False Dawn

Chapter 26

Only a muffled sound came from the gun when the trigger was pulled. The sound repeated, over and over again.

"Level Two clear," Riddick said softly, his eyes on the smoking barrel of the gun Jack held. She'd opened fire on the group of uniformed men coming at them, none had gotten another ten feet.

This floor was set up with a central hub, the corridors running out from a large round room at the center. The center of the room had a desk, or more like a ring filled with desks. It was just a security station, but it had access to the mainframe computer, and that's what they needed.

They had managed to come this far with only a lone security guard being dispatched on the way up. He had crumpled silently, allowing them to continue undetected. But now . . . The second floor was what they had been after. It was solely for the purpose of security, guarding entrance to everything above. For a highly guarded and classified organization there had been some huge holes in their security coverage. A stairwell that had access to every floor, including the lower levels of the building, was unmonitored. They had entered the stairwell on the maintenance level and had proceeded to climb the entire way, securing each door from the inside.

Now Jack ran to the desk, the outfit she had donned after they had gotten inside was literally clunking on itself as she moved. She kept her eyes on the corridors she passed, knowing Riddick was just behind her, gun ready to fire at anything that moved.

She moved to the desk and shoved the chair, and its unprofessionally draped occupant, out of the way so she could get to the computer. "Just drop the disk in, Chip?"

"Three terminals?" came the crackling voice in her ear.

She looked behind her. "There's four."

"That's fine. Doesn't matter which three, one in each. Wait for the disk to load and hit the enter key."

Jack pulled out the first disk, thanking God, or Chip that they were numbered. In the rush of adrenaline from getting this far, she wasn't sure if she could stop long enough to do it right otherwise. She opened the first tray and dropped in the disk, pushing roughly at the tray for it to retract. It seemed to take forever for the program to open, but finally it did, appearing sluggish in even that. She hit enter and moved to the next computer.

"Come on, Jack. This is taking too long," Riddick warned, his voice tight, his eyes never turning to her as he moved from one side of the room to the other to keep watch at all six corridors.

"Almost done," she whispered urgently as she waited for the third and final disk to load. It was taking longer than the first two. "Come on, come on," she whispered to speed the disk.

They had decided that it was best to hit the security station and take the amount of time it would take to put in all the disks before they got the baby. He was only several levels up, and it was driving her crazy to be so close and still not have him safe. Her fingers tapped the front of the computer, silently cursing it to hurry.

The screen popped up just as voices sounded from down one corridor. Riddick started firing and backing toward her, and their escape route. Jack smashed her fist on the enter key, barely giving the monitor a glance to see if it was accepted, before she raised her gun.

"This way," she said, her voice scarcely raised, as ran to the door they had left open.

They rushed through the door, bullets zinging and sparking off the metal door and steps. Jack shoved the door closed when Riddick was clear and stuck a wedge in the crack.

Riddick was already leaning out over the railing looking up. Jack hit the steps running. She knew she shouldn't be getting excited, but the idea of seeing and touching and holding her son had her heart racing. She just wanted to get there, get this done, then get out.

Riddick was right behind her as she reached the sixth floor door.

"Door's guarded," came Chip's warning over the comm. Jack nodded at Riddick. He pulled the wedge free and then pulled the door open just a crack, long enough for her to throw out a cluster grenade. The door slammed with bullets already hitting it. The little grenade popped, spreading itself out before it then exploded, to do the most damage.

They came out the door firing, shrapnel still hanging in the air before raining down on them. Only six guards. They went down almost as one, most not seeing the guns aimed at them as they fled the grenade's damage.

The hall straight ahead was the one they needed, it was short and empty. Jack was trotting, weapon held at the ready. She didn't think there would be a guard in with the baby, but she opened the door cautiously.

A nurse shrieked as Jack stepped in, the gun aimed at her head keeping her eyes wide and locked on Jack. The baby screeched in that child's happy way, his arms waving at the new arrival as he stood in a playpen before the caregiver.

Jack wanted to shoot the woman. It was obvious that she'd heard the shots and explosion and had positioned herself behind the baby. Fucking bitch! Her finger flexed on the trigger for a moment before she released it. 'Don't want to get blood on the baby', she thought with a sneer.

"Sit your fucking ass down and you'll live through this," Jack snarled. She stepped closer to the squealing baby, and saw her own wide green eyes looking back at her. Tears burned her eyelids as gave the child a small smile.

She pulled a special sling from her pack. It would keep the baby against her, and was bulletproof over his head and body. Only his arms and legs would be exposed. She pulled the baby up, and laid him on what must be his changing table. The sling snapped together, and she quickly worked to get the energetic child inside. Her eyes stayed on the woman that was now cowering in the corner. She might be scared shitless, but she could still be threat.

The woman glanced at a table across the room and Jack quickly glanced in that direction too. She could see Riddick through the open door just behind her, covering the hall. A table was in the corner nearby. Disgust swept through her as she saw the table was covered with some rather horrific looking equipment.

When Jack looked back at the woman she seemed bothered that Jack had seen what she was looking at. Strange, Jack thought, as she finally secured the baby and clipped the sling into the rings on her vest. She nearly staggered as his weight was added to her own, but managed to find her balance even if her back was already protesting the added strain and her shoulders felt like they were being pulled out of their sockets.

"Bye-bye?"

Jack's gaze softened for the moment it took to smile at the face turned up to hers expectantly. "Yeah, sweetie, Mama's taking you bye-bye."

"Mama." He lowered his head, pressing his face against her chest and closed his eyes. Jack felt her heart swell at his acceptance of her. She wrapped an arm around him, holding him closer to her for a few moments.

Keeping an eye on the woman in the corner Jack moved to the table. A file sat neatly at the center, 'Generation 3' marked neatly on the front. The pieces of equipment that she'd seen from afar weren't standard. They were strange and as Jack stared at them she had a weird urge to take them. She glanced back at the woman to see her eyes were wide, staring at what she was doing.

That settled it. Pulling her pack around, she literally just swept the surface off into the bag. Then she glanced back at the woman before running out the door.

Riddick gave her a rather soft look as she stepped up beside him. "Is he okay?"

She couldn't help smiling at him. The thrill of having her baby again made the rest pale into insignificance. "He is now. Let's get the fuck outta here," she told him.

They made it to the stairwell without incident. Riddick stepped through the door first and Jack immediately heard gunshots ricocheting. She shoved the door wider and they fired upward into the bit of an opening they could see. They knew it would only be a matter of time before someone figured out that they were just using simple wedges to close the doors. Checking downward to see if anyone had entered from below they saw nothing. So backing carefully down the steps, one eye always on the next flight down, they kept the guards above at bay.

They reached the first floor, still firing up between the railings, and Riddick jerked the wedge from the door.

"At least eight," Chip warned over the comm.

Again they nodded at each other, but Jack was the one to pull the door open and then quickly slam it after Riddick had tossed the grenades.

While she kept the door closed he stepped back to fire up the steps to keep the guards from coming too close.

"Mama."

Riddick's gaze impaled hers. She smiled and smoothed a hand down the babies back, watching Riddick's eyes follow the movement. Then, like the man she expected him to be, he raised his gun and shot up the stairwell. After twenty or so shots he moved toward them, his size dwarfing her as he stood over her. His free hand came up to rest beside hers on the outside of the sling that covered the baby's back.

Jack held his gaze, feeling the impact of his intense look. Then he pulled his goggles down, stepping back. "Let's go."

The rain of debris had just quieted as Jack pulled the door wide and followed Riddick through the door, each taking a side.

When the room was cleared, five of the guards having still needed a bullet to finish them off, they circled to the doors. With Riddick facing out, and Jack facing back in they cleared the street before them. Leaving the building in a different way than they'd come in and in such a blatant way, walking right out the front doors, had obviously thrown off the security. The door into the stair well flew open just as they took off running. They had to make it three blocks to where their two-man cruiser was waiting.

Riddick kept pushing her ahead of him, and when they started hearing gunshot he was running backwards to fire at the men coming at them. She heard a grunt from him just as they were rounding the second corner.

"Riddick?" she called, looking back.

He was still right behind her. "Go, Jack. Just keep. Fucking going."

Bullets zinged off of the concrete around them just before they turned the corner at the end of each block. Chips flew from the concrete wall beside them, peppering Jack's arm with sharp cuts. The weight of the baby and her arsenal was weighing Jack down, making her feel like she was trudging instead of running. Were they ever going to make it?

They finally reached the last corner, the alley there had been wide enough to set down the cruiser they had landed in.

Riddick gasped as he turned the corner, and then went down.

Jack jerked back to see him on his hands and knees.

"Go, Jack. Just go." His voice sounded rougher already and she could see the strain of pain on his face. She couldn't be sure, but the way he was moving, or not moving his one arm, made it look like the bullet had gone in from the side, below his arm where his vest left him unprotected. For one heartbeat she stared at him, knowing he wanted her and the baby safe, knowing he was seriously hurt, knowing he probably wouldn't survive. Then she reached out and grabbed the shoulder of his vest and yanked.

"Get your fuckin' ass up, Riddick!" she yelled at him. He grunted as she yanked at him, pulling him from his knees, though she knew she wasn't moving him alone. "I am not leaving you here, asshole, now fucking move!"

He staggered to his feet and she clutched the side of his vest in one fist, pulling him forward. She could hear Chip talking in her ear, saying something about how close the men were and that he was opening the hatch. Jack pushed them harder, looking over her shoulder as she shoved at Riddick. He was barely standing, his right arm hanging completely limp, and she honestly didn't know how he was able to walk at all. His face was pale, the slack-mouthed expression of shock scaring her.

They reached the hatch and the incline was too much for him, he stumbled and fell with a low pained groan. Jack stepped over him into the ship, firing down the alley as the hatch slowly closed, seeing the first few men that had rounded the corner all go down. Within seconds, more bullets were hitting the hull as more guards replaced those she had killed. She made sure Riddick was out of the way, fired more shots through the narrowing crack just before it closed and then ran for the cockpit.

Chip had kept the ship ready to fly, so they could take off in an instant. She unhooked the sling and set the baby in the copilots seat, clipping him in again, and then plopped down in the pilot's seat. She didn't bother with her restraints, but just grabbed the controls. She could hear bullets hitting the hull as she urged the ship up, being careful to not hit the buildings around them. When she was clear she blasted off, leaving the peppering of bullets hitting the little ship behind. She stayed low to the building, not wanting to come up on radar yet.

"Circle for five. I'm changing your identity to get you out," Chip told her.