by Mary Weber
“Ten minutes, tops.”
“Honestly? Twenty.” Nadine slipped her hand onto Miguel’s arm. “Poor thing.”
The bets flew around him and he could practically taste the oily anticipation wafting off their skin. Miguel just studied the weight and measure of the new player the telescreens were displaying. Why Corp 24? And who is ordering it? The FanFight’s theme music blared across the arena again, calling the rowdy stadium to silence.
“Corp leaders and highly respected Delonese friends,” the announcer said, his deep voice echoing through the Colinade’s levels. “As well as friends of friends, friends of mine, and friends with benefits!”
The audience laughed with an intoxicated edge, and Miguel joined right in.
“We’re pleased to bring you Round Number Four, with our nine remaining contestants. Before we lower them onto their platforms, we’ll ogle them on-screen. As their vids hit the teles above you, please welcome back Corps 1, 13, 19, 25—”
The moving pics flashed overhead and the spectators went wild. Other than Corp 24, the players were all familiar and favorites, thanks to the media promo frenzy during the past half year. Especially the ones returning from the previous Games.
“Last but not least, Corp 30! Winner of the last round!”
Corp 30 . . .
A pic of Shilo without his face mask flicked onto the screen for the second time that day. Man, Shilo looks like his sister.
Miguel glanced away before anyone could notice his jaw tighten, but not soon enough to avoid his guilt flaring.
She was down there in a tech room. Black leggings, hoodie, and, if he had to guess, her beloved headphones on to tune out the world, and a quirk around her lips that could suck the breath from a person’s chest and claim it as her own.
Miguel went from feeling ill about the photos in his pocket to being aware of her all over again, in his lungs, in his head, at his fingertips. The brush of excitement on those lips. The innocence in her whispers—and the kindness extended that had broken something within him he’d never been able to recover.
He swallowed and shoved a hand through his hair. Stop, Miguel. The feelings and remorse only got worse the longer he acknowledged them. The soft bloom of a love barely formed and the permanent reminder he’d plucked it and tossed it aside like a cad.
He pursed his lips and, shoving the memories down, forced a wide smile as the announcer finished to the hungry roar of the audience. They were ready. They wanted what the arena and Corps had to offer. They wanted the blood fights.
“Fantastic!” Nadine exclaimed.
Miguel dropped his gaze to where she was pointing in the arena, with its shifting green-screen topography beneath the floating platforms. The sides were slowly opening along the walls. The next second torrents of water were released, gushing into the giant arena and covering the already-morphing landscape.
The players’ pics flashed one more time on the screen above him to the audience’s now deafening cheers. Corp 24’s appeared last.
“Make sure the blame sits on Corp 24.”
Miguel reached for the slip of paper in his back pocket.
5
SOFI
“SOFI, I’M FINE.” SHILO SMOOTHED HIS REPLACEMENT SKINSUIT around his ankles before yanking back on the fresh pair of boots. “It’s just a bruise.”
She scoffed. “Yeah, well, that thing almost broke your bone. So appease me and show me you can walk on it, because I’ll need to recalibrate your suit if there’s any issue.”
He leaned on the bruised leg and spun an old-skool hip-hop move. “See? The medics got it.”
She stood. And tightened her ponytail. “Okay, thank you. Now you can go.”
“About time. You’re going to make me look like a wimp on the vids up there if you keep analyzing.”
She laughed and dropped her hands. “Um, that’s kinda my job.”
“Although, since I’m fine—you gotta admit those zombs were pretty cool. Did you see the way they tore through the sand?”
He’d obviously not seen the way they also tore into player 17.
“Corp teams,” a smooth female voice came on. “I’m pleased to remind you the event will commence in six minutes.”
Shi rapped his knuckles across her head. “Gotta go. Tell the Ns I say hi.”
She whacked his arm. “Stay focused.” Then left him and listened to the announcer’s voice echoing down the long, roundabout hall. He was saying something about bringing in a replacement player for Corp 24.
“That guy is huge.” Luca pointed him out on the vidscreen a minute later when Sofi strode into her team’s room. “Where’ve they been keeping him?”
“That guy is hot,” crooned a triplet.
Sofi smirked and eyed the telescreen’s 360-degree shot of Corp 24’s player. The announcer was still waxing eloquent on the guy. He was indeed hot and probably her age, seeing as he looked like a man but couldn’t legally be older than seventeen to play. She bit her lip and continued assessing him. Unless someone was gaming the system.
Huh. Good for them.
“Welp, I predict another Sofi conquest. Time to hide.”
“Not funny, Luca. Personal life’s off-limits.”
“Uh-huh.” Luca lifted a brow. “Except we actually have to look at your boy toys while you’re dating them. And do you see the miniscule mole on that guy’s perfect face?”
Sofi snickered.
“Hey, I’m just defending our right not to be around perfection. Makes the rest of us look bad.”
She shook her head and turned to see the Ns each flash her a thumbs-up as the door slid open and Heller strode in. He punched a button on the wall and plopped a round of Rushes down on a side table that shot out, his cheek piercing changing colors to match the room’s lighting. “So, is Sof planning on sleeping with the new guy yet?”
“Seriously?” Sofi laughed. “I hate you all.” She grabbed a drink before their comments could gouge her lungs. She didn’t need their approval.
Heller winked. “You know I’m just playin’, girl.”
“Corp teams,” the smooth female voice came on. “I’m pleased to remind you the event will commence in 123 seconds. Please return . . .”
“Annnnd saved by the robot.” Sofi swigged her drink. “Let’s go.” She turned to her station as the lights flickered dim and the holoscreens blinked ready for use. Sofi typed in her Corp code as they each took their places. “What’ve we got this round?”
The hologram popped up, and ten seconds later the wall concealing the windows slid open to reveal the arena in front of them. “Hello, Corp 30. Welcome back. You are officially relogged in.”
Every one of them let out a gasp at the sight, except for Sofi. She felt her spine shift.
Are they kidding?
A freaking ocean covered the entire arena. Blue, crystal-clear water lapping from one side of the stadium basin to the other.
The floor beneath Sofi’s feet shuddered, and a second later her stomach lurched as the entire level of gamer rooms began to descend. Waves rocked against the giant windows, slapping them with foam while they sank down, until all but the top three feet of glass was submerged beneath the oceanscape. She was staring into an enormous pool of water reaching higher than her head and deeper than she could swim. And so lucid she could almost see the other side.
She glanced through the three-foot slit of dry window to gauge the reaction of the crowd. They were ecstatic.
“Well, this is new,” Heller breathed.
Sofi analyzed her limited view of the ocean layout. Most of it would stay hidden until the players entered each section. What she wouldn’t give to study it from above.
She looked over at the Ns. “What are you seeing?”
“Most of the coding is behind firewalls, but we’re making out Tasers, spearguns, and basic stuff. Although . . .” The one nearest Sofi flipped her screen around. “It looks like there might be a few animorphs being written.”
Sofi’s pulse quicke
ned. That could be interesting. And fun.
“Okay, let’s adjust Shi’s suit to compensate for underwater electropulses and static.” She peered through the patch of dry window at the nine players settling onto the black platforms hanging in midair above the water.
Every one of them was dressed in gray with only their height and weight and Corp-colored vests to differentiate them. The new Corp 24 player was wearing the telltale black and was flexing his arms before tapping a box of bioweapons attached to his thigh.
“You there, Sof?” Shilo’s voice came on.
She flipped her holo onto him. He was in a yellow vest, standing on the farthest platform, already kicking off his boots in exchange for the waterproof stockings underneath. Same with the other players. Smart. Except unlike the others, he’d drawn a cougar head on the side of his mask in honor of their heritage.
Sofi’s throat swelled. “You look imposing for a twelve-year-old chump,” she whispered in his com. She couldn’t be certain, but it looked like he raised his fingers in an old-skool “rock on” sign.
Nice, Shi.
Music shook the coliseum and Sofi braced. She tightened her gloves, then turned her scrapp song mix on as the countdown across the holoscreen began. Four, three, two . . .
“Jump,” she said.
He hurtled off the platform, and Sofi’s holoscreen morphed in front of her to show the players plummeting into an ocean cavern. At the same time, her entire room shifted, as if on tracks, thirty feet to the left. Shilo’s winning of the last round meant her team got a choice, up-close and center window view of the cavern and—
Sharks. A whole flipping lot of them.
“N.”
“Coding repellent into his suit,” they responded.
“Daaaaaaang,” Heller said.
The players hadn’t even flinched from what she could tell. They were all heading down toward the bottom where a brass box signaled their first find. “Get there. Open it. Find what you need. Get out,” she wanted to tell her brother.
But he knew what he was doing. She watched him dodge the drone sharks already homing in on the players and pretended her stomach wasn’t twisting. “Add another two pounds of weight to his suit, Luca.” C’mon, bud, go quicker.
Players 1 and 19 reached the box and yanked it open just as a spear materialized ten feet behind.
“Shi, move!”
Her brother jerked back, and the lance flew past and pierced Corp 19’s leg as the others swarmed. Sofi leaned forward. “Watch the knives appearing.”
Shilo ducked down to the box, then emerged from the fray just as Corp 19’s blood was filling the water, drawing in the sharks. The girl pulled away, but one of the beasts grabbed her leg and yanked violently. Within seconds the player’s suit ripped and more blood flooded the pool.
Sofi’s stomach lurched. They’d have to drag her out fast. She could already hear an underwater portal opening for security to reach her, poor girl.
“Guess where that kid’s headed,” Heller muttered. “Black-market death fights in a wheelchair. She’ll last a week.”
Sofi’s chest clenched. Focus on Shilo.
Heller pointed through her screen to a blinking override on Corp 24’s player.
She frowned. The guy was along the underwater wall where Shi was sliding away from the frenzy. “Hey, N? Run the aud-scanner on 24.” She waited, glancing up at the crowd with its new faces and different section of stands, thanks to the room having shifted over to provide her another view.
The flashing caution kept blinking on her screen. The guy was now following Shilo.
“Hey, Shi,” she said into the com. “Keep an eye on the guy behind you.” She typed in an extra layer of shield around him, then pulled up the Corp 24 player’s specs. Nothing unusual. Perhaps he just knew staying near Shilo was his safest bet.
Something suddenly felt wrong, though. Eerie almost. Her gaze flicked up at the audience again. As if from this shifted position her perspective had shifted as well. She went to look away—until her eyes caught on him.
In his sassy hemp-woven cabana on level three. Rainbow hair, tattooed body, and a slight bit taller than the media preferred their celebrities lately. But what his body lacked in societal perfection, his charisma, manipulation, and fetishes made him a god where they were concerned. Miguel.
Even after a year and a half, she wanted to rip the smile from his beautiful brown skin and let him see how far she’d come. That she didn’t need him. Heck, how she’d ever been attracted to him was ridiculous.
“Sof,” one of the triplets said. “I think we found something.”
She frowned and peered back at Shilo, who suddenly let loose from the wall and swam toward the edge of her window. He was heading for a small cleft in the rock. Corps 1 and 24 followed.
“It appears someone’s interfering with Corp 24’s gamer.”
Sofi zoomed in on the guy. “What do you mean?”
“I mean they’re not in control of him or his systems at all anymore. They’ve been overridden.”
What? She scrolled through the override code while keeping her voice steady in her brother’s com. “Hey, Shilo, I need—”
The player was already on top of him. “Blasted heck, Shilo, move!”
The guy’s forearm came down and swiped an electronic pulse that sent Shilo flying ten feet through the water into Sofi’s window. His body slumped with a sickening thud in the earcom.
“Shilo!” She set off an EMP charge on his arm to keep the player back. What the—? What is he doing? The crowds were going feral with their screams.
“N! Luca!”
“On it.”
Sofi pushed and pulled code across the screen, rewriting aspects of Shilo’s suit to check for damage and inflict its own on the other player coming at him again. “Shilo, wake up.”
His sensors blipped just as the Corp 24 player reached him. She sent off a Taser wave but the guy merely ducked. She snapped Shilo’s suit with an electronic pulse, but the player twisted out of range. What the heck? Why weren’t her maneuvers working? It was like the guy was expecting them.
“Heller, stop him.”
A laser emerged from Shilo’s wrist and shot at the guy, forcing him to dodge away as it ricocheted off the rock wall.
“Get up, Shilo,” Luca grunted.
Shilo’s eyes fluttered open through the televisor. Good boy.
As if he could sense her thoughts, her brother looked over, straight into the window.
The next second Corp 24 launched into him, wrapping his arms and legs around Shilo and dragging him until he was pressing him against the window in front of Sofi’s face. The guy held Shilo in place even as Sofi caught a flash of fear in the dude’s expression. It quickly morphed into determination.
Sofi punched the spikes on her brother’s suit, but something jammed them.
Luca’s fingers stabbed through her holo. “He’s not even reacting to my sting-eels.”
“Guys, we’ve got a bigger problem,” Heller said. “He’s got something on him.”
Sofi’s throat went numb. The bioweapons.
“Those biocartridges aren’t just for immobilizing Shi’s body . . .”
“Shield’s up,” N yelled. “Shilo, pull off!”
Shilo’s suit rippled as Sofi launched another electronic pulse. He promptly shoved against the Corp 24 player—hard enough to gain leverage and put his feet on the guy’s chest to push off. He began to swim for the water’s surface.
Corp 24 grabbed Shilo’s leg and pulled him back down.
“Sofi, move back from the window,” Heller said.
“No! Shilo!” Luca yelled. “Sofi, that bioweapon is a type of—”
“Sofi, I said move now!”
6
MIGUEL
HIS MIND WAS FIXED ON THOSE PHOTOS IN HIS POCKET.
Tiny pictures moving about the paper—photos of him. With them.
Miguel locked his jaw.
Nadine peered over to catch his eye. She
smiled and he automatically returned it before his gaze strayed to one of the overhead stadium telescreens that kept showing the crowd’s faces. Think, Miguel. What are they planning that would require these lengths?
It was another few seconds before he noticed the commotion going on around him. The audience screaming down at the arena where two of the players appeared to be struggling beneath the water.
He furrowed his brow and glanced at the closest tele giving an intimate view of the Corp 24 kid attempting to drown another.
What in—? What was the guy doing?
These FanFight levels were about blood, sure. But not murder. At least not yet, and certainly not from the players.
He frowned. Was this what they wanted him to blame Corp 24 for? If it was evidence the blackmailer wanted, the Corp was clearly doing fine indicting itself on its own. The small kid being pressed against the tech station glass suddenly shoved the larger guy away. It was Sofi’s brother.
He was fighting for the surface.
Miguel stepped forward—
Boom!
The entire Colinade shuddered as seawater exploded up a quarter of the stadium.
Miguel was at the railing along with Claudius and Nadine and half the others in his group who weren’t tearing for the cabaña’s exit. He stared down at the waves and screaming people mobbing the aisles of the Colinade. Surf crashed and gushed as the water was sucked into the chasm created by the bomb. All those tech teams and gamers . . .
Es la muerte.
Someone was smart enough to trigger the arena’s giant drains as the green-screens appeared, and the crowds turned to utter chaos with people trying to get out before the whole place went down.
Except something told Miguel the Colinade wasn’t going down.
The bomb hadn’t been for the audience. How he knew, he couldn’t say, but the explosion had been specific. Timely. It’d been intended for the players.
It had been meant for Shilo.
Sofi.
7
SOFI
SHE WAS DROWNING. DYING. SOFI KNEW THIS.
Her body groaned, pinned against a wall by the ocean crushing in while the explosive, glass-shattering, stone-breaking roar still pounded her head.