Riddick: Bloodhounds 2
Chapter 2: Bars, Brothels & Barrels (Gun Barrels that is)
Dahl is a mercenary with a conscious, and notably standards (just as Boss Johns was presented to be in Riddick: Rule the Dark).
Johns ran his crew of bloodhounds with discipline and a moral code….. not your average group of bounty hunters do you think? Anyway, maybe they didn't start out as such, his crew, at least when it came to tracking down a man on a lonely planet that was known to be an escaped convict and a killer, but things change…. and some lives are found to be worth saving (while others are not). There was an individual found on that world that had proven to be someone was worth rescue, even though it would have been ceremoniously easy to let him die. Ironically it had been the soul the Johns had set out to capture...
Riddick, a short time ago...was a person unknown to Dahl, now she thought about him sometimes in her moments of solitude, or dreamed of his face sometimes when her head hit the pillow at night.
Just as Dahl held Johns on a higher level of respect, she now held a degree of the same towards a man she had pulled from the grasp of Mud Beasts. And although their paths may never again cross, he still held favor within an intimate place inside her, a place that spoke that he would always be seen as special...
******************** B, B & B ********************
Dahl had stepped out of the front doors of the Starlight Mission. Not the coziest of places for a woman to be, but Dahl was par not your average woman…. and she had not come to the bar to snuggle up to man nor woman, and she had not come to make friends. She was there to seek an employment opportunity, as instructed by the Captain of a vessel she'd been a crew-member of for some time now.
Find them a job, that is what he'd placed as her task, and maybe she had.
She looked up the street one way and down the street the other. It was dark, very dark out here in the open… the evening had come and gone and there was little left of the passing day except for the heat. It was dry, hot and dry, but not unbearable, and the warm air was tempered with the smell of many things.
Dahl studied the road and the surrounding area, the street was lined with old rundown buildings, desolate shacks and gloomy alleyways…. on both sides. There was just enough illumination coming from streetlamps fifty feet in either direction to allow her to see that the avenue was empty, empty of any living soul with exception of a barking dog and two ladies of the evening (waiting on the steps of the Brothel Barn just opposite the bar she had exited).
Dahl grinned at the satire of it all, ironic wasn't it, on one side of the street there was a place calling itself the Starlight Mission, and on the other, one named the Brothel Barn. Dahl thought for a moment, only on the edge of the galaxy could the humor be seen in this.
She turned and began walking down the street to her left. As she made her way she could see ahead a dark alley. She assumed this was where the mysterious woman had wanted to meet, all the while of her stroll... she had been badgered by the ladies across the way. They beckoned her to join them for a fun time; she laughed a bit, but continued on with her mission.
When she reached the entrance to the alleyway there was just enough light filtering over the tops of the surrounding buildings to allow her to see that the area wasn't completely dark. There was light filtering through gaps, and over the rooftops of some of the smaller dwellings (coating much of the alley was in shadow), but she could still see. Also, halfway down there was a small lamp fastened onto the hard stone just above a doorway, a doorway that was closed and barred shut. But it was what was standing next to that doorway that caught her attention. There stood a woman, the same woman who had informed her moments prior about a possible job opportunity.
The woman was leaning against the stone wall, arms at her sides, with the smoke of a casual cigarette drifting up from her hand. She never looked in Dahl's direction but it was a sure bet that she sensed the mercenary's presents.
Dressed in military style pants, with plenty of pockets, and a dark tank-top shirt, Dahl could see a thin layer of sweat which had formed across her skin, some of the perspiration had pooled near her collarbone and was now racing down the valley between her chest...
"Sexy"...Dahl had thought, "She had sure made herself look inviting", but as lures go, Dahl could defiantly smell trap coming off this tryst. Still, the mercenary was in the mood for a little action.
Sitting inside the Starlight Mission for the past several nights had frosted her adventurous side, and she was ready for a little entertainment, a little release of tension mind you, even if that tension was released in the form of a back-alley brawl.
Dahl began walking towards the woman with a slow and steady stride. She was cat-like, all spring-coiled and ready to be sprung. When she reached the woman she stood there for a moment in front of her…..
"You wanted me to meet you here….."
Before Dahl could finish and before she could react the woman flicked her cigarette away, grabbed her by the arms and switched their positions. The move was so swift, so sudden, that it almost seemed violent. Dahl now found herself with HER own back against the wall. The woman hadn't spoken a word, only leaned in close to her, so close that her lips were a mere inch away from Dahl's own.
There was a moment of pause between the two of them...
"So, you like it a little rough, do you," Dahl asked? However she remained ready for anything.
"Where is he," the woman suddenly questioned?
Dahl was stunned…..
"Where is who?"
"Riddick…."
"I have no idea who you're talking about."
The woman looked deep into Dahl's eyes…..
"I think that, that may be untrue," she spoke. She turned her head slightly to the side, "Toombs, get over here! I'm not into torture, but I know that your sadistic soul likes to see people bleed….she's all yours!"
And with that Dahl felt a gun barrel being pressed against her temple.
******************** Luna ********************
"So sweetcakes, you don't do men, well, how about I do you….right here in the head you teasing bitch, or, maybe I'll give you a reprieve if you can tell us where we can find Riddick."
Toombs had moved around to the front of Dahl, and the gun was now pointed straight at her head.
"Like I explained to this little duckling here...,"Dahl eyeballed the woman standing only a few feet away...
"That would be Eve," Toombs explained.
Dahl's attention returned to the man in front of her...
"Like I was telling Eve, I have no idea who the two of you are talking about," she attempted to pan off the lie. And a lie it was, she did know Riddick, but in truth, she had no idea where to find him.
"Well that's where we think you're trying to pull a hell hound's wool over our eyes, see little darlin..."Toombs spoke, "there's one in your group that has been shooting off his mouth around Merchant's Square. He's been saying that he'd come face to face with the fugitive only a few short months ago and had stared him down."
"Luna," Dahl spoke aloud, although she hadn't meant to.
Toombs smiled…a wide grin showing all of his teeth.
"Yep, seems the kid has spoken about Riddick a time or two while buying fruit in the produce market... my man Bugs tells me, and although Bugs is not the smartest member of my crew, he has heard me curse that name ten thousand times. He just wasn't smart enough to follow "Luna" back to his lodgings. That's where you come in. Someone said they'd seen the two of you together, and they knew that you sometimes hung-out here at night," Toombs paused for a moment, then continued...
"So, what'll it be Dahl, you tell me where to find that no good scoundrel that left me on Crematoria pinned in an animal cage between two Hell Hounds, or would you prefer tomorrow that your body be found here... with your brains plastered against the wall? I've got a score to settle with that guy, and I'm not beyond torture to get that information or blowing your brains out if I don't."
END PART 2