Dear beloved mother,
It is good to know that you have found such employment that allows you to escape the servitude of New Mecca. I hope that all is well with you and that Allah blesses you with serenity and peace. Kasim and I are well, little Ali was born almost a week ago and is in good spirits. He takes after his father and baba is proud that he is a son.
Do not worry about the wolves. Kasim and I have a plan to rid our home of unwanted dogs and will see it through. Be assured our present plan being ineffective, we will seek a different route to rid ourselves of these unwanted pests. Kasim wishes to deal with them directly but I favor a different approach. But as I should, as Allah commands, I will defer to my husband.
Take care of yourself and be good, work hard and keep in touch.
Your Daughter
"Okay, what else should we say or should we wait for a reply?" Jack asked as Anne rocked Layne to sleep in the mess.
Riddick paced behind her. He knew Talos Prime pretty well and had been quiet. "Let me see the encrypted parts."
MSG RCD R U SAFE
SEEK MEET TALOS PR
KNOW YOU ARE IN DANGER
He read the words across the screen and said, kissing the top of her head. "Send it. Then we wait."
"Hey fancy pants." Toombs said coming into Janis' quarters.
"What do you want?" she asked gruffly not looking up from the sutures she was giving Roper because he hit his head on a panel he was accessing.
"You done?" he snapped looking at Roper who's forehead sported twelve stitches at the hairline.
"Just. What is the nature of your medical emergency outside of the fact you're an ass?" she asked pulling the rubber gloves off.
Roper shot Toombs a look and smirked walking off.
"Got a message from that kid of yours. Just came in on an unguarded channel." He told her beginning to come towards her.
"Thank you Harold, please patch it in." she said coldly.
"You don't have to be like that Janis. I'm fucking sorry already." He told her looking at his feet.
She knew men better than anyone. She'd let him stew for a while. "When was the last time you trusted anybody ?"
"Never have." He admitted rubbing his face.
"Try it sometime, some people actually go thought this life doin it and do just fine. I miss my kids. You got that? I have a life, this is just another payday for me. GET THAT?"
She had her hands at her sides and wanted nothing more than to take that scalpel on the table and run it through him. But she smiled. "Sorry. Just hate getting threatened. My husband, thank Allah he's dead now, used to do that. So please excuse my testiness."
He looked at her and walked out. Damn I'm good. She told herself as the message was patched through.
MSG RCD R U SAFE… SEEK MEET TALOS PR…KNOW YOU ARE IN DANGER
She sighed and typed the reply smiling the whole time.
Dearest Children,
Allah be praised. I'd hoped my messages were received. IT looks so much different up in the stars. Allah is merciful. I cannot wait to hear from you.
It was very good to hear that you are well.
My captain was anxious to get our mission started and I was glad to see him pleased. I will await your next message with enthusiasm. Look after my grandchild and kiss him for me.
Love your mother
Jack sat on the couch in her room with Layne sleeping in his bassinet a few feet away. She had spent the morning in the med lab asking Sasha questions and going over in her head the plan that had been formulating
Riddick came in after setting the auto pilot to cruise and smiled when she had her mind elsewhere. He loved creeping up on her. "Don't even think about it." she said leaning against the dresser her back to him.
"You're getting good at sensing me. That's my girl." He said coming up behind him. "How's little guy?"
"Full and changed." She announced. "I need to know something. What is your plan for Toombs? I've got something cooking and I want to run it by you first. It's a ballsy scheme and it'll keep his ass off us for the rest of our lives."
He smiled an evil grin and sat down patting the hard muscular thigh his hand laid on. "No."
His eyebrow cocked inquisitively. "No?" he purred smiling.
"Once I'm in that lap I can't think straight."
He went to laugh loudly when she ran over and put her hands to his lips. "I just got him to sleep."
"Sorry." He said kissing her fingers. "There's a message on your screen."
"Let me get that." She said as he stared at her perfect backside. "And stop staring at my ass."
He did laugh then, a quiet chuckle that made her smile. "Janis replied. Good. Let me decrypt it."
TALOS OK SEND LOC
COVER OK SAFE
"Well that's a relief." Jack said sitting back.
"So, tell me what's your idea?" He said rubbing her back with his hand. She'd been stretching again and he knew she was sore.
"Okay, but there are a lot of factors. First tell me about Toombs, everything you know." She asked sitting next to him and playing with his pant leg.
"He's an asshole." He started.
"Language Riddick." She chided pointing to the baby.
"You've got to be kidding Jack." He said throwing her a look. She didn't just say that shit to me.
"No. Eventually he'll end up sounding like you." she said with a smirk.
"That's my boy." He quipped smiling at her his sarcastic smirk saying, I dare you to fuck with me now…
"His creed is greed. He likes the big bounties. He can't keep a crew together. They end up trying to kill him half the time. He comes light, that's always a mistake. And he's a cocky son of a bitch." He told her and she started taking notes.
"Good, just what I expected." She replied kissing him on the cheek. "So, here's what I think. Knowing him the way you do, would you put it passed him to ask for half the bounty to be paid, if he were to capture you and me and be able to prove it, and get the other half on delivery?"
Riddick sat back and closed his eyes, rubbing his face with his hand. That was exactly something Toombs would pull.
"Yeah." He liked the way she was thinking. He could see something forming.
Damn he was proud as hell of her…
"And," she said with a shit eating grin on her face. "If I could jack into his computer system, down load his video logs, bet they're all self absorbed monologues about how good he is, pick out his best dialog and feed it into Sasha, so she could become Toombs, contact his "private party" and get them to send the money to a coded bank account on Talos Prime, what do you think would happen to him if his backers found out he didn't actually have us?"
"They'd skin his ass alive, or worse." He said grinning a toothy shit eating grin. Baby you've got something… I was just gonna kill him, but this… this shit is way better.
"Send mercs to find him and bring him back to get back the money."
"A victim of his own creed. Jack that's fucken brilliant."
"Why thank you." she said bowing. "One, we get half the bounty, and take the money out as soon as it hits, giving us mad cash, a whole lot of mad cash we run, find a nice planet to settle down on and start that life we wanted. You could get a job, I could be a gardener and have a…."
He smiled. He like when she thought about their lives together like that. Her eyes looked hopeful and he loved her so deeply for having him part of her dreams.
"Jack? Focus. The plan?" he said smirking.
"Yeah, besides the little love nest on the beach we can two, not only humiliate him so he couldn't ever get another job again, but keep him running so he never sits for more than a day ANYWHERE. Thereby, getting them off our tail for good."
His large rough hands grabbed her and pulled her into his lap where he kissed her so passionately a minute later they were gasping. "I knew there was a reason why I loved you."
"And here I thought it was for my damn fine ass." She said rubbing it against his thighs.
"6 days Jack and not a second more."
"Well." She stammered. "That was a thank you."
"Now, the point is, how do we hack his computer? It's a moving ship."
"Every ship has a frequency, all I need is a code and the numbers. Leave that to me and Janis. Now help me write a reply. Where can she meet us?"
She sat at the keyboard and discussed with Riddick where she could meet them. After a few minutes, she began to type:
Dear Beloved Mother,
Kasim knows that a trap is best to lure the wolves from the forest. My hope is to catch them one at a time to ensure success. The besttime to catch them is at dusk.
We miss you and hope that you're journey is not too long. When your time with your friends has ended, we have prepared a room for you that overlooks the garden where the smell of jasmine is in the air.
Ali looks like his baba and is the sparkle in Kasim's eye. All our love and prayers to you.
All be praised you are well. How long before we see you our hearts are full with love for you.
Your daughter.
"Tell me the message baby. You amaze me with this stuff." Riddick said as she finished typing.
BE AT THE H STREET BAR
WHEN DUSK
HOW LONG BEFORE WE SEE YOU
"Good." He said smiling. "Send it and then we'll work on you jacking into their mainframe when we know how much time we have."
Harold Toombs never spent one second in his life trying to figure out women. He paid for them, did had his fun and went on with the next thing on his list. Janis, made him think about things.
"Hey, you in there boss?" Roper asked sitting in the navigator's chair.
"Yeah, fucken women, can't even imagine what it's like inside their fucken heads."
"You hot for the Doc Harold?" he quipped and found himself with a hand around his throat.
"You ever call me that again asshole and I swear you'll be finding yourself on the outside of this very cold ship." He told him looking at him with a glare of death on his face.
"OK." He squeaked and Toombs dropped him.
The incoming message alert came in and Roper resumed his post in front of the computer and said, "It's for the Doc. Man it must be nice to have kids."
"Fucken hate kids, brats." He told him walking to the com link. "Hey Doc."
"Yes?" a sultry female voice said,
"Check the computer your kid sent another message." He said switching it off.
But not before Roper got a look at how he reacted to Janis' voice. Oh yeah, he's hot for her, and bad.
When Janis downloaded the latest message she laughed and read the decrypted the encoded transmission she smiled.
She replied and knew that Jack was waiting.
Dearest Daughter,
My heart soars with the thoughts of seeing you three again. Know My love for you Kasim and Ali has no bounds. Mr. Toombs and his crew have been very thorough in dealing with our mission and have neglected nothing. I see to their needs as best I can and feel that I am fulfilling my part as part of the crew.
The thoughts of being close to the garden is something I surely miss, like it was back when we were living with your father on hellion prime. Those were days I will never relive again.
Be safe, kiss Ali and assure Kasim he is in my thoughts. May Allah bless you with quiet nights.
Love
Your mother.
Jack had gone to get something and left Riddick reading her book on the couch, but covertly he was watching his son sleep, the blissful sleep of the innocent. It was only when her laptop blinked did he perk up.
He decrypted the message and read in bold letters:
THREE WEEKS…IM READY TO HELP…SEND REQUESTS…
"Jack, you're on." He said coming into the mess where she had just poured a cup of coffee. "We've got three weeks."
"Okay." She said looking hopeful at him.
Over dinner Jack told everyone of her plan, the barest of plans, mind you.
"There's a lot that could go wrong. But I think, if I can hack into the biggest mainframes in the Hellion System I can hack a merc ship. We'll need the credit chips everyone's got cause this is gonna take us some time to set up and money. How much have we got?"
They totaled everything, hacked and Riddick's actual earnings and they had about 200,000. They could be on Talos Prime in about a day and Talos 4 a week or so after that.
"Once I have all of their information downloaded we've got maybe a week to spare. I'm gonna need a new laptop, something with BALLS." Jack said and Riddick didn't smile he roared with laughter.
"Balls, this plan has that written all over it. But let me know what you need." He told her. "Next, I need a tranquilizer gun, with darts. That's for Toombs."
"What about the rest of the crew?" Salim asked.
"Expendable." Riddick said in a harsh cold voice.
"Okay." Kalifa said feeling a little better knowing something was actually forming that resembled a plan. "I'm in."
"We need to wait until I get the files I need." Jack said holding Riddick's hand. "I need to make a program that allows me to pretend to be Toombs on vid screen, then I need to find out who his backers are, get them to send us half up front after we show Riddick and I…restrained and ready for transport."
Riddick clenched his hand almost hurting Jack. She pulled her hand away just as he realized his own strength.
"I am NOT going back in chains Jack." He growled. "No fucken way."
"It's just long enough to take some pictures, for the scam baby." She pleaded. He got up and walked out furious.
"We'll work on that." She told everyone who was left at the table.