Hey all,
Yes i know it's been a long time but i hope you haven't given up on me or the story yet so here is installment 28.
Kayla
Chapter 28: Hello Mr. Bradley
The building was in complete darkness but Jack had suspected that, that would be the case. The only lit part of the building was the main entrance where pair of security guards was sitting behind their desk chatting away about their home life or the latest sporting event. They were probably unaware of the danger that was being experimented on in the labs above them. That thought alone was enough to make Jack shudder from top to toe.
She shuddered as she disappeared down an alleyway close to the main building. The shoulder bag was dropped on the ground as she knelt down beside it, opening the zipper and pulling her things out.
A black baseball cap was fixed firmly on her head, she tucked night vision glasses in her breast pocket, sure that she would need them later. She put her gun belt on before slipping a blaster in each holster, one on either side before tucking a glock in both pockets of her vest jacket that was deigned for that purpose.
A small skiando went down the side of her boot before she re-laced it and concealed two shivs of Riddick's design within easy reach. For all intent and purposes she was perhaps over doing it a little with the weaponry but she was desperate to go in there without under estimating the creature or the good doctor. If he was a smart bastard worth his PHD then he had probably become paranoid.
This was a fight she was going to win and then she would go back to concentrating on saving her own skin. But fear of the uncontrollable and the known danger made beads of sweat trickle down her spine as she re-zipped her bag and stashed it next to a dumpster.
There was a letter still inside it explaining what she had set out to do if for some reason she never made it out again. It was stamped and addressed for the fool who found it to send off. Kelly would get an unfortunate letter if it came down to that. She hoped that it didn't.
Jack stood up and stretched, rotating her neck and shoulders, stretching out the muscles in her spine and legs before exiting the alley again and walking down the street that would lead her past the main building to the back fire exits or at least that was the case in the floor plans that John had sent her along with the map over the vid phone.
The pavement was slick even under the heavy grip of her big black boots as she neared the entrance to the research building, she pulled her glock from the pocket in her vest jacket, made sure the clip was secure in the gun and her spare was tucked safely and securely in her pocket before making her way up the stairs. Her body hugged the building and she watched every step as she moved using all the lessons that sergeant Cody and Riddick had taught her.
"Third floor, live research room." Her mind told her again and again as she reached the right level. The gun in her hand swept the whole window frame before she crouched beneath it to slip on the glasses she would need to see inside. Riddick had once told her that the thermal vision selection was as close as she would get to what it was like to have shined eyes without committing to the procedure. It was almost strange, she felt, that that thought had come to her mind at that moment.
She stood again and broke a corner of the pane of glass so she could open the fire door and then slipped into the darkened building, her gun and eyes sweeping the area for security patrols, researchers who had chosen that night to stay in and work late, sensory devices or CCTV cameras that would alert security to her presence in the building.
A screech ripped through the air around her and an involuntary shudder ran through her whole body, the memories of a frightened and hiding fifteen year old re-surfacing trying to push panic down her throat which she flatly refused to give into.
Later, she promised herself, later when she could recant the story while relaxing and with Riddick's arms and presence within easy reach. Then it would be safe and she would have a way to keep the panic and memories at bay. If there was a later, something cynical in her said. The problem wasn't so much that she was cynical but that she was experienced, far too experienced.
It was too late for her to let the feeling in her gut to take her back outside the building and stay away from her target. The creature would end up dead and she could do her best to slip away before anyone realised what had happened. That would be the trick, not tripping any alarms and getting out without hurting anyone. Tonight was not a good night to get cornered so that her only way out was a fight.
She didn't want to give mercs who were oblivious of her other kills reason to go looking for her for other then her connection with Richard B. Riddick, a man wanted in nearly every galaxy. It wasn't in her to go after blood for anything but the severest reasons. If he wouldn't give up the creature then she wouldn't hesitate to go after blood, as long as it was his blood.
Jack slunk along the corridor until she got to a darkened room with the words, 'Live Testing' on the door. Her eyes swept the corridor, looking once more for any signs of life or security that she hadn't noticed before. Again there was none so Jack steeled her emotions and gripped the door handle, giving it a firm twist and pushing it open at the same time.
The room was dark, two desks and a testing table in the middle of the room, the desk strewn with notes and test results. At the far back of the room was a large cell-like structure and it was from within that cell there came a screech and a flurry of movement that she found disturbing beyond what most could imagine.
She pulled the blaster out and held both in front of her as she moved into the room, skirting one desk, her eyes firmly on her quarry, her other senses trained on her surroundings as she moved.
The door clicked shut!
Jack spun round, her guns pointed at the shadowy figure that had a gun of his own trained on her. She flicked the priming switch on her blaster with her thumb and her trigger finger on her glock tightened, hovering over the trigger in anticipation of the shot she was sure would soon follow.
"Jackie, Jackie, Jackie." The voice of Mr. James Bradley said from behind her and to her left. Jack left one gun pointed on the man at the doorway while she turned her head and moved her glock swiftly so it was pointed at the Merc.
"How nice of you to join us Miss Stewart. Didn't you bring your shadow?" Dr. Johnston's voice said from the doorway and she fired a warning shot three inches from the spot that he moved to.
"I wouldn't move if I were you Doc." Jack said calmly.
"And I wouldn't shoot my associate if I were you Jacqueline." James Bradley said and made a motioning movement with is second gun and John, Kirsten and another woman walked out from behind the desk they had been hiding behind.
"John?" Jack looked at her 'friend' in disbelief.
"I'm sorry Jack. They had a gun to my head! They told me that if I didn't call you and get you here that they'd kill me and these two girls. They aren't really after you Jack, I mean Dr. Johnston wants your insight but they're really after Riddick." John said; he was pale and looked close to completely panicking.
"That dumb fuck isn't getting my insight!" Jack snapped. "And Riddick isn't even in this planetary system anymore. He couldn't deal with civilisation, hated me working at the club and didn't for obvious reasons want to go looking for Candace's father. So he fucked off again and he won't be coming back this time. There's too much baggage in my life now for him."
"He didn't want you with him?" James Bradley asked.
"Of course he did but on his terms and that's just not an option, I have a life now. He was welcome to become a part of that life but I wasn't going to leave it for him." Jack shook her head. "You're worse then Riddick, you know," She informed the Merc. "Chasing old men and their families, holding people hostage, killing your informants along the way and for money. At least when Riddick kills he kills because he has a reason."
"You've heard about the death of the man on New Mecca then?"
"I have my own network of informants." Jack sent another shot at the Doctor as he tried to move, this one grazing his cheek. "I said don't move!"
"And I told you not to shoot at my associate." Bradley said taking his attention off Jack while he took his shot at his hostages. John for once was one step a head of the Merc, pulling the two women to the floor with him as he hit the deck, the shot flying over their heads. Jack shot at the doctor again and he hit the floor too. As she had made her shot she had slid her glock across the floor to John and pulled her other gun as Mr. James Bradley looked in her direction.
They both let off a shot. His badly aimed shot grazing her thigh while her's hit it's mark, tearing through his right shoulder. Pain sheered through her leg as she forced herself to keep a hold of both of her weapons and leap across the desk that john and the two women were behind.
"Jack you're hit!" John said.
"No time for that! I know you have had some security training, don't worry about killing the Doc or the Merc if you have to. Just get these women out. I have a rucksack in an ally near here, get it and take it to Zion when you can, either give it to me then or give it to Johnny alright?" She said and gritted her teeth against the pain as she heard Bradley groan as he got up again. "Now go, I'll cover you!"
"I'm sorry about all of this Jack." John said as he gripped his gun and the three prepared to move.
"Get them out and count yourself forgiven." She answered as she leapt up and fired three times, once at the Doctor to keep him face down on the floor and twice at the Merc as John and the two scientists flew for the door. The Merc returned fire, his shot grazing the top of her left bicep making her cry out as she moved from where she had been standing to a vantage point where she had a clear view of the creature and James Bradley. "Lights FULL!" She demanded and the lights flared up around her, the creature shrieked in pain as his skin pitted and burned there in front of her own eyes.
Jack then started shooting, James Bradley hit the floor again as her bullets and pulse blasts hit the creature. "No!" Doctor Johnston screamed as Jack turned on her heel and sprinted out of the room, only to be tripped by the Doctor as she passed the door.
She hit the floor, her momentum causing her to slide across the polished tile floor, her weapons going flying as her head cracked off the opposite wall to the door and her world was plunged into darkness.
---
"She killed it." Dr. Johnston said mournfully for what must have been the hundredth time and James Bradley gritted his teeth as he made sure that his prisoner was securely shackled in the cell that he had prepared for her. The scientist was wearing very thin on the Merc's nerves.
"So? You got one once, I'm sure you can get another. I told you how much Riddick is worth and you'll get 10 of that." James Bradley snapped. "Wanna dig the bullet out of her leg for me and stitch up her arm. I can't have my bate dying on me quite yet."
"I'm not that kind of doctor." Dr. Johnston protested.
"You had better learn then 'cause after I've got this freight into space, you got my shoulder to patch up too." James Bradley handed the man a large metal briefcase before standing and leaving the room.
Things had not gone as planed but at least he had her. Right? But what if she was telling the truth that she had indeed parted ways with Riddick for the final time. He wasn't the type of man, he was sure, to chase after a woman that didn't want him, not matter how alluring she may have been to him, but would he still come for her?
There were many things about that man that he hadn't expected to learn. Things like his disgust with the abuse of children, his distaste for rape and the fact that he had protected and even loved a member of the human race. He hadn't expected to hear how he had saved his hostage's life twice on T2 and numerous other times, taking bullets and acquiring scars for her sake.
Were those actions, the actions of a man who would not come for her?
James Bradley secured himself in the pilot's seat and continued to try and work out the murder's next move. All of his careful planning was going to go to waste if the girl as telling the truth. He would be left with an innocent prisoner on his hands that he couldn't just say had been brutalized by the criminal she thought she could trust. His plan was going to be shot full of holes if Riddick wasn't as attached to her any more as he had thought.
His plans were being screwed with and it wasn't the first time since James Bradley had started this hunt that his planning had been screwed with. Richard B. Riddick was giving him an almighty headache. How one man could be so difficult he just didn't know any more. This was becoming the hunt of his life and he no longer knew if he was enjoying it or not.
"This is James Bradley of The Alliance, departure code Alpha Two Five Seven Brava Charlie Echo One Brava, requesting permission to take off." James Bradley radioed the Tower as he continued to prep his ship.
"Affirmative Alliance, you are cleared for take off, depart from lane nine, departure time seven minutes and counting down." The response from the Tower came quicker then he had anticipated but the surprise that that caused was a pleasant one. It seemed that the gods were smiling on him at that moment.
Seven minutes and things would start getting interesting.
That girl was going to get it when she woke up. There would be questions and pay back, plenty of pay back. It would start right after they got into space and on a direct heading, that and after the good doctor had patched the hole in his shoulder that he had casually packed in gauze to save him bleeding out too much before it was safe to take care of it properly.
He settled his hands on the controls, prepped his engines until all four of the lights on the panel above his head had turned from amber to green. He taxied up to the mouth of lane nine and only when he got the call to the affirmative did he reach above his head, pressing all four of the corresponding switches to the lights.
His engines roared to life as he pushed the leaver that controlled power to it's FULL mark and with the hum of take-off buzzing in his hears as they punched through the atmosphere of the planet, all he heard was a woman's moaning cry and the doctor's nervous apology.
"So the wench has woken up." He whispered and chuckled as he started plotting the course and inputting it into the ship's autopilot.
---
Fear rippled through John's skin, making his nerves tingle in response to every movement that the women who were intent on following his every move as they walked into yet another ally way close to the research building. This was the fourth ally that they had checked out, looking for the backpack that Jack had said that she had left behind but that it was important to get that backpack back to her family if anything went wrong.
He didn't know why it was important to find and retrieve it but the fact that it was on Jack's mind when someone was trying to shoot her full of holes made him search for it in earnest. If it had been important to Jack then, it would be even more important now. It killed him though, to think of his own cowardess in that room with the bullets flying over head but at least he could honestly say that there had been nothing that he could have done ten minutes earlier when he had watched the doctor and the bounty hunter, both heavily armed walking down the street, an unconscious and bound Jack with them.
Sweat was slowly but steadily drenching his shirt as with the help of the two sisters he pulled apart another section of alleyway in search of the backpack. Time was running out for Jack and he was the reason that she had even gotten into trouble in the first place. His own cowardess made him feel sick inside and the more he played events over in his head, the worse that gut wrenching feeling got.
"I've found it!" Laura let out the shout and soon all three of them were gathered around the backpack, looking at it as though they had found some great hidden treasure. There was a mixture of great anticipation and worry on their faces along with curiosity. What could the backpack contain that was so vital?
"Thank the gods!" John bit his lip as he unzipped it, rummaging around inside until he found a pre-stamped, addressed letter, the address clearly in Jack's handwriting. He frowned and turned it over and over in his hands. It was addressed to Kelly and Jonathan Marks; it would have been why the backpack was suddenly important.
"Who are Kelly and Jonathan Marks?" Kirsten asked reading the names over his shoulder and breaking him out of his own thoughts about what the letter might contain.
"Her dead fiancé's brother-in-law and older sister. They are pretty much all she has left for family now." He explained, tucking the letter away in his pocked and re-sipping the bag. "Go home, rest and get some sleep. You have to try and forget that any of this ever happened. Don't mention it to anyone, do you understand?" He said calmly wondering at why Kelly's name was on the front. It was common knowledge that she was a wanted criminal; it was also common knowledge that her own family didn't even know where she was. Maybe things had changed.
"I'm coming with you. The information that my sister and I have may be helpful in getting Jack back to that family of hers." Laura frowned, planting her hands on her hips and scowling at him.
"No. It's not safe for the two of you to be involved. There are others involved in this that might kill me for my involvement and you don't need to be killed along side me." He shook his head, his guts twisting as he thought about that and started sweating heavily once more. Riddick really was going to kill him when he found out about this… that was, if Jack hadn't been telling the truth.
"I'm not going to argue with you. I'm coming and so is Kirsten. That's the way it is." Laura was stubborn and folded her arms, giving him a level look. "You can either stop arguing and make this easy or we can do it the hard way." John sighed but said nothing, just looked down at his feet. Why could he not just assert himself?
"Well, if we're going with, just pray that Riddick really has split because if not, we all might be in very big trouble!" Kirsten shook her head voicing John's one real concern.