The Gauntlet Assassin (8 page)

Lara heaved to her feet. “Let’s go.” She pounded up the steps, breathing deeply from the pit of her stomach and pulling along her taller, weaker partner. As she hit the landing, Lara swung left, looking for a place to use the pole. Behind her, the escalator started up again and Kirsten nearly lost her footing before taking two giant steps to reach the platform.

“Hooks above the door,” Kirsten called out, breathless.

Lara looked up and spotted the curved metal hooks on both sides of the black seamless door. Christ! They were six feet off the floor. Kirsten moved toward the hook on the right, making Lara lurch forward. They lined up with the hooks, holding the heavy pole in front now at chest level. Lara’s heart pounded from the effort.

“Can you do it?” Kirsten asked.

“Yes.” Lara didn’t know how, but she would. “On the count of three. One, two, three.” She heaved her end of the pole with all her might. It cleared the tip of the hook by a hair and settled into the big curve, a moment behind Kirsten’s end.

A second later, the black door slid open and both women charged for it. Lara edged out Kirsten by half a step and went through first, running toward the next area. She had no time to celebrate her success or catch her breath. Not only did she have to beat Kirsten to advance in the competition, the Challenge was timed. The faster she completed it, the more points she scored.

The second arena stretched out the length of a soccer field, filled mostly by a deep pit of choppy water. Across the dark pool and six feet above the water lay a maze of wooden beams, each only about ten inches wide. Three main beams connected to the edge of the floor, giving her a choice. Lara instinctively moved left, avoiding the beam in the middle. She slowed as she reached the edge of the water pit. Once she hit the beams, every step counted. If she fell into the water, a six-foot drop, she would have to swim against the tide to reach the other end. She was a good swimmer, but the water would be cold and going against the current would zap her energy for the next phase.

As she started down the beam, moving steadily but with caution, she noticed Kirsten had taken the middle path and was now out in front. Lara kept her pace, not letting her opponent’s lead rattle her. She kept her eyes on the beam just in front of her steps and glanced up occasionally to process the layout. A crossbeam lay ahead and she had to choose: left, right, or straight. Glancing ahead at the configuration, she decided to go left, taking her closer to the edge of the water pit.

The air temperature seemed to drop as she picked her way through the maze, twice having to backtrack after hitting a dead end. Was the coolness because of the vast pool of water or were the viewers messing with them? Lara became aware that Kirsten was no longer out front. She slowed and allowed herself a quick glance over her right shoulder. The young Amazon woman was headed away from her, backtracking from a dead end in the center. Lara was glad she’d avoided the middle beam, but she knew it was time to start making right-fork choices to work back toward the center.

At the next junction, she didn’t step far enough and her heel missed the beam. Her body swayed and her heart skipped a beat. Lara threw herself forward, landing with her upper body on the beam and her legs dangling. She pressed her arms tight against the thick sides. The blow had knocked the wind out of her and she pulled in three long breaths, waiting for her heart to settle down. One at a time, she carefully lifted her legs back up on top of the wooden surface, then slowly brought her arms up until she had them under her chest. From there, she lifted her torso and brought her knees up together into a kneeling position. For the first time in her life, Lara was glad for her small frame.

Still moving carefully, she raised herself into a standing position. Lara took another deep breath and assessed the situation. She was about three-quarters of the way across the water pit and Kirsten, off to her right, had pulled ahead. Lara started forward, picking up her pace and getting back into a rhythm. As she neared a tangle of forks, she heard Kirsten make a yelping sound. A split second later came the splash as her competitor hit the water.

Lara felt no reprieve. They were close to the end, and a straight short swim might be just as fast as zigzagging through the maze. The waves were coming from this end of the pit, though, and the loud chop of the water below made her glad she was still on the beams.

Sensing she was near the end, her body instinctively picked up the pace. Lara had to force herself to slow down, look ahead, and predict the dead ends. Finally, she cleared the last junction and the beam ahead provided a straight line to the edge.
Twenty more feet!
She held back a bit, not allowing herself to get sloppy.

Relief washed over her as her feet hit solid ground. She’d survived the elevated maze. Lara glanced back to see if she could spot Kirsten in the water. Instead she saw her climbing a ladder off to the right. She sprinted for the door in the middle of the dividing wall, wondering what the hell she would encounter next.

Chapter 9

Tunnels!
Dread hit Lara like a punch to the stomach. The next wall, only fifteen feet away, sported three black holes about waist high, each with a circumference of about three feet.
Fuck.
The tunnels were new to the Gauntlet this year and she felt unprepared. She sprinted for the middle hole, making the snap judgment that it made no difference which path she took.

She threw herself into the darkness, hoping like hell this section of the Challenge would be mercifully short. The height of the tunnel offered just enough space to crawl in a crouched position with her head down. Lara thought that Kirsten, with her long thighbones, might not have that option. A belly crawl would be slower, but Lara realized she would probably rotate between the two, depending on the pain and how long this section lasted. She listened for the sounds of her opponent in the tunnel behind her, but heard only her own labored breathing and a tiny humming noise.

After a few minutes of crawling in total darkness, her knees began to ache, even though the tunnel was constructed of thick pliable PVC. Lara tuned out the pain and the closeness of the walls and kept plowing forward. She decided that not being able to see anything was marginally better than being constantly aware of the tight space and potentially endless duration.

The pain in her knees forced her into a belly crawl. Once she was prone, she could lift her head and see out front a few feet. A tiny red light moved along the tunnel ahead of her. A motion-activated camera. The clever bastards didn’t want the viewers to miss this agony. Lara forced herself to stop scowling. She needed fans and thumbs-up voters.

Her hand touched something soft and oily. The thing moved and she suppressed a vocal reaction. A snake. They’d put a fucking snake in the tunnels—likely more than one. Lara paused for a brief moment, hoping it would slither away.
It’s harmless,
she told herself, crawling forward.
They wouldn’t use poisonous snakes
. Knowing it was ahead of her somewhere made her move a little slower.

A moment later, the floor began to slope downward. Lara tried to focus on the ease of the descent rather than the feeling that she was crawling down into hell. The tunnel curved to the right, then ten feet later, she came to a fork, barely discernable in the dark.
Oh crap!
Another maze. Lara chose left again, acting on impulse. In the blackness, there was no logic to apply, no pattern to analyze.

Forearms aching, she pushed back onto her knees and picked up speed. With her head down, she didn’t see the dead end and slammed straight into it, sending a shock of pain down her neck and spine.
The bastards!
They’d made the event more difficult this year as well as more physically punishing. With no room to turn around, she had no choice but to crawl backward to the fork.

She hadn’t practiced this skill at the National Guard training camp, but it made no difference. She would conquer whatever they threw at her. As she neared what she hoped was the fork, she heard clomping sounds somewhere in the tunnel behind her.
Oh no
. If Kirsten had passed the fork, then she was in the same branch tunnel and would have to back out too. In that case, her opponent would reach the fork first and take the lead.

Lara pushed herself harder, hoping Kirsten was still in the main tunnel. As she huffed backward, the clomping sound grew closer. A moment later, Lara’s foot came in contact with Kirsten’s head, and the big woman let out a startled sound.

“What the hell are you doing?”

“It’s a dead end,” Lara called out. She hated to assist her competition but she had no choice.

Kirsten backed away without a word. Lara backed up too, keeping pace. A worst-case scenario played out in her mind. What if Kirsten, out front after they made the turn, ran into a snake and froze up or got injured and couldn’t go any farther? Was there more than one correct path to the other side? Or would they both be disqualified for not completing the course?

Behind her, Lara heard Kirsten make the turn and crawl off to the right. She followed and quickly caught up. Forearms and knees aching, Lara cursed herself for going left. If she’d made the correct decision, she would have a healthy lead by now.

Moments later, the crawling body ahead of her stopped. Another fork? Lara’s brain scrambled to sort out her options. If she followed Kirsten to the end, her competitor would finish first, earning big points. Or if Kirsten hit a dead end, they would both have to back out and Lara would be in the lead again. If she took a different tunnel, the outcomes were more divergent. She would either take the lead, get lucky, and win by a good margin—or hit a dead end, while Kirsten finished way ahead of her. Those were only the best-case scenarios. They could each encounter more forks, more doubling back.

A soft pressure on the back of her ankle made Lara cringe. She kicked and sent the snake on its way.

Her opponent began to move, and Lara learned by feel that Kirsten had gone to the right, leaving the left tunnel open to her. Even though she never gambled with money, Lara was a natural-born risk taker. She crawled to the left, preferring to win or lose by a wide margin than to follow Kirsten through the tunnels like a coward, hoping to hit a dead end.

After five minutes, she dropped back to her stomach and belly crawled along the sloping, curving tunnel. Her muscles ached from the strain, the darkness was oppressive, and anxiety started to build. What if she hit another dead end and had to back all the way out? How long had she been in here? It seemed like hours. Lara no longer cared what her expression looked like to the viewers. This was torture and they might as well know it. Lara used her anxiety to get back on her knees and push harder.

Her forearms, knees, and neck screamed with pain. Had the designers realized the tunnels would hurt this much? She’d known from watching the first two Gauntlets that some challenges and one-on-one battles could be painful at times, but she hadn’t expected this.

Finally, a dim light appeared in the tunnel ahead.
Yes!
The opening looked about thirty feet away. Lara kept her pace, chest heaving with relief. Moments later, she blinked from the brightness of the lights as she stuck her head out of the tunnel. The drop to the floor was only two feet down, so Lara leapt out like a heavy cat, landing on her hands and knees. She grunted from the blow and struggled to her feet.

Her opponent was nowhere in sight. Lara charged for the elevator-style door built into the dividing wall fifteen feet away. It opened as she neared, then suddenly slammed shut just as she reached it.
What the hell?
Were the viewers punishing her or was this engineered into the design? She looked around for a control mechanism and saw nothing—no hooks, no buttons, no secret panels.

Anxiety mounting, Lara glanced over her shoulder to see if Kirsten was exiting behind her. There was only a single opening on this end.
Yes!
Kirsten had to have encountered a dead end. Or possibly the other route had joined the main path somewhere and her opponent was already in the third arena. Either way, Lara needed to get through the door and fight her way through one more section of the Challenge.

She tapped the wall around the door, hoping to trigger a response. Nothing. Desperate, she ran back to the wall where she’d crawled out of the tunnel, then turned and charged for the door again. As she hit the same spot on the floor, the pocket door zipped open. Lara dove through, tucking and rolling to minimize the impact. The door slammed shut behind her.

She sat for a moment, taking in the new arena and catching her breath. Kirsten was nowhere to be seen, but the realization gave her little comfort. The arena contained another pit of water. This one was smaller and featured a massive wall across the middle that rose ten feet out of the blackness. Too high to go over, the competitors would have to go through it. Lara’s gut tightened at the thought of swimming through an underwater tunnel.
Sadistic!
She’d trained in the pool at the Y and even done some ocean swimming, but she was no Navy SEAL.

Pushing to her feet, Lara appreciated her poly-blend bodysuit and water-sport Keens. She hustled to the edge of the fake-concrete pit and dove in. The chill of the water stunned her and she lost her focus for a moment. As she surfaced, a giant wave sent her tumbling back to the edge. The waterline, a foot below the surrounding floor, gave her nothing to cling to. Another wave slammed her into the pit wall.
Hell!
How was she supposed to cross this turbulence?

Lara heard the door slide open and turned to see Kirsten run through.
Damn
. She’d lost her lead and suspected the viewers had penalized her for being out front.

Lara pushed off the wall with both feet, swimming with an aggressive overhand crawl. No waves came at her and she made good time getting to the obstruction in the middle. She sucked in a deep breath and dove under water, looking for a tunnel to swim through. The dark water against the dark gray wall made it difficult to see and she had no idea how deep the pit was. Holding her breath, she swam back and forth along the middle of the obstruction, finding no opening. Her lungs started to burn and she felt lightheaded, so she swam hard toward the light above. She burst through the surface and gulped in air. It would take forever to search the entire wall, Lara realized. The discouraging thought affected her body and she felt the first sign of real fatigue.