“Keep dreaming, bitch. Why don’t you get a little closer so I can bite you?” Kendra snapped at the air.
Helen laughed. “Aren’t you the feisty one?”
Kendra blinked and grimaced as more vertigo hit her. A fog crept into her mind making it harder to think while trying to cling to hope.
Drugging her would make her odd behavior obvious. Running the course while high would end with her falling on the first obstacle. Helen’s arrogance would be her undoing.
They might have some security guards on their side, but there were cops at the race, too. CJ and his partner would tear Michael and Helen apart.
Kendra’s breathing turned ragged. The purple-eyed bitch was going down.
Chapter Twenty-One
CJ was proving how long a man could stand with his hands clenched. The minutes had ticked by with him near the start of the course in the back of the crowd. He desperately scanned around hoping he was mistaken and Kendra would wander toward him and mention she’d been in the bathroom the whole time. Now there was nothing for him to do but wait for their reinforcements.
The event had begun, with the first set of contestants trying their hand at the course and ending up in water or on padded mats for their effort, some doing better than others, but no one doing well. Oohs and ahs filled the air, punctuated with clapping and cheers. No one had any reason to suspect an evil organization was there.
His thoughts drifted, and he barely noticed anyone around him despite being surrounded by hundreds of people. A loud collective roar of excitement snapped him out of his stupor.
CJ’s head jerked up. He’d hoped Kendra had taken to the course, but it was some other brown-haired woman he didn’t recognize. The tall, pretty woman was bold taking on the course in her full tracksuit, zipped all the way up, including a high collar. Given the summer heat, it must have been unbearable, but she wasn’t giving any sign she noticed. He wondered if it was part of her superstitions.
She zoomed through obstacles like she’d been born for the course, including charging across a climbing wall with all but non-existent handholds so fast it was like she could hover. The uneven pyramid climbing challenge and rope swing obstacle was difficult enough it might have even given CJ pause, but this woman who wasn’t much bigger than Kendra passed through it so quickly she might as well have been sprinting down a flat, well-prepared stadium race lane.
CJ narrowed his eyes. The crowd was going wild, but something was wrong. He spent most of his time around genetically engineered soldiers who constantly trained in painful ways that pushed them to their limits. He was used to seeing people operate at or near superhuman levels all the time, and it was hard for him not to question if he wasn’t seeing that now.
He sent a text to Julius.
Some impressive running on the course, almost too impressive. I think I know why our friends came here.
Julius texted him.
Just make sure you don’t do anything stupid.
The athlete continued demolishing the course until a chance slip on unevenly spaced poles sent her into a pool below. She swam hard for the edge of the pool and hopped out, her blank expression clear on one of the jumbo screens transmitting from a cameraman closer to the obstacle. At least the pool would help her cool down.
CJ frowned. He pushed into the crowd, his size making people naturally step away. He started making his way toward the front, but the woman grabbed a towel from a staffer and disappeared back into the crowd.
What was she? Some sort of hybrid?
He could have been wrong. The people around him were excited, but not stunned. She might have been a naturally talented athlete who had gotten lucky or had the run of her life.
“Get ready for contestant number nine,” shouted an announcer. “A fixture in the obstacle scene, the one, the only, Roving Champion!”
CJ froze, gaping as Kendra bounded onto the first obstacle in the distance. He looked up at the screen.
There was no joy, no emotion, nothing on her face. Somebody else might mistake it for pure concentration, but he knew that wasn’t the same Kendra Champion he’d talked to earlier, complete with some weird thin metal collar that would have looked more appropriate on some Goth singer. She wasn’t the only person who ran with a weird accessory, and no one else was commenting on it, but he still questioned it.
He ground his teeth. The bastards had done something to her.
A horn blast signaled the start of her run. Kendra exploded off the start line. Her movement, both the sheer speed along with the intensity and the tightness of her muscles, captivated CJ. He shook his head, remembering he wasn’t there to be impressed by her body. Obstacle after obstacle fell to her, and she was doing even better than the woman who had run right before her.
“She’s usually a little more cautious in her runs,” a woman in the crowd mentioned to her friend. “If this is the Roving Champion when she’s going all out, then wow. She’s been holding back for years! She could dominate some of the men on ASTC.”
“Some of the men?” her friend replied. “She could win the whole thing.”
Kendra all but glided over the balance obstacle that had taken out the woman before her. The deafening roar of the crowd faded away to CJ as he focused on her, watching her every movement.
CJ blinked and shoved his way forward, trying to follow along. He hopped over a stanchion, but none of the security guards placed throughout the course paid him any attention.
Everyone was focused on Kendra’s incredible run. In any other circumstance, he also would be.
He sprinted along, the outer edge of the rope separating off the crowd. He kept his speed fast, but not showing off his full hybrid potential.
Kendra hit a spinning
