Jack's apartment wasn't too far from John's office, a tiny studio in a cheap brick building. The building's security was sorely lacking, but it was nondescript and they didn't care that she'd made a few modifications of her own. The keypad was just a decoy, and she flipped it open to reveal a retinal scanner underneath. She ducked down and let the laser match the pattern of blood vessels in her eye to the one on record. The lock snicked opened and Jack dropped the cover, hiding the scanner from prying eyes.

As soon as she was inside, she locked the door behind her and looked around. Nothing was moved, not even the swivel chair in front of the bank of monitors that covered one whole wall. She checked the lock on the window out of habit; as soon as she'd moved in, she'd nailed it shut. She'd only lived with Riddick for a year, but his habits were as ingrained in her as if she'd been doing this from birth.

The only other furniture in the room was a beat-up futon that served as both seating and bed, and the desk that held her computer equipment. She settled into the swivel chair and started typing.

It was a ritual for her now: as soon as she completed a job, she transferred the creds into one of several anonymous, numbered accounts in as different systems. She couldn't use her own name, not since the press ran the story of a young runaway caught in the company of one Richard B. Riddick. Jacqueline Aubrey Toussaint was officially dead; Jack had seen to that as one of her first big hacks. Now twenty, she was one of the premiere hackers in this sector, and a damned good safecracker and pickpocket to boot. The skills complemented each other in the underworld, since she could easily disable most security systems long before stepping foot in any building.

The cred-transfer only took a moment. Jack checked her balances; after some quick mental math, she smiled. This last job had pushed her over the amount she was aiming for. She now had enough to buy passage on a ship to get her off this god-forsaken rock on which she'd spent four long years, with more than enough left over to live on. She glanced over at her right monitor. On it, words scrolled by too fast for her to read, as it scoured the networks—both legitimate and not—for any sightings of Riddick.

A beep indicated she had a new message. Jack frowned. She shouldn't be getting a message here at home; the only address she'd registered was the one on her mobile com pad. She glanced around, wondering if she was really, truly alone. She jumped up and pushed open the curtain that separated the bathing room from the rest of the apartment, then the curtain to the tiny shower cubicle. No one.

Still unsettled, she sat back down and clicked on the message. It was a ship manifest for the Brizo, a cargo ship leaving the system in three days. She scanned the list of names, but didn't recognize any. Another message popped up, soon after the first. Inside was a full set of ident docs, with her photo and the name of Julienne Allegra, and a ticket under that same name. She checked back at the manifest; Julienne Allegra was listed as a passenger from Ladon 5 all the way to New Hellas, the ship's final destination.

A third message popped up:

Nyx,

Enclosed is a ticket for passage on the Brizo. It leaves at 0400 hours standard time. Just for boarding the ship and listening to my offer, I will transfer one million credits into the account of your choice. If you choose to take the job, a further four million credits will be transfered into your account at the completion of the job.

Erebus

Jack blinked and read the message again. No one had ever connected her hacker identity to this address, and the thought that she'd been that careless was extremely worrisome. She'd never heard of anyone using the nick 'Erebus' in any hacker circles, and a million creds just to meet someone seemed too good to be true. Besides, it was almost two AM, only two hours before the Brizo departed. That was barely enough time to make it down to the docking sector, let alone make a decision. Jack didn't like the sound of this, not at all.

She cocked her head and held her breath. A strange silence had descended on the building. In the months she'd lived in this apartment, the ghetto streets had always teemed with noise, even in the dead of night. Her heart started beating faster, and her instincts were on high alert. "Damn," she whispered.

Moving quickly and silently, with the ease of long practice, she plugged her com pad into the computer, and quickly downloaded all her vital info into it. After a brief pause, she added the ident papers and ticket Erebus had sent her. With a few quick keystrokes, she triggered the self-destruct program she'd installed as soon as she'd set up her system. Within 180 seconds, every trace that Jack had ever used the system, or even that she existed, would be wiped permanently from the memory.

While the computer shut down, she scooped up the few personal items she'd acquired during her stay on Ladon 5, along with her set of lock picks and a few sets of clothes and shoved them into a nondescript traveling bag. She looked around once more, and, satisfied she wasn't leaving behind anything that could connect her to this apartment, she shouldered her bag and went to the window. A hammer lay on the window sill, the selfsame hammer she'd used to nail this window shut when she'd moved in. Jack wedged the claw under the head of the nails, one-by-one, and pulled them out. When they were all free, she yanked the window open and swung out, dropping a few feet onto the fire escape.

Jack looked around, trying to figure out what had caused the strange silence. There were no bums hanging around the alley, no wannabe gangsters lounging on the corner. She felt a shiver crawl up her spine. Something big was about to go down, and she sure as hell wasn't going to be hanging around when it happened. She clambered up the fire escape ladder, cursing the clanging of the rusty metal. She swung her bag up onto the roof and climbed up after it, dropping to her stomach.

From her perch on the edge of the roof, Jack peered down at the street. A black sedan rolled up slowly, and parked in front of her building, followed by a van. The back door of the van opened, and several men dressed in black fatigues spilled out. Each was wearing a bulletproof vest and helmet and carrying an automatic weapon. Using the same hand signals militaries used the galaxy over, they separated, three men running to the back door, and four taking the main entrance. Even though the building was home to more than one criminal, she doubted that many of them rated a full-scale tactical assault.

As soon as the men entered the building, Jack stood up and started toward the other edge of the roof. This part of the city was old, and the building were close together, close enough the she had no trouble hopping from roof to roof. Once she felt she was far enough away, she made her way back to the street and headed toward the docking sector. Her time on this planet was clearly over, and the Brizo wouldn't wait for her.