TGT 1: Let the Game Begin

►| twenty three

Dealing with two comms in his ears was hard. He had to be careful of which line to connect to else he'd be betraying two halves of his life to each other. This was more complicated than having an affair.

The counter was underway for the last twenty minutes, showing no sign of stopping. By his calculations, the alarms have been going longer and longer. From his recent hacking escapade, those from the top deemed it necessary to extend the time when bloodshed was possible. Whoever they were, they aimed to finish the Game faster before he could crawl his way up to them.

They knew all about his attempts at unlocking the rest of his chip and several others. He hadn't been subtle with that. But with all the meticulous effort of locking hundreds of barely-legal kids inside an abandoned property, he assumed they'd be more sensitive with his proddings. If they were truly observing from the cosmic folds of reality, they wouldn't have tolerated his presence. They would have torched him the moment he stumbled across the locked rooms in search of the black books.

With his presence intact, the only conclusion to reach was that they put him here for a reason. For a sole purpose he had yet to discover. What could it be? Proving how someone with no ability could survive in a room full of the powerful? Lucky them, he had dragged this contained experiment longer than necessary. He had no intention of making it easy for them. Must be nice, playing gods despite being the puniest mortals.

They couldn't even face their creation nor live in the same environment with them.

The comms in his right ear crackled. "Status on Karrel?" Five's breathy voice rasped from the other side. "Quota is done."

While walking towards Section R's headquarters, Thirteen whipped out the portable screen and swiped in calculated moves to bring up locations of Section H's members. "Somewhere near Section Y. We can cross that one off our list. They only have five people left anyway."

"Permission to go after the next one?" Five asked. "Until which line?"

Thirteen checked the pins on active chips, counting under his breath. His steps kept getting in the way, synchronizing with his count. He cursed. He'd deal with the numbers later. Just give Five what she wanted. "Permission granted until two sections," he said. "Don't get greedy."

Five scoffed. "We save everyone, remember?" she said. "I'll take care of them."

Thirteen flipped the comms off and tuned into the other one. "Slate, Flint, status on Section R?" he asked.

The other line creaked. "1,2-west from Section H's HQ," Slate answered. "It seems they thought it's better to defect to Karrel's side."

As was the norm within the other sections. The remaining ones have three choices—go to Section H and cling to them for hope, help Section M and deal with its idiosyncratic leader, or stand on their own against two prominent sections and lose. Section R was smart for choosing Karrel.