where section 1C was located was all he needed to take off in that direction. Clenching her fists, she followed him at the same easy saunter she had adopted on the walk over. What, did he think he would gain an introduction to this Towa fellow without knowing someone, like she did? Not like she would hurry her pace just for him to have the satisfaction of knowing it made her angry.
The hangar was full of people this time of day. A main atrium was surrounded by platformed floors, which went up and up and up. Small drones flew high above the crowd from seller to seller. People bustled on and off of simple escalators between the floors, everyone ranging from what seemed to be the scruffiest dregs of society to some even wearing the brightly- colored guildmaster robes. Most were, however, garbed in the grays and blacks of the spacers. Thankfully, neither Riddick nor Alex stuck out, like they might have in the other parts of the Transport district where whites and bright colors were a mark of station.
Each seller had his or her own entrance, leaving the floors without any ships actually visible but only a myriad of doors. As Alex slowed to where Riddick had stopped in front of one of them, she realized that Fred Towa must be quite a prosperous seller indeed. His section was huge, almost half of the floor was devoted to his storefront. Seeing as how Riddick had not paused for her earlier, she went straight past him and through the door.
It entered into a large, neat room, with photos of ships on the wall and chairs lined up below them, as sort of a waiting room. One third of the chairs were full. A man sat at a windowed desk at the end of the chairs. Alex had sized up the situation as she walked in, and went briskly to the man at the desk.
He looked up at her, his eyes going to the side where Riddick must be. "Yes?"
"My name is Alex Bennet, I'm here to see Fred Towa as soon as possible. I was told to say that Josef Kiwana sent me here."
The clerk's face brightened at her name. "Ah yes, Miss Bennet and business partner. Mr. Towa has been expecting you. Please step over to the door."
He indicated the double set of doors which were to their right, which were opening as he had presumably pressed the clearance code. Alex glanced at the other people waiting in the room, who sent both her and Riddick angry, yet wondering glances, that they should be admitted immediately.
Alex turned her attention back to the doors. As she walked through them, she came into an immense space which was filled with neatly organized ships. Mostly small, each one was still as large as a house, all gleaming. Alex had seen ships together before, but to see all of these sleek, new- looking models, took her breath away for a bit.
"Alex Bennet!" A voice called from her left. Alex spun, to see a tall, graying man walking towards her and Riddick from a large, plasti-glassed-in office, a large smile on his face.
He reached them quickly, and his smile was contagious. He put out his hand. "Fred Towa. Josef's just called me."
Alex smiled in return. "Alex Bennet. My partner, Kale Resta," she said, indicating Riddick, and this time she didn't trip over the name. Fred shook both of their hands. It seemed a strange gesture to Riddick.
Fred turned back to Alex. "You're lucky, Josef thinks very highly of you. He and I have known each other for years, and it's only every once in awhile that he bestows his good opinion on someone. He told me to take care of ya." He finished with a wink, like some benevolent giant.
A warm feeling started to grow in Alex's stomach. Josef thought highly of her? Well.
"Thank you, Mr. Toma," she said with a smile. He immediately insisted she call him Fred. "Fred, then. Josef has probably already told you, then, we need a ship as soon as possible?"
"Yah, he did mention that a bit. What did you have in mind?"
"Actually, Kale is authorized to bargain for all specifications," she said, giving Riddick a meaningful look. Best not to reveal that she was only the money, not the know-how in this deal. "I trust him," she said, and almost did trip over that. Trust Riddick, woman, are you mad? But they were in this together, and had been fine so far. Even Riddick seemed surprised at that. You better not fuck it up, Richard B. Riddick, Alex thought.
"Excellent," Fred put in, his attention turning to Riddick, all businessman. "What can I get for you, Kale?" Riddick cleared his throat, and went off on such a tirade of specifications that Alex just had to tune it out. Fred fired back questions and comments. This was one thing she was definitely not well-versed in. It's hard to learn a new technology from scratch, and there was nothing like this which she could have applied from her old life. The only thing she could have possibly thought of was cars. It was a shame that cars had gone down the wayside, she loved to drive. She had bought her own cars, then. But she had plans for learning about this ship, and how to fly it. After all, it would be hers.
After fifteen minutes of glancing around the hangar, it seemed like agreements had reached a conclusion. Alex came back over to the two of them from where she had been looking at the nearest ships.
"I've just the thing, it's over in supplementary hangar, I'll take you to it," Fred said. "Actually it's been sorta a labor of love, trying to see what we could get in it, but I think you'll find it's satisfactory." A wide grin broke out on his face. "I must say, Alex, your partner here knows what he wants and won't budge an inch. C'mon, hop into the cart, here, and I'll take you to see it."
He walked over to the golf-cart sized skimmer which had enough room for about six people, and started it up. Alex and Riddick got in, and Fred immediately took off, taking what seemed a breathtaking pace around the other ships in the hangar and the salesmen and clients looking at them. They came out the other end into the bright sunlight, and then almost immediately stopped at a much smaller, but still sizeable hangar. Fred pressed a com button, and the door to the supplemental hangar opened.
"This is where we keep our 'specials' ya might say," Fred told them, winking. What a jolly sort of man, Alex mused. Much like Josef, actually. How lucky that she had found such connections in the scrub of a city. "The ones we don't want UC to know all the specs for," Fred added, almost to himself.
The individual ships were separated by large curtains, so that they went past a few without seeing all of the others together. They stopped at a closed curtain.
"Ah, we're here," Fred turned off the skimmer and hopped out, walking quickly over to what was probably the curtain control box. He pressed a button and the curtain began to part. "Here she is."
********
Alfonso Roberto Tumioni, III, sat in the grand gilded chair, alongside his wife, Francesca Pitarra, in the beautiful, marble-encased room which had held in audience four generations of Tumioni. He reveled in his power, and in the luxury which he lived. As he sat in the position of power, awaiting the next minor family to seek his audience, he thought himself much akin to the kings of far-off Earth, an ultimate ruler. A ruler over his commerce, and over his family. His word was as good as law, and at times, more binding than that of the United Coalition. Francesca smiled at him, the smile of a wife who knows she is a queen, not only to her husband but to her underlings as well. The house of Tumioni had grown only more prosperous as the years progressed, causing his father's father to forgo the austere, clean lines of the modern architecture. Instead, he surrounded himself with rich metals and stones that were rarities on earth and on Vega 4. Only the best for the best.
The clicks of heels on the marble floor announced the entrance of his butler, a man who had served his father and served Alfonso now. He stopped just to the side of the great door, and bowed. Francesca had always liked the bowing.
"My lord and lady Tumioni, your clerk has had the most exciting news. May I present him?" The butler said in a fawning voice. At Alfonso's nod, the butler waved in Tomas Partido, Alfonso's most trusted clerk for years.
"My lord and lady, it is my pleasure to tell you that your daughter, Natelle Jaqueline Tumioni, has been found this morning and is, at this very moment, on her way here under the guidance of the Silver Nine group. It is expected she will arrive within the week." At this, Tomas bowed.
Alfonso turned to his wife, waving a dismissive hand at Tomas. His face was that of a cat who had caught the fattest mouse. "Well my wife, our wayward child is returning to us at last. I do believe she will be more willing to stay with us this time."
Francesca's smile could have chilled ice. "Oh yes, my dear, depend upon it."