The Changelings Part 8

Mr. Nischa gestured his drink towards us. "Skal!" he said, and then quickly put the shot gla.s.s to his lips and threw it back, drinking the amber liquid in one gulp.

Everyone else around me was responding in kind. I lifted my gla.s.s and said a weak 'Skal' along with the rest of them; they were decidedly more enthusiastic than I was about the whole thing. In my peripheral vision I saw gla.s.ses being tipped back and then set back down on tables. My hand was frozen in place, the gla.s.s not quite touching my lips yet.

Tony's hand whacked me on the arm. "Ouch, Tone, watch it!" I turned to give him my b.i.t.c.hy look, but what I saw shocked me out of b.i.t.c.h mode and into scared s.h.i.+tless mode. His eyes were shut and his mouth was hanging open. He was out cold. I heard a clank and a crash as someone else's shot gla.s.s fell and hit the table. I looked over and saw that everyone but me was unconscious, some of them obviously going into that state before they had even put their gla.s.ses down.

I lowered the shot gla.s.s away from my face and looked at Mr. Nischa with narrowed eyes. He was standing in place, still in front of the office door, no expression on his face. He just looked at me and said, "Skal, Miss Jayne."

"f.u.c.k that," was my very firm response. Skal my a.s.s. I put my arm across Tony's chest to keep him from falling forward and set the gla.s.s down on the table in front of me. "I don't know what the h.e.l.l you think you're doing here, but I am not drinking that s.h.i.+t. And you'd better stay the f.u.c.k away from me. I don't care how big you are a I'm not going down and neither is Tony." I could actually feel the adrenaline rising up in my bloodstream, and my heart felt like it had jumped into my throat. I had to swallow hard to make it easier to breathe.

Mr. Nischa reached his arm up and tapped on the door behind him with his knuckle. The door opened and Mr. Dardennes stuck his head out. "Yes, Ivar?"

Mr. Nischa said nothing a just gestured at me with a nod of his head.

Mr. Dardennes looked over. "Ah. I see we have a problem." He opened the door the rest of the way and stepped out. "Jayne, you did not partic.i.p.ate in the toast with your fellow pa.s.sengers ... how unfortunate. We really do need you to drink what's in your gla.s.s before we go too much farther into our little trip."

I picked up the gla.s.s and dumped the contents on the nice, cream-colored carpet. "Whoops, I spilled it. b.u.mmer. Guess I'll have to sit this one out." I figured I might as well go full-on rebel with this. Drugging test subjects never means anything good, so I figured I was already pretty much dead or sold into slavery anyway ... might as well go down fighting. I unbuckled my seatbelt as casually as I could. I needed to be able to get up and kick some b.a.l.l.s if necessary. I wondered if it was a man or woman flying this luxurious kidnapping mobile. If the pilot had t.e.s.t.i.c.l.es, I had a much better chance of getting the h.e.l.l out of there alive.

Mr. Dardennes smiled a a kind of tired smile. "Jayne, I know how this must look to you, but we find these measures necessary to protect the confidentiality of our operations. All will become clear to you in due time. I ask that you just trust me in the meantime, and take a drink as Mr. Nischa has asked."

I looked at him incredulously. This guy was obviously off his rocker. "You know, you really had me fooled in the meeting and interview; I had no idea you were a completely insane s.e.x slave trafficker. You can tell your pilot to turn this plane around and go back to Miami because I'm not drinking that poison and I will never trust you a you can bet your sweet a.s.s on that." Tony started snoring next to me.

"The drink is a sedative so you will sleep until we land. It will not harm you at all. The flight is quite long. You will be much happier to sleep through it, I a.s.sure you."

"Yeah, um, no thanks. Just take me back to Miami. I'm not interested in your test anymore."

Mr. Dardennes sighed. "Ivar, bring her another drink. Make sure she drinks it, but don't injure her." He went back into his office and closed the door.

Boy, did that guy have a lot of nerve. And Ivar Nischa was gonna be sorry if he even thought about trying that s.h.i.+t on me.

Ivar waked past me, back towards the c.o.c.kpit. I feverishly looked around me, searching for some kind of weapon. None of us had brought anything but changes of clothes in our backpacks a I'd watched everyone pack. Tony had left his gun at the warehouse too, up in the rafters. I reached down and grabbed a shard of gla.s.s from Jared's broken shot gla.s.s. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

Ivar returned with a crystal carafe of the amber liquid and another little gla.s.s. He sat down in the empty seat across from me and set the carafe on the table between us. "You need to take the drink, Miss Jayne." He had no expression on his face and no anger in his voice. Just certainty.

"You need to get the f.u.c.k away from me before I make you sorry you ever lived." I lifted my eyebrows for emphasis, my false bravado nearly even fooling me. I was trying like h.e.l.l to keep the shaking out of my voice. I couldn't let him see me sweat.

"This will be much better for you if you just comply. I do not want you to be hurt. You are very small and I am very big. You will either drink it or I will inject it into you. Come ... let us be adult about this."

"Adult? Adult? You want me to be adult? How about this: adults don't drug children and kidnap them, at least not high-functioning, sane ones. Why don't you be the adult here, and I'll just be the kid."

Ivar reached up and took the gla.s.s stopper out of the carafe. He lifted it by its neck, pouring out a shot. "Last chance to do this the easy way," he said quietly, almost sadly, sliding the drink towards me to let it rest a few inches from the edge nearest me.

"Go f.u.c.k yourself." I quickly swiped my hand across the table, sending the gla.s.s and its contents flying onto the carpeted aisle. A little bit splashed on Jared, but I knew he wouldn't mind.

Ivar jumped up from his seat so fast, I didn't even see it coming. I didn't even have a chance to cut him with my weapon. The last thing I saw was his sad but determined face, less than an inch away from mine, the smell of sweet alcohol on his breath. The last thing I felt was a stinging sensation in my arm. "You b.a.s.t.a.r.d ... you stuck me ... "

And then everything went black.

CHAPTER TEN.

I could hear voices, Tony's and Spike's. Then I felt someone squeezing my hand. "Wake up, Jayne, come on." Tony sounded worried. I wanted to squeeze his hand back, but my body was not obeying my mental commands at the moment.

Someone grabbed my foot and shook it gently. "Hey, Jayne, it's me, Spike. Come on, you're gonna miss all the fun, wake up."

Fun? Was he nuts? Since when did s.e.xual slavery sound like fun? The fog had started to clear from my brain. I remembered seeing Ivar's face in mine, and a sharp, stabbing pain in my arm. s.h.i.+t. He'd gotten the jump on me. He was gonna pay too, since I now realized that I was still alive. b.a.s.t.a.r.d should have killed me when he had the chance.

I was finally able to open my eyes. I looked around me, but all I could see was Tony's face, worry etched in the lines above his eyebrows.

"She's awake! Hey, Jayne, I'm so glad you're back. You feel okay?"

I turned my head and saw the crew sitting at and standing around a wood table in the middle of a big room. I was lying on a couch in what looked like a log cabin ski lodge. There was even a big fireplace at the end of the room, not far from me. There was no fire in it now, though a probably a good thing since unless I'd gone into some sort of seven-month-long coma or changed hemispheres, it was too hot outside.

I sat up slowly, waiting for the dizziness to stop. Whatever they'd stuck me with had really kicked my a.s.s. I didn't remember a thing after my exchange with Ivar a not even any dreams. Speaking of whom ... "Where is that motherf.u.c.ker, so I can kick his a.s.s?"

"Which motherf.u.c.ker would you be referring to?" asked Jared, who had joined Spike at the foot of the couch.

"Ivar first ... then Dardennes."

Spike smiled, but I wasn't in the mood for his beauty. That shows you how p.i.s.sed I was.

"They're not here," said Tony.

"Where is 'here', anyway?" I asked, sitting up and looking around.

"We have no idea. We're in some sort of lodge in the mountains. Chase and Finn went outside and looked around a bit, but didn't see anything or anyone."

The dizziness had subsided, so I stood up. Everyone seemed to be waiting for me to speak. "So what the h.e.l.l happened? Last thing I remember is seeing all of you pa.s.s out around me and then getting into it with Ivar before he stuck me in the arm with some needle."

Everyone looked at Jared to explain. "Well, the last thing any of us remember is saying 'Skal'. We all woke up here about a half hour ago. Whatever Ivar got you with must have been stronger than what we drank."

"So, what's the theory? Are we s.e.x slaves now, or what?" I wasn't kidding but everyone laughed anyway.

"Yep, she's back," said Tony, giving me a quick hug. "I was so worried about you, Jayne. You were just so out of it."

"Yeah, well, see what happens to you after you're hit with an elephant tranquilizer ... hey, does anyone know what time it is?"

"No, none of us have our watches or cell phones anymore," said Finn, "but it looks like it's afternoon, if the sun's in the right place."

"Afternoon? What the h.e.l.l? That means we were on that d.a.m.n plane and pa.s.sed out for ... how many hours?"

"There's no way of knowing, since we don't know what time zone we're in right now," said Jared.

I shook my head, not wanting to believe what the facts were telling me. "Where in the h.e.l.l are we? And am I the only one p.i.s.sed that we've essentially been kidnapped here?"

The front door of the lodge opened and Dardennes stepped through, followed by Ivar and Celine.

I saw red. Tony tried to grab my arm, but I slipped through. Spike and Jared saw the look on my face and both moved to block me. Spike grabbed me in a semi-hug, gripping me across the shoulders with one arm, and putting his opposite hand on my shoulder that was under his armpit. "Jayne ... "

I glared at him, angry as h.e.l.l that he'd stopped me. "I hope you wore a cup today." I wasn't kidding. Anyone with b.a.l.l.s was liable to get hurt with the mood I was in. I wasn't sure how I was going to handle Celine ... maybe punch her in the b.o.o.bs until she begged for mercy.

Spike smiled in response, effectively taking some of the fight out of me. Dammit.

"Just wait and let's hear what they have to say before you take 'em all down, k?"

I looked over at the rest of the crew. Everyone was standing stock still, frozen in place. I guess I'd surprised them with my G.I. Jayne act. I caught Chase's eye and he winked. He winked! Now I knew he had my back; and he was pretty big too, so that made me feel a tiny bit better. I looked over at Jared, but he was looking at Dardennes. Dardennes was looking back at him. I saw Dardennes give him a very slight nod. What the h.e.l.l was that all about? I looked at Spike, but he was still looking at me, so he missed it. No one else said anything a everyone was waiting for me, I guess.

"Well, s.h.i.+t, people a are you just going to stand there while our captors come waltzing in to give us another shot of elephant tranquilizer?"

Spike let me go. I guess he could tell I was willing to wait a few minutes before unleas.h.i.+ng my wrath on them. He stayed close, though, ready to give me another tough-love hug if necessary. Man, I had so wanted our first physical contact to include kissing. Now he'd gone and ruined it. Guys are all jerks. I looked at him angrily.

He grinned back at me, flas.h.i.+ng those d.a.m.n fangs again.

Argh. He had to know what that was doing to me; there was no other explanation for that much smiling.

I felt Tony come up on my other side and take my hand in his.

I laced our fingers together, glad for his support. I think I was almost ready to fight to protect him, more than myself. It was my fault he was here in the first place. It was his chivalry awakened by my pitiful family problems that had made us runaways. "I'm so sorry I got you into this Tones," I whispered.

"You didn't get me into anything, Jayne," he whispered back. "We're a team, we stick together. Just don't get yourself knocked out again."

Dardennes cleared his throat.

I couldn't wait to hear what he was going to say a probably a bunch of lies.

"h.e.l.lo, everyone, thank you again for being here. I'm sorry if our methods for keeping our operation confidential were upsetting to you," he gave me a small bow, which made me want to pound him all over again, "but I a.s.sure you, it was necessary. All will become clear to you, eventually. But for now, we must commence the test, as we are running out of daylight. Please follow us outside." He and the other two turned, leaving the lodge through the front door.

I looked around at everyone, noticing Becky moving towards the door. I lost my cool again. "Oh, so we're just going to do whatever they say now, is that it? They say jump, we ask 'how high?'"

Becky shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know. What else are we going to do? We have no idea where we are ... ," she finished lamely, looking to Finn for help.

"Them people are our only way outta here that I can see. Chase and I checked the place out. We're out here in the middle of b.u.mf.u.c.k Egypt," said Finn.

I looked over at Chase. He shrugged his shoulders and started walking towards the front door. I guess that was his way of saying he was going to go see what they had to say. Finn and Becky went to follow him.

Jared's eyes were aimed at the floor when I glanced over at him, but he quickly looked up and started walking towards the front door too, not once even acknowledging me. I decided right then and there that there was something fishy going on with him; he was acting very strange. Maybe no one else had seen his little exchange with Dardennes, but I had.

"Et tu, Spike?" This was the surest sign I was stressed; now I was quoting from my Lit teacher's favorite Shakespearean tragedy.

He shrugged. "Might as well. Beats sitting in here waiting for something to happen."

"Maybe ... maybe not." I turned and looked at Tony. "So, what do we do? Go out there and face the music, or arm up and wait for them to storm the castle?"

Tony sighed. "I appreciate your concern, Jayne, especially since you were basically attacked while we all slept. But I think they're right a we're not going to get anywhere staying in here. At least out there maybe we'll get an explanation, or an opportunity to run away. In here, we're sitting ducks."

"Fine. Let's go then. Just promise me you'll be ready to kick some serious a.s.s."

"I promise. I'm ready a as ready as I'm going to be, I guess."

We followed Spike out the door, joining the others already standing in front of the lodge.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

Dardennes, Celine, and Ivar were joined by another one of their group. My parents always told me not to stare at people who look different than me, and for the most part I was able to control myself; but this time ... not so much. He was a dwarf; and I'd never seen an armed commando dwarf before, so it totally wasn't my fault that I couldn't look away.

He stood about three and a half feet high, wearing camouflage clothes and combat boots. He even had a black bandana tied around his oversized head, and a bowie knife strapped to his tiny thigh. It was only Tony's suddenly very strong grip on my hand that kept me from laughing out loud. I was totally on the edge right now a anything could have set me off; but seriously, no one could blame me for this one.

"This is Niles, your field contact. He will instruct you on the test conditions and supply your provisions."

Celine stepped forward. "We realize that you have arrived here under stressful conditions a some of you more stressful than others. " She looked at me and I gave her my best screw you look in return. "Be that as it may, I urge you, we urge you, to put that behind you and do your very best on this test. There is not only money at stake here. Those who complete the challenge, and do so in an exemplary manner, will qualify for additional remuneration."

Additional remuneration? I wasn't sure what the h.e.l.l remuneration was, but it sounded like more money, and that interested me. Not enough for me to stop being mad, but at least they had my attention now. I looked at Tony, and he nodded his head at me. We were both willing to listen.

Dardennes started talking again. "The object of this test is to make it through the course to the end." Obstacle course. I called that one. I looked over at Spike who was already looking at me. He nodded his head in respect.

"There will be four waypoints. At each waypoint you will indicate your arrival by tying a flag to the waypoint marker. Each of you will have a set of colored flags a.s.signed to you. There is no placing in this test, which means it doesn't matter who comes in first. It only matters that you reach each waypoint and finish the course."

Pfft. Easy as pie.

Tony leaned over to my ear and whispered, "What's the catch?"

Exactly what I was thinking.

"This forest is not your typical forest," he continued. "There will be ... obstacles ... in your way; things designed to keep you from reaching your goals. You are permitted to use whatever is at your disposal to ... eliminate or incapacitate those obstacles."

Incapacitate? What kind of obstacles would we have to incapacitate? That sounded a little too ominous to me. I looked sideways at Tony and saw confusion on his face too. Okay, so I'm not the only one lost here. Chase looked like he always does, totally in control. Spike had a big question mark floating above his head. Finn and Becky were standing side by side, looking nervous, Becky hopping from one foot to the other like a little bird. I looked at Jared and he just stared straight ahead, face revealing nothing. Sneaky b.a.s.t.a.r.d. He's up to something.

"The rules you are used to, the rules of our day-to-day society, do not apply here. You are very far from home. Consider this place to be ... a rule-free zone. The only rule is: there are no rules." He smiled, coolly.

Now, I'm normally a 'rules are made to be broken' kind of girl, but I was pretty sure he was talking about something more serious than curfews and smoking sections here.

Tony was whispering in my ear again. "Does he mean what I think he means?"

G.o.d, I hoped not.