The Assassin and the Soldier

by Carly Morgan

  Chapter 20

  Kaelia

  Kaelia fingered the necklace against her collarbone as Mick Dirkhead launched into his usual spiel for the cameras. She had contemplated taking it off, not wearing it tonight for the announcement of the final challenge, but she didn’t have any other jewelry, and it went so well with the black dress she’d picked. Callan was somewhere in the audience, and though he’d escorted her down to the hall, she didn’t search him out now, but kept her eyes straight ahead.

  “Just five of our criminal contestants are left!” Mick Dirkhead was recapping. The stage flashed with colored lights and music blared, overwhelming Kaelia’s senses. “And all three of them have to do is get through one more challenge, and freedom will belong to them! The first-place winner will even get to go home the very moment they win the competition. But I’m telling you folks, we’re not going to make it easy on them.”

  Kaelia was seated on the end of a row of five chairs up on stage, with Lux to the right of her. Indigo Steele, the tiny cat burglar, was on his other side, and next to her, the two others; Wesley Mills and Evan Roberts. If someone had asked Kaelia at the beginning of the competition who she thought the four finalists besides her would be, she would have never guessed them. Wesley was a thin man with graying hair and missing teeth, much older than the others, and Evan was portly and short with an unhealthy complexion and churlish lips that always seemed too wet.

  “For the last challenge!” Finally, Dirkhead was getting to the good part. “A little game of capture the flag! But this won’t exactly be the same game you played at summer camp when you were ten. Oh, no, the clever people of Amity have decided to put a little spin on things.”

  Suddenly, Mick pulled a gigantic sword from a sheath at his side, and Kaelia’s eyes filled with trepidation. Would they be made to fight each other? She could take all four of them out in a blink of an eye, though she supposed she’d only have to sacrifice two.

  The sword was so big Mick Dirkhead could barely hold it up, staggering clumsily as he struggled with it. Kaelia smiled faintly to herself, hoping he might stab himself through the chest. “Medieval Capture the Flag!” he finally called out triumphantly, putting the sword into the air. “The Black Team against the White Team. But, you see, only one team will hide flags. There will be three of them. The first final contestant to get a flag wins first place! The contestant to get the next one, second place. And, of course, so on.”

  Kaelia’s head spun, confused. Had she missed something? What teams? How were they going to divide them into teams when there were five of them, an odd number?

  “In front of you right now, you see the Black Team.” Mick Dirkhead waved an arm over the remaining contestants as he paced the stage. “And where’s the White Team, you ask? Well, what’s a reality TV show without a few twists and turns? White Team? Come on out, please!”

  A curtain opened at the side of the stage, and Kaelia felt like she was going to be sick as the fifteen former contestants trailed out, their faces hard and full of anger. Elgren Farrow had his fists clenched at his sides. Lauza LaRue stared right at Kaelia as she trailed a finger across her throat. Grady’s nostrils flared, and Emmanuel bared his teeth and violently shook his head.

  “That’s right, folks!” Mick Dirkhead went on, inappropriately cheerful. “They’re back and looking for vengeance. The contestants who missed out on their chance for freedom. Missed out because of the five of you. I really can’t think of better motivation on keeping those flags out of your hands, can you?”

  Mick turned pointedly to face Kaelia, Lux, Indigo Steele, Wesley Mills, and Evan Roberts. The audience was roaring with bloodthirsty applause. Kaelia felt something wilting inside her, like a bouquet of flowers left out in the rain.

  “Now, the odds certainly aren’t favorable,” Mick continued. “Fifteen against five, and only three flags for members of the Black Team to find and secure their freedom. In fact, I’m thinking members of the Black Team might turn on each other. Won’t that be a sight to see? Luckily, they won’t be given any weapons, at least not at first, though members of the White Team will be heavily armed as means to protect the flags they intend to keep out of the hands of those who robbed them of their freedom. There may be casualties, there may not be – we’ll have to wait and see!”

  The audience cheered again, their bodies a blur of wild frenzied carnality as Kaelia gazed out into the crowd. But she couldn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t think. And then, in the audience, there was Callan, his face familiar in a sea of strangers, and she suddenly gulped in a breath of air, like a drowning person pulled to shore. His face like going back home.

  Callan

  “No.” Callan spoke with all the force he could muster while still trying to sound convincing. “No, no, no, and no. I’m not letting you do this. Kaelia, you’re not doing this.”

  “I have to do this, Callan.” She sat on the bed in her suite after the announcement, her shoulders hunched. “I have to win.”

  Callan wanted to shake her. “Don’t you get it? You’re not meant to win! This is nothing but one big slaughter fest. Amity wants the lot of you to rip each other apart and be done with you, not give away prize money and abolish life sentences!”

  Her head snapped up at him, her eyes flashing. “Yeah, I guess I should have figured Amity would do something like this. And here you are, going off to fight for them.”

  “No,” he said definitively, and he went to crouch in front of her, taking her hands in his own. “No, I won’t fight for them, okay? Not anymore. We’ll run away together. Kaelia, I love you! I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Screw the final challenge, let’s just go!”

  She shook his hands off, looking away. “Callan, I can’t do that, even if I wanted to. I have this stupid band around my wrist.”

  “Then we’ll get it off somehow!” Callan ran a hand across his forehead, exasperated. “Kaelia, we’re two of the strongest humans in the world. You’d think between the pair of us we can figure out how to get it off.”

  “Don’t you think I’ve already thought about that?” she snapped. “I can’t get it off, not without breaking my own hand. And I’m really not in the mood for that kind of self-mutilation today. But maybe you want to give it a shot?”

  She offered him her wrist as if he might snap it in his hands right then. Callan faltered. He’d also thought up ways in the past to get the tracking band off her, and came up with the same conclusion.

  “Maybe we can…” he hesitated. “Get you some pain meds first?”

  She scowled. “Yeah? And then what? The two of us will run away together, fugitives? Always looking over our shoulders. And if we get caught, I’ll go back to Krakian. You’ll go… well, who’s know where you’ll go for aiding and abetting a criminal. That’s why I just have to win. I can beat them. You know I can!”

  “But at what cost!” Callan’s voice was desperate. “You heard what Beacon said. There are guys looking for you! No matter what you do, there will be guys looking for you.”

  “I don’t care about some scientists,” she grumbled, aggravatingly detached. “Lux doesn’t even know what he’s talking about anyway. Even if these guys do exist, what’s the chance they’re going to be watching some reality TV show meant for the entertainment of mindless drones?”

  “Kaelia, listen to me.” Callan shook her forearms in his hands, trying to get her to face him. When she did, he regretted it. She had a look in her eyes he’d never seen before. A look like pure, unadulterated defeat. Callan took a deep breath and went on. “If you go out into that arena and take out fifteen raging criminals armed with swords and crossbows and who knows what else, don’t you think that’s going to generate some kind of special attention? TV stations will be broadcasting it again and again all over the world.”

  “I don’t care,” she flicked her eyes away again. “I’m winning this thing, and you can’t stop me.”

  “Dammit, Kaelia!” He pounded the place on the bed next to her, his
fist bouncing foolishly off the fluffy comforter.

  “You act like this is my fault!” she exclaimed, jumping from the bed and throwing her arms in the air. “You act like I have a choice! I don’t have a choice, Callan. This is the only chance for me to win back my freedom.”

  He shook his head, refusing to believe it. “We’ll find another way.”

  She shook her head stubbornly. “No.”

  “Kaelia, what kind of man would I be if I let you go out there and do this? You might be seriously hurt.”

  “So you’re saying I should forfeit the competition to protect your precious little ego?” she snarled at him. “I don’t need you to protect me!”

  She was right, in a way, she didn’t need protection from the other contestants, only from herself. “No, I’m not saying forfeit! I’m saying forget it! You don’t need to do this!”

  His phone went off before she could respond. He dug it out of his pocket, almost relieved by the distraction. As he stared at the text on the screen, he frowned.

  “What?” she demanded, folding her arms across her mid-section.

  “There’s a meeting for the trainers,” he mumbled, confused. They’d never made him go to any meetings before.

  “When?” Kaelia tapped a toe on the floor, her face annoyed.

  “Right now, I guess.” He slipped the phone back in his pocket.

  “Now?” Her tone was clear she didn’t like it any more than he did. “And you’re going?”

  “I have to.”

  “You don’t have to do anything!” Her voice was rising precariously.

  He ignored her, gathering up a few things to bring with him. “This is still my job,” he reminded her. “Look, I’ll be back soon. Think about what I said. We’ll find a way out of this.”

  “I’m not thinking about it!” she refused, and Callan felt his blood pressure rise. “I told you, I made up my mind and you can’t change it.”

  “Kaelia, stop! You’re being ridiculous!” He felt like spanking her, but didn’t have the time.

  “Just go!” she ordered angrily. “Go to your stupid meeting! You don’t know anything anyway. Just get out!”

  She advanced towards him, snatching the first thing she could grab, which happened to be a small bowl filled with berries off her nightstand, and then hurled it straight towards his head. Callan ducked, the bowl hitting the wall behind him so hard it made an indent, the porcelain shattering and the berries splattering their juices in every direction.

  “Whoa!” he protested, as she propelled something else at him, this time a small clock that had been set on top of a shelf. Callan ducked again, the object smashing on the floor. “Kaelia, stop!”

  “I said get out!”

  He scoffed as he backed away towards the door, disturbed by the way she was acting. She needed a spanking. A good spanking always made things better between them, but something besides his urgency to get to the meeting prevented him from giving her one. Instead, he let her chase him out of the room, her arm poised to launch something else at him, though Callan couldn’t see anything in her hand. This time, as he opened the door into the hallway, he put his palm in the air, his fingers closing around the small object she threw.

  As he shut the door again, safe on the other side, he heard her release a gut-wrenching scream, and yet another object smashed inside the room. For a second, he could only stand there, panting slightly, then he remembered the thing in his hand. It was small and delicate, and when Callan opened his fingers to see what it was, he thought his heart might just stop. The necklace he had given her, just this morning, during a moment so perfect Callan could hardly believe it ever existed at all.

  Chapter 21

  Kaelia

  She lay sprawled face down on top of the bed, taking up the whole thing. Callan had left hours ago, and she wondered where he was. Surely the meeting was over by now. Kaelia regretted going into a rage before, but she hadn’t wanted him to go. Not while she needed him the most. She wasn’t sure why she had told him to leave. Her emotions weren’t making any sense.

  There was a knock on the door, and Kaelia sighed with relief. Except, why was he knocking? He had never knocked before. Maybe he felt bad after their fight, and was trying to show her some sort of courtesy.

  “Come in!” Kaelia called, her voice muffled against the mattress. She felt exhausted, and she also knew Callan might spank her. But she hardly cared about that. In fact, she kind of thought she deserved it.

  “I don’t have a key,” came a voice on the other side of the door.

  Dammit. It was Lux. What did he want? And where was Callan? Kaelia tripped out of bed to go open the door. “Yeah?” she demanded, her tone blunt.

  “Hmmm, nice to see you, too.” Lux trailed into her suite without being asked. Kaelia searched the hallway behind him.

  “Where’s Maddie?” she asked.

  “She went off to some meeting for the trainers and hasn’t returned yet.” Lux was picking his way carefully through the room, which was littered with debris from all the objects she’d smashed against the walls. “And your better half? There isn’t any trouble in paradise, I hope?”

  “What would make you say that?” Kaelia grumbled, embarrassed by the destruction of her rampage. “Look, what do you want?”

  “To wish you luck, and to say…,” he hesitated, his face pained. “That whatever happens out in that arena, I won’t blame you.”

  “How could you blame me if you’re dead?”

  Lux winced. “I was hoping, perhaps…”

  “That’s what Callan thinks,” she interrupted him. “That this is one big slaughter fest. That the showrunners want us killed off, not to reward us with prizes and freedom.”

  “The thought ran through my head as well,” Lux said glibly. He threw himself down on the couch. Kaelia noticed he didn’t have any alcohol. “And I guess I was sort of wondering what you were going to do about it?”

  “What do you mean?” Kaelia’s face pulled together in suspicion.

  “Well, you were designed to be a human killing machine. Do you think you have any chance of winning this?”

  “Of course I do,” Kaelia spoke arrogantly, and Lux glanced up at her in surprise.

  “And you don’t think that will… draw too much attention to yourself?”

  “Of course it will.” Kaelia put her palms in the air and shrugged her shoulders exaggeratedly. “But what else I’m I supposed to do? Let myself be killed?”

  Lux stared at her, perturbed. “If the scientists catch wind…”

  Kaelia waved an arm in the air, dismissing him. “The scientists,” she repeated scornfully, “I’m sick of hearing about them. Who cares about these scientists? They probably don’t even know I’m alive!”

  “They do,” Lux said, and his voice was so unobtrusive Kaelia barely registered it at first. When she did, her head swiveled back to him.

  “What?” she demanded, intense.

  “When they raided the compound, there were only thirteen bodies, and they knew there were sixteen kids.”

  “Thirteen,” she reiterated, her mind distracted, doing the math. But it couldn’t be thirteen. There had been sixteen of them, and just she and Callan had escaped.

  “Yes,” Lux said, and his face was more serious than she’d ever seen it before. “They brought thirteen dead bodies back to the lab, and one live one. That left two they never recovered.”

  Kaelia couldn’t speak. She felt far away, back on the compound, on the night she got away. Run, Kaelia, Papa had said. And she had; through miles of scorching deserts and rough terrain, and then up into the mountains, never stopping. Not once.

  “A live one?” she finally whispered, unsure if she even believed him.

  “Yes,” Lux responded. “A boy. They caught him, trying to escape.”

  “Caden,” Kaelia murmured, remembering Callan’s story about his friend.

  “Did you know him?” Lux’s voice was uneasy. Kaelia shook her head, no. No she didn’t
know him. “There was another one too,” he told her again, as if she might not have heard him the first time. “Another one who got away. Besides you.”

  Her face was expressionless, blank, even though she knew that was the wrong face to make. She had to tell him. Had to tell Callan.

  “They’d do anything to get you, to get either of you,” Lux carried on, his voice pressing with urgency. “Dr. Martin Gordon’s work was profound. It’s something no one has been able to replicate.”

  There was a knock on the door, which startled Kaelia out of her stupor. Since when had she become so popular? “Go away!” she hollered, her voice wobbling in her throat.

  But the door opened anyway, and two armed guards were standing there. “Think again,” one of them said. “The two of you, let’s go.”

  “Go where?” Kaelia spluttered, alarmed as the guards charged them.

  “It’s time to prepare for the final challenge,” the other one spoke now. He glanced at Lux as he took her roughly by the arm. “Guess your little romance is over.”

  Kaelia scoffed. Even the guards thought they had something going on. She jerked her arm free from his grasp. “Wait!” she protested. “It’s time now? Already?” It was early in the evening, but challenges never started this late.

  “You bet it is,” the guard replied, more gruffly than before, clearly miffed she had been able to free herself of his hold. “Now let’s go.”

  This time, she let herself be led out of the room, too dazed to do much about it. The other guard was dragging Lux, though when they came to the hallway, they pulled them off in separate directions. Kaelia watched her friend’s face, surprisingly calm but also forlorn, getting smaller and smaller down the hall.

  “Good-bye, Kaelia,” he eventually called, lifting his free hand in a brief wave.

  Kaelia’s eyes were darting everywhere, panicked. This wasn’t right. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. Where was Callan? She had to at least say goodbye to Callan. She hadn’t even told him she loved him, during their fight. She had to tell him. They couldn’t take her before she told him. But he wasn’t anywhere, and they were taking her. She couldn’t stop them.