THE MOTHER LODE BY ABRAXIS

Chapter 45 – A Confession

"I know exactly who I have sitting in a cell in one of my cruisers."

Jenna had always thought that the phrase 'blood ran cold' was an author's exaggeration. Now, she knew that it wasn't. In fact, it didn't describe the sensation by half. It was as if there wasn't a cell in her body that wasn't touched with the icy paralysis of hopeless dread. Added to the two weeks of anxiety, too much coffee and too little food and rest, it was more than her abused body could deal with. She barely made it to the kitchen sink before her stomach began expelling rancid coffee and bile.

It was down to bile only when a huge, warm hand covered her forehead and its mate began making soothing circles against the small of her back. It hit Jenna as the height of irony that her mind began to calm and her thoughts to return to some level of coherency from the touch of the enemy. … Perhaps the only enemy? … Sikes couldn't have told his superiors of his certainty of Riddick's identity, could he? If he had, why would he be here, in her private quarters, telling it to her? Jenna's hand strayed to her pendent once again. It would be so easy. Claim attempted blackmail, sexual assault – self defense.

Then the hand left her forehead, water began running into the sink and a damped towel was held in front of her face. Her mind cleared further. She let go of the pendent and took the towel. Riddick had paused, listening to the conversation of the men at the compound, to learn their motives before killing them. She would not do less. She had to know why Sikes was here. After rinsing her mouth straight from the faucet and wiping her face, she turned to him.

"What do you want?"

Sikes' eyes hardened for a moment. "You tempt me to find out just how much value you do put on Mr. Riddick."

Erotic electricity snapped and crackled around the man. My God, under that stiff uniform was a man so much like Riddick in so many ways, particularly that one. Jenna knew that Sikes wasn't talking about anything as prosaic as monetary gain. What had she done to herself that, ever since beginning this insanity, she kept attracting that reaction from strong, powerful men? But what frightened her, terrified her, was that, while McGhee had been nothing but an irritant, something in her, some deep instinct, was responding to Sikes.

Something in her recognized some of the same kindred spirit in him that she had found in Riddick. It made sense, of course, in a twisted way. As there was a fine line between genius and insanity, so was there a similar line between criminals and those suited to catch them. But this partially shared psyche bred animosity and denial as a buffer against the truth of it. That she could sense it so strongly in Sikes only made him all the more dangerous to Riddick. She couldn't keep this confused mess of emotions from showing as she backed away from him. Then his dark-steel eyes softened.

"However, what I want is what I have already asked for, some very good reasons why I should take the risk of not acting on what I know to be the truth. Now, get something to settle your stomach, food not pills, and let's sit down and talk about it."

Jenna couldn't argue with Sikes' diagnosis of what she needed. She punched up a large glass of milk and some saltine crackers on the side, all the while trying to understand what the man's motives could possibly be. She could have understood his asking for some profit for his silence but, though he had made it quite clear what that might be, he hadn't followed up on it. At least not yet he hadn't. And, perhaps, that had just been a ploy, something to throw her off balance even more than she already was. Maybe he wasn't as sure as he stated and needed to get her to confirm his suspicions. He could be wired seven ways from Sunday. Fuck! Well, hell, let the games begin. She settled back into the side chair again.

"Commander Sikes, if you truly believe that Rick is Riddick and have the mandate you claim from your superiors, I can't understand what you are doing here. What could anyone say in defense of the man described in Riddick's official files?"

Sikes poured himself another cup of coffee, no cream nor sugar this time. He didn't seem the least surprised at Jenna's evasive approach.

"Well now, that's the crux of the matter. The Riddick I saw all those years ago wasn't someone any good law abiding citizen would want living next door but he didn't match the official file. Hell, a blind man could have seen what a scape-goating gut-up that was. Then, as the years passed, he did seem to become just what they had accused him of being.

"Now, the stories I'm hearing from everyone, particularly the women and children that spent all that time aboard your ship coming here, don't match up again. Even the story Mr. Good tells about Riddick bringing Miss West and the Imam off of that hellhole, T2, doesn't match the official picture. Though his versions of what happened during both of Riddick's visits to New Mecca come closer, the fact that Rafferty survived not only the first but also the second doesn't.

"All that makes Riddick a very large enigma. I don't like enigmas. I also don't want to think that I'm anything like the Forces bastards that railroaded him in the first place. It would make it too unpleasant to look in the mirror to shave every morning and I don't look good in a beard. So what I want from you is any information you have that will help to explain that enigma, that will tell me who … or better said, what that man is no matter what name we call him."

Oh, God! Jenna didn't know what to do. Two of her own 'family' had just fucked her over royally and now … now this complete stranger was asking her to trust him? This … space cop, Commander Space Cop, wanted her to believe him when he told her that the only way she could help Riddick was to betray him. And she was tired … so very, very tired … of being expected to make such vital decisions about other people. She had begun doing it while most girls her age were deciding what dress to put on their dolly … and she was tired. But that was life, wasn't it. That was survival. She had just started a little earlier than most. And that meant that she should be better than most.

The bottom line was that Sikes could probably do whatever he wanted to do. Neither his superiors nor Sen would make any ripples in the 'big plan' they were concocting over the 'accidental' death of one man. For whatever reason, it was important to him to know what she knew of Riddick. If he was being righteous about his motives, she would have to betray Riddick's identity to convince him that Riddick was a good risk. If he wasn't, or if her arguments didn't convince him, … well she still had plan B and the murderous little blade hanging from her throat. In either case, she might find some way to use this to get Rick out of that cell and give them a chance at escaping. Oh, what the fuck and go for broke.

But first, a little more preparation. With the excuse that she was feeling a little chilled, Jenna rose and crossed to the environmental controls of the pod. She breathed a sigh of relief when Sikes didn't question the manual adjustment nor follow her to the control panel. She quickly adjusted the pod's temperature upwards but also toggled the switch that set all the controls to 'security'. Now the house controls, including the lights, the window shutters and the door locks, wouldn't obey any voice but hers. She should have thought of that precaution before but then she was still quite new to these kinds of games.

Seating herself again, Jenna started with her first fascination with Riddick; how she had noticed the discrepancies between the man in the psych profiles and the official records, that he was playing games with the yoyos that they were too stupid or too egotistical to recognize or too buried in the system to be willing to risk their careers to do so. She gave statistical proof that he would have had to have been sextuplets to be guilty of all the crimes that had been 'solved' by adding them to his record, that the only crimes he had ever actually been convicted of, other than the Forces charges, was the juvenile offence that had sent him into the Forces in the first place and his repeated prison breaks. She quoted his exemplary military record up to the events that had precipitated those initial charges.

More to give Sikes time to absorb all this but also because she found that the milk and crackers had only primed her stomach for more, Jenna halted long enough to punch up a full meal and more coffee. Sikes joined her, selecting a Jeeter-sized meal for himself. Jenna found herself amused that, with the Patrol Commander's massive bulk, this time she wouldn't be wondering how all that food was going to fit.

Once they had settled again, she continued with her first meeting with Riddick; that she hadn't known who he was but certainly did know what he was; that she had most probably used Riddick himself as the pattern for what she wanted as a guide into the new life she and the group were entering; of how he had convinced her that he did want a new start, a chance at living 'righteous' with his willingness to give up his shined sight for that chance. She did not include the fact that he hadn't actually been forced to do that.

Continuing, she was brutally honest about her own naiveté and how easily he could have taken advantage of that, could have profited at the groups expense in a million ways, but had instead honored his contract with her. She enumerated the many times that he had risked himself to stay with the group when he could easily have left them any time after receiving his new identity.

She told the absolute truth of what had happened at the compound; of what Syrus had told her of the second mission to New Mecca; of Riddick's raid on McGhee's station to save Jeeter and her, carefully not revealing its location. She told of how she had pleaded with Riddick to save himself when the Forces had appeared. Last, she told the story of T2.

"I don't know much of what happened. He admitted that he was going to leave alone, leave the others to die. But something that Carolyn Fry said to him, what I don't know, changed his mind and he went back with her to get Jack and Imam. Then the others were safely at the emergency lifeboat but he wasn't and Carolyn went back for him. She died trying to help him and he … he thinks that he owes it to her to make himself something worth that sacrifice."

"He said that?"

"No. Men like him don't say things like that. He said that he should have died there not her. And I think that that's what he's been trying to do ever since, make sure that the Richard B. Riddick in all your files did die there." The tears that Jenna had been struggling so hard to push back began running down her cheeks. "But he won't stay dead, not if you keep Rick in that cell much longer. Don't you understand! What you are so afraid of was dying and you're resurrecting it!"

Then she pulled her resolve tight again. "No, he's no angel, no perfect solid citizen. He never had the chance to be that. From the day he was born, they set him on the outside looking in; they wouldn't let him join the club. But from the day I first met him, he has done his best to use the talents they forced him to develop to survive for the right reasons; for the same reasons that you and your men use those same talents."

Jenna knew that last comparison was a risk. Sikes might find it quite odious to have his honorable profession put in the same category as anything to do with a convicted criminal. She added an appeal to Sikes self interest to sweeten it.

"And if you'd notice, Sanctuary isn't being built by or for those solid citizens you are so fond of. Rafferty's people are just the same as Rick, people that nobody really wants living next door. Hell, Commander, you might just want to reserve a homestead for yourself for that retirement you are so worried about risking. I wouldn't imagine that Patrolmen feel all that comfortable surrounded by the sheep they protect either."

Sikes chuckled. "Sheep, huh? Well, not an image that I haven't had myself. You know until I met your group I would have put Institute inmates into that category, on the deep end of that category. I have now come to suspect that many of you are kept inside not to protect you but to protect the rest of the citizenry from you. I have met seasoned con-artists who weren't nearly as adept at trying to manipulate me as you are.

"And you are right about it, Rafferty and his people and how this colony might appeal to Patrol personnel as well. There have been requests for printouts of retirement status from more than a few crewmen getting close to that age, some not so close. But wouldn't making me an offer of that homestead be counterproductive? Why would I want to turn someone like Riddick loose on my own future home?"

Jenna played her ace. "What safer place can you think of to give him his chance at redemption? Here, he can belong, does already. Here he can finally stop being that lobo menace and become a functioning member of a society. Oh, it may not be a central worlds' version of a proper society but it is much more civilized than any offered to him before. And don't tell me that the Patrol isn't going to be keeping a careful eye on this colony for a long time to come."

"But how can I be sure that he'll stay with the colony?"

Jenna had had enough of the game. "You can't. But then you can't be sure that I will either. Nor Syrus for that matter. Are you going to kill us too just to be sure that I don't repeat what I did at the compound on New Mecca and Syrus doesn't repeat what he did to Sulleman? Perhaps you should consider finishing what the mercs started here before this colony can breed any more anti regulation, pro personal freedom, illegal weapons toting children.

"Things are going to become very complicated for you, Commander, if you start committing this kind of prohibitive murder. And believe me, if your superiors get it from you once, they will ask for it again. That's the nature of the animal. Eventually you will be exactly what they have accused Riddick of being but you won't be getting paid nearly as well. Also, the guilt for making those kinds of judgments will be on your soul not theirs. Speaking professionally and judging from the fact that you are here discussing this, I don't think that you have the proper psych profile to be able to live with that. I would suggest that you don't start."

Steely eyes locked with green. "And if I do?"

"Then sooner or later, you will suffer the same judgment that you are dispensing." Then Jenna continued silently to herself, … and I will see that it is sooner, very much sooner.

Jenna knew that she was winning when Sikes broke his eyes away from hers and again dragged his fingers through his hair. "Are you always this good at reading people, Captain Blakeney?"

"It's what I do best, Commander. Now, when will you release Rick?"

"From what you've said, I presume that the quicker the better. I can use my com to release him right now."

Jenna wanted to scream. Would this fucking game never end?

"You know better than that, Commander. Of course, you had to make sure that I did as well, didn't you. Whatever I say, I am still only someone who loves and believes in him. I have no right to speak for him. At most, I am a means by which you may assure yourself that he will be willing to speak to you for himself rather than coming out of that cell with nothing but lies on his tongue and revenge in his heart. I will accompany you to release Rick personally and then the three of us will return here and you and Rick will assure yourselves of each other's good intent. You and I both know that that is the only way this thing will be over and done with."

"I don't think so. I would prefer somewhere on my own ground."

At least he hadn't denied her assessment of the situation. "I'm sure that you would, Commander, but you've had Rick on your own ground for two weeks and it hasn't solved your problem. Now, you're going to have to meet him on his. That is the only way he will even come close to trusting you."

((Scene Break)) ((Scene Break))

Leonard September Sikes was wondering just how many kinds of fool he was as he led the way through the Patrol Cruiser Scimitar toward her brig. His ruse had worked. He had the proof he needed that it was actually Richard B. Riddick in the cell he was approaching. So why was he approaching it? Why was he seriously considering letting the man out? Maybe because his god damned plan hadn't included a proper appreciation of how convincing one Captain Djin ah Blakeney could be; hadn't included even the remotest thought of the possibility that she would turn his lies into reality.

He hadn't been anywhere near Riddick before, hadn't even looked at the man's files until this mess had fallen into his lap as a side issue to the Company problem. The Patrol took care of large criminal operations, like that station that the woman had been so careful to protect the location of. It dealt with inter-planetary and intra-planetary political problems, trying to settle them before it got to the point that the Forces had to be called in. It didn't bother with individual criminals like Riddick; that was what mercs and local police forces were for. When such a criminal occasionally turned up during some other operation, like this one, and wasn't considered part of the prosecution's case for that operation, it was a simple matter of shipping them back to whatever prison or planetary jurisdiction they had escaped from.

But this wasn't some simple criminal operation, this was a political hairball of the highest order and Riddick was up to his neck in it. When Sikes had received the order authorizing him to make certain that the 'identity of said individual' would never come back to bite anybody in the butt by 'any means necessary', he hadn't believed it. He had requested confirmation. It had come in the form of a personal message from his direct superior, Commodore Jenkins.

"Sorry it has to be you, Len. This wouldn't be our problem if the damned Forces weren't playing footsie with the Company and using Spec-Ops was out of the question. I'll back you whatever you decide to do. Just remember that the Brass aren't going to have to live with this, you are. For your own sake, just be damn sure you're right."

That advice had come a little late. From the first accusation that Wade was Riddick, he had been doing nothing but trying to make damn sure. The possibility of sending an innocent man into one of those hellhole, maximum security prisons wasn't something he could stomach, no matter how expedient it might be. He'd studied the files, both Riddick's, downloaded from Central Files, and the growing pile of information being gathered about Wade. He'd conducted the questioning of Wade himself. It didn't help.

Sikes hadn't lied to the woman about that, the man was an enigma. His behavior in that cell hadn't been that of a man who had never seen the inside of a prison, as 'Elric Wade' was supposed to be. However, during the questioning, he hadn't acted like a man worried about his own situation. He had been more interested in what had happened to the colonist and his lost fighter and her crew. Not the behavior of the egocentric sociopath that Riddick was purported to be; certainly not the actions of a man who had been sentenced to life in prison for going rogue and murdering every one in his section from the commander down.

Still, Sikes had come to the decision that the likelihood of Wade actually being Riddick was high enough to assuage his conscience and allow him to turn him over to be processed for re-imprisonment. Hell, from Riddick's records, they wouldn't be able to hold on to him very long anyway. Then that damn order had come telling him that the question of Wade's identity was to be dealt with outside of the system, that Richard B. Riddick could not be allowed to be resurrected to complicate the more important matters concerning the Institute group, the colony and the Company.

After thirty-five years of service, the Patrol had finally put him into the same position that had caused him to opt out of the Forces and into the Patrol in the first place. Only now, he had a lot more to lose and no place to opt out to. So he had gone to the woman, mistakenly thinking that she was the weakest link. The Good boy had already contributed all the information he had but for revenge, not a trustworthy motive. Sen was the type to say that his own mother was Riddick if it would advance his plans but had already made it quite clear that he, and the group as a whole, were 'innocent' of any knowledge of Wade's identity having been falsified. All that meant was that he was covering his own ass and would let the woman take the fall for it if it became a problem. However, if the woman could be tricked into confirming Riddick's identity in the belief that she was saving him, Sikes could trust that it was the truth.

Well, he'd gotten his truth, all right, and a lot more besides. The second he had his conformation, he should have stood up and walked out of there. Why had he stayed and listened to her? Maybe because confirmation that she gave him wasn't what he was expecting? That it just made the man even more of an enigma. Maybe because he hadn't heard what would justify killing in cold blood and hoped that he would if he heard how Riddick had seduced and used the woman? Would that have made it personal enough to kill Riddick with a clean conscience? Or at least one he could live with?

What he had gotten was the exact opposite. Nor had it been any fairy tale, love blinded pipe dream. She might be soft and delectable on the outside but there was a pig-iron tough brain on the inside. Riddick hadn't taken her anywhere she hadn't wanted to go. In fact, she had forced him in the matter of the murders at the compound when he would have kept her out of it. And Sikes had to believe her about that. There had been pride and no little amusement in her face and her voice when she had told the tale of out maneuvering both Riddick and Lazarus to have her way about it.

There was also the fact that he couldn't keep himself from beginning to understand the man that she claimed Riddick was. Sikes had had his own epiphany similar to that she had described for Riddick. It had come much earlier for him and involved someone much closer to him. His mother hadn't died for him, she had only died proud of him at a time when he wasn't very proud of himself. So he had opted out of the Forces and into the Patrol. Well, Riddick hadn't had that easy opt. But, if the woman could be believed, he had found one anyway.

Then, there was the problem of the woman herself. Sikes had been amused when he had first arrived to find her wearing one of the pieces of jewelry that had started popping up all over the colony soon after he had had them disarmed. Mr. Good had been quite quick to demonstrate the working of the mechanisms with his own gifted belt buckle and demand that they also be confiscated for his 'safety'. But, Sikes and his men had seen too many of obviously less talented manufacture and knew that Mr. Lazarus wasn't the only source now. What ever they confiscated would only be replaced by more hidden weapons. Better to know who was carrying than that.

What amused him in this case was that the woman hadn't seen fit to wear hers until now. After the revelations of her part at the compound, it wasn't so amusing any more. As her tale of her association with Riddick unfolded, Sikes had realized that she was seriously contemplating using that tiny weapon against him if she thought it necessary and had confidence that she would be effective at it. That wasn't something that he wanted to risk.

First, he didn't want to be forced to hurt her. Regardless of the questionable methods she was bent on learning, he had no doubts about the basically correct motives that drove her. Also, he couldn't deny that he found her attractive in a personal way, not an effect that most women had on him. He rather envied Riddick at having found her first. Women who could understand the differences that might set a man apart from the normal citizen, her 'sheep', and actually appreciate them were not easily found. However, a much more important fact to Sikes was that she would be another matter that he would have to handle outside the system. He was quite sure that his superiors would not care to have her complicate matters any more than Riddick. An attack on a senior officer of the Patrol by a member of the Institute group would certainly be considered such a complication.

With these thoughts going through his mind, her warning about prohibitive murders and his superiors continuing to use him in this manner once he had proven capable of it had hit him hard. As a prophecy only, it could have been set aside. As one that was already becoming reality, a reality that Sikes knew he couldn't find a way to live with, it couldn't. Damn the woman for being so right about that.

In the end, Sikes discovered that he hadn't been lying about wanting to talk to someone who was more his own kind either. Talking to the woman had emphasized the uncomfortable, almost slimy, feeling that talking to the Good boy and Sen had left him feeling, that the orders of his own superiors left him feeling. Compared to them, the woman, hell, even Riddick, came out the winners on who you'd rather sit down and have a drink with. It occurred to him that he just might be getting too old for this game when the criminals started looking like the 'good guys'.

So here he was, walking toward that cell, praying that the woman was right about Riddick. But even if that wasn't the case, he could live with it. He was giving Riddick the chance to prove himself. If the man refused the offer, reverted, it wouldn't be murder. It would be self-defense.