Chapter 10. The Bull on the Mountain Top.

I'm lost in the dark and it's pissin' me off.

There'd been a girl. I remember. At least, I think she was a girl. Maybe my girl. Maybe my little sister. I can't remember that. Just that she was there and she was warm and when she smiled at me, it made me feel good.

And I can't find her.

That's also pissin' me off.

There was a guy. He had a flashlight and a shiny gun. I killed him.

Or something. Details are all hazy. I remember my fingers sinking deep into his flesh, but that makes no sense unless I used to keep my nails way pointier than they are now. I sometimes remember him exploding like silly string, but people don't usually do that when I kill them.

I'm cold. Thinking of the girl makes me remember what it was like to be warm. Pissin' me off.

Maybe I shouldna killed that guy. He was down here in this fucking maze with me. Mighta known the way out.

Might know where the girl got to.

Might know who she is.

I can't remember.

My stomach twists. Something's going wrong and I'm fucking lost in the dark.

Jack's limbs felt heavy, drugged. Nothing seemed real, not even the gun pointing at her. What would Riddick do?

Kill everyone. Except me. Maybe. Beige man spread his hands, placatingly. "Mr. Toombs, please."

"Please what?"

"Please don't kill the girl."

Theatrically, Toombs switched off the safety on the gun. It made an audible click. Like someone had souped up the click for dramatic effect. She rolled her eyes at him, just a bit. For an instant, something amused flickered in his. He growled to the other man, "you better start talkin'. Or this mission's over."

The beige man turned to Eve. "Miss Logan, please."

She shrugged. "It's his game. Gotta say, from what I hear about Riddick, she might be better off shot in the head."

Beige man slumped. "Mr. Riddick discovered that his crew was being sent on a suicide mission."

The gun didn't waiver, but Toombs snorted. "So he killed 'em? That don't make sense."

The man sighed. "The company had impregnated each member of his crew with a biological warfare agent. They would have been captured, they would have been brought to the enemy's home world, they would have been executed and they would have . . . spread a fatal contagion."

The gun didn't move. "So he's a god damn hero. Just for the other side. Sweet. Why'd he care?"

"Triage," Jack murmured. Everyone looked at her. She shook her head. "Johns called it triage. I never got that before. They were going to die anyway. He saved as many as he could." She closed her mouth hard. There was a long pause.

"Shit." Toombs stared at Jack with far more intelligence than she liked. "So we just gotta threaten to kill a lot of people and he'll give himself up? That ain't hard. So we don't really need this girl anyway."

Jack's eyes went, oh so slowly, to the beige man. He had the grace to look guilty. He cleared his throat. "Mr. Toombs, our intelligence suggests that Riddick would not be amenable to that sort of blackmail. He is not . . . generally community minded. We believe he thinks in terms of individuals. He was angry at the company for putting them in that position and . . . aware it would not be a good death for his crew."

"Huh." Toombs scratched himself with the gun, seemingly lost in thought. "Still don't make sense. Riddick was in a convict crew. He woulda been chipped. His CO shoulda been able to drop him as soon as he raised a hand. And wouldn't he have had the bio-whatzits in him?"

Beige man spread his hands again. "Riddick's unit was not chipped. They were commandos, not infantry. Too great a risk. As for the agent, Riddick is not human-standard. It may not have taken."

Toombs scratched himself, again, with the gun. "You human, darlin'?"

No. I don't think I am. "As far as I know."

His lips twitched. "So, brain boy over there thinks that we offer Riddick you, he'll follow along like a little puppy dog. Whatdya you think, darlin'?"

Jack stared at the gun. Looked up at Toombs' face. He was grinning. She nodded, seriously. "Bite me."

"Hey." Toombs tapped her on the forehead with the muzzle of the gun, not too hard. She didn't flinch. He did it a second time, harder. She let her head rock back. He smiled, satisfied. "Okay. Before wake up the twins and we let brain boy work in peace, let's get some stuff straight, darlin'. I drugged you to make you cooperative. Truth tellin'. So I wouldn't have to hurt you. Gonna give you another dose." She shut her eyes. "'cause we aren't supposed to hurt you. But I will if you aren't cooperative. So think hard how much you wanna piss me off."

I can't handle this. How much do I want to die?

Finally, she gave him a small, tight nod. He smiled broadly. "Good girl. I'll make sure you get a cookie." He stood. Holstered his gun at last, went to a panel and started pushing buttons. "Okay. We're in orbit around a lovely, now-uninhabited planet that used to be called," he glared over at another panel, "Audhumla? Who the fuck comes up with these names? We've got reason to believe your boy Riddick's down there. You know anything about that?"

"No. He didn't tell me where he was going. I haven't seen him for years." And the lie. "I thought maybe he was dead."

There was a hiss and a small panel opened. Toombs removed a hypodermic needle, came over with a grin. Gave Eve a nod. She came up behind Jack's chair, put her hands on Jack's shoulders. Toombs put his hand on Jack's head, right where he'd tapped it with the gun. Very slowly, he tilted her head back, exposing her neck. His tongue slid out of his mouth as he readied the needle. His grin expanded. "This might hurt, darlin'." He slid the needle right into her throat. She tried to stay still as the world spun around her.

After an eternity, he pulled the needle out. Jack slumped in her chair.

"That hurt?" Eve asked her, almost nicely.

Jack felt her eyes prickle. "Yeah. I gotta go to the bathroom." Toombs snorted. Jack stood. Almost fell. Eve steadied her.

"Okay, I'll take you."

Toombs snorted. "She don't need to go to the bathroom, Eve. She was in cryo until twenty minutes ago."

"Shut up Toombs." Logan helped her across the room, down the hall. It felt like her feet weren't quite reaching the ground. The bathroom was tiny. After a moment's hesitation, Logan let her use it alone.

Jack sat on the toilet, forcing herself to breathe evenly. These drugs are gonna make me useless soon. Felt in her pocket. Found the shiv she'd taken from Yunas a lifetime ago, and her pod. Stupid mercs. They didn't even check. She stuck the shiv deeper in her pocket, pulled out the pod and turned it on. Three weeks. I've been with mercs for three weeks.

There was a message saved from Yunas's mother. Her pod must have picked it up before they left the system. Would the mercs have intercepted it?

A great wash of dizziness engulfed her. She whimpered. There was a knock on the door. "Jack?"

"Just a minute," she muttered.

"Just making sure you're okay."

"Dizzy."

"Sorry, kid, Derek's special mix can do that. It gets better. You'll be pretty happy once it kicks all the way in."

"You're really gonna use me as bait to catch a mass murderer, aren't you?"

There was a long silence on the other side of the door. Finally, "Yeah, kid, that's the plan. Look. They want Riddick alive, and they think you're the best way to make sure that happens. No one wants to hurt either of you."

I can't listen to the message now. Jack shoved the pod deep in her pocket. Took a deep breath and walked out of the bathroom.

The drugs were bliss. If she hadn't been so cold outside on Audhumla, she could have been happy. Jack had to concentrate hard on putting one foot in front of the other. If she didn't, someone moved her. Usually, it was one of the twins, Dahlgren and Balgren. They liked touching her. She knew she should care about that.

She was dimly aware that the first four places they checked were busts. They'd been settlements, and ghostly signs of habitation speckled the landscape. For no reason she could put her finger on, it made her homesick. Maybe it was the drugs. She kept her head down.

The mercs all had real cold weather gear. They'd just let her layer what she'd brought with her, except for a hat Eve tossed her. She was glad to have it.

The fifth place was colder, and the drugs seemed to be wearing off. By the time she got back to the ship she was shivering so violently that the beige man got very testy with Toombs.

"I told you, it is important that she not be damaged."

"I ain't givin' her cold weather gear," Toombs said flatly. "Make it too easy for her to bolt. You make any progress with the satellite of love? Where is the satellite of love?"

"In an air lock. I will return it to orbit as we leave." The beige man's tone was accusatory. "It flatly refused to divulge any information. It did not believe you were authorized."

"Well ain't that the shit." Jack sank to the floor, wrapped her arms around her knees and buried her head in them. "Kid, you okay?"

She looked at him. "Cold," she murmured.

Someone sank beside her, put an arm around her. It was Dahlgren. "Shit, kid, you're freezing." She started to pull away, but she was so cold she couldn't bear to move away from his warmth. He cuddled her close. She let him.

"Toombs, we gotta give her a break," he said, seemingly concerned. "She'll catch her death. Lemme warm her up."

"Did you hear what I said, asshole?" Toombs shot back.

"We could cuff her," Dahlgren said reasonably. "Cuff her hands behind her back, she's not going to be running off in a wild world, even if we do give her a scarf."

"Might not stop Riddick from just grabbin' her though." Toombs stomped over. She slotted her eyes up at him. He was grinning, but there was an edge to it. "Lot you can do with a girl with her hands cuffed behind her back, even if you do like her." Jack let her eyes drop. Started shaking harder. "You really don't like that idea, do you toots?"

Dahlgren started to laugh. "I know that twinkle in your eye!"

"You win," Toombs grinned. "I'll scrounge up a poofy coat for the girl. Hey, brain boy!" this was to the beige man. "Since you're done playin' with your satellite, you're comin' with us this time."

The fifth place was at the foot of a mountain, right at the edge of a glacier. It was a rabbit warren of rocks and ice. Even trees, big, twisty ancient looking things. A few times, Jack thought she saw squirrels. There was enough animal life that the ship's sensors were not much help.

The drugs had almost completely worn off. She pretended they hadn't.

Something was following them. Something big. Something Toombs hadn't noticed.