Chapter 5: Riddick

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was Friday night. The ship departed tomorrow, and it had been three days since they boarded. He'd worked hard in the lower decks of the ship repairing, replacing, upgrading, and installing everything mechanical under the sun. Riddick was looking forwards to his weekend off.

Sitting next to Jack on the white sued sofa, he was slowly beginning to relax. Although apart of him still felt like he should be looking over his shoulder, constantly on alert, always waiting for something to happen. He shoved it aside and tried to concentrate on just relaxing and watching the evening news.

Jack shifted next to him, she'd been acting funny lately, always hyper or something. She finally settled, but by the next commercial brake, she moved again, crossing and uncrossing her legs. Then putting her hand on her head and taking it away. She went on like this for another ten minutes before Riddick couldn't take it anymore.

"Something wrong Jack?" He asked, slightly annoyed. Jack looked at him, crossing her legs again, then uncrossing them. "No, just feel like doing something, instead of watching the boring news." She paused to look at her chrono watch. "Hey lets watch Zane 51, it's on in like eight minutes." She said quickly. Riddick rolled his eyes, "Jack Zane 51's a chick flick, why don't you try an just watch the news for once." Riddick said, looking at the screen. He watched the news to gain info about people, and there whereabouts, or his whereabouts for that matter.

"You know your getting boring in you old age." Jack muttered, knowing he'd hear it. " Jack common, it's only been what a year since you've met me?" Riddick countered. Jack rolled her eyes, "Yeah well, you confuse me. You wanna watch the boring news, instead of watching some chicks bounce around doing flips an' stuff, I thought guys were suppose to like that sort of thing." She said with a shrug.

Riddick laughed. She was smarter then she let on to be, that meant he had to be more careful of what he said around her. He shook his head still chuckling. "Look your right Kid. But I do think about other things believe it or not!" He joked. She sifted again, this time lightly bouncing on the sofa. He rolled his eyes, "Can't sit still?" He asked. She shook her head, as the news came back on.

"We interrupt this normal planned programming to bring you a broadcast from the Galactic News Service live from Arenia 7"

The screen flickered to a news room, and an attractive blue eyed news anchor.

"As you know, about month ago the infamous Deo McGraw was shot, during a merc raid on the east side of Pluto ll. But only now are the discrepancies and true identity of this immense criminal being publicly reported." She said roboticly, looking to the left of her a screen appeared, showing what Deo looked like.

Definite high cheekbones, piercing hazel eyes, tanned skin, black hair, goatee, and he looked like a gangster. From one of those old earth early 1920's movies. Jack stopped fidgeting, and was still. "Kinda cute." He heard her whisper. Riddick smirked, shaking his head.

She grabbed the remote and turned up the sound.

"McGraw was known through out the underworld of the universe as The Father. He was the boss in a highly successful identity creation ring. Which created new versions of the things that make up identities. Including i.d.'s, birth chips, social security numbers, and the most intricate and expensive of them all The Deletion. The price for this service can range anywhere from 200 thousand to 2 million dollars. The Deletion is a felony job. That consists of a computer hacker going into merc and law enforcement databases. Once inside the hacker then deletes all existing records on the customer. The hacker then can also corrupt the programs the authorities may use to retrieve the files. And without a record there are no grounds for arrest. This service was usually done by Deo's alleged partner and rumored girlfriend, Jennifer Valence. But better known in the trade simply as Minx."

The screen changed to a picture of her, Minx. She was smaller then he thought, she had long black hair, and a nice body. Trim, but larger for her height. She maybe weighed somewhere around 140 lbs. Not petite by any means. Her arms were well muscled, and so were her legs. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad, he thought to himself. He heard Jack quietly gasp, which took Riddick by surprise. He raised a questioning eyebrow at her. She shrugged, "What?" She questioned, looking a little surprised.

Riddick turned his attention back to the news broad cast. Which was now talking about Deo again.

"Born Deo Jake McGraw, only child of the notorious Italian mobster, Heath McGraw, Deo picked up the rebellious side from his father. And at the age of twelve he already had a healthy criminal record. Including, grand theft auto, massive looting, possession of a gun, and the list goes on." She paused to show a charred building, that looked like it lost about two stories, from a massive explosion. "This is the building where he ran his Identity ring. About a month ago, one night, it all ended. The facility was raided by mercs, in the end everything was destroyed, Deo was killed, it was all over." She paused for a moment, trying to make it more dramatic.

Riddick wondered about how Minx fit into all of this. "What about Minx, you bimbo?" Jack asked the TV screen, slightly annoyed. Riddick looked at her. She had moved to the front of her seat, and was staring intently at the screen, almost burning holes in it with her eyes. The news woman continued.

"There are two mysteries that still remain. Minx escaped the merc's hostile takeover, but was not found, and her whereabouts are still unknown. But the bigger mystery was formed this afternoon at the scene of the identity ring. Law enforcement officials are highly skeptical that this was entirely merc fueled, after five identifiable mercs and police officers were found murdered in the dumpster in a side ally next to the building. All the officials are wondering, 'was this an inside job, did this involve another massive criminal.' But the captain of the group of mercs released a statement that all fifteen men were present at the raid." She said, reading from a white slip of paper. But quickly continued.

"But when asked if all the men were his, the captain refused to answer. Another anonymous source states that the captain of the squad was not present during the raid." She paused as another piece of paper was handed to her, "Word has just been given to me. Enforcement has also reported that the illegally acquired 500 billion dollars they expected to confiscate from the raided establishment was also taken during the raid. The case still remains a mystery." She said.

"The Father is dead, however the family is still alive. His partner, and the money are reported missing. The take over of his kingdom is currently being questioned as being legit and clean. Suspicions are arising, even about the team of mercs that raided itfrom the Galactic News Service live from Arenia 7, this is Celia Holdenbrow, goodnight." The screen went black.

500 billion dollars, Riddick thought. Shaking his head. His brain was buzzing at all the new info he just learned, even thought he had learned over the years to not completely trust the news, he still found it intriguing. So she was a computer hacker, interesting. Jack sprung up into a standing position. "You think Hocks knows where she is Riddick? You think they killed her? What about all that money? Can you believe it, 500 billion!" She said, talking so fast he could almost not understand her. Riddick shook his head, and grasped her shoulder.

"Kid all I know is with that much money no merc could possibly get it all by themselves. It takes a lot of people to get that much money away from a scene without causing one themselves. Also, it would look too strange, for one person to walk into a bank and just deposit 500 billion, even a quarter of that would turn heads. As for Minx," He paused to shake his head, apart of him already starting to wonder about her, "Never under estimate Hocks. Now, I think you should work off some that hyper energy, you got a whole room, have at it." He said steering her towards the work out room. She stopped at the door and looked at him, "Riddick?"

He turned, "Yeah?" He asked, quickly getting tired. "Why did you say yes to Hock's and let Minx stay with us?" She asked slowly. " I told you Jack, apart of me died on that planet." He said quietly, not knowing why he'd just told her. He was guessing he was starting to loose his grip on reality because of the fatigue he felt at the moment. Jack nodded. Her face was serious, and understanding. "Plus, you think Hocks would let me say no?" He asked, smirking. "Probably not." Jack said calmly , disappearing around the corner.

Riddick walked into his room. Taking off his shirt, he plopped down onto his king sized bed. Sinking into it he let out a deep sigh, as he wrapped the blanket around him. His body went lax, as his eyes started to close. But his mind was still humming. The picture from the news broadcast of Minx still fresh in his memory, he drifted into exhausted sleep.