Bronson Riddick stood on the front deck of the Alysium, just in front of the swimming pool looking out across the harbour, a cup of coffee in his hand. His massive yacht was parked in the marina and had been for several weeks.

It was early spring, and the weather was starting to turn pleasant although there were some darker clouds off in the distance that could bring some light rain. To his right, he could see the city with its endless skyscrapers and the distant drone of emergency vehicles blaring their sirens.

Riddick spent most of his time on his yacht these days because that’s where he felt the safest.  He liked the sense of safety that it provided, and it made him feel like a king in a castle surrounded by deep motes and hills, limiting a possible assassin's access.

Although far from one, Riddick fancied himself a king.  From the Elysium, he could run his little cocaine empire like a king on a throne. If somebody crossed him or refused to repay a debt, he could simply order their execution and it was so; just like a king ordering a beheading.

On his particular morning, he was thinking of Anne Boleyn, the famous queen of England from 1533 to 1536.  Her beheading had been ordered by her own husband, and something was intoxicating about that kind of coldness.  He loved the idea of having that kind of power, and on some level, he had achieved it.  He was one of the biggest, and most feared names in the cocaine trade.  He had survived this long by being smart and savvy, and making sure he had eyes in the back of his head. He never went out without a gun in his waistband.

He was about to take another sip of his coffee when he heard the buzz of the intercom.  He was all alone on his yacht and was expecting two of his associates for a meeting about the hit on Julie Koop that he was about to put into motion.  He put down the cup of coffee he was holding and made his way through the large sprawling living room, and down towards the back of the Elyssium to where the main entrance door was located.  He opened the door to find two men standing in front of him, Jimmy Chen and Clayton Radcliffe, two hitmen that had worked for Riddick before.

Both men looked extremely cold and ruthless, these were not good people.  Both men had been working for Riddick for several years and had never disappointed their boss.  They had carried out hits on more than one of Riddick's adversaries, many of them in broad daylight.  They both knew that any time they were summoned to the Elysium they’d be asked to do Riddick's dirty work, and they’d be paid well.

Jimmy Chen was thirty-two years old and was half Asian and half white.  He had an unpleasant scar on the left side of his face and looked like just to kind of man you’d expect to be in the cocaine trade.

Clayton Radcliffe was the same age as Riddick, and a big man, standing at 265 pounds. He had a big muscular gym built body and cold, lifeless blue eyes.  Like Riddick he too was bald.  He wasn’t known for his intelligence and served mostly as a debt collector and intimidator.

“Come on in, gentlemen,” Riddick said as he motioned for them to enter the living room.

Jimmy and Clayton sat down on a long leather couch looking around at the grandeur of Riddick’s yacht and admiring the wealth and opulence. Riddick walked over to a beautiful wet bar made of dark mahogany wood. There he had left a few pictures of Julie Koop, he picked them up and handed them to the two men sitting in front of him.

“I’m sure you guys know why you’re sitting here.  You’re two of the best in the business.  That hit you did on Joey Malone last year was immaculate, probably one of the cleanest hit jobs I’ve ever seen,” Riddick said as he sat down on the couch, directly across from the two men.

Jimmy looked down at the pictures of Julie Koop in his hands, and, after looking at them briefly handed them to Clayton.  He looked at them before placing them on the couch beside him.

“Who is she?” Jimmy asked.

Riddick looked through the windows across him at the blue ocean outside, briefly before answering.  A certain coldness came over his eyes.

“That big-titted bitch was borrowing money from one of my associates to fund her little gambling addiction,” he responded, “money that he was borrowing from me in the form of a bridge loan.  He died before he was able to collect and now Koops's debt has fallen into my hands.  She’s probably thinking she got away with it, but she’s wrong, because now I have assumed her debt to Bobby.  She has no clue who she’s fucking with of course, but I’m about to show her.  I want you guys to find her and gun her down, be ruthless.  ”

“Where can we find her?” Jimmy asked in a very cold voice.

“The Willowbrook Shopping Centre on the corner of number ten and Fraser Highway.  She goes there regularly to get her nails done.  I’ll leave it to you guys to figure out when.”

“An execution in broad daylight?” Jimmy asked.  “At a crowded shopping mall? That’s pretty brazen and risky. We’re gonna need fifty grand for this one.”

Riddick nodded his head in approval.

“And we will need twenty-five upfront” he added.

Riddick paused slightly before nodding his head to this request. He didn’t normally pay upfront to hitmen but knew he had little choice for a hit this brazen.

“Fine,” he replied.  “Twenty-five up front.”

Riddick stood up and left the room returning several minutes later with a manila envelope stuffed with cash.  He handed it to Jimmy who immediately took it out and counted it.  He turned to Clayton and nodded, indicating that the cash count was correct.

Without saying a word, both men stood up to leave with the pictures of Julie Koop in their hand and the $25,000 that Riddick had given them upfront to kill her.  Jimmy Chen took a pair of dark aviator sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on as they made their way back to the main entrance of the Alysium and exited the yacht.

As the two men made their way down the gangplank onto the floating walkways of this massive, sprawling marina, they passed the boats and yachts of the rich and famous.  This was no place for the poor.

Jimmy turned to Clayton. “He didn’t give us much to go on.”

“No, he didn’t,” Clayton replied, “but I know somebody who might be able to give us a little more information on this girl.  He runs the casino down on Glover, and if anyone’s been through that casino and borrowed money, there’s a good chance he’s gonna know who they are”

“Good, let’s go pay him a visit then”

Back on the Elysium, Riddick made his way back to the front deck and resumed drinking his coffee. The meeting with his two hitmen had been so brief that it was still warm.  He felt good, like a weight had been lifted off his shoulders.  Even though he had never met Julie Koop, he felt a huge sense of relief that he had finally gotten the ball rolling on taking her out.  He looked out at the water and then looked to his right at the sprawling city that he owned.

He got a huge rush from ordering hits on his adversaries and had no problem paying good money to get it done right. The satisfaction he got from putting an end to somebody that owed him money was something he put no price tag on.  He was more than willing to pay to have Julie Koop killed.

“That bitch probably thinks she got away with it,” Riddick said to himself, ”yeah right”