Chapter Three

After saying good-bye to Chad, Jack followed his advice and requested a room change. It took and extra twenty credits that she didn't really have to spare to get a room on the fifth floor allocated to her. Finally satisfied that she was safe, Jack headed to the diner across the street to grab some tucker.

From a window across the street, Jack's departure from the hotel and arrival at the diner was noted. Donning a hat, the same dark figure that had watched Jack through the shop window that very morning reached into a pocket, searching for and finding a shiv. Satisfied, the figure crossed the street and entered a café beside the diner Jack had entered, found a table with a view of the street and waited.

Jack looked at what remained of her "hearty special", her stomach full and her body relaxed. *Maybe an hour's worth of daylight outside*, Jack noted as she patted her stomach.

She let a waitress clear the table, as she thought about her options for her hour or so of 'safe time'. Still some-what worried for her safety, despite the room change, Jack ticked off various ideas, draining her coffee. After debating going back to her room, or finding Chad at the drop-in center, Jack decided that she would surprise Chad and "drop-in".

Signalling the waitress with her hand, Jack smirked as she imagined Chad's surprised face when he returned from his errands to find Jack there at his center.

"Finished, Hon?" A waitress asked, handing her the bill.

"Yup, " Jack fished about her pocket looking for the correct change, "I was wondering if you could give me directions to the drop-in center, I want to see a friend who works there__ah," she exclaimed, finding her credits and holding them up, "I'll need change."

"Sure. Was that 'drop-in center' you said?"

"Yes, my friend runs it, but I don't know how to get there."

"Well, Hon, I hate to tell you this, but you friend don't run nothing, except maybe his imagination, 'cause there ain't no drop-in center, here or anywhere on this planet."

"But there has to be, Chad said__"

"'Chad' has been pulling your chain, Kiddo. A drop-in center? On this planet? It wouldn't work. Three quarters of the population are homeless, abused or addicted to something. There's no facilities here to deal with it, it's just a fact of life."

Jack felt as if the waitress had kneed her in the gut. *No drop-in center. I can't understand that. Why? Why lie? The leaflets__*

"Wait, he had leaflets. He gave me one, but I threw it out. Why would he have leaflets if he didn't have a drop-in center?"

"Leaflets? Well that changes everything completely," the waitress said, sitting down across from Jack in the booth, "the next time you see your 'friend', run. Preferably off planet."

"I don't understand. Run? Off planet? I__" Jack felt lost for words. *I feel like I'm on the receiving end of the universe's most horrible practical joke.* She examined her hands, her face flushing. *I am not going to cry. She's wrong. There's no reason for Chad to lie, and he had LEAFLETS.* Jack looked back up at the waitress. She sat in front of her with a concerned look on her face. Jack noted dimly that her name tag read Brenda.

Brenda stared back, waiting for Jack to compose herself. When Jack looked up from her hands, Brenda decided to continue. "There are people out there who make a sizeable profit marketing run-away kids and homeless people for cheap labour, or worse. They pick people, young people, off the streets and make them feel comfortable. Act friendly and all that. Then they lure them away from the city, drug them and ship 'em off planet."

"But he helped me. He, he helped me," Jack whispered feebly. Brenda put her hand over Jack's.

"He wanted you to feel relaxed around him, so that it would be easy for him to get close enough to drug you."

"How do you know all this? If this is true why don't the police stop it?" Jack looked at Brenda suspiciously, a thousand questions popping into her head.

Brenda sighed, "This must be hard for you, and you don't want to trust me 'cause you don't know me and you think you know him."

Jack snatched her hand away from Brenda's reach, "I DO know him," she bit out.

"Ok. You know him. What's his surname? Which district does he live in?" Brenda questioned.

"I don't know those things, but I know he was a run away like I was. I know him," *I know him, I know him. It can't be__* Even as she thought the words, Jack knew the real truth: she didn't know Chad. *I took him at face value and he took me for a ride.*

"You still haven't answered my question," Jack asked, wiping at her eyes.

"The police know about it, we all do, but the police ignore it. Every year more and more people migrate here from far worse places, there's not__"

Brenda jumped as Jack sprang from her seat, "no more," Jack begged, "I've heard enough." Jack spun on her heel and ran out of the diner, leaving a stunned Brenda staring after her.

It was dark outside when Jack fled the diner, running across the road towards her hotel, unaware of cars swerving to avoid her. Reaching the pedestrian path, she tripped on the gutter and cursed aloud as she stared at her shredded covers and bleeding hands.

A strong arm gripped her on the elbow, causing her to shriek in fear as she was yanked up from the ground and placed on her feet. Jack was preparing herself to give this 'helpful' stranger what-for, until she met his eyes and all words died in her throat.

"Well, hello Jack." Chad drawled casually, his grip tightening on her arm, as he began to move her away from the street, "what's the hurry?"

[Keratan Three Orbital Docking Port]

Riddick stepped off the Mercascia, and briefly glanced around the port. He needed to book immediate transport off the station and to the planet. Spying a commercial run-about booth, he stalked towards it, feeling anxious. After his first night on ship, he had felt unease whenever he thought of Jack. He couldn't explain it, and like always, any feeling he couldn't explain he tried to brush it aside. *But it won't go away,* he thought, annoyed. *I need to devote my time to finding Jack, not thinking about what might be happening to her while I'm looking.*

Reaching the desk, he smirked slightly when he saw the man behind it flinching at his imposing figure. It didn't take much more than leaning on the desk and crossing his arms to get the result Riddick wanted - quick access to a transport heading for the surface. Leaving the man quivering, he tucked a ticket into his carryall and headed to the passenger lounge.

In two hours he would be on K3 and, he hoped by the end of the day, he would be back at the station. With Jack and heading back to New Mecca.

[Keratan Three]

Jack felt her throat constrict even more as Chad pulled her further away from the crowded sidewalk and her hotel. Petrified, she was unable to do anything more than stare at him.

*Move, damn you! He's gonna sell you,* she screamed in her mind, but her body would not obey. They passed brightly lit arcades and cafe's and Jack realised their destination was the same part of town that she had been lost in.

Finally, she found her voice, "Chad," she squeaked, "where are we going?" Chad smiled down at her, he touched her bloodied hand, "my place, you need some medical attention and I happen to have a first aid kit in my apartment."

Jack absorbed this quietly, *he doesn't know that I know about him, I need him to take me back to my hotel, or the diner.* She took a breath, "Chad, I'd much rather go back to the hotel if it's alright, I have a med-kit in my room." Jack looked up at him, hoping that he would turn around, and knowing that he wouldn't.

He smiled at her, and she felt chills go down her spine, "It's alright Jack, I don't bite. You'll be fine. I promise."

His smile twisted and Jack knew that it wasn't going to be fine. Her instincts told her that if she didn't flee, she would die. Her courage returned and she ground her heels into the pavement, twisting her arm out of his vice-like grip.

Before Chad could react Jack was running back towards the diner, to Brenda and safety. She could hear Chad calling out to her, but she did not turn back. People barked at her as she pushed them all aside, but she ignored them too, her only thought was of the diner.

Chad ran faster, but keeping Jack in sight with this crowd was not easy. He knew where she was heading and changed direction, no longer following.

He knew the back alleys of the city well, and he intended to use that knowledge to catch up to Jack. It didn't take him long to get to the alley beside her hotel and he crouched in the shadows, waiting.

Jack's breath was coming in ragged gasps. She could see the flashing lights of her hotel down the street and took some comfort in the thought that she would be across from the diner soon. *I'm gonna make it, I'm__* She screamed at the top of her lungs as a hand grabbed and pulled her into the alley beside the hotel.

Chad clamped his hand over her mouth and twisted her arm behind her back, throwing her up against the side of the hotel. Jack bit his hand in a desperate attempt to get to the brightly-lit street. Chad withdrew his hand cursing.

"You shouldn't have done that, bitch," he growled, backhanding her across the face. She crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Chad looked at her prone body and massaged his hand, bringing it up to his mouth, tasting the blood, "no, you shouldn't have done that at all."