I ran until I found an elevator. I pushed the button, or what I thought was the button.
Nothing happened. No lights. No ding. No sound of a car moving up and down in the elevator shaft.
Shit. Was this an elevator? I didn’t actually know.
Frantic now, I raced past it to where a series of doors lined the hall. I tried each one. All of them were locked.
“Shit.” I kicked the last door I’d tried with my boot. “Shit. Shit. Shit.” I should have insisted on going with Max when he left. Now I was trapped up here. None of the scanners worked to open the doors, at least not with my handprint. The elevator wasn’t an elevator. Even if it were, I couldn’t get it to work.
My eyes burned as I raced back the way I had come. Maybe there were doors on theotherside, where we’d come in.
Why hadn’t I thought of that before?
Because that will take you back down that empty walkway with no doors, back to the guard who didn’t want to let you in here at all.
God. No. Just no.
I reached the overlook where I’d stood a few minutes earlier. This time I was drenched in sweat, my heart pounded, my eyes burned. Adrenaline had to be flooding my system because all I wanted to do was run, screaming, into the execution room and drag Kovo out of there.
Except he weighed at least three times what I did. I’d learned the last few days that there was no moving a beast who did not wish to be moved. Nor one that was sleeping. I’d tried nudging him over when he hogged the little bed. No luck. Which was fine. I’d ended up crawling on top of him and sleeping on his chest. No regrets on that score.
I leaned over the wall to see what was going on. Not much had changed except Helion was reading a list of Kovo’s crimes to the witnesses on the floor below me. The spectators in the theater boxes.
Who would want to be here for this kind of thing?
Several of them were holding recording devices of some kind. No doubt to broadcast on their version of news.
Reporters. That’s who was here. Two military looking Atlans were in the box closest to Kovo. The rest were filled with spectators who leaned over eagerly, some obviously excited about watching my mate die.
Shit.
I had to figure out a way to get down there. I had to.
Desperate for a way to reach Kovo, I leaned over farther than I had before, looking for anything I could hold onto to crawl down.
There was nothing like a fireman’s pole for me to slide down. There were, however, a series of decorative metal links that looked like they helped hold up the walls as well as added decoration. Because, of course, you wanted the murder pit to look nice.
I jumped up and braced my hips on the wall’s ledge. It was curved, so it wasn’t as painful as I had anticipated. Leaning over as far as I dared, I removed the long scarf-like wrap Kovo had made for me and tied one end as tightly as I could around one of the metal links. The fabric was strong enough to hold me. It was only about nine feet long, but that was nine feet closer to the ground. If I hung from the very end with my arms over my head, the remaining fall would be…ten feet? Eight? It was hard to tell from here.
I yanked on the knot to test it. It held. I looked down into the center of the chamber again.
Where was Max? Why wasn’t he in there raising hell?
And what was Helion…
“No!” I screamed. Helion looked up just as I swung my legs out over the ledge and slid down my wrap, clinging desperately to the end. My feet swung in the air. Instinctively I kicked for balance, but it did not help.
I was slipping.
I glanced down and wanted to cry. This place was a lot bigger than it looked. I had a solid twenty foot drop beneath me.
“No, female!” Doctor Helion yelled at me. I ignored him. He was the enemy.
The others looked up as well, the medial staff I had not been able to see from up above. Two Atlans stood behind some sort of control stations.
The large monitor I’d seen from above was directly across from me, at eye level.
Kovo’s heartbeat was a flat line.
