QUILLAN
I didn’t get the chance to answer Saint Dane’s challenge, because there was a knock on the door.
“I look forward to hearing your decision, Pendragon,” Saint Dane said as he brushed some invisible lint off his suit. He walked back to his desk and called out, “Yes, come in!”
The door opened slowly. LaBerge meekly peered in.
“Excuse me, Mr. Kayto, sir,” he said nervously. “I don’t mean to interrupt you, but is everything all right? I mean, should we leave Challenger Red here with you or bring him back to the compound? Whatever you wish.”
“I’m done with him,” Saint Dane said. “He should return with you. Thank you for your concern.”
LaBerge looked surprised that a trustee was being so polite to him. “Oh, thank you,” he said. “I know you’re busy. We won’t bother you any longer.” LaBerge looked at me and cocked his head, as if to say, “Let’s go.”
After what had just happened and all that I’d heard, I wasn’t so sure my legs would hold me. I slowly got to my feet and didn’t topple over, I’m happy to report. Saint Dane was sitting at his desk, already engrossed in reading a report of some kind. But I knew it was an act. He wasn’t thinking about some blah blah report from Blok. He was thinking about me.
“Not gonna happen,” I said to him. “I won’t do it.”
Saint Dane looked at me and smiled. “Then my life just got much easier because I’ve proven that you are indeed a coward. Good day.”
I walked toward the door, and LaBerge. The confusion on his face was obvious. I didn’t say a word; I just walked past him into the corridor.
“Good day, Mr. Kayto,” LaBerge said subserviently as he backed out. “I’m sorry to have disturbed you.”
“Close the door,” Saint Dane barked.
LaBerge quickly closed the door and ran after me. I was already halfway down the hall when he caught up. “what happened back there?” he asked nervously. “You can’t talk to a trustee like that!”
“I guess I can,” I shot back at him. “You heard me.”
“Not while you’re a challenger,” LaBerge said, trying to be tough. “I will not allow anyone who works for me to be so disrespectful of-“
I grabbed LaBerge by the collar of his goofy green suit and pinned him against the wall.
“Ow!” he complained.
“I don’t work for you,” I said. “And I am not a challenger. Get yourself another victim.”
“You’re saying that as if you think you have a choice,” he sniveled.
I let the guy go and continued down the hallway toward where I thought the elevator was. I wasn’t staying in this building or with these idiot gaming people any longer. I was going to hit the elevator, get outside, and find my way back to the flume. Saint Dane was right. Quillan was history. I didn’t want to spend another minute here. I had no doubt that there would be some dados outside, waiting to take me back to the castle. They were going to have their hands full. I wasn’t going back there without a fight. The elevator was there, open. I stepped in and turned around just as LaBerge jumped in after me. The doors closed automatically, and we were on the way down.
The guy stared at me. I don’t think he wanted to be alone with me in that elevator. I think he knew I was a raw nerve. If he so much as burped I would have, well, I don’t know what I would have done, but I was ready for a fight. Saint Dane’s words kept rolling through my head. There was too much to make sense out of quickly. All I knew was I wanted out of there and off of Quillan. That’s all I could focus on. Escape. I reached into my back pocket and pulled out the blocking diode. I wasn’t waiting for Nevva. It was now or never. The little metal clip snapped easily over the loop.
“What is that?” LaBerge asked. “What are you doing?”
As soon as I snapped it over the loop, the light around the center glowed red. I hoped that meant the loop was deactivated.
“You can’t do that,” LaBerge whined. “I just did,” I growled.
LaBerge took a step toward me, but I shot him a look that made him back off.
“Fine, whatever you say,” the weenie agreed, groveling.
The elevator began to slow. I didn’t know what was going to be waiting for me outside the doors. I had to be ready.
“You realize this is futile,” LaBerge said.
For some reason those words got through to me. It wasn’t so much what he said, but how he said them. It was with no emotion, like it was a simple statement of fact. It gave me a second of hesitation, but that’s all. I wasn’t going back to that castle.
The doors slid open. I put one foot on the back of the elevator and pushed off, propelling myself out of the compartment. I quickly realized that Nevva Winter was right. We were being watched. They were ready for me. I shot myself out of the elevator and into the arms of four security dados. I didn’t stand a chance. I was grabbed by the arms and the legs, and lifted onto their shoulders. No amount of struggling mattered. I might have been able to beat one of those guys, or maybe even two. But not four. I was helpless and frustrated. I wanted to shout out, but didn’t want to give anybody the satisfaction of seeing me lose it. So I bit my lip and held it in.
Veego was waiting inside the front door of the building.
“Don’t injure him” was all she said. “He must be able to compete.”
The dados carried me outside and down the steps where a car was waiting. I was vaguely aware that people had stopped to watch from across the street. I’m sure the scene confirmed all their fears about how bad a place the Blok building was. I was thrown roughly into the backseat. Veego and LaBerge jumped in on either side of me and quickly closed the doors. Two dados were in the front seat and the driver hit the accelerator.
“The doors are locked,” Veego said calmly. “You cannot get out.”
I sat between the two of them, feeling like a helpless child. I wanted to explode.
“Where did you get the blocking diode?” Veego asked.
I didn’t answer. The dado drove us quickly along the city streets, weaving in and out of traffic.
“What is wrong with you?” LaBerge asked. “Don’t you realize what an honor it is to be in your position? The trustees put their faith in you and you treat them with such disrespect? It’s embarrassing is what it is.”
They kept talking but I wasn’t listening. I was doing all that I could to calm down and plan my next move. It was looking like I couldn’t stop them from taking me back to the castle, which meant I was going to have to make my escape from there. I hoped there wouldn’t be increased security around me. That would make things even more difficult. But not impossible. One way or another, I was out of there. I needed to regroup. Maybe talk to Loor. I wished I could talk with Gunny or Spader, but that wasn’t going to happen. I even thought about coming home to Second Earth to see you guys. I know that Saint Dane has been sniffing around there. A thousand plans raced through my head, all of which were some variation of getting the hell off Quillan. There was no way I was going to risk my life in the Grand X. If that made me a coward in Saint Dane’s eyes, fine. It wasn’t going to shake my confidence. No, he wasn’t going to goad me into the games, no matter how tempting a prize he was offering. As we raced through the busy streets of Rune, I made up my mind. I was going home.
I think it was at that exact moment, the moment when I realized what I needed to do, when everything changed. The car that was traveling directly in front of us slammed on its brakes. It was so sudden and we were traveling so fast that our car slammed into it.
“Ahhh!” screamed LaBerge. “What happened?”
Veego shot a quick look out the rear window.
“Don’t stop,” she commanded. “Get us out of here!”
D. J. MacHale
The Quillan Games
On command, the dado spun the wheel and hit the accelerator. With a lurch we shot to the left and launched forward.
“What are you doing?” LaBerge shouted. “That was an accident! We have to stop!”
“Shut up,” Veego spat at him.
At that exact instant we were slammed from behind, hit by another car. We rocked forward so violently that my head hit the back of the seat in front of me.
