Zeke watched the fat man and the young woman. The man'scheeks blew out as he sighed a heavy sigh of tension. Immediately, the man andthe young girl began speaking with another woman in hushed tones, their headsput together. Zeke recognized a plan being put together when he saw it.
Lou tapped him on the shoulder and said, "Hey, man.What do you make of that?" Lou asked.
"It's starting," Zeke said.
"What?"
"The end."
****
Lou went to find some breakfast while Zeke grabbed a cotnext to the trio of whisperers. To the untrained eye, he seemed to be taking anap, his arm hanging over his eyes, and paying them no attention at all. Inreality, he heard almost every word they said. From their conversations he wasable to piece together what had happened.
The young girl, the one with the bruise on her jaw, hadbeen attacked. The other girl, the one with the tight body and the dead eyes,had come to her defense. The fat man... well, Zeke didn't know how he fit in,but he was definitely a part of it judging by his shifty eyes, constanthand-wringing, and general skittishness.
When Zeke had heard enough, he sat up, let his eyesadjust to the harsh light of the arena, and walked over to the three of them."Sounds like you guys have yourselves a problem."
They sat there, dumbfounded, as if he were speaking tothem in an alien language. Then, the one with the dead eyes spoke,"Anything we have is no concern of yours."
Zeke squatted down and looked the girl in the eyes. Shewas the leader. She was the only one he really needed to talk to, but he spokeloud enough for the others to hear, for their benefit. "No, it is ourconcern because things are about to get very ugly in here."
"What are you talking about?" the red-hairedman asked, and Zeke could see that he was more of a boy really.
Zeke smiled and took a pointed look around the arena."Place like this... it's got eyes." Zeke nodded at a corner of thearena. A shiny black dome hung on the wall, and as they looked around theynoticed others scattered throughout the arena. "Now those eyes may nothave seen what you did, and I'm glad you did what you did, but they may haveseen something. One person goes into a bathroom. Another person follows, andthen a third. Only two come out. I'm no mathematician, but even I can do thesubtraction on that."
The young girl's face paled. The boy turned red andlooked like he was trying to swallow his own face. The blonde girl just staredat him with those cold, dead eyes. "What do you want?"
Zeke licked his lips. "The way I see it, you'vegotten us all into a heap of trouble here. This could have been a fine place,for a while at least. Now it's going to get rough, but it doesn't matterbecause it was bound to end up this way sooner or later. Put a group of peoplewith guns in charge of a group with none and bad things are bound tohappen."
"Get to the point," Chloe spat.
"We're gonna get out of this place. It's doomed. Weknew that from the moment we stepped foot inside. Hell, we all know it. Butwe've got a plan. All we need is some numbers, some people willing to do whatneeds to be done. The way I see it, you can help us, or you can wait for thosesoldiers to find the right footage on those cameras. Then they find you. Thenthey find her." Zeke hiked a thumb at the young girl, "After that,they throw you over the fence, or worse."
The young girl groaned. The blonde nodded her head seeingthe sense in Zeke's words. "So what do we have to do?"
Zeke smiled. He was glad they saw things his way. Thefirst thing we have to do is destroy the evidence. It's not quite time to pullthe pin on this place yet. So we're going to need some more time."
"Jesus," the boy said. "Will we ever getback to normal?"
"I'll take alive over normal any day, kid."Zeke held out his hand, and the boy shook it in a flaccid way that made Zeke'sskin crawl. "Name's Zeke."
****
Katie watched Zeke talk to the girl. From her spot in thecrowd, she had been keeping an eye on Zeke. She didn't know why. She wascurious about him. Was he going to be true to his word, and keep the physicalthing just physical, or would he want more? When she saw him talking to theblonde, she felt something that she hadn't felt in an eon. Jealousy. Where hadthat emotion been? The truth was that Jason was nothing much to look at. He wasso plain, so boring, that she never really worried about whether he would comehome at night smelling of another woman's perfume.
But Zeke. That was a different story. Zeke was a man.Come up with any definition of what a man was supposed to be, and you couldattach Zeke's name to it. The jealousy was a surprise. That he was talking tothe blonde and that Katie actually cared was another one. She felt as if herheart and her brain were tugging her in different directions. She wondered ifshe would split in half before one side won.
Katie looked at the girl. She had soft features, but thestrength of youth. Her eyes were piercing, round and big. She looked like oneof those anime characters that her son had loved to draw so much. Her curveswere out of this world, and Katie could see why anyone would be keen on talkingto her. Hell, if Katie were a man, she would be all over her.
But what truly bothered Katie was that Zeke talking tothe blonde was something that she couldn't control. She had put Zeke in hisplace in the luxury box, taking control of the situation and letting him knowthat he had no hold over her. She felt good about that. But what she didn'tfeel good about was Zeke talking to this girl. She didn't like it one bit.
Chapter 30: In the Booth
Private Hugh
