Death's Grin 6
"I'm not going to ask you again," Riddick said, sounding bored as he put a little more pressure on the man's head that was now between the glass covered floor and the bottom of his boot, slick with spilled beer.
"I don't want no trouble!" The bartender said loudly, but nervously.
"How much was that glass and beer?" Jack asked, sliding onto a stool in front of the counter.
"Uh…that'd be…uh…" he stuttered, now completely afraid with Jack's cold glare.
"Here, this should cover the broken glass, the beer and any clean up costs." She said, tossing a cred chip at him. The bartender caught it in midair and nodded.
"There be a back room for dis kind o' business." The bartender said, waving towards the back of the bar. "I'd greatly appreciate-"
"Shut it." Riddick snarled and grabbed the neck of their victim and dragged him back through the bar, kicking open the door to the private room. Jack sweetly smiled as she slid off the stool, grabbing a bottle of hard liquor from the bar's stock. The door of the back room clicked behind her and the bartender gulped nervously. This wasn't going to be good for business.
Jack took in the room as she entered it, the low ceiling, peeling paint, a worn black metal table in the center, with four chairs around it. She was surprised that the lights had a dimmer; usually in low-class bars like this they would have older versions, which would be light or no light at all.
Riddick had unceremoniously tossed the man onto the table top, looking down at him through his black goggles. Jack pulled out one of the chairs and stepping up onto it, sat down on the thin back of the chair, leaning over and resting her elbows on her knees. From one hand dangled a handgun, the other the unopened bottle of liquor.
"What's the plan?" She asked, her eyes adjusting as Riddick ordered for the lights to be at 25. This was how it was on the ship, so it didn't bother Jack but a bolt of shivers went down her spine when Riddick removed his goggles. She would never get enough of the steely gaze.
"Since he doesn't seem up to talking…I'd say some torture," Riddick calmly said and didn't miss Jack's jaw clench.
"Sure he won't speak?" Jack asked, leaning over their victim. He looked a little dazed and the shards of glass sticking out of one side of his face didn't help much.
"Yes," he replied shortly, "now take out the glass."
Jack did as she was told, stepping off the chair and setting the bottle down. Tucking in her gun in the back of her pants, she got to work with the little tools she had, which consisted of her hands, nails and blades. Pulling out a dirty strip of cloth from a pocket, she pried his jaw open and gagged him, letting his head fall back hard down onto the table.
"First question," Riddick started. "You saw Johns some three nights ago correct?"
The man understood the question perfectly, but didn't answer. Riddick nodded and Jack quickly pulled out a piece of glass from his face, making him groan into the gag.
"I'm not in the mood for this," Riddick said darkly, grabbing the man's shirt and fisting his hand in it, pulling up his body and head and slamming it back down onto the table. Jack could barely keep from jumping. She was a hunter, not a torturer.
"Next question; where is Johns going?" He asked and the man groaned as Jack took out another piece of glass. "WHERE IS HE GOING!" Riddick shouted and Jack's eyes turned cold with hate; she wasn't going to let this fly when they got back to the ship. Riddick hadn't done this the way she had wanted, which was to threaten at gunpoint. This was getting out of hand and the gold ring on the man's wedding finger wasn't helping matters at all.
"You're going to start losing body parts if you don't tell me where the fuck-" He was cut off by Jack's warning growl. Suddenly he stepped back, realizing that he had let his beast out and never even noticed. He wasn't sure if Jack knew this but he did know that shit was going to hit the fan when they finished this job up.
He didn't voice any complaint as Jack gently removed the glass from the man's face and using the untied gag, doused it in the alcohol and cleaned the wounds. The entire procedure was silent until the man spoke.
"You weak bitch, can't even handle torture," he spat at Jack's feet and before Riddick could even tell Jack to stand down, she had backhanded the man's head into a corner of the table.
"Tell us where Johns is." She ordered and the man laughed, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. "Now." She added and he stopped laughing when his gaze was met with the barrel of a handgun. "Death at point blank is quick, but what if I did something else…like have you running and with a few shots, shatter your knee caps…then…your shoulders and wait, before the knee caps how about I slowly slice your Achilles tendons? Hmmm? How does that sound?"
Riddick was surprised but refused to show it. It was like she would take the blame of torturing the victim, but refuse to be a tool while he did it. While he used plain and simple tones to ask his questions and voice his threats, Jack would often smile and her eyes would cloud with a sort of bloodlust that could easily be mistaken for sex lust. Her voice would purr and her body would move with her threats, like a feline's body following its roar.
The man had narrowed his eyes, not believing her threats until she moved down the table and gently began to roll up his pant legs, as if a mother were doing it for her child who was about to run and play in the mud.
"Hey, c'mon now, c'mon man, this isn't funny." He began to inch up the table, kicking his leg free of Jack's grasp.
"Neither is you not telling us what Johns said and where he is heading," Jack replied smoothly, her eyes now glinting.
"Christ! I'll tell you! Just let me up!" He said and Jack backed off, letting him sit up on the table. He glanced at Riddick who inclined his head just slightly, as if greeting him for the first time.
"So…we're waiting." Jack pulled a chair towards her and placed it backwards, swinging one leg over the side and straddling it. She had placed the bottle of alcohol behind her, near the chair and had one handgun in hand.
"So…this Johns guy…he…he's weird looking, you know? All mechanized and shit, anyway, we did some business some years back, when I was first gettin' in the business. It went smooth as a clean whore's ass and we kinda got along, well enough to exchange calling numbers. We keep in touch, whatever, then he disappears for a while, but I was fucking around in backwater systems, picking up shit for nothing bounties, but I didn't keep in touch with the news or shit, never have, bunch of useless crap. So…you know…he calls me up and asks how I've been, how're the wife and kids, the usual, he-"
"Let me get this straight," Jack said, motioning towards his hand with the ring with her gun, "you are actually married with kids?"
"Killed my wife for black market organ trade, sold my kids, but this comes in handy for the 'you can't kill me, I've got a wife and kids' shit, least for those mother fuckers who fall for that shit."
Just as he said that, Jack's hatred level doubled for this man and Riddick started to think about moving to the other side of the table, just in case he said something else to piss her off.
"Keep going." He growled and the guy turned around, surprised that Riddick had spoken. He slowly went back to facing Jack and the rhythm got going again.
"Where was I…oh right, so he calls me up and asks if we could chat over some drinks. I say sure and he shows up about a week later and we come here, 'm a regular customer and all. And we begin to talk and I don't ask shit about his body, it was weird. He needed money, don't know why, guy was always loaded, but I say sure, give him a few hundred and he's all thankful 'n shit, but he asks if I know anyone who could lend him a ship."
"How'd he get here if he didn't have his own?" Jack asked and the man motioned for her to be quiet.
"Exactly what I asked and he gives me shit about not asking unneeded questions so I don't. So I give 'im some names and this one name his eyes kinda lit up and he asks more about this guy and I tell him what I know and-"
"What was this name?"
"Uh…guy goes by his last name…uh…grave…crypt…coffin, what is his name!"
"Toombs?"
"Yeah! Toombs! So I tell him and eventually he thanks me and it's like…an hour before the brothels close so I tell him I gotta jet, there are beds for me to break and-" suddenly he lunged at Jack's handgun and she easily backed off the chair and crouching to the floor, she slipped a straight knife from her boot and grabbing one his ankles, pulled it to the floor and slammed the blade straight through his boot and into the floor. The man was breathless from the pain and Riddick grabbed the gag and jammed it in the man's mouth.
"Tell me where Johns is now."
The man shook his head from left to right and screamed into the gag as Jack twisted the knife in his foot.
"Tell me, bitch, or this is going to get nasty."
Finally the man nodded and Riddick released him, but eyed the man's sweet spot as he began to talk.
"He…he…he's going to…" he stopped briefly and Jack ground the knife into his foot and he nearly screamed but bit through his lip instead.
"Where?" Riddick asked again.
"…He…he…Helion Pr-rime," he barely said it before Riddick went right for his sweet spot. As he cleaned off his blade, he realized Jack hadn't budged since he had revealed the name of Johns' destination.
"Jack? Jack? Jackie?" He walked over to her and shook her slightly and she startled, pulling her knife from the dead man's foot. Without words she cleaned the blade and put away her gun, her lower lip trembling as she did. "Babe, Jack, listen to me," Riddick wrapped his arms around her body and almost flinched when she buried her face in his chest, her tremors increasing. When they finally ebbed away, she looked up at him and spoke quietly.
"Riddick…he's going after Imam!"
"TOOMBS!" Riddick's angry voice over the call network startled him from his chair. Gulping, the merc patched the connection and waited for the onslaught.
"Yeah?"
"You said Johns was after you, you're floating a few systems away so why the FUCK is he going to Helion Prime?" He demanded, the question barely audible in his tone.
"Oh right, you've got some religious buddy there…huh, no idea. My guess is that he's trying to pull you out of hiding, you know, skipping the step of trying to kill me." Toombs replied and by the angry growl on the other end, he knew it wasn't the right answer.
"Then why didn't he do that in the beginning?" Jack's voice floated through the connection and Toombs knew she had been crying, he could hear it in her tone.
"Sweetie, I have no idea why he's going to Helion Prime. Maybe he's trying to pull two strings at once, 'cause he doesn't know I've hired you two. He thinks that, where you'll go, I go. Don't forget, this hunt on me isn't just about your info, I've stolen a shitload of money from this mother fucking bitch of a robot," Toombs explained.
"Good enough." Riddick replied darkly.
"So, you goin' to HP?" Toombs asked.
"What the hell do you think?" The convict snapped back.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Keep in touch, Dickey Boy," and with that, the connection was cut.
Thanks to these reviewers:
TRO- Oh twists, they are so much fun to write! Yeah, although Toombs can be annoying, if it were a choice of being stuck in a ship for an untold amount of time with Toombs or Johns, I'd think we'd pick Toombs.
DemonDogs- It's fun when reviewers pick out their favourite lines. I like that.
Nikita1506- Romance...erm…eh, alright, I'll work it in.
njrd- New chapter! Vacation ended for me, so all this work is put back on me so writing isn't as easy as it was, considering I also wrote a ten-page one-shot that should go up tonight. Thanks for reviewing though.
lamyka- And you had it, hope you liked it.