Granger’s Run 8

by evilgrin on 28 Dec 2005, 01:52

::EIGHT::

I take the laptop up front. Vaughn sits between Davis and me. The tension is palpable. Petrie came back in the middle, with coffee, has no idea what’s going on. Doesn’t have enough experience to figure it out, but he does have enough sense to keep quiet. Our little family wagon is like a tomb.

I watch the taped encounter between Riddick and his girl. God, she’s beautiful. He’s surprisingly gentle with her. I would have thought he would have been more abusive, somehow, or less feeling.

I struggle against it, but I can’t help but think of Louise. I wonder if Riddick really loves this girl. If he’s even capable of it. Does he feel anything at all? Watching that tape, you’d have to wonder. Louise and I were twenty six when we met and fell in love. Riddick would be around that age now, if the files were right. Hell, I was a real hard ass before I met Louise. I changed for her. Did Riddick change? Is that even possible?

I pause the tape, at the end. You’re holding her, your hand in her tousled hair. Just about to reach down and kiss her. I stop and rewind for a second, not sure I’ve seen what I’ve seen, and needing to make sure. Hold it. I know that look. A look that says there is nothing else in the world at that moment. I ought to know. I spent twenty two years looking just like that at a woman. Love. Never expected that from you, Riddick, of all people.

Close the laptop. Close my eyes. Fuck, my head hurts. Not enough whiskey, or coffee, to deal with this. I don’t know how this changes anything, or even if it does. Just a surprise, I guess. Something I never thought I’d see. Not from you, of all people.

“They packed everything. Left the room. Any idea where their ship is berthed?” There are three levels to dock, on the Midorian, all of them accessible by a central core. According to Vaughn, the room was on the second level. Would they stay close by, ready to jump at a moment’s notice?

“No. They landed before my source got to it. He could find the room, but that’s about it.”

“You knew where their room was, and didn’t say anything about it?” Moral indignation, from Davis, of all people.

“They’re probably still on Deck Two, if you hurry. Davis, maybe we should go have a look see, what do you say?” There is something slippery in Vaughn’s voice. A smarter man wouldn’t trust it. Davis is not a smarter man. Sure, he has animal cunning, but he’s no match for Vaughn. A look passes between Vaughn and I. We’re going to be one light, coming back.

“I’ll be out in a second.” Turn around to Petrie, as Davis and Vaughn leave the ship, stepping out onto the pad. Give the kid the laptop. A bargaining chip, if everything goes south.

“You’re not coming with us kid.” He looks crushed. “This isn’t what you are. You’re a good pilot, but you don’t have what it takes to do this. You probably have no idea what just happened here, I’m guessing.” Poor kid still looks puzzled. “Go home kid. If we’re not back in a couple of hours, just go home. There’s money under the seat.”

Grab my gun, adjust the bulge under the coat so it hangs right. Vaughn and Davis, ahead, I let some distance open up. Sure, I knew we were going to frag Davis. Just wanted to make sure I don’t end getting pushed out an airlock too. We head for the second level.
~~
“Whoever’s taping us is going to make a run for us, Ava.”

” I don’t see any other way to find out who it is, do you? This place is probably hard-wired for that kind of surveillance. Even if we found an uplink site, we’d never find an actual person. Not in time. We have to let them make a run at us. Expose themselves.”

“I don’t like being bait.”

“We don’t have to make it easy.”

We both disappear back into the shadows, and wait.

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