Chapter 29: Bait.
Johnny was closing up when the commotion kicked up outside Zion. Kelly looked at him from where she was sitting on the floor, Candace helping her count credits away while Riddick finished off prepping The Gemini and picked up Jack from the flat. They were supposed to drop by and say their final farewells before heading for the airfield.
The teenager had grown quite attached to the falsely accused convict and her family to the point where it was actually hard for her to leave them behind but then she knew that it was for the best. If she didn't leave, Jack would be in even more danger and she would never find her father and she was desperate to see her father again.
Candace stood up, dusting off her jeans and moving to stand by Johnny as the sound of doors opening caught her attention. A woman was first to come into view, followed by Kirsten Leal and John from The Aurora Candace stiffened and pulled back slightly her lip curling as she watched them hurry forward, Jack's backpack firmly in the young engineer's hands.
"We're closed guys." Johnny held up his hands.
"Are you Jonathan Marks?" The woman Candace didn't know was the first to speak.
"Why are you here?" John asked Candace, startling her.
"I'm waiting for Jack." Candace answered slowly.
"I'm Jonathan Marks. What can I do for you?" Johnny sent Candace a look to tell her to keep her mouth firmly shut from that moment forward.
"Jack told us to find you if anything went wrong and things have gone very wrong." John answered looking grim.
"What do you mean?" Johnny asked as Kirsten looked at Candace.
"Is Riddick still here?" Kirsten asked her moving a step closer.
"How the hell do you know about Riddick?" Candace snapped taking one step back.
"Because a Merc called James Bradley is after him. He's caught Jack; she's to be bait in a trap they're setting up for him on T2. She didn't look so good when they were carting her off either." Kirsten answered her. "She told us where to find her backpack and told us to deliver it to Kelly and Jonathan Marks at Zion." John held out the letter and the other man took it and opened it.
"How the hell did he get his hands on Jack? She was under orders to stay where she was." Candace looked up at Johnny in shock. "Help me understand this please."
"Dr. Johnston and I smuggled one of the creatures that stabbed you off the planet and to a research facility not so far from here. Mr. Bradley appeared and offered the good doctor a cut in Riddick's bounty if he helped him catch Jack to be bait to catch Riddick. My sister and I were held hostage, which is how John was brought into the picture. Anyway, Jack turned up to kill the thing and got caught. Now we have to do something about it. We're just wasting time here talking!" Kirsten tried to explain.
"No actually, we're not. Jack doesn't want us to do anything about it." Johnny shook his head as his eyes scanned the letter that John had given him the frown on his face deepening with each scan his eyes took.
"What!" Besides Candace and John's exclamations of surprise there was also a pained yell from Kelly behind the bar.
"Read the instructions Kel, no going after her. She's left a copy of her will and there's a letter there for Riddick too, it seems she had a feeling that she wasn't coming back from this one." Johnny answered a note of defeat in his voice.
"We're not really going to leave her to her fate? They will eventually kill her, you do realise that right? If we don't do something she is going to die. No question about it." John looked at him dumbfounded. "That's not right."
"But it's what she wants." Johnny shrugged.
"No one wants that!" Candace yelled at him, not caring if she was making a scene.
"But she wants Riddick free. If he goes after her, she'll die anyway and he'll end up in slam." Kelly explained softly.
"No way! Do you think that Riddick will really buy that bullshit? Jack saved you didn't she? Don't we owe it to her to save her? Come on, look at all the shit she's done for us!" Candace was shaking where she stood. "If we leave her to this, we're just as responsible for killing her as Bradley. You want that kinda blood on your hands cause I sure as hell don't."
"Watch it kid, you're about to step over the line!"
"He won't leave her to them, you know he won't!" She snapped harshly, glaring at the Marks. She was angry and their denial of the situation wasn't helping matters in anyway. Did they really think that they were doing what was best?
"Maybe he will, maybe he won't." Kelly shrugged. "He might not have much of a choice in that matter."
"Excuse me then while I make a phone call." Candace glared at the adults. They might have been older then her but she seriously doubted that they knew better then her all the time. She left the club, shoving her hands deep into her jeans pockets and keeping her eyes down, as she glared moodily at the pavement beneath her feet. She took a quick left as she left the club and hurried along the road toward Jack's flat.
"Skulking huh kid?" She didn't even notice the fact that Riddick had fallen into step with her until she was addressed.
"Oh, God, Ri-" His hand flew over her mouth as a couple walked by them.
"You know better then to say my fucking name in public." He hissed and pulled her down a side ally. "Now, what's got you so fuckin' worked up?"
"Jack's in trouble and they're all just going to leave her to be fucking bait." Candace said hurriedly as tears brimmed in her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. "There's some dumbass letter and shit saying that you're not to go after her but we can't just leave her to die 'cause he will kill her eventually unless someone does something about it first."
"What the fuck are you talking about? What's happened to Jack?" The look on his face was murderous and Candace swallowed hard, suddenly very afraid for herself. "OUT WITH IT!" He bellowed giving her a hard shake that didn't help to loosen the knot in her tongue, she just stared wide-eyed and petrified back at him.
"A merc and the doc we transported set a trap for Jack." John's voice said from behind Riddick and suddenly a blade was at his throat and his back was pressed up against the ally wall. John's skin paled, a sheen of sweat breaking out on his forehead. "Jack got tripped up and hit her head on a wall; she was in pretty bad shape when we saw her being shuffled away on a hover-stretcher. She told us if anything went wrong to find her family and deliver her backpack to them, she never told us what was in it."
"And Johnny says we can't go after them, says she doesn't want us to so we can't." Candace looked and felt genuinely distressed; not only because of Jack's capture but also because of the way that Riddick was currently behaving. She didn't know what to do; all she knew was if they didn't act soon there was no way that they would be able to track those men down on time.
"Where are they now?" Riddick asked the man he had pinned to the wall.
"Jack? I dunno, I think they're taking her back to that planet – I think, I'm not sure." He gulped as that blade pressed harder on his neck, not enough to break the skin yet but enough to frighten him further.
"Where are the Marks' Candace?" Was his next question directed at her but he never took his eyes off the engineer in front of him.
"Kelly and Johnny are back at the club with everyone else. Damien has gone to get Joe, I think. We have to do something Riddick." She said as she looked down at the concrete she was standing on, quickly using her sleeve to wipe away at the tears that were being a little too persistent in falling.
---
"Shit's hit the fan Joe." Damien said as he ran through to the man's workshop. Joe lived in a top floor apartment in a building where he was the landlord and the only tenant, the first floor apartment he used as a guesthouse and the middle was his workshop where he mixed and brewed his many types of homemade drugs.
"Shit's always hitting the fan with your folks." He said dismissively but when Damien continued to stare at him he sighed. "What's gone and happened now?" Joe asked as the lad fingered a couple of viles and looked nervously at the ground. Joe frowned, Damien was a forward kind of kid and the way he was going about this whole thing made old Joe nervous and with the man's disposition it didn't make for a good mix.
"It's -." He sighed.
"Out with it!" Joe ordered, his finger's already itching to close around the handle of the get away bag that he kept at the door encase he had to duck and run quickly.
"Jack'sgotherselfcaughtbymercs." Damien said so quickly that it all came out as one jumbled up word.
"Come again?" Joe kept his voice low and even.
"Jack's got herself caught by mercs." He managed to speak more slowly this time around. "They don't know about her killing Lang, at least we don't think they do, from what we can gather they think they can use her as bait to catch Riddick…" Damien wasn't allowed to say anymore before the other man jumped in.
"Alright, I'll get my things, what's the plan? How many party packs am I going to need this time?" Joe turned off the Bunsen burner he was using and reached for his jacket.
"No point reaching for your gear." Damien shook his head.
"What?" Joe was sharp this time as he turned.
"Jack had a feeling so it seems, she's left a letter and her will." He said quietly.
"Her what?"
"Her Will." Damien repeated.
"What does that mean?" Joe demanded.
"That we're not to go after her, they're after Riddick and you know how much Jack feels responsible for Riddick, she'll die before she lets him go back to slam. The letter says that no one is to go after her, she doesn't want him or my mother caught so we've just to leave her to her fate."
"And how did Riddick take that news?" The strung out man seemed to pause for a moment.
"I don't know, he wasn't there, it was Candy who found out first and she didn't take it well at all. Ran out of there in a rage because Dad was thinking that he's going to enforce the following of Jack's wishes. He's worried about mom too I think." The boy looked tired, defeated as he looked at the dealer. There was a trust between the two for them that went deep; Damien had ran for the dealer for a long time before Kelly and Jonathan had made him their son, all because Joe had pushed Damien in their direction.
"Then we are going to have to change Johnny's mind aren't we? No one is going to fuck with Jack and not pay for it." Joe said with a shrug.
"We might not have a choice; dad can be very stubborn sometimes."
"I have a feeling that Riddick won't follow his lead however much it might be for the best. Jack'll be pissed as hell if we go after her, she's doing what she thinks is best for her family." Joe said but more to himself then to Damien.
"But letting her die is not what's best for her family." Damien snapped.
"You're not an adult kid, you don't have kids. It'll take you a few years yet to understand." Joe said picking up two bags at a somewhat leisurely pace, one was his emergency bag that held a few changes of clothes, all of his recipes and the names and contact details of his customers, the other Damien was not sure of at all.
"Ready?"
"Lets go have a chat with Johnny."
---
"Joe?" Johnny almost looked relieved when Joe walked in the door flanked by his adopted son. Candace didn't blame him, since she had arrived back at the club, the man had been under constant stress as Riddick prowled and paced after all the information that could be given by anyone had passed to him, in some cases twice or three times over again.
"I've already been informed and I think you're crazy." Joe said as Damien slunk behind the bar. "She's had our back for nearly 2 years, maybe longer then that, I dunno. It doesn't sit right with me letting her go off and be killed because we took the word of some letter."
"She'll kill us."
"Lets hope she had the opportunity to." Kelly said, voicing her opinion for the first time openly.
"You think we should go?" Johnny looked over at his wife a look on his face that almost pleaded for her not to go against him, not to decide that it was best to go against Jack's wishes.
"No." She shook her head. "I'm going, Riddick's going and we're taking Joe with us if he is agreeable. Damien and Candace will stay here with you Johnny and keep up pretences. I don't give two what that letter says, when you're held captive all you want is for someone to sweep in there and find you. All noble intentions go out of the window when your own survival is threatened. Trust me."
"And what good do you think that you're going to be to a rescue effort?" Johnny asked somewhat cruelly but there was fear at the edge of his voice.
"I can pilot well enough and we all don't know what state Jack'll be in, Joe and I will be able to doctor the worst." She answered. "I don't need the use of my legs to be useful Jonathan."
"You're not going after Jack Kel, I'm sorry but I'm not going to let you." He said with a firm shake of his head.
"Well someone needs to look after the kids and be a legal front for the business. Remember I can't be the later." She said. "You in Joe?"
"I'm not leaving her in the hands of some Merc." Joe said with a shrug and put his metal case on a table. "Count me in."
"I'm not being left out of this. I got her into this mess, I'm going to have a hand in getting her out!" John said suddenly and uncharacteristically asserting himself and then looking around nervously afterward.
"And why the hell do the kids have to stay at home?" Damien snapped.
"I aint fucking staying!" Candace glared at them.
"Yes you are!" Johnny and Riddick said forcefully at the same time.
"You'll need me, I'm probably the one who knows the planet the best. No offence Riddick but I was there for months during the continuous day. I have a feeling I know where they've taken her." Kirsten said.
"And she isn't going without me." Laura shook her head stubbornly.
"No, everyone is not coming!" Riddick roared above all the arguments. "The more people that come the better chance of a screw up. Johnny, John and Joe came come, Kirsten there is a spot for you but only you, do you understand you are the last. Candace and Damien, you are staying here with Kelly and Laura can help you front the club if she wants to be helpful."
"But she doesn't know anything about the business." Kelly protested.
"Then teach her. The other option is that I go alone and you all sit back here and worry. Either way, she's not being left to that Merc." Riddick had a look of stone cold fury on his face and they all knew that there was no point arguing further.
---
She didn't know how long she had been there, it may have been days for all she knew but when she had woken up there had been the roar of unfamiliar engines and she would have had to be a fool not to understand what that meant. They were taking her away from her home, away from her family and most importantly, away from him.
She wanted to push the man who was trying to stick her up away from her and scream "NO!" but all she managed was a low moan of pain that sounded around the cell she was in. No one would have heard her besides the man next to her and possibly her capture; there was no one to come to the rescues this time. The realisation stuck hard and made her want to suddenly be sick and then before she could make any more conscious movement she felt the extra Gs of life off and she let the pain in her head and limbs send her back into unconsciousness where there was at least the illusion of safety.
---
The tutting and fussing of a man re-dressing the wound on her leg was the next thing that pulled her from her mind but she didn't open her eyes or give any sign that she was at all aware of what was going on around her.
Her arms and legs ached and where the bullets had grazed and penetrated her skin, each opening a nice wound, the one on her leg no longer having a bullet in it and one on her arm and hell, they burned like they were too close to a fire. Her head was pounding as if someone was taking a sledgehammer to her brain and behind her eyelids her eyes felt both dry and scratchy.
Jack could feel the cold, slightly tight metal that encircled both of her wrists but there was no similar sensation around her ankles and in all honesty she was glad that she would at least have a little bit of manoeuvrability when and if she ever found the opportunity to use it.
As her arm was undressed she felt the sting of a needle piercing her skin, thread being pulled through afterward. She sought the darkness that lay in wait for her and let herself fall back into its comforting depth, at least the more rest she got the quicker her recovery would be.
---
"Watch what the fuck you're doing! You trying to permanently damage me?" James Bradley snapped and then there was a groan of pain from the same man. A satisfied kind of smile appeared across her lips as she sat up slowly. She had to fight the pain in her head as she heard Bradley curse again and snap at his associate. "I thought that you said you were a doctor."
"How many times must I remind you that I am not that kind of doctor? I have told you many times already. At least the girl didn't have a fit about my mending." Dr. Johnston's voice answered him back.
"That's because I didn't have a fucking choice in the matter!" Jack yelled so that she was sure they had heard her.
"Shut the fuck up!" Both men yelled simultaneously.
"Only if I feel like shutting up am I going to shut up." She yelled right back but knew that it was a lame come back. She carefully swung her legs over the edge of the pallet she was laying on and stood up, testing the length of her bindings before sitting down again, her head spinning slightly.
It was a fine fucking mess she had gotten herself into. Riddick was going to have a thing or two to say when he found out that the only reason she had gotten herself caught in the first place was because she had ignored a man on the ground. And now she was in probably the worst trouble of her life and was injured on top of that. 'Clever girl Jackie, clever girl.' She shook her head as the door creaked open to her holding cell.
James Bradley walked in with a smirk on his face and she glared at him. "You could have at least made sure I had a glass of water to wake up to." She shook her head at him, a look of disgust on her face. "Not a very good host are you Mr. Bradley."
"I'm not here to play host to you Miss Stewart." James Bradley answered her. "But there are things that you can do to make your own stay with us more pleasant for yourself."
"Oh?" Jack looked at him.
"Tell me how to get in touch with Riddick." He cut quickly to the chase and she glared at him.
"Can't do that." She shook her head.
"Tell me where he is now." His demanding tone got a little stronger.
"Can't do that either." She answered with a shrug.
"Do you know where he is Jack?" It was the first question she had been given and she made herself hang her head like he had stuck a raw nerve.
"Somewhere in space probably." She said after a moment or two of tense silence. Her answers were irritating him and she knew it but then, she couldn't and didn't exactly want to give him the satisfaction of answers that would help him in anyway.
"I'm loosing my patience with you Jack. I want answers from you and I want them now!" He glared at her, his hand twitching at his side. She couldn't help but feel a little bit of fear, he was less then a moment away from hitting her out of sheer frustration and there was nothing that she could do about it. She gritted her teeth and pushed down what fear was there, he was not going to get the better of her.
"Fuck you!" She snapped. "You don't always get what you want Merc. I'm not going to help you catch him and you know it. I'm going to take your ass down, even if you do catch him, you realise that your ass is going to land in slam with his for kidnapping and assault and unlike him you won't last for two seconds."
"And you for breaking and entering." James Bradley answered right back.
"Woohoo! Nice scare tactic Jamie boy." She let a loose hollow laugh escape her throat, her eyes mocking. "I could care less about prison, prison is prison, I'd be out soon enough unlike you because the inmates will tare you limb from limb when they find out you're a Merc and trust me, I would make sure they would find out exactly who you are."
"Or I could kill you. Add you to the long list of Riddick's kills and paint a picture of a heroic young woman who was grossly mislead by the man who gained her trust." James Bradley gave her a triumphant look.
"There are people out there who know better Merc and I can promise you that you'll be dead in a year if you spin out a cock and bull story like that." She crossed her legs as she looked at him expectantly, ignoring the pain that shot up her leg from the stitches in her thigh. The look on her face telling him that she wasn't afraid of his threat. It was a lie, the biggest put on of her life. Jack was terrified.
"Then maybe I should just kill you now!" He pulled a gun out from his side, her own glock to be exact and levelled it at her. Jack froze for a second, her mind working over time on a way to get herself out of the hole she had dug for herself.
"If I'm dead, you'll never catch Riddick." She said with a shrug.
"So you're going to cooperate then?" She had hit on the only reason that she was still alive in the first place.
"No." She shook her head. "But then you won't be a murderer."
"As you yourself know, I already am a murderer. Killing you isn't going to change that." And the Merc aimed and squeezed the trigger.