9:46 a.m AFT,
Gray’s Car Storage Yards,
Midtown, Redemption City.
As Riddick set up the bounty, a quick prompt alerted popped up on his watch. As he raised it to check, Zoe’s voice resonated from it.
“I have successfully set up the open bounty for any freelancers or agencies to pick up. Along with the postage and handling fees, the total will come to 34,360c. Please state your confirmation pin.”
Riddick quickly answered, “58XOJI. Username: IHuntCampers.”
“Pin and user confirmed, bounty set. Your new balance is 475,640c.” Zoe immediately set up the bounty following Riddick’s speedy response.
Riddick then watched Larry’s truck disappear into a curve as it drove toward the exit. What prompted Riddick to even set up this bounty wasn’t his pettiness alone but also the fact that Larry was a risk.
Being in the car fixing business and obviously having good contacts, it wouldn’t be hard for him to organize a raid on Riddick’s storage garage, or simply sell the information about the car.
And although Jim had seen it too, Riddick could tell he wasn’t a threat. With everything already on his plate, plus the fact he wasn’t even moved by the all the cars in Johnny’s compound only solidified his image to Riddick.
As for the possibility of Jim putting on a front, Riddick felt it unlikely. But if that was truly the case, Riddick could only accept whatever loss comes his way at that time. Whereas if it wasn’t, he’d have successfully taken care of a large loose end. It was 50/50.
However… Riddick felt he could make it 100, and avoid taking any overall loss on the matter.
To do this, Riddick opened the storage garage as soon as Larry’s truck was out of view. Upon doing this, he raised his watch and instructed Zoe, “Zoe, contact Nik.”
“Contacting Nikolai….. *bing* Connection established, line secure.”
Following that statement, Nikolai’s voice resounded from Riddick’s watch.
“Little comrade, good of you to call, have you arrived in Midtown? If so we can meet at the location in the next 30 minutes.”
“Yea, just got here and that’s all well and good but it’s not why I called. I’m about to deal away the car I stole but before I do, I wanted to see if you might want to place an offer, you seem to love classics.” Riddick nonchalantly revealed, as if it were something he didn’t care at all about.
*Haha* “Proposing deals now are we little comrade? You’ve grown now. Alright, you have my curiosity, what car is it?” Nikolai’s tone suggested that he wasn’t taking Riddick very seriously but was at least willing to hear him out. He couldn’t completely put it past Riddick to have something he wanted, though very doubtful about that.
“I think it’s better you see yourself, let me send a live feed.” As Riddick said this, he raised the hand on which his watch rested and point it toward the car, capturing it from different angles using the watches minuscule 4k camera.
Just 3 seconds into doing this, Riddick could hear the fumbling of objects from Nik’s line.
*Rustle* “What!? Little comrade is that A.I generated? I may be old but you’d need to be brainless to fall for that sort of scam. I’m supposed to believe you just stumbled on a Morgan HEV worth 78,000,000,000c? The Redemption City Crows have a better chance of winning a national tournament than that happening *haha*.” Nikolai was in disbelief and he quickly played off the video as a joke from Riddick.
“Do you really think I’d try to scam you out of that much money? Better yet you can use your deciphering software to confirm whether it’s real or not, you know I don’t have the hardware to make something this accurate with A.I.” Riddick’s response wasn’t what Nikolai was expecting.
He thought Riddick would also laugh it off and admit that it was indeed a joke or at the very least, a good counterfeit of the car. But that wasn’t the case, so Nikolai now took Riddick seriously.
“You’re serious? Just how did you manage that?
“Your contact from the offline territories has some strong connections. Once he confirmed it was real he was more eager than me to set up a deal for it. I’m waiting on the client’s proxy right now to finalize the deal, then send Johnny his commission for setting this up. So you have about… 2 minutes 37 seconds, give or take before the guy shows up.”
All that was of course a lie but it made the current situation believable. For one, Riddick chose to provide a limited time frame because he knew that Nikolai was more than well aware of how important punctuality was in black market dealings, especially for items valued in the millions.
The key in doing this was psychology. Afterall, a person was more prone to make a speedy decision if they had a time limit on a good deal. It was the logic behind discount sales and other promotions of that nature.
Nikolai obviously knew this to but since Riddick added in the factor of a potential buyer, calling him out on his bluff and waiting out the time may lead him to miss out on a golden opportunity for a car lover like himself.
Whether Riddick’s words were true or not, Nikolai found himself in a tight spot. But he wasn’t about to strike a deal without battering first and checking for any holes in Riddick’s supposed story.
“What is your client offering you?” Nikolai asked, expecting to hear a large number or the car’s actual value.
But Riddick did the opposite.
“50 million credits, 10 of which will be split between Johnny and the handler that helped me move the car. Johnny figured we could get more for it if we held a black market auction but I’m sure you can see why that’d be a bad idea for someone like me who doesn’t have any prominent connections aside from you.”
Riddick’s response was a mix of false truth to support his lie and negligible flattery. This was because Riddick’s tone and explanation left no room for doubt about his words or reasoning, as Nikolai would likely do the same in that situation.
As for the flattery, Riddick mentioning that Nikolai was his most prominent contact made Nik possess a valued role in the circumstances. It was a very little factor but often one that affected people’s everyday decisions without them even paying notice.
After-all, Nikolai couldn’t analyze everything about Riddick’s story, it just wasn’t possible given the time limit and potential risk of Nikolai making Riddick think he wasn’t trusted.
Nikolai could only gamble on Riddick’s words being the truth. However Riddick wasn’t done pulling the strings of this negotiation.
With the live feed still going, he opened the door to the Morgan and focused the camera on the guns he had collected.
“Or if you don’t want to buy the car, I can sell these un-modded MOPS guns, they’re in pretty good condition too.”
By shifting focus from the Morgan onto another product, Riddick would put across the image that he didn’t need to sell the Morgan to Nikolai at all, and that he truly was only reaching out to Nikolai so as to see if his friend wanted in on the offer.
After all, they were few things Nikolai loved more than guns, cars and vodka.
However, by doing this, Riddick knew he’d only strengthen the chance of Riddick not only wanting the car but the guns too.
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“Are those real? How-, no, never-mind. Fine, fine, I want the guns and the car, name your price.”
Now it was Nikolai’s turn to negotiate, and he chose to start by sticking to a golden rule of battering, ‘never make the first offer.’
Riddick had seen Nikolai do this before so he half expected him to do this.
“55 million for everything, on the condition that it’s clean and taxed money. At least through you I won’t need to worry about splitting it or leaving a paper-trail.” By saying this, Riddick was more than 80% sure that Nikolai would be convinced.
Why? Because Riddick set up the deal in such a way that he looked like he was blatantly benefiting from it.
How? Because deals involving millions and black market items were tricky. For one, it was very common that the money used was dirty itself and untaxed, which made it pointless to someone without a money launderer. And even if you had one, cleaning that much money would be very costly.
So to Nikolai, it seemed Riddick was trying to avoid all that hassle by proposing this deal to Nikolai, whom he knew possessed the means to deliver clean money. This was Nikolai’s deduction, sadly it was also the false front Riddick set up for his reasoning.
It’s goal being simple. To make Nikolai think he was in a superior position…. And he did.
“Hmm, cleaning that much money isn’t cheap little comrade, especially in Redemption City where I don’t have many contacts. Make it 30 million and you have a deal.” Nikolai countered, offering the lowest possible price he felt Riddick would accept.
At this time, Riddick began pacing around a bit to feign contemplating the offer before he responded.
“40 million, I won’t go any lower.” Riddick replied sternly, to which Nikolai laughed heartedly at.
*Haha* “You’ve got yourself a deal little comrade. I’ll send you the account details once I make an account with that fund allocation. Give me 10 minutes.”
“No problem, I’ll give you the storage garage key when we meet. Same location?” Riddick asked as he replied to Nikolai’s finalization of the deal.
“Yes. Oh! But one final thing.” Nikolai added as if he had remembered something important, prompting Riddick to quickly ask, “what?”
“Dress the part. Remember, you’re Overwatch now, the best contract killer that’s ever lived. As my successor you have to look the part. Especially since you’ve now earned some millions *haha*.”
“Right. You’d think such an amazing guy would at least buy his successor the clothes he needs.” Riddick sarcastically implied, far too familiar with Nikolai’s greedy habits.
“What was that? I can’t here you little comrade, I’m now allocating your funds. Anyway see you soon. And remember Oriette Café. *beep*” As Nikolai said this, the call cut before Riddick could reply.
“*Tsk* He’ll never change.” Riddick muttered to himself before lowering his hand to put the gun he held back in the Morgan.
As he was doing so though, one of the few human guards who patrolled the yard just happened to be passing by, happily whistling to himself. Only to come to a slowed halt in front of Riddick’s storage garage, his whistle fading.
“…”
Riddick turned his head and saw the guard, inwardly cursing the man’s timing but making no hostile move.
The guard looked at Riddick’s gun first, then the car, but seemed to taken by surprise to say anything. This made Riddick guess that it was perhaps that guard’s first time in such a situation.
“See something you like?” Riddick questioned the man, his tone very much calm.
This however only made the man more nervous as he fumbled out a response. “Huh? See what? I’m legally blind. Matter of fact, I can’t even see you ma’am.” Saying this, the guard then proceeded to walk away in long strides, not daring to look back.
Given how heavy the surveillance was in the yard, Riddick never planned on causing harm to the guard and only wanted to intimidate him before offering a bribe so he could act like he didn’t see anything.
But, seeing the guard leave on his own accord, Riddick didn’t bother pursuing the matter. After all, in 10 minutes time, the car and it’s security would no longer be his problem.
So he locked the car and closed up the storage garage before waiting beside it. Only when Nikolai sent the account details would he be able to leave.
Thankfully, he didn’t need to wait long as just five minutes later, Zoe alerted Riddick of the transfer.
*Beep* “Riddick, you’ve received details to an account under Mason Chartered Bank from BigDikNik. Shall I send him a confirmation of receipt?”
“Not necessary, just log into the account, check if the funds are all there, then change the pin to match my current crypto account.”
Although security surrounding individual accounts had become very sophisticated, Riddick still used traditional pins, codes and passkeys to access his various accounts. This was simply due to the fact that he was born in a lab.
A simple biometric from Riddick could end leading to the discovery of the parent donors through which his DNA was made from. As far as he knew, one parent donor was Von Creed, a fact that would spell trouble if picked up on by the many advanced systems or A.I processors that existed in the current day.
It was for that reason that he lived relatively quietly, tucked away in Lowtown. As the price to pay for forging biometrics that could fool national security systems was far too expensive, even now with just over 40 million credits to his name.
*Beep* “I’ve confirmed that the amount present in the account is indeed 40 million credits. The details have also been changed to match your request. Anything else?”
Hearing the confirmation, Riddick moved from the leaning position he was in and moved away from the wall next to his storage garage, as he was now ready to leave.
“Yes, what’s the nearest place I can get some quality men’s wear? Something that makes me look professional without drawing attention to myself, so no big brands like Verlici, Monclair or Resplender.” Riddick asked as he broke into a stride to leave the yard.
“Checking, one moment…”
“…I’ve found 4 clothing & tailoring stores that match your request Riddick. There’s Bellerin’s Rogue Men Clothing Store, Giga-chad Tailorings, The Prostrate and Mr. Thorne’s Collection.”
“Just call a human transporter for me and set my destination for the nearest store.” Riddick promptly responded. To which Zoe affirmed. “As you wish, though I do highly recommend carefully checking all four stores to find your perfect professional look.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Riddick unenthusiastically replied, not one to spend more time than he needed to on certain tasks.
A few minutes later, Riddick arrived at the yard’s gate and found a neat white sedan hovering in wait.
In the current day and age, flying vehicles were plenty and common. Whether someone used an air vehicle (A.V) as they were called or a road vehicle was simply a matter of personal preference… and budget as air vehicles were more expensive.
As for why Riddick wanted a human transporter, it was simply because droid driven transporters required I.D.
Once Riddick stepped out of the gate, the A.V’s passenger door opened automatically for him and he quickly got in, choosing to sit in the back like most passengers.
The door then closed and his driver, a man with a bald head, forgettable features and an all white uniform, spoke up.
“Morning sir, I’m transporter 47, thank you for choosing to drive with me. I ask that you wear your seatbelt so we may be on our way.” The man very politely asked, and Riddick obliged.
After he wore his seatbelt, the driver started the car. It hovered higher into the air, propelled by thrusters where the tires would normally be. Then, with incredible acceleration, it zoomed into the skies before joining the nearest airline for A.Vs.
Once in an airline, the vehicle could even be driven easily by a droid or V.I, it was because of this that very few humans even did the job. With those that did often having special life circumstances or reasons for doing so.
Riddick however wasn’t interested in making idle banter for the moment so he remained silent. Whereas the driver looked in the rear view mirror and observed his tattered clothing and blood stains.
“Pardon me if it’s not my place to ask sir but did you have a run in with a superhuman? I could stop at a government clinic for you at no extra cost.” The driver offered.
His words didn’t alert Riddick as it was a normal assumption to make in the current age. Riddick could see that the man was simply trying his best to give an optimum experience so that Riddick could be rate him highly once the ride was done.
“That won’t be necessary.” Riddick bluntly turned down. However as he did so, he thought arose in his mind and he quickly acted on it, asking the driver, “How’s business going? I can’t imagine its easy being a human transporter.”
The driver kept a professional expression but answered Riddick’s query.
“Well, it is harder to get requests these days but such is to be expected with how revolutionary things have become. I can only be grateful that they are still individuals who don’t mind drivers like myself.”
“I see. And your reason for still doing it? I thought the government promised monthly allowances and new postings to urge human transporters to cease operating. Feel free not to answer if it’s an intimate question, I’m simply curious.” Riddick maintained his blunt tone but his words came out as very polite to the driver.
“Ah, its no secret sir, I simply wouldn’t do well working anywhere else. I’ve been a transporter for most of my life now and I can’t imagine trading this for a job directing some droid in it’s function. I have no family so although the government allowances are tempting, I don’t need them. I prefer the freedom this job provides me.” The driver answered honestly, a response that Riddick liked… and acted on.
“Hm, then would you mind becoming my personal driver for the duration that I’m in Midtown? You keep doing what you like and get paid better for it, whereas I have an experienced driver to take me to my destinations.” Riddick offered.
Although a simple and understandable request on the surface, it was something Riddick already carefully considered.
He took into account the drivers experience and felt the man likely possessed many contacts within redemption city, likely small time but contacts nonetheless. Furthermore, he took joy in what he did and wasn’t in it for the money, a trait Riddick would be hard pressed to find elsewhere.
Still, this wasn’t enough to make Riddick commit and he’d still need to do a background check into the man, hence his proposal for what seemed like a temporary position.
After all, Riddick highly doubted if the man would agree to a more permanent offer without knowing Riddick better. Whereas the short term offer would likely aid his financial situation, the driver would also be hard pressed to refuse, especially since he’d done such before.
“Not a problem sir, provided we can reach a fair agreement.”