CHAPTER6COC

CHAPTER 6

Miriam Gonzalez sat at the table in a grungy bar on one of the bottom floors of Polaris Station. Halfway listening to Burt Leffner rant and rave.
He was railing some bullshit about Richard B. Riddick still being alive. Bullshit because Miriam knew that he was dead. Had been for over a year.
He died when the Hunter-Grantzner crashed on Taurus 2. She knew this because she’d been part of the rescue party the Alliance Security Forces had hurriedly put together to search the planet for survivor’s. Within six hours of the Hunter’s distress signal being received the New Oslo Shipping Corporation had put out the call for all merc’s and anything else close to law enforcement to hightail it to the scene of the crash. Seems there had been some pretty valuable “cargo” on the ship. Salvaging that cargo was of the utmost importance. The reward proved it.
If you had a pulse pistol or big gauge, they considered you close enough to fit the criteria. With the addition of a contingent of crack insurgency troops it had been a pretty motley crew that had rendezvoused on the deep space star jumper. Each independent “salvager” was intent on being the one to garner the big payday. It had struck her weird that the ASF was involved with a merchant vessel salvage operation.
But her curiosity was soon answered at the debriefing they held. Not only did the Hunter-Gratzner have a full cargo valued at over three billion credits, but also Richard B. Riddick, the most feared and fucked up escapee in years had been on the ship. Her curiosity turned to concern when she learned that William Johns was the merc escorting Riddick to Slam.
She and Johns had been off and on lovers for the past four years. They met when she had just been starting out, a twenty year old with a stomach full of hate and a rock for a heart. Orphaned at twelve she had survived by becoming a prostitute and petty thief. Beautiful, tall and lithe, her hazel eyes and long straight black hair attracted the scum as is she were a magnet. By the time she was twenty, all the hellish incarcerations, sexual abuse and beatings made her realize that it was better to be the one with the power. As far as she could see, being a merc was the closest thing you got to freedom and power at the same time.
She had been impressed with Johns instincts and skills. He seemed to have a sixth sense when it came to tracking escapees. Maybe because he had many of the same personality traits as they did. And he was an absolute magician when it came to bullshitting people. When he turned on the smooth talking charm he could get rats to eat of his hand. Even rats of the human variety.
He’d taught her a lot of things about being a gun for hire. The most important lesson being how to stay alive. As their time together had passed, she became aware of him as a man more and more. His intense blue eyes and charm had worked their magic on her. It seemed only natural when they had become physically involved. For awhile there she thought they might make a go of it. But his morphine addiction had changed him.
Not the most caring man in the galaxy in the first place, he became violent and paranoid under the influence of the drug. He liked to blame Riddick and one of their run-in’s for the morphine habit that ruled his life. But truth be told Miriam knew that Johns had been experimenting with drugs long before Riddick. He just used the shiv point imbedded close to his spine as a convenient excuse to up his intake. There had been one too many close calls involving him, her and his baton. It had become apparent that the only way he could get his jollies was if the situation involved pain and rough handling. More and more she disliked the wild look in his eyes. She could take care of herself around any man. But damned if she let herself be used as some dope fiends’ punching bag.
She eased back on the relationship. Not that Johns had noticed a whole hell of a lot. It was right around that point that he’d got a hot lead on Riddick being on some two-bit mining asteroid. The man that had become William Johns deathly obsession had burned Miriam and their relationship right from his mind. He’d left with nary a glance back. She’d been relieved and yet disappointed. But through it all, she still considered Johns her only true friend. Something special considering the cut throat business they both worked.
The ship might’ve run through a rogue comet tail or some other space hazard. But then again, Riddick was known for his ingenious and deadly escapes. It was totally within belief that he had escaped his lockout pod and ran amok among the crew and passengers. Either inadvertently or purposefully crashing the ship. The reward for his return had doubled. But only if brought back alive. It was the same if his body only was presented to the authorities.
There’d no further communications from the ship after the initial mayday. To make matters worse, the planet had been plunged into a two week long eclipse. By the time the ASF had got there, it had been going on for twelve days. It was decided, in the interest of any survivor’s, to go down before the eclipse was through.
A quick scan of where the ship was suspected to have gone down revealed the crash site. The ASF troops had reconnoitered first.
Within minutes they had been wiped out by the indigenous creatures of the planet. Ripped to shreds, their screams echoed through out the stunned command center. The vid screen showing blurry gray images mixed with flying body parts and blood spurting. Not a soul made it back to the ASF ship.
It was then decided to wait the two days till the end of the eclipse. The better to see what they were dealing with.
By the time the merc’s, armed to the teeth, had been allowed down to the ten mile long crash site, there had only been bones and the mostly damaged cargo left. A shit load of bones. No sign of what ever got the ASF troops, no sign of Hunter-Gratzner crew or passengers, and no sign of Riddick.
There’d been a spark of hope when the abandoned settlement had been found. It hadn’t shown up on their earlier scan of the planet due to the old style materials that it had been built with. It didn’t give off the same kind of resonance as the current alloys.
But there again disappointment reigned. Only thing they found were the bodies of hundreds of huge winged creatures with nasty teeth. Barbecued beyond belief. These must have been the creatures that got the ASF troops. And probably the passengers of the ship. A quick bio-scan discovered the primitive animals were light sensitive. In fact it was lethal to them. The ones littering the settlement were probably too stupid to get out of the emerging sun after the eclipse.
A few fresh graves, disturbed and ripped open, had been found. So evidently at least a small number of people had survived long enough to make it to the settlement, die and be buried. But a thorough scan of the whole sector showed nothing living. At least not above ground. And when they found the Coring Room, with its well of death, they were pretty certain that no one had survived.
As precaution a DNA scanner was brought down to confirm the identities of the dead. The scanner could identify a registered human (it was compulsory throughout the ASF’s territory that everyone be registered) with just the faintest speck of blood. They did a sweep of every square inch of the crash site and settlement. It was taken for granted that if blood was found, then the passenger was dead.
All but one of the names on the ships manifest, a Muslim holy man or Imam, was found to have shed blood on the planets surface. But they figured Abu al-Walid had been taken then killed subterranean. One other sample was for an Audrey McAllister. She hadn’t been on the manifest. Probably a stowaway.
Miriam remembered the silent grief she had felt when they confirmed the DNA of Johns. The one being in the whole known galaxy that understood her was dead. The memories of their time together, both good and bad, played themselves out against her minds eye. She wondered how he had bought it. Had Riddick murdered him? Or had the creatures done it for him? She hoped it had been a quick death. That’s all any merc could ask for.
She hadn’t let the grief grab hold too deeply. When you were as good a merc as she was, you learned not to let your emotions get a foot hold. Not only was it detrimental to your emotional well being, it could also get a person killed. Besides the pragmatist in her realized that there was nothing she could do for Johns now. If Riddick had survived she could have taken revenge in his memory. It was a moot point though.
Now this sorry piece of humanity was telling her that Riddick may still be alive. Demanding money for information she knew was bogus. If she hadn’t been on Taurus 2 and had first hand confirmation of the Riddick’s blood she may have bitten. It would make sense that Riddick would hide out on a little two-bit station like Polaris. Easy to blend in with its resident scum. Especially if he had accessories. But the chances of that were almost non-existent. As it was, Leffner was just wasting her time and pissing her off big time.
“Leffner, please spare me your little nightmares! I KNOW Riddick is dead. I was part of the salvage team on Taurus 2. His blood was confirmed by the DNA scanner. It was in the same vicinity as a large concentration of blood of a creature inhabiting the planet. A very deadly, very hungry bastard of a life form.”
Leffner knew he was losing the bitch.
He’d been in piss poor shape by the time Carolyn had got through with him in the corridor. Bleeding, reeking of his own excrement, more terrified than he’d ever been, he had barely made it to his bed before passing out.
Even then the brutal fuck had haunted his dreams. All he kept seeing were dead silvery eyes as they watched the blood seep out of his body. The cruel smile as he panted in terror.
When he finally awoke, something about the eyes kept revolving around in his mind. He knew there was something noteworthy about them. Something he should be remembering. Three days later it had finally come to him.
He’d been in Ursa Luna – Slam City – the same time as one the nastiest criminals he’d ever heard of. Richard Riddick was supposed to have wiped out his whole crew of men. Close to five hundred of them. Having escaped a number of times from other penal facilities, the dark pits of Slam were the only things that had managed to hold him. He was also known for the particularly ugly way he had of killing. A champion shiv and bare hands fighter within the prison circuit, many men died at his hands. In very slow and painful ways for most of them. He seemed unstoppable. Cut him deep and it didn’t even break his stride. All it did was piss him off. He sometimes even took on two or three at a time. Almost always with the same results.
With his bulk and own dirty way of fighting Leffner had in his early days at Slam entertained the idea of going one on one with him. Until he watched what he did to one sorry s.o.b. Leffner had been in a far back row, but even there he could see the carnage that Riddick created. The challengers head was practically torn from his neck. And his guts had spilled from its body cavity. A Riddick specialty.
Leffner had never forgotten the look on Riddick’s face as he was announced the winner of the round. Cold. Empty. Totally devoid of any emotion. Not even triumph or relief or anger. He was a killing machine. A large, skilled, smart, evil killing machine with freaky marbled eyes. Any thoughts of taking on Riddick had quickly been squelched.
The man made him outright nervous. So he had avoided him at all costs. He was almost relieved when Riddick had escaped. Totally amazed at how much the ASF was offering for his return. Preferably alive. Four million credits could buy a man a lot of pleasures.
And now there was the excellent chance that Richard Carolyn was really Richard Riddick. Richard Carolyn had the same kind of eyes, that same kind of look. He liked to skull-fuck his victims just like Riddick. Even better, the information was his alone. He would have never had the balls to go after Riddick himself. But he figured he could get a finders fee from some gun crazy merc who wanted to prove themselves by being the one to bring in the Scourge of the Galaxy.
He had checked around the known merc hangouts on the lower decks. Finding Miriam Gonzalez had been the answer to his prayers. All women were dumb bitches to him. Look what his wife and step-daughter had let him get away with! He figured the Gonzalez woman would be easy to reel in for a finders fee. Give her the information concerning Carolyn, get the money from her, then set her on her way. Most probably to her own death. No skin off his nose.
But she was proving to be a harder sell than he anticipated. It was pissing him off. If she hadn’t been armed to the teeth he would’ve taught her a few things about not respecting Burt Leffner. Instead he found himself having to do something he rarely did. Convince with his mouth rather than his fists.
“Look! Being hurt means nothing to Riddick. He don’t feel nothin’. Just check this guy out! I’m telling you it’s Riddick! Someway, somehow he survived the crash. I’m not surprised. I’ seen the man fight. The fucker has the survival instinct beyond anything I’ seen before. Hell, he probably ate one of those creatures! Sucked the blood right outta them! After he got done raping and killing and hell knows what else to the passengers and crew! What...”
Leffner stopped abruptly. Something ugly had flashed in the woman’s eyes that made him take notice. He had hit a nerve. The opportunist in him smelled it. She wasn’t looking at him like he was a walking piece shit anymore. She looked pissed. And deadly. But he knew it wasn’t directed toward him. Talking about what he thought Riddick had done to the crash survivor’s had caught her attention finally. She didn’t like something about it. This was his chance to reel her in.
“Listen. He works on the dock right over from me. I can get you in to take a look and see what you think. If you think I’m right, I get twenty thousand credits. A finders fee, ya know!”
“Five.”
“I ain’t bargaining with you lady! You get Riddick you get four mil! It’s only fair I get a fair share too! You don’t like it and I take my information elsewhere.”
Miriam sat back in her chair and crossed her arms over her chest.
The little cretin was trying to fuck her over. She had inadvertently let her game face slip. Leffner had seen her rage over the thought of Riddick doing Johns. If there was even the slightest chance that he was alive, she wanted to be the one to make him pay. It wouldn’t be too bad of a payday at that either. Leffner obviously thought he was leading a lamb to slaughter. Get her to pay him a finders fee then let her get killed by Riddick. Then sell the information all over again. His opinion of her abilities as a merc not up there with his opinion of himself evidently.
That underestimation was fine with her. It would make killing him, after he gave her Riddick’s whereabouts, all the more easier. Let him think he was smarter than her. He would never live to enjoy the twenty thou anyway.
“Fine. Whatever. It had better be worth it though!”
“Now you’re talking sweetie! Maybe you and I can do other business while were at it. Ya know? Hey I figure I’m giving you a big enough payday you can give me a little pussy.”
Miriam gave Leffner a quick glance of disgusted amazement. As if! She would rather give a piece to a dead man that let him touch her.
“Don’t think so Leffner. I only do my own species. You don’t qualify.”
“Listen bitch...”
“NO! You listen. If this Carolyn guy pans out you get your money and we part ways. End of story. Period. Now let’s go see where he works. That is if you still want your money?”
Not waiting to see if he followed, she rose from the table and headed for the doorway. Your time is coming Leffner.
Leffner scowled at her retreating back. Left little choice in following her, he rose and huffily tried to catch up. All the things he pictured Riddick doing to her body flashed through his mind. Made him smile in relish. Gave him a hard on actually.
Your time is coming bitch!