Chapter 30: Gone
Riddick walked the streets for several hours to clear his thoughts and to look for Kyra. He hadn't seen any sign of her, and since it was beginning to get late he turned back and headed towards the capitol building hoping against hope that Kyra would be there.
When he entered their room he instantly realized she wasn't there; the room was dark and silent. A nagging feeling began to creep up his spine: She wasn't here, but… all her stuff was. The room was all exactly how he had left it this morning.
Something was wrong.
Quickly he checked all the rooms looking for something, anything that might explain his instinct. Nothing. He turned and left the room heading towards the temple and Shirah; he had to find Kyra.
Four mercenaries sat aboard their brand new under-cutter congratulating themselves on another successful snatch. This was going to be a very lucrative run; already they had gotten this new ship as a down payment and after they dropped their cargo off at the coordinates they had just been given, they would get the rest: $695k for one little girl. They had laughed when they heard of this new payday; after taking one look at her picture they took the job. Easy.
The crew consisted of four men of widely varying talents: Donald Jefferies; the leader of this little operation; a brilliant mathematician, he could give highly accurate odds to any snatch at any given time, and had once been a highly sought after navigator who specialized in interstellar jumps. That is until he found it was much more lucrative to work in the buying and selling of convicts.
J. Lukas; a top notch pilot who used to work with Jefferies but always leaned toward the illegal side of things so he compromised and became one of the 'fake badges', a merc, legit but able to break the same laws they were hunting people down for.
Mark 'The Hand' Scott; as evil as hell and he enjoyed making convicts lives as miserable as he could. Dumb as an ox and nearly as big, but good muscle to have around.
Then there was the Rat; no one knew his real name but those who he surrounded himself with didn't care. He was one of the best hackers in the known universe and he enjoyed the money of the mercenary lifestyle so he tagged along and made life a little easier for those he worked with.
As the four of them sat around the ship admiring their perfect snatch, Rat was doing a little research on their newest passenger. After a little digging here and there, a quiet beep sounded and a mug shot of a young girl, maybe thirteen-fourteen, with short curly hair popped up on the screen with her bio along the side. "Hey, shut up! Listen to this." Rat yelled, drawing the attention of his companions. They huddled around as he began to read;
"-Born: Audrey Jacqueline Roberts; April 19, 5993.-
-Ran away from home at the age of twelve and was known to have bought a fare on the crashed ship Hunter Gratzner (launched from just outside the Conga System August 4, 6005) under the name of Jack B. Badd. Allegedly using money she stole previously from her step-father.-
-She disappeared after the Hunter Gratzner went off course somewhere in the M-344/G System and all radio contact was lost on January 18, 6006.-
-According to a report of the former mercenary Toombs dated January 29, 6006, Audrey "Jack" allegedly reappeared on an unregistered Mercenary vessel in the company of the escaped convict and murderer Richard B. Riddick and an unknown holy man.-
-May 5, 6006 Jack reappeared again on New Mecca in the care of Abu 'Imam' al-Walid and was again reported to have run away shortly afterwards-
-Reportedly a thirteen year old girl known as Jack joined a group of mercenaries out of Lupus 5.-
-September 15, 6006 a Jack B. Badd was signed over to a slave company.-
-October 11, 6006 a report that twelve slavers were found slaughtered. Jack was reported missing and was named by several eye witnesses as the murderer.-
-November 23, 6006 a Kyra, formerly Jack B. Badd, formerly Audrey Roberts, was captured by mercenaries and was sent to Crematoria prison.-
-March 3, 6010 six convicts, including Kyra, escaped from Crematoria, allegedly led by Richard B. Riddick. There have been no reports as to their whereabouts or if any survived the escape itself.-"
"Holy shit." J said in a whisper. "This chick is more dangerous than we were told… She fuckin' ghosted twelve slavers and the age of thirteen! Not to mention she has a big friend from the looks of it. Shit! Let's just drop her as soon as we can and get the hell away!"
"You're nothin' but a bunch of pussies!" Jefferies chuckled. "But I agree with you. We'll get the money and go…No need to tempt the odds." He looked back at the cryo chamber that held their costly cargo. "She's asleep now. Nothing to worry about."
Turning towards J he said, "Come on, enter the damn coordinates and let's get some sleep. We have a long way to go."
Shirah awoke to a heavy pounding on her door. Pulling herself upright, she grabbed a wrap and went to answer the door. As soon as the door was open, Riddick stepped in; his goggles were off and she saw his eyes dart quickly, almost hopefully around the room. "Riddick? What is going on?" Shirah asked.
"Kyra." Riddick answered unhelpfully as he pushed passed her and checked all the connecting rooms.
"Kyra? What are you talking about?...Oh." Realization suddenly hit her; Kyra storming out of the arena, Riddick leaving after her, Riddick searching her rooms… "Riddick, she's not here." Shirah said gently but Riddick had already finished checking the rooms and had turned back to her.
"We have to find her. Call the temple guards, have them search the city." He turned towards the door heading for the warrior training facility to look there and gather more searchers, but Shirah's voice stopped him.
"Riddick, are you sure she wants to be found?"
Riddick turned back towards her and with one look left her in no doubt that it didn't matter whether Kyra did or not. He would find her.
Temple guards, warrior trainees, Shirah and Riddick quickly searched the entire city: Kyra was nowhere to be found and the only clue that they had dug up was that a small space craft was missing from one of the aviation hangers. After that piece of information had come to light, many of the searchers stopped their searching; there were only a few still out looking now with the orders to question anyone who might know anything about the missing ship. Riddick waited restlessly for their news at the capitol building. Shirah stayed with him there through the night though she hardly dared to speak and instead watched as the tension built inside him.
After several hours had passed of the tense silence Shirah finally spoke what was on her mind, "Riddick… Maybe…Maybe she doesn't want to be found. She might need some time alone and so she took the ship and left. You heard what she said earlier…She wanted you to see her leave." Shirah took a deep breath and plunged on looking Riddick directly into his blank goggles, "Maybe you need to accept that she did."