Gauntlet

by Holly Jennings

  “Oblivion got invited past The Wall,” I gasped. Cole pressed his lips together and took half a step back. He’d been hoping I wouldn’t make the connection. I marched up to him. “I’ll let you out of your contract if you tell me what’s inside that house.”

  “Uh . . .” he stuttered, shaking his head a few times. Guess this wasn’t the reaction he was expecting.

  I hounded him. “Did they tell you? Have you been there?”

  “No.”

  “What do you know?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “I don’t know anything. I honestly don’t know what’s beyond The Wall. Okay? They’re not going to tell me unless I sign a contract with them, and even then, I have to sign an additional confidentiality agreement about the tournament.”

  My eyebrows went up. “Tournament? What tournament?”

  He froze.

  I pointed a finger in his face. “You do know something.”

  “Kali, please.”

  His eyes went soft, pleading with me. He was worried about blowing his chance with one of the best teams in the States. I pursed my lips. Damn it.

  “If you want to go, go,” I said. “Our tournament isn’t for months. We’ll find a fifth by then, so don’t worry about us. This is an opportunity you have to take.”

  He let out a small sigh of relief and smiled. “Yeah, I know. That’s why I’m doing this.” He glanced at the club’s exit. “I really have to go meet with them. Sign some papers.”

  I waved a hand toward the door. “Fine.”

  He left his drink on the bar and started heading for the door. He didn’t get more than a few feet away before he turned back to me.

  “Kali, thanks for understanding.”

  His face looked like he was trying to hold back a smile. He was excited about Oblivion, The Wall, and where he was heading. It tugged at my heartstrings a little. What kind of teammate was I if I wasn’t happy for him?

  I smiled.

  “Good luck. Go kill it.”

  At my word, he let his excitement show through, and a grin took up his entire face. And with that, he turned around and disappeared into the crowd, leaving me standing at the bar. Alone.

  • • •

  The rest of the team figured it out pretty quickly when Cole didn’t ride back with us. Derek and Hannah sat in the front and had turned around to face Lily and me in the back. Given the car’s automatic responses to traffic and objects, no one really had to keep their eye on the road.

  “So, what did he say exactly?” Hannah asked.

  A lot of things. That he didn’t believe in me as team owner, that he was worried about the money, and that he didn’t think playing with Defiance equalled being the best. And then there was the whole situation with The Wall. I shook my head. Best to keep things simple.

  “He got an offer from another team,” I explained. “It’s a better fit for what he wants to achieve in his career.”

  Derek nodded. “That’s understandable. So what do we do? Hold tryouts for our fifth spot? Maybe scout out the other teams and see if anyone is unhappy?”

  It went silent in the car, and everyone was staring at me. Rightfully so. I was team owner now, and it was up to me to decide the best course of action. But with only weeks’ worth of experience, I didn’t know what to say.

  “Yeah,” I said, trying to force a confident tone to my voice. “Tryouts. Scouting. Sounds good.”

  “You know,” Lily began, leaning toward me. “Technically, we have an alternate player.”

  Somebody had to say it. But in my book, that definitely was not the right course of action. Rooke had left, and it wasn’t just about me. He had abandoned the team. No explanation. No reasons. Just gone. How could I ask the team to count on someone like that?

  On the other hand, our history as a team with him was great. When the five of us were together, something just jibed. We balanced each other. Whatever weaknesses one had, others made up for it. We were harmony. A perfect chord.

  But my personal history with him was, well, not so solid.

  Our relationship had never been perfect. In fact, it started out as fake, just a way to get us onto the cover of every tabloid and magazine on this continent and the next. Our previous team owner, who to call an asshole would be an insult to assholes, had created the whole thing. We screamed more than we talked, and every matchup, no one knew if we’d fight our enemies or each other. We’d fought, and made up, all on the screen. Even now, our relationship was still occasionally gossiped about in the tabloids or online. I couldn’t entirely blame them. It had been a hot mess, a manufactured lie.

  And then it became something more.

  Because when Rooke and I had finally managed to crawl away from the cameras and all the bullshit disappeared, what we were left with was so raw and ugly that all we could do was make it beautiful. We were both addicted to the virtual world. The celebrity-gamer lifestyle. The pills and the alcohol.

  Together, we’d healed.

  “He hasn’t called?” Lily asked.

  I bit my lip. Yes, the tables had turned. He had called, and now I was the one ignoring him. If he wasn’t going to be there when I needed him the most, what was the point of keeping him in my life at all?

  I never answered Lily. Just gave her a look that said “back off.” She got the message and left it alone for the rest of the trip.

  After we arrived home, I went straight to my room, flopped down on my bed, and covered my face with the duvet. What a night. Lost our fifth player, and now my options were to either start scouting or contact our elusive backup. And that was on top of contacting all the sponsors and informing them that any photo shoots done in the last few weeks would need to be reshot. I could just hear the screaming now.

  Ugh.

  Double ugh.

  I rolled over, bringing the blanket with me. Maybe my bed could be our fifth. I certainly wouldn’t mind bringing it with me through the day. At some point, sleep’s heavy fingers pulled my eyelids shut, and I drifted in and out of consciousness every few hours as the stress from the day leaked into my dreams. The club. The sponsors. Cole. Rooke. They say not to bring your problems to bed with you, but looks like I’d missed the memo.

  At some ungodly hour, my cell phone buzzed on the nightstand. Who the hell would be calling so early? Probably a sponsor. Must have heard that Cole was leaving and was ready to chew me out. My fingers crawled along the nightstand until my hand closed around my phone. I snatched it up and pressed it to my ear.

  “Hello?”

  An unfamiliar voice came through the phone.

  “Good morning, Ms. Ling.”

  Are you sure it’s not still yesterday? I took a breath and exerted as much kindness and professionalism as pre-coffee-Kali could muster.

  “How can I help you?”

  “My name is Mr. Tamachi.”

  All the air in my lungs left. I knew exactly who he was and why he was calling. Mr. Tamachi, of Tamachi Industries. Owner of the house featured on every gossip channel and tabloid. We were about to be invited in on the most coveted secret in all of gaming. A secret that any gamer in the world would give their playing hands just to find out what it was. So I did the only sane and logical thing.

  I hung up the phone.

  CHAPTER 3

  Yes, I hung up. On the guy who was inviting me past The Wall.

  I panicked, okay?

  I dropped my phone on the bed like it was a stick of dynamite and recoiled, cocooning myself in my blanket. The phone started to buzz. Incoming call. I curled up in the corner of my bed, pressing myself as far away from the phone as possible, as if it were some critter that had wandered into my sleeping quarters. Ironically, it scuttled closer with every ring.

  Two more rings to voice mail.

  Do not pick it up.


  One more.

  DO NOT PICK IT UP.

  Half a ring.

  I picked it up.

  “Hello?”

  “Ms. Ling, sorry. We must have been disconnected.”

  Ah, sure. That’s what happened.

  “No problem,” I said, trying to sound aloof.

  “As I was saying, I own the facility that’s been on the news lately. Well, more on the gossip channels than anything, but I’m sure you know what I’m talking about.”

  I clicked my tongue against the roof of my mouth. “I’ve heard about it.”

  I was good at this aloof thing even while my insides were going squeeeee.

  “I’m calling to extend a formal invitation for this evening.”

  This evening. The Wall.

  Was this really happening?

  Given the ridiculous hour of the morning, this evening was still years away, and there was a very good chance this was a dream. Still, despite the mental cloudiness and lack of coffee in my veins, I had the presence of mind to keep calm.

  “Look, Mr. Tamachi,” I began. “I’m not sure what you’re offering my team, but we like to keep our drug tests clean.”

  He chuckled softly. “Despite some of the rumors, there are no drugs involved, Kali. I can assure you.”

  “Then what’s with all the secrecy?”

  “It’s something that has the potential to change professional gaming forever. I don’t want my competitors finding out.”

  I got a little jittery then. This was sounding more and more like it actually was tech related. Something that would change pro gaming forever. The last time that was said, it was about combining competitive gaming with immersive virtual reality. Put these two things together and watch them explode.

  “How do you stop people from talking about it once they’ve been inside?” I asked.

  “I require all gamers who enter the house to sign a confidentiality agreement. If any of this is a problem, you’re welcome to bow out at any time. We do ask that you at least attempt to conceal your identity. We can’t make it too easy for the paparazzi.”

  The paparazzi. I’d forgotten about them, trying to catch a glimpse of the rock stars of the gaming world. But the more I thought about it, the less this made sense. There was no reason for my team to be invited past The Wall. We’d just gone through a change in management and had yet to prove we could still take championships under my lead. We’d been through several player changes in just a short time, between Rooke, Cole, Nathan, and myself, so we lacked the stability of some veteran teams that had been together for ten-plus years. And, so far, only the virtual elite had been invited to that place. We were talking the undisputed best teams in the entire world. What did he want with Defiance?

  “Why are you inviting us?”

  “Well, your team, while young, does have a fierce reputation in the gaming world. Especially you, Ms. Ling.”

  Little did he know, Kali “the warrior” Ling was currently hiding under her duvet.

  “You were the first female captain,” he continued. “Now you’re the youngest team owner in history. Some people aren’t taking that lightly and have a close eye on you and your career.”

  He had a point. I’d made ripples in pro gaming. People knew my name. In Los Angeles, at least. Maybe across the United States. Was my reputation really getting that big?

  “I think this will have special appeal to you,” he finally said. “You really need to see what I’ve done with the game.”

  Now, I started shaking, and my insides matched. I had to know what was in that house.

  But this wasn’t just about me.

  “This is the team’s decision, not mine,” I told him. “I need to talk this over with them first.”

  He paused, and I could almost hear him smiling through the phone. “From you, I’d expect nothing less. Please call me back at this number, whatever you decide.”

  I pressed the END CALL button.

  I sat in my bed, blinking, staring at a spot where the wall met the ceiling. If the events of that phone call were supposed to be sinking in, my brain didn’t get the memo. This wasn’t real. It was a prank. Or a dream.

  Must have been.

  I glanced at my call history. Nope. That really happened. Now I had to figure out what the hell I was going to do about it.

  After deciding I’d never fall back to sleep—and that takes a lot—I wrapped my cell around my wrist until it clamped in place and switched over to watch mode, displaying the time. Then I crawled out of bed, got dressed, and tromped down to the kitchen. With a brimming cup of coffee in hand, I sat at the table.

  I’d just gotten the call every pro gamer had been dreaming about. I should have been running around the house screaming, jumping on my teammates’ beds. But I wasn’t.

  We were only a team of four. I hadn’t started on a replacement yet, because first I’d have to make the phone call to the guy I’d rather forget about but couldn’t. Technically, I could just replace him without the phone call. But as team owner, I was trying to do the right thing, and the right thing was to call him first even if it was just to tell him we were looking for someone else.

  The team would have been fine, either way. My heart would have been . . . something else. Either way.

  If whatever was going on beyond The Wall really was tech related and Tamachi was expecting a full team to show up tonight, he’d be disappointed. Should I have told him that on the phone? Maybe. Still, we had an invitation on the table. Tamachi had hinted that this would change pro gaming forever, and I doubted he was exaggerating. This was something that had the potential to revolutionize our careers, and possibly our lives. Funny how fast things can change in a matter of minutes.

  At some point, dawn crossed over to actual morning, and my teammates started buzzing around me, chattering and preparing breakfast. I must have looked like one of those videos where a person is sitting in a chair in current time while everything else moves around them in fast motion.

  “Kali, what’s wrong?” Hannah asked, snapping me back to reality. All three of my teammates were there with plates, bowls, and glasses full of the various yet common edibles of breakfast. Toast, cereal, juice, tea. Hannah pointed at my mug with her spoon. “You haven’t touched your coffee.”

  My coffee. I dipped the edge of my finger into the liquid. It was cold. I’d let my coffee get cold. In the history of my entire life, or at least since I’d discovered these God-given java beans, I didn’t think I’d ever let my coffee go cold. Okay. Don’t panic, people. We’ve trained for this.

  “I’m just distracted,” I said.

  “Is this about Rooke?” Lily asked. “Is he going to be our fifth?

  I pressed a hand against my forehead and groaned. I knew it was inevitable, but something about saying it out loud made the situation all too real. Seconds ticked by, all of them empty and quiet.

  Hannah leaned toward me. “We know you probably don’t want to talk about it much.”

  But?

  “But—”

  There it was.

  “Watching you and Rooke together, there was something special there.”

  Yes, okay. Rooke and I had been good together once we’d figured all of our shit out. I’d never given the team much of an explanation over what happened. Hell, I didn’t even have much of one myself. But they’d given me space so far, and I knew it would only be a matter of time before they started asking questions. But before I opened my mouth, Derek spoke for me.

  “If it’s not going to work out with Rooke, we can recruit someone else to be our fifth,” he said, shifting in his seat. I don’t think he was too comfortable pressing me on the matter. “Maybe we should start scoping out other players—”

  “We’ve been invited to The Wall,” I finally said.

  The room froze, as if I’d hit the PAUSE
button in real life. Hannah had a spoon half-lifted to her mouth, Lily gripped a cereal box in midair, and Derek just stared. Several seconds passed by, again, all in silence. Finally, Derek managed a word.

  “When?”

  “Tamachi called me early this morning. He wants us to go there tonight.”

  “What did you tell him?”

  “That I’d talk to you guys first.”

  “What the hell did you think our answer would be?” Hannah exclaimed, nearly shouting.

  Everyone else laughed, but I held up a hand. “I understand it’s exciting. I’m excited, too. But I’m not making decisions like that without bringing it to you guys first. That’s the whole point of my being team owner. I’m not deciding your life. You are.”

  “Did he give you any clues to what this is all about?” Derek asked.

  “It’s nothing to do with drugs, apparently, and it’s something that will revolutionize pro gaming forever, according to him.”

  I spoke slowly and calmly, trying not to induce a near-manic reaction from my teammates. But with words like “revolutionize pro gaming forever,” it was pointless. They looked like a trio of cartoon characters just before they explode.

  “Kali,” Derek said simply, the calmest one of the group. “We have to go. What’s the harm, really?”

  There wasn’t any. Tamachi said if we weren’t interested in whatever he had to offer, we could leave at any time. I looked around the table at everyone. “You do realize that not everyone has to come if they don’t want to—”

  They all nodded feverishly. They wanted to.

  “Okay.”

  I pulled my cell phone from around my wrist and made the call.

  “This is Tamachi speaking.”

  “It’s Kali Ling. We’ll be there tonight.”

  “Excellent.” His enthusiasm came through the phone, like I could hear him smiling again. “I do ask that you dress in black and wear hoods.”

  Judging by the countless hours of footage I’d studied myself, the mystery of it all was part of his marketing plan, I’m sure.

  “That won’t be a problem,” I assured him.