Chapter Fifty-three: Jack - Getaway

The pain in her side was a consuming fire that stripped away her ability to think. Every time one of her feet hit the pavement it flashed through her again, reducing her world to a realm of strobing agony. What little awareness she had left was focused on the simple act of running.

Keep moving! she told herself whenever she began to falter. In one hand she clutched Jarvis's gun close to her chest, hoping that none of the people flashing past her would see it and panic. Her other hand held the bag of data disks in a deathgrip.

Nobody interfered with her as she ran.

There was a four mile distance between the library and the Montmartre spaceport. Her lungs were burning now and her legs were cramping up and she figured she still had about three miles to go.

I'm not going to make it.

For a moment her pace faltered as the thought hung about her.

Shut the fuck up and keep moving! She had to make it. She had to get the disks to Riddick. What was on them was too important, too worlds-shattering. Whatever happened, he had to have the disks. He needed to know how high the stakes really were.

High enough to maybe kill me. The thought came unbidden, dragging at her pace once more. She gritted her teeth and pressed on. She had no intention of dropping dead on Rue Mercredi while everyone else was taking mid-afternoon strolls, thank you very fucking much!

Out of the corner of her eye she saw the policeman and felt her heart flip over. His eyes were on her, following her as she ran past. But he didn't move.

A girl runs past a cop, carrying a gun and dripping blood, and he does nothing? Jarvis, I think I love you.

She'd known that Jarvis wasn't behind the bullet this time. She'd known it even as she was being hit. One of the hotheads in his rescue party must have done it. That had only been a small comfort, of course, as she'd sprawled to the ground, but it had been something.

The fact that he'd abetted her escape had been something even more important, too. That was the other thing Riddick had to know about. The vendetta needed to end.

How the hell did she think she was going to manage this? Any time, the adrenaline was bound to run out and leave her with nothing. She knew it was crazy; there was no way for her to run four miles nonstop after taking a hit in the side. She didn't even know how bad the hit was, this time. It hurt like hell; that much she knew.

Another block, one more block, she told herself yet again. Every time she crossed a side street she said it. Just another block...

Someone turned and called after her in alarm as she ran past. She ignored them, hoping they wouldn't follow her. She still had the gun in her hand, but she didn't think she could use it on some innocent tourist.

A large hand grasped her upper arm and wheeled her around. She gasped, raising the gun. Nobody's going to stop me!

"Jack? What the fuck? Jack!"

The man's hand flashed out in a blur of motion and the gun was taken from her. She stared up, uncomprehendingly, at the huge figure before her. Blue eyes, a mustache and beard, curly hair...

She knew that hair. She'd watched Riddick building it. Suddenly the face before her was clear to her. She'd threatened him over wearing this disguise in bed...

"Riddick... oh shit..."

Her legs buckled and he caught her.

"What happened, kid?" His voice would seem calm to most observers but she could hear the tension underneath it. Abruptly the tension leapt out into the open. "Fuck, Jack, you've been shot!"

"Riddick, we have to get out of here," she gasped out.

Her legs left the ground abruptly as he swung her up. She kept a tight hold on the bag of disks, wondering what he'd done with the gun. They might need it... they might... it was getting hard to think. She felt a harsh sting as Riddick pressed her bleeding side against his belly, using the pressure of his body to staunch the flow of her blood. Then he began to run. She held on tightly, gritting her teeth.

We're doing it again, only this time it's all backwards, she thought disconnectedly. The last time, he'd carried her as they fled the soldiers, and then she'd been shot.

"What happened, Jack?" he asked as he ran. He wasn't even out of breath. Of course not... she'd seen the contents of some of the files as they'd spooled past.

Mitochondrial metabolic efficiency 135% normal rate... She had a vague understanding of what that meant and knew that he wouldn't have any trouble with this run.

He'd asked her a question, hadn't he? She frowned, trying to focus on it.

"Stupid..." she managed. "I was so stupid... couldn't see the whole board..."

"What happened?" he repeated a moment later.

"I saw... Jarvis... having lunch at a café..." Jack swallowed hard, trying to keep her focus. So much pain, so much exhaustion. She didn't know if she was going to make it. She had to tell him.

"I'm going to kill that motherfucker for this..."

"No! Riddick... no..." She grabbed at his collar with the hand holding the disks. "He... he helped me get away..."

"What?"

"I... had this stupid idea, Riddick. I thought maybe I could get into the Charybdis mainframe using his clearances, so I lured him to the library."

Riddick muttered something under his breath that she was sure was profane. He picked up the pace, gripping her a bit more tightly.

"It worked, Riddick. I got in. I got the files, too." Jack coughed. Her mouth and throat seemed to be full of copper. "But I forgot that they'd come looking for him... one of them shot at me."

"Who?"

"I don't know, I couldn't tell. Jarvis seemed furious with everybody. He told me--"

"Sir, do you have a permit--" a man asked as Riddick dashed past him. Jack opened her eyes and was amazed to realize they'd entered the spaceport itself. "Sir! You can't go there...!"

A moment later an alarm sounded.

"Fuck!" Riddick began running even faster. "I really hope, for their sakes, they keep their distance, because right now I'd fuckin' enjoy killing somebody..."

Jack rested her head against his shoulder. "I'm so sorry, Riddick... I'm sorry..."

She was jarred abruptly as her feet hit the pavement. Riddick held her against him as he keyed the codes into the Audrey II's ramp. As it descended, he turned and bellowed at the security guards approaching at a run.

"I'm the owner of this ship! I have clearance but I didn't have time to show it to your fuckin' lackey because THIS IS AN EMERGENCY! Get off the pad if you don't want to get fried!"

He lifted Jack back into his arms and raced up the ramp. His hand flashed out to hit the controls and made it back before she even began to slip. The ramp began to shut behind them. Jack closed her eyes, glad to hear the familiar sounds of the ship's systems. She'd been afraid she'd never hear them again.

He set her down on the cargo lift and hit the elevation button. Jack felt the platform begin to rise, and turned her head. Riddick was wrenching open the med locker, grabbing as many supplies as he could carry. He hurried over to the platform, now at waist-level with him, and dumped them by her feet. Then he turned and went for more. She saw him start to climb the ladder, laden down with triage equipment, as her view of the cargo level was cut off.

She lay still until the upper level door was opened. Riddick lifted her out and stood her against the wall, ripping her shirt away.

"Fuck, Jack, you've got more lives than a cat."

"Is it bad?" she asked, her eyes closed. Her own voice seemed to be coming from very far away. Riddick's sounded closer. "Am I going to--"

"No, you're not going to die. Look, I'm going to put a temporary bandage on it so we can get the fuck out of here."

"Jarvis said we should go... as fast as we could... because someone with more authority... might countermand..."

"Who the fuck has the authority to countermand Jarvis?" Riddick muttered as he wrapped a bandage around her waist and ribs. "He's the fuckin' Crown Prince of the whole Charybdis Project."

"No... tr... Tribunal..."

She felt Riddick go still. "Say that again."

Jack swallowed, trying to force a coherent sentence out. "The Tribunal owns the Charybdis Project. It's their baby."

"Shit." Riddick tossed the empty package of bandaging aside and lifted Jack up, carrying her to the cockpit. "Okay, kid, we're getting out of here. You sit tight..." He strapped her in, careful not to jar her wound.

She could hear him hitting switches. He hit the comm system. "Control, this is Matthew Owens of the Audrey II declaring a Level 5 emergency and requesting immediate clearance for liftoff. Clear the pads and the lanes, we're going up in two minutes as soon as our engines are hot."

"Audrey II, please state the nature of the emergency."

"Goddamn fucking bureaucrats," Riddick muttered. He turned and shouted into the microphone. "Just clear the lanes or you're going to be dealing with fuckin' midair collisions. A Level 5 has been declared, you know procedure! You wanna cite me, feel fuckin' free to do so!"

The engines were cycling up. Riddick swore again after a moment.

"Gotta lock down the med supplies before we go up or I won't have anything to treat you with..."

Jack listened, her eyes still closed, as he threw open a locker and began stuffing supplies inside it. Cold... so cold... she wondered suddenly where all the warmth had gone.

She must have lost consciousness for a moment because, the next things she knew, Riddick was shaking her. "Stay with me, Jack!"

She opened her eyes. Riddick was above her, staring down at her, his normal composure completely ripped away.

"You in there, kid?" He continued to watch her until she managed a nod and a shaky thumbs-up. Then he turned and began strapping himself into the pilot's seat. He hit the comm button again.

"This is the captain of the Audrey II advising all spaceport personnel to clear the launch pad. You have thirty seconds to get past minimum launch range or you're going to get char-broiled. Anybody still out there, move your asses now!"

He began hitting the final switches, powering the ship up the rest of the way. The launch engines were almost done cycling up.

"Don't know why I feel obligated to warn off a bunch of rent-a-cops," he muttered angrily. But he waited the full thirty seconds nonetheless.

Jack gasped as he hit the throttle. The abrupt pressure on her body sent waves of pain through her. He was accelerating the ship illegally fast again, heading straight up.

"Good fuckin' thing I wasn't picking up our cargo until tomorrow," he growled. "Gonna be a while before we can go near the Corsair system now. Your uncle Boris just got an unearned reprieve, Jack. Just for a little while."

Riddick began running switches, reconfiguring the ship from launch mode to combat mode as they approached the edge of Troubadour's atmosphere.

"Riddick, no..." Jack managed.

"No what?"

"Don't attack the Messina. You don't have to... unless Jarvis got outranked, he'll have told them to leave us alone."

"Jack, you're talking about the man who ordered my death and shot you. I'm not gonna buy that he's suddenly on our side."

Jack almost laughed until the pain in her abdomen cut her short. "He is. Trust me, Riddick. I have proof."

"Fine," Riddick growled, his eyes locked on the cockpit windows. The sky had gone indigo and now, gradually, billions of stars were coming into view. The Messina appeared as well, a gargantuan battle cruiser hovering far above New Paris. Riddick flew toward it.

"Riddick, please, let's just go."

"We are." His face, however, bore the same look of calm fury he'd worn in the skiff, almost five years ago, when he'd contemplated leaving the planet -- and Carolyn -- behind without some sort of retaliatory act. Now he reached over and hit the comm button again.

"This is Richard B. Riddick calling the Messina."

There was a long moment of silence as the cruiser loomed larger.

"Mr. Riddick, this is Sergeant Mizuguchi of the Messina. Go ahead."

"I want you to give Jarvis a message for me."

"Recording."

"Tell Lieutenant Jarvis I'll see him soon." Riddick banked the craft away from the Messina, looping around sharply, as he cut the connection. Jack closed her eyes and clenched her jaw, knowing what was coming.

She felt the star-jump begin. This time it lasted a lot longer, five minutes of wooziness. She kept expecting them to smash into something. It was technically illegal to make a star-jump while still within a planetary system, and for good reason. There was so much space clutter that could come at you...

He does it visually, too, she realized. He sees it all coming and dodges it. What did those files say the synapse fire rate was? She couldn't remember, but she knew it had been impossibly high.

Finally he cut out the star-jump drive, switching over to the deep-space drive. The nauseating feeling of being turned inside out and drowned began to abate as the acceleration eased and the localized space-warping lifted.

"I really, really hate star-jumping," she managed.

Riddick smiled a little as he began punching in coordinates. "Okay, we're going to take a little detour now. One more star-jump, Babe... it'll last two minutes. Then we'll be okay."

"Where are we going?" Jack closed her eyes again. The nauseating sensation began once more.

"Well, I'm hoping they'll think we're headed for Corsair. We're gonna go to Daedalus Station instead."

"That's not far away."

"That's the idea. We'll be there in a few days and can get a doctor to look you over. In the meantime..." He stopped for a second as he cut the star-jump drive back out and switched over again to deep-space. "I've gotta get you stitched up."

He undid the straps confining him and knelt down by her, studying her with an astounding amount of concern in his face. After a moment he unstrapped her as well, carrying her over to her old room. She hadn't slept in here since the night after the space battle, when she'd felt like her world had ended forever. As he lay her down on the bed, she shivered.

"I'm so cold..."

"You're in shock, Jack. You've lost a lot of blood." There was something in his voice that belied the calm tones of his words.

"Riddick, am I going to die?"

"No. Now listen to me. You were just grazed. Most of the damage is to skin and subcutaneous tissue. A few arteries got nicked and a rib may have been chipped. That's all. Nothing vital got hit. Once I give you a transfusion and stitch you up, you're going to be just fine."

She looked up at him, amazed by the clashing vehemence and tenderness that filled his face. "Promise?"

"I promise, Jack. Now hold on..." He pulled something out from under her bed and unfolded it. An electric blanket. He switched it on and dropped it by her feet before he began to undress her. Then he carefully arranged it over her so that it covered everything except the wound itself. "This'll help you stay warm."

He left the room for a long moment and returned with an armload of medical supplies. He set them down on the bed and began working with them, assembling some kind of stand.

"Riddick..."

"Yeah, Jack?"

"I'm tired... is it safe for me to go to sleep?"

She felt his hand stroke her hair. "Yeah, Jack, it is."

"I'm gonna wake up, right?"

"Yes."

"Promise?"

"I promise. Here... this will help. You won't feel any pain either..."

Just a small sting against her throat. He'd given her an injection. Her last thought, as the darkness took her, was that she didn't know where the disks had gone. If she didn't wake up, she hoped he'd find them.