Lifeline

Chapter 17

As Chikage worked on the mobile units, Riddick cleaned, inspected, and reloaded all of the weapons. Once that was done, he returned to the main computer to keep working on the encryption of the floor plans he'd dug up. His brows furrowed in concentration, and every now and then a frustrated grunt or growl would pierce the air, followed quickly by a sigh. He heard her boots clunking up the stairs and leaned back in his chair.

"Have you looked at this yet?" he asked quietly, still tapping intermittently at the keyboard. She leaned over his shoulder.

"The floor plan?" she asked. He nodded, and she chuckled. "I thought you said you could handle it." He glowered at her, watching her eyebrow rise as another small smile curled the corners of her lips. "Do you want me to look at it?"

"I can get it," he grumbled. "Just wondered." She shrugged, opening a locker to rifle through her backpack. "What are you working on?"

"Installing and configuring the headsets," she answered quietly, dropping the pack back into the locker, kicking it shut, and then going to work on the tangled wires.

"It's a fucking headset," he chuckled, "don't you just plug the damn thing in?" He turned in his chair, his cocky grin slipping as she held up the headset. It wasn't just an earpiece and microphone like he'd expected. There was another attachment that kind of looked like half of a pair of tiny rectangular sunglasses, the lens, though he couldn't tell, holding a slight bluish tint. "What the hell?" His face screwed up in confusion, and she only smiled.

"You'll see once I get everything configured," she said, placing a small disk between her teeth as she wound up the wires, more neatly this time so they wouldn't knot up again. Her boots clanged back down the stairs, and he shook his head, turning back to the computer.

He gave up after two hours of messing with the encryption, flopping down the stairs noisily. She was hunched over the mobiles and headsets spread out on the kitchen table, a portable keypad plugged into one, her fingers moving furiously over the keys.

"Give up?" she said, her voice teasing. He only grunted his response. "I'll have one mobile configured in a couple minutes," she added, glancing up at him. "Any coffee left?" He nodded, reaching for the carafe.

"Where'd you get all the gadgets anyway?" he asked, his arm extending over her shoulder to set her mug down next to her. She looked over her shoulder at him as he returned to the coffee, pouring his own cup.

"Back on Ergon. There was this little electronics store tucked into a seedy little corner, so I ducked in and checked it out." He nodded pensively as he sat at the end of the table, leaving her room to work. "I'd like to go back there and clean the place out," she added, a wicked smirk forming on her lips. He found himself grinning in response. "Just a few more programs to upload and it's set," she said, unconsciously talking to herself. He watched her work, her slim, agile fingers flying rapidly over the small keypad. His eyebrow rose at the characters, but he kept quiet and let her work. Her forehead crinkled in concentration, eyes nearly unblinking, and finally she clicked her tongue. "Done."

"That was a few programs?" he asked, voice betraying his surprise. She only nodded. "That was fast."

"I overclocked the mobiles' hard drives so everything works faster." He nodded like he understood, but wasn't entirely sure he did. She didn't call him on it either. "Okay, you're gonna be my gerbil."

"Your what?" She laughed, standing from her chair. He started to do the same, but she clapped a hand on his shoulder, silently urging him to stay seated, so he dropped back into the chair and crossed his arms over his chest.

"Okay, this is the earpiece," she said, resting a hand on the back of his head for a second before hooking the piece over his ear, sliding the speaker into place. She adjusted the microphone, then the monitor eyepiece, and suddenly frowned. "I just thought of something," she said, pulling away from him to cross her arms over her chest, chewing on her lip thoughtfully. His eyebrow rose.

"What?"

"I don't know if you'll be able to see the video feed," she said quietly. "I'm not really sure if it'll work for someone with…" she trailed off, averting his eyes. He heaved a sigh.

"I can see a regular computer monitor, dummy," he chided. Her eyebrow rose.

"It's more like a hologram."

"I can see those too," he pressed. She shrugged, reaching for the wire dangling from his earpiece. She clipped it to the collar of his shirt, making sure she left enough room on the wire for him to have free movement of his head, then asked him to test to see if he could move easily. When she was satisfied he could, she plugged the headset into the mobile and powered it on. "You know, this isn't the most comfortable thing in the world, Chi," he said slowly, messing with the positioning of the earpiece.

"You'll get used to it," she said quietly, tapping on the mobile unit screen. "Okay. You're patched in to the surveillance feed." She handed him the mobile, and he looked down at it, forcing his eyes to refocus on the image. He could see monitors, vid screens, and holograms – that wasn't exactly a lie. It was, however, a major strain on his eyes, and he felt like they were crossing when he tried to look at a computer graphic of some sort. She sat back and watched him, smiling slightly when he finally selected a video feed.

"Just sound," he said, shaking his head. She sighed.

"I know. I've got to work on the timing still, but the picture should come up in a—"

"Got it," he interjected, nodding slightly. She glanced at the tiny monitor, watching the reverse image of what he was seeing. His brows furrowed, and he pressed his fingers to the earpiece as though he were straining to hear what was being said. She reached out, turning the volume up slightly, watching him for any sign of improvement, but he expression didn't change. Suddenly, he ripped the earpiece out, tearing the clip from his shirt, and dropped the headset on the table, flouncing out of his chair. She jumped inadvertently, eyeing him uneasily before gingerly picking up the device.

"Riddick?" He stood with his back facing her, hands on his hips, but with his head turned slightly to the side, she could see his jaw clenched and nostrils flaring. Her eyebrow rose, and she repeated his name.

"We're pushing up the time table," he ground out through gritted teeth. "I'll stay here and keep working on the floor plan so you can upload it. You've got two more trips to place surveillance. Tonight and tomorrow night. We watch for a day and hope like hell one day's routine." Her eyebrow rose. "Think you can get everything set up by then?" He turned back to her suddenly, his expression dark and intense. She swallowed down a gulp and nodded quickly.

"I, uh," she stammered, "I thought you didn't want me running without sleep," she said slowly.

"We don't have the time," he growled, turning to head upstairs. She sat there for a moment, just wondering what happened, and then heard the groans of the punching bag in the dojo. Her brows furled and she reached out for the mobile he'd tossed onto the table, plugging herself into the sound and video as she ran the tape back. She'd failed to mention she had it programmed to record selected outputs. As she listened, her stomach twisted in knots, and she thought about deleting the file, and then got another idea. It might just come in handy after the extraction.

---

"You sure you don't want to take a break and come with me?" Riddick turned to look over his shoulder at Chikage, leaning against the doorframe of the cockpit.

"You'll do fine," he said quietly as he turned back to the computer. She sighed.

"That's not what I meant. I know I can do this by myself," she said, entering the room entirely. He felt her standing right behind him.

"Take one of the mobiles with you and hook me up on the other one," he conceded, adding a small nod. She returned a few moments later and quickly explained how to use the communication feature.

"I'll page you when I'm set up and in place," she said, quickly hooking up her own mobile. He watched her clip it onto her belt, just behind a holster, and turn to grab the arms pack out of a locker. She paused, her hand hovering over the door latch and turned to him slightly. "Want me to place the rest of the darts tonight and get it out of the way?" His eyebrow rose as he thought about it.

"Your call," he said, tilting his head to the side. "If it looks like you can risk it, yeah, but don't take the chance on someone picking up on it just to rush through it." She nodded. "We don't have a lot of time, but it's not worth blowing everything." Another nod, and she slipped to the ground, flinging the door shut behind her. He watched her until she disappeared into the thick of the woods before turning back to his work.

Her mind replayed the surveillance feed over and over as she crept toward her first location of the evening, crouching once again behind a small cluster of bushes. A small sheen of sweat was glistening on her skin in the moonlight after the hour and a half hike in, and she cursed the humidity. After a second thought, she cursed the full moon as well.

"Riddick," she whispered, waiting for his voice in her ear. "I'm in place for the first set. Northwest quadrant of the building." He was quiet, and she started setting up, glancing around her every now and then to make sure she was alone. In twenty minutes, her heart rate was at an even 50 beats per minute, and her hands stopped shaking. She had an idea, and smiled to herself. "Riddick, patch in camera four."

"Got it," came the gravelly reply in her ear. He was silent as she set up her aim, adjusting, readjusting, focusing, and refocusing her scope until she was satisfied.

"Firing," she whispered, closing one eye, steadying her aim, and pulling the trigger. He swore in her ear, and she grinned. Camera four just hit its mark, in a tree eight hundred yards from where she'd just fired. His view through the monitor just traveled eight hundred yards in a few seconds, then halted in the bark of a rather large tree, pausing before the camera automatically readjusted itself to get a view of the courtyard over which the tree stood watch. She'd adjust the view when she got back to the ship.

"Thanks for the warning," he chuckled, and she smiled, holding herself steady as she sought out another target.

"Camera five," she whispered, focusing now on a crack in the second highest level of concrete slab just wide enough for the dart to lodge and stick. "Firing." The dart wedged itself between the edges of the crack, and she silently prayed the lens hadn't been scraped. She searched for another target and swore under her breath.

"What?" Riddick asked through the mobile.

"The only target I can think of that could possibly work is right above a guard's head," she whispered, closing her eyes in defeat. Riddick swore as well. "I'm gonna skip it and go around to the other side." She flipped her night vision glasses off her head and back into place, quickly and quietly collecting her gear, packing it up before hiking to her next perch. Just as she slung the bag over her shoulder, the clouds opened and the rain started, just a sprinkle at first, but quickly growing into a deluge. She paused, wiping the rain from her face as she thought for a moment, standing only a few hundred yards from where she once was. A quick decision was made, and she dropped to the ground, quickly screwing the silencer back onto her rifle. The scope was already set, and she took aim, counting her heartbeats until everything was just right. With the pounding rain beating on the roof and surrounding foliage, he didn't even notice the dart lodge into the moulding of the door he leaned against, or see the steam rising from the hole it made in the wood. She smiled in satisfaction, replacing the rifle in her bag, and continued on to the next spot.

---

Riddick couldn't help but grin when the rain started in. She'd always done her best work in the cover of the rain. Most snipers loved it, actually. It hid both the sight and sound, meaning an excellent condition for their tasks. She'd be back in a few hours, he hoped. Now if he could just figure out the damn encryption.

He was about to give up and make an executive decision to just go in blind, without the floor plan, when she emerged from the woods, soaking wet, her hair hanging in loose, dripping curls. She wore a slight smile as she walked, her clothes clinging closely to her body as she neared the ship. He unlatched the door, offering her a hand, but she refused flinging the bag up instead before hoisting herself up.

"Go okay?" he asked, quickly taking the weapons out of the soaked bag to find them dry, held safely in waterproofed material the whole time, except, of course, when in use.

"Got eight more placed," she said with a small nod, leaning out the door slightly to wring out her hair. "Including the one over the guard's head." Riddick's eyes snapped to her, and she shrugged. "Started raining when I was starting to walk away, so I stopped and took a shot." His eyebrow rose. "Didn't even notice." Riddick's panic gave way to pride, almost, and he grinned. "This far above his head," she continued, holding her hands about six inches apart, and Riddick laughed, shaking his head.

"You're crazy, you know that?" he said, still chuckling.

"I'm a sniper, what did you expect?" she said with a shrug. "I'm gonna go take a shower." His smile fell as he turned back to the computer. It wasn't fair. She'd done nearly everything he'd asked her to, and he couldn't crack a simple encrypted map. He was jolted out of his self-scolding when something cold slapped against the back of his head. Water ran down his neck, and he grinned, pulling her wet shirt off his shoulders before following her down the stairs toward the bathroom.