Page 1 of Tribute
CHAPTER
ONE
Planet Mitan:
Sixteen weeks until Tribute Day.
“That one.” Rehz Akran leaned over the shoulder of the security guard and pointed at the screen.
“The blonde or the brunette?” The guard froze the screen image.
“The one who’s beating the shit out of the guard.” Rehz narrowed his gaze. “Can you isolate her and give me her stats?”
“Sure.”
“Are you certain that’s the one you want, Commander?”
Rehz glanced over at Kai, a fellow trainer who’d come to observe the inmates of the high-security prison with him. “Yeah, why?”
“She looks rallshit crazy to me.”
“That helps.”
“She’s got the worst disciplinary record in the prison, and this isn’t a place for weaklings.” The security guard cleared his throat. “Here you go, sir.”
Rehz studied the data scrolling up on the screen. “Name: Lee, Anna. Approximate age: twenty-five. Genetic origin: unknown.Unknown?” He frowned. “What’s up with that?”
“She claims to come from a planet called Earth, and sees herself as a political prisoner who isn’t bound by Mitan society’s rules.”
Rehz looked back over his shoulder at the governor of the high-security prison, who’d appeared in the doorway.
“And what do you make of that?”
“She’s here and she’s subject to our rules. Everything else is irrelevant because she’s already been sentenced to death.”
“What did she do?”
“To get here?” The governor shrugged. “She was attacked by three other inmates at her previous penitentiary and she killed one of them.”
Rehz studied the frozen snarl of the blonde female. She obviously had great survival skills. If three thugs had corneredhim, he would’ve killed too. She was his last chance to win.
His last hope.
“I’d like to speak to her.”
The governor’s smile was sardonic. “Be my guest.”
“Lee, get up.”
Anna kept her eyes firmly closed as the door to her solitary confinement cell crashed open. She wasn’t surprised when two guards hauled her to her feet anyway. One of them jabbed her weapon in Anna’s throat.
“Move it.”
Her hands were locked together behind her, and her ankles were shackled so she could only take small, shuffling steps. Maybe today was the day they’d finally carry out her sentence and execute her. She almost welcomed it. She was tired of protesting her innocence and of fighting to survive in an alienenvironment. She kept her gaze on the floor and behaved herself as they led her through several locked gates and into a quieter area of the prison, where the internal trials were held. She’d been there a lot for disciplinary issues.
“Stand still.”
She was turned to face a door and ushered inside a small room with a table and two chairs in it. Her least favorite guard pushed her down onto one of the chairs and chained her to it.
