The Hunted Chapter 27 snippet

The roar of the crowd shook the walls. The simple announcement had worked the people into frantic applause. Kate hung her head while waiting for the noise to die down. God, it never changed here did it, she mused.

Once the announcement was completed, a hatch in the wall had opened. A walkway led to the arena floor with fans on both sides of it. The sight of it brought back an old bible story she had read. When the Israelites had reached the Red Sea, with Pharaoh in hot pursuit, God had parted the sea.

The sea is parted, she thought, but not to keep me safe. That’s for damn sure!

“You hear that, Katie?” Kate shook her head at the psychotic smile on his face. “They all want to see you?”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” He tossed the scabbard to her. “Everyone wants to see if I’ll die.”

This time, the laughter was what Kate had expected. He expected her to die, which meant that there was something nasty planned. However, the question still remained: what was it? Until that was revealed, there was no way to be certain Ferini wouldn’t succeed.

“I’m going to enjoy this, Katie,” The sword gleamed in her hand when Kate took it out of the scabbard. “You always were a pain in the ass.”

“Don’t get cocky, Ferini,” With the examination done, Kate slipped the scabbard onto her back. “I’m not through yet.”

Ferini opened his mouth to say something but Kate stepped out into the walkway to let the crowd drown him out. Why did she need to sit back and listen to his retort? The man thought this would be the end, and it would be up to her skills to keep it from happening.

However, even if she survived, there was a bigger question that needed to be answered: how to stop Ferini from killing the President? With her fighter back on Rodeo, transportation to Wales was going to be an issue and no Alliance military vessel would make port at Necko. Right now though, the biggest priority was to survive whatever the man was going to throw at her.

Anything else can be handled after I know I’m going to live, she told herself.

The corridor was long and both sides had force fields to keep the unruly fans out. Thank God for that, Kate mused, because with all the drugs and alcohol in their systems, the people were liable to try to kill her themselves! Even with the energy barriers in place, the roar from everyone was deafening. To her enhanced hearing, the crowd sounded like a tornado barreling down to wipe out a town.

I wish they’d all just shut up, she thought, but that isn’t going to happen.

When she reached the bottom, a short set of three steps lead to the arena floor. The hard, red clay surface crunched under her feet and Kate looked back up at Ferini. With the enhancements Intelligence had made to her eyes, it was easy to see the smug expression on his face. It was going to be too bad for him that he wasn’t going to get what he wanted.

The rumble of a gate opening drew her attention to the far end of the arena. When the door reached the top, the crowds went silent. If that wasn’t bad enough, the sound of heavy footfalls started to fill the arena.

What the hell is that? Kate wondered.

A head started to appear from the doorway and several seconds later a body followed. Kate sighed and looked down at her feet when she got a look at the body. It was a massive creature, by any definition, that combined a dinosaur with a squid. While the animal was four legged, it had massive tentacles surrounding its mouth.

When it finished stepping onto the arena floor, Kate craned her head back. God, it was humongous! The height of the damned thing had to be between twenty and thirty feet-just to the top of its back! Where the hell had Ferini found this damned thing?

“It’s never easy is it?” Kate muttered.