Page 79 of Tribute
Palk lay half-upright in bed, surrounded by several machines. When Rehz smiled at him, he made a strange gurgling sound and his pupils dilated. His fingers groped for the call button that Rehz had already disabled.
Rehz tutted. “Did you break his jaw? Nice job, Kai—except now he can’t speak too well.”
“I’m sure you’ll manage to get the information you want out of him somehow.” Kai fixed his attention on the hallway. “Just hurry the fuck up.”
“Palk.” He strolled toward the man in the bed. “How are you feeling?”
The machines around the bed registered the increase in the patient’s heartbeat and started to flash various alarms. Rehz shook his head.
“Get a grip or we’ll have the whole medical staff in here to watch you die.” He pressed his weapon to the injured side of Palk’s scalp. “And you are going to die if you don’t start giving me some answers. You put Anna and Aled back intoUngrichspace, didn’t you?”
Palk stared straight ahead.
Rehz wrapped his hand around the man’s throat. “I asked you a question.”
“Had no choice,” Palk wheezed.
“Fucking liar. You gave them up. But for what?”
Palk licked his swollen, bloodied lips, like something scaly from the desert.
“Forwhat,Palk?”
“Security.”
“They’re not coming.”
“Mysecurity,” Palk whispered.
“You traded my mate to protect yourself? From fuckingwhat?”
“Rehz.” Kai spoke from the door. “There are more guards approaching.”
Rehz’s fingers tightened, and Palk gave a ghastly smile, then slipped into unconsciousness. For a second, Rehz contemplated intensifying his grip even more and breaking the bastard’s neck. But that could wait. Being a Tribute trainer had taught him a lot about delayed gratification.
With a curse he shoved Palk back onto his pillow and went toward Kai. “Can we get out of here?”
“If we leave now.”
“Then let’s go.”
The journey out to the training facility was accomplished with such ease that Rehz was suspicious. Palk must know that he and Kai would be coming after their trainees. Or was Palk stupid enough not to have noticed the bonds that had been formed? Perhaps he was planning an ambush at the base, or there was some other reason he was willing to let them get so far. Rehz glanced over at Kai, who was checking his weapons. They’d both donned full body armor under their clothes and had locked and loaded every single firearm they possessed.
It was taking too long to get to her. He wanted to fight something so badly now, wanted the smell of blood and the sound of someone else’s pain . . .
The doors of the transporter slid open; he and Kai remained concealed to either side. There were no hurrying feet or guns being charged. A female voice intoned the name of the facility. He risked a quick peek and saw nothing unusual.
As the current training season had recently concluded, the place was quiet and shouldn’t come back up to strength for several months. But it always paid to be careful.
“Cover me.”
Kai stepped forward, his weapon shouldered and at the ready, and stopped the doors from closing as Rehz sprinted for the first piece of cover. Still nothing. He beckoned Kai to join him, and they stayed hidden as the transporter moved on down the track and into a tunnel. Kai raised his eyebrows and Rehz shrugged.
“Nothing. Not even the usual guard.”
“Let’s keep moving.”
Eventually they reached the “welcome” center, where the new Tributes were unloaded, medically examined, and processed into the program. The lights were on, and Kai had no difficulty using his codes to access the system to allow them entry.
