I ignored it all, but latched onto the idea and the opportunity it presented: namely, a way of winning. The only way of winning, with those batons they were using.
I moved over to Maddox, who was trying to disengage from her opponent. The woman was now viciously pressing forward in her attack, openly trying to land a hit.
“Knock the eggs out of their hands!” I shouted, and Maddox did just that, parrying two blows and then using her baton to sweep the egg right out of the girl’s palm.
It clattered to the floor, and I turned, my eyes seeking Ambrose and Leo. To my surprise, Ambrose was still standing, and fighting hard to keep his opponent off of him. Next to him, Leo was using his leg to push his assailant back, and then landed a hit to his opponent’s thigh.
There was a repetitive cheeping sound, and Leo immediately withdrew the baton. His opponent sagged, and opened his hand to reveal the now-hatched chick moving jerkily in his hand, fluttering its little wings in slow, exaggerated motions. Leo’s egg, held flat in the palm of his hand, was completely untouched, smooth and perfect. He still hadn’t even been hit.
I focused on Ambrose’s opponent, but grabbed Maddox, holding her back. “Wait,” I said, holding my hand up to stop Leo. “Ambrose, the egg! Go for the egg!”
If Ambrose heard me, I didn’t know; his focus was completely on the fight in front of him, which was admirable. His strength, however, was fading fast. I looked at his cupped hand, trying to see how many blows he had left. By deciding to knock their eggs out of their hands, I had also gambled with our chances of qualifying, as baton scoring was about the number of blows you managed to make against an enemy team, both accurately and efficiently. While knocking the eggs from their hands was a viable strategy, and eliminated them, it would only rank us highly in accuracy. If we could knock them all out with our team intact, however, we would be awarded special points at the end of the match.
My conflict evaporated under that thought, and I rushed to help Ambrose, even though I knew he didn’t want it. A moment later he did need it, as his opponent caught a wild blow delivered by Ambrose, and then pivoted and brought both his baton and Ambrose’s down, slamming them both into Ambrose’s thigh.
As the current ripped through him, his hand flattened some, displaying the egg. I caught the fine details of the silver chick’s feathers as I surged forward, and a shout erupted from my throat, drawing our opponent’s attention.
As I hoped, he quickly broke off and moved back a few steps, his gaze wary. I came up beside Ambrose and offered him a hand to help him up. To my surprise, he took it.
As I pulled him up, I stepped in close and said, “Tell Maddox and Leo to press the attack, and then use the distraction they provide to knock his egg out of his hand, okay?”
Ambrose took a step back, his eyebrows drawing together in reflection of his surprise, but I just nodded at the fight and pushed him toward it.
I fell in behind him, baton at the ready, hiding my smile as he took my advice.
“Maddox! Leo!” he shouted, and my two friends immediately threw themselves forward, their batons flying. The man opposite them valiantly held his own for a second, but then Ambrose was there, his baton smacking down hard on his left hand.
The silver egg fell to the floor with a sharp, metallic ting. I heard cheers start and exhaled, relaxing slightly—but not entirely.
My eyes returned to the man who had been trying to lure me away, finding the baton still gripped loosely in his hand. Then he and his teammates hurried away, and I watched as they traded in their weapons and disappeared into the crowd, leaving me to wonder.
Were they leaving so quickly because they were embarrassed that they couldn’t win, even with more powerful batons? Or was it because they had somehow found a way to cheat—and didn’t want to be questioned about it?
I wasn’t certain, but I had to assume the latter until I knew otherwise. Which meant… either one of them was a legacy, or they were working with someone who was.
18
We exited the ring and walked down the open aisles, heading for the ramp that led to the halls. Everyone was in high spirits after our victory, Ambrose especially, but I couldn’t join in, the problem with the batons weighing heavily in my mind. A part of me wanted to report the infraction, but since we won, there was a risk the move would backfire on us with the crowds—something I was sure Ambrose desperately wanted to avoid.
And the more I thought about it, the more reporting them seemed like a bad idea. For one thing, if they were working with anyone, then shining a light on them would only cause whoever they were working with to go even deeper into the shadows.
And I was fairly sure that they were working with someone, based on what I had witnessed with the batons, and the fact that more than one of them had been set to a higher voltage—something that shouldn’t have been possible.
Batons were handled by officials, and handed out randomly. Every hour, they were exchanged for new ones, drawn at random from a sack. The officials were changed out just as often, their new rings determined by a randomization program. Trying to set up any sort of swap for a more powerful baton would have been extremely difficult with all of those moving parts in play.
Which meant a conspiracy, and a well-coordinated one at that.
A chill raced over my spine as I suddenly felt both vulnerable and exposed, and I picked up the pace, closing the distance that had grown between myself and the others while I had been deep in thought. Whoever it was had been working to eliminate us, and now that the plan had failed, they were going to try again.
My mind spun, trying to think. If I wanted to keep Ambrose safe, then finding out who was working against us was the fastest way to do that. If I reported the other team to the officials, I could lose that chance, possibly forever. Now that I hadn’t, they might assume I just chalked it up to a team desperately trying to win no matter what. Which meant there was a chance that team could lead us back to whoever was pulling their strings.
Quess was the best way of accomplishing that. Now that our match was over, he was going to be waiting for us by the door out of the arena, specifically for something like this. I began to walk even faster, spurred by the idea of sending him after the enemy team we had been up against as soon as possible.
Maddox and Leo both made surprised sounds when I brushed by them, but I didn’t want to waste time explaining. Ambrose, who was ahead of them, looked back and saw me approaching him, and for some inexplicable reason, turned around and blocked my path, bringing me to a halt.
“Excuse me,” I said, angling to pass him. I wasn’t sure what he wanted, and I was too focused on finding Quess and his white-blond hair to pay any attention.
“Liana.” He reached out and grabbed my arm, and I stopped. Twisting around, I saw his pensive gaze, and realized that he wanted to thank me for helping him look good for the cameras. But I just didn’t have the patience right then.
“Look, can it wait?” I asked. “I need to go grab Quess to see if he can track down the team we just fought. I think they might have been cheating, and I want to see if they are working for anybody.”
“Cheating?” he said, his brows drawing together. “What do you mean?”
I pulled my arm from his hand and righted myself. “Look, I don’t want to have to explain it twice, all right? So let’s just get to Quess.”
He gave me a dubious look, but nodded and fell in line, letting me take point. I felt a small amount of relief that he was at least talking to me again, and then put it aside, focused on reaching Quess.
We emerged from the final row of rings and quickly angled ourselves for the ramp that led to the exit. Several people were milling around, and someone I recognized as one of Ambrose’s friends shouted his name and waved him over.
“Hey, do you mind if I…” Ambrose trailed off when I looked at him sharply, a flash of self-doubt flickering across his face.
“No,” I said immediately, realizing that my stress was beginning to affect m
e more and more. I hadn’t meant to look at him like that. “I’m sorry. Of course I don’t mind. Just take Maddox or Leo with you.”
I glanced over my shoulder at Maddox and Leo with pleading eyes.
“I got it,” Maddox volunteered graciously. I shot her a grateful look. She turned and ran to keep up, and then I turned my gaze around, searching for Quess.
I spotted him standing to one side with his back to the wall, his hands shoved in his pockets, his head down. I angled for him, but moved slowly, looking more toward Ambrose than at Quess, and taking a few minutes to meander through the crowds before casually moving over to the wall a few feet from Quess and leaning my back on it.
“Pretend like you’re talking to me,” I told Leo, angling my head toward him. “Quess, can you hear me okay?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he replied. “I didn’t notice anyone following you, but what was up with those batons?”
“You noticed?” I asked, smiling at Leo.
“I did. I’ve been watching the matches for hours, and I had the eagle’s eye view from up top. I saw that your eggs were hatching much faster than the others.”
“Do you think they increased the voltage?” Leo asked, his face quizzical. “I thought there were precautionary measures in place to prevent that.”
“There are,” I replied. “But at least three out of four of their batons were all on higher settings, which isn’t coincidence. The only reason I don’t know about the fourth is because the guy you were fighting never hit you. They found a way to cheat the system.”
“Why not report it to an official?” Quess asked from behind me. It was hard not to turn around and look at him, but I was trying to preserve his anonymity. It was vital to keeping him off the radar that had zeroed in on Maddox, Leo, Ambrose, and me. And it kept both him and Tian safe, and gave him a little more leeway for helping us. The disguises were helping, but I didn’t want him to find a new one unless absolutely necessary.
“Because we won, for one thing, and sometimes these complaints can come off as wasting time or trying to draw attention to yourself in an attempt to bolster your popularity,” I told him. “It’s better not to risk that, for Ambrose’s sake. But there’s also the added fact that if they are part of a conspiracy, I don’t want to tip anyone off that we’re onto them or suspect anything other than they were just desperate to win. That gives us time to find out what their motives were.”
“So you want me to follow them and see who, if anyone, they are working for?” Quess asked, and I nodded once before I realized he couldn’t see me, since our backs were to each other.
“Yes, please.”
I heard him moving behind me. “I’m on it, but before I go, your brother reached out to me. He’s heading to your apartment right now, and he wants you to take Leo there for a meeting.”
I absorbed the information with some surprise—and alarm. My brother hadn’t reached out to me since I’d contacted him with Leo a few days ago. Now he was reaching out to me through Quess? I wasn’t sure what it meant, but I knew that we couldn’t keep him waiting. Especially not with the eager look that was now gracing Grey’s face, thanks to Leo’s enthusiasm.
I hesitated and looked over at where Maddox was with Ambrose, standing just behind him. We were supposed to return to the apartment to have lunch now and wait for the next event, but with Alex heading there, clearly needing to talk to me about something important, and most likely Scipio related, plans had to change. We needed to be able to speak freely, and I couldn’t do that while Ambrose was there.
But I couldn’t leave him completely unprotected, either. My suspicions about the team we just faced were too fresh for me to even consider that. I’d have to come up with some explanation for the change of plans on the fly.
“Thanks, Quess,” I said, genuinely grateful. “Be careful.”
“Oh, believe me, I will,” he replied.
I waited for more, but after a moment, Leo said, “He’s gone.”
I nodded and pushed off the wall, moving toward Maddox and Ambrose, a dozen or so excuses playing out in my mind to explain why we were deviating from the plan.
“Liana,” Ambrose called as I drew within earshot range. I looked up to where he was standing with his friends, and was surprised to find them all looking at me. “My friends are insisting that I have to go to lunch with them, even though I told them I have plans.”
All of my excuses died on my lips, and I took a moment to consider the one that Ambrose had offered up on a silver platter. On the one hand, if they were going out to lunch, that meant more exposure for Ambrose, increasing the danger. On the other hand, if I handled it correctly, there would be zero suspicion.
“Oh,” I said, looking a little hesitant and giving myself a few moments to find a suitable lie. “Look, I didn’t want to say anything, but one of the guys in the last fight got me good, and I wanted to go to Medica to get it checked out before lunch.” I fidgeted slightly, and then sighed, making it seem like I was torn. “Can Maddox go with you? She didn’t eat breakfast this morning, and I know you want to make sure we’re all at the top of our game.” I gave him a pointed look as I said this, and he flashed me a genuine smile, catching on immediately.
“Of course she can,” he said, and I exhaled slowly, glad he hadn’t fought me. “Just make sure you get patched up before lashes. We need you at full strength.”
I smiled back, pleased that he seemed to be coming around, and watched him turn back to his friends. There was a rustle beside me, and I looked over to see Maddox leaning toward me.
“You actually hurt, or did something come up?”
“It’s Alex,” I told her. “He’s on his way to meet Leo and me at our quarters right now.”
“Is everything okay?” she asked, immediately concerned.
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “Do you think you can watch Ambrose by yourself? I hate to ask, but if Alex has news about Jasper…”
“I got him,” she said with a smile. “Get out of here.”
She didn’t have to waste any more breath convincing me. I turned and left, Leo following close behind.
It took us only five minutes to get back to my apartment, and I could see Alex waiting for us by the door as we approached.
“Alex?” I said, concern radiating through me as I took in his appearance. His uniform was slightly wrinkled, his hair disheveled, and a beard was beginning to grace his face. “Are you okay?”
He gave me a look that said, of course I’m not, and then nodded toward the door, and I quickly activated the scanner and opened it, ushering him and Leo inside and then following before sealing us in.
“Okay, we’re inside, and Quess and Tian tore this place apart looking for bugs yesterday,” I said. “What’s wrong?”
Alex gave me a withering look from the other side of the room, and then ran a hand through his hair. “In a word, everything! Everything is wrong, and nobody knows it!”
I frowned, my alarm growing as I realized he was on the edge of panic. I took a step closer to him, moving slowly so as not to startle him, and placed my hands on his shoulders.
“It’s okay,” I said soothingly. “Just tell me what’s going on. Maybe I can help you.”
He made an irritated sound and stepped away. “That’s the thing, Liana. I don’t think anyone can help us. Scipio isn’t just being manipulated. He’s dying.”
Dying? My eyes bulged, and I immediately looked at Leo to find him standing close, watching us. His jaw tightened and his eyes flashed, and he took a step closer.
“What do you mean?” he demanded, and my brother glanced at him, his eyes growing wide as he remembered that Leo was now inside of Grey, whom he’d only ever met once before.
“You’re Leo?” he asked, his voice hushed and carrying a note of awe in it.
“And you are Alex Castell, and you’ve come here with information for us,” Leo replied, his voice barely containing his impatience. “Now, what did you find out, and where is Jasp
er?”
My brother’s face fell, and he ran a hand over it, looking suddenly very tired. “I found out that Executive Monroe downloaded Jasper’s program onto her terminal,” he replied after a pause. “I’m not sure what happened to him after that, but since the download, he has not been uploaded again. So there is a chance he is still on her terminal.”
Onto Executive Monroe’s terminal? I absorbed that information with no small amount of confusion. Why would she be interested in Jasper’s program? Was it curiosity on her part, or did she recognize what he was? If it was the latter, what were her intentions toward him? What was she doing with him even now? The questions swirled around, but without any more information to go on, any guess would be purely speculative, and that was a waste of time.
Leo looked pensive as he absorbed the information. “I imagine getting to it would be incredibly difficult?” he asked, turning to me, and I nodded, albeit reluctantly.
“It would right now,” I replied. “With the Tourney, I mean. But afterward… we can look into it.”
We had to do more than look into it. Jasper was the only one with the formula for Paragon—something we were going to need sooner rather than later. He was also my friend, and the fact that he was trapped on Sadie Monroe’s terminal made me even more concerned for him. The woman did not have the sunniest of dispositions.
Even with my resolution to see it through, though, I wasn’t completely blind to the danger going after him represented. If the Core was a fortress, then Executive Monroe’s office had to be a safe—and one that I was guessing remained heavily guarded, given her proximity to Scipio. That meant a lot of obstacles to navigate, which wasn’t going to be easy.
My answer seemed to satisfy Leo, however. “Very well. Now, what news is distressing you so, Mr. Castell?”
“‘Mr. Castell’?” Alex grinned and shot me a look. “Maybe if he’d called me that before, I wouldn’t have given you such a hard time about dating him,” he said impishly.