The Grid 2 Read online

  The Grid 2

  Quest for Vengeance

  Paul Teague

  Contents

  Also by Paul Teague

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Preview extracts from The Grid Trilogy Part 3: Catharsis

  Also by Paul Teague

  Author Notes

  Get Connected With The Grid

  About the Author

  Also by Paul Teague

  Sci-Fi Starter Book - Phase 6

  The Secret Bunker Trilogy

  Book 1 - Darkness Falls

  Books 2 - The Four Quadrants

  Books 3 - Regeneration

  The Grid Trilogy

  Book 1 - Fall of Justice

  Book 2 - Quest for Vengeance

  Book 3 - Catharsis

  Writing Thrillers as Paul J. Teague

  Don’t Tell Meg Trilogy

  Book 1 - Don’t Tell Meg

  Book 2 - The Murder Place

  Book 3 - The Forgotten Children

  Chapter One

  Inferno

  Joe had no time to grieve for Zach. The flames were roaring around them. They were throwing out heat like he’d never experienced before. The crackling, searing blaze encircled them, intimidating the twelve captives and creating instant panic and terror. Zach was dead, he could see that. There was nothing he could do. The rage surged in him once again, but now was not the time for anger.

  Joe looked to Clay who was taking a lead. They’d need Clay to help them survive – his instincts were good. Lucy was trying to comfort the man from the Institute. He was screaming now. Joe had never seen a raw terror like that. He tried to assess the situation, it had happened so fast. One minute they’d been looking out into some dark hangar, and the next the flames rose from nowhere and their environment had completely changed.

  ‘Look for clues,’ Joe told himself. He’d never taken much notice of The Grid trials, they turned his stomach to watch. However, he knew the format well enough. They would not all be killed at once – the purpose was to prolong these events. Fortrillium wanted the full attention of The City. It wouldn’t want to finish the trial straight away, which meant there was a solution to this – there was always a way out. Until the very last person was left standing, there was always a way out.

  Joe scanned the area. They were in a wooded terrain – it was incredible how the environment had changed around them, but the heat from the flames was real enough. He was wet with sweat, and his face felt as if it was burning already. There seemed to be nothing there to help them, but there had to be a way out, there was no way Fortrillium would allow them all to perish in the opening minutes of the trial. Joe looked around desperately. There was no water, nothing with which to protect themselves, he just couldn’t see a solution.

  They were in a clearing, encircled by trees, with the fire surrounding them. Zach’s burned body was at his feet. He’d been forced to run from inside the fire, he didn’t stand a chance.

  Clay seized the initiative. He’d been doing the same as Joe, but found a solution faster. He shouted over the cries of the other prisoners. Only one of them seemed unmoved by the terror of the situation. It was the man in the black overalls, the killer. He just stood in the dead centre of the group, smiling. It was as if he were challenging death to a duel, he seemed to have no fear.

  ‘We need to stay calm!’ Clay shouted above the noise. ‘We can survive this, but we have to pull together. We’re not going to burn here, but we’ve got to protect ourselves from the heat.’

  Clay moved to the centre of the clearing, right next to the man in the black overalls, and picked up a nearby stick.

  ‘Create a shallow channel in the dirt – we need to pull the earth over us to protect us from the heat. Make sure you cover as much of your skin as possible. Pull your sleeves down if you have them rolled up. The fire can’t get us, but the heat and the smoke can.’

  Everybody followed Clay’s lead, and Joe moved towards Lucy to help with the man in yellow overalls.

  ‘He’s called Chris,’ Lucy shouted over the sound of the blaze.

  ‘Chris, help us to dig,’ Joe said as calmly as he could. Chris was good, he had no problem following the others, and he was less agitated with something to do.

  Clay moved fast. He had his trench created first. The flames were getting nearer. The fugitives were coughing, gasping for breath, as they frantically created shallow channels in which to seek sanctuary. Clay was clearing the surrounding area of sticks and debris in an attempt to create a safe zone.

  ‘Cover your mouths and keep low!’ he shouted.

  ‘The flames can’t reach us, it’s the heat that’ll kill you.’

  Lucy and Joe helped Chris into his trench and pushed the dirt over him as best they could.

  ‘We’ll be right next to you all the time,’ Lucy said. ‘Try to stay calm.’

  On a screen in The Climbs, Chris’s parents looked at the terrible scene playing out before them. They whispered a prayer, thanking whoever it was who was protecting their son in The Grid. On the screens they were calling him Rampage, his humanity didn’t matter in there. The girl and her friend were looking out for him, and if there was any way they could repay them, they would. The girl calmed him, as his mother had done before he’d been forcibly removed to the Institute. She knew he wasn’t violent – he just needed to be soothed. That’s exactly what she saw the girl doing on the screen.

  With Chris now placid and still, Lucy and Joe joined the others lying face down in their hastily dug trenches, doing their best to pull soil over themselves. Clay was the last in the ground. He was coughing badly as he kicked the last of the soil over Joe’s back, his red and sore eyes squinting from the intense smoke.

  The flames were as close as they were going to get now. There were twelve of them lying still in the centre of the dirt circle coughing furiously and waiting for the flames to pass.

  Joe could feel the thin layer of dirt covering his back become warm, but it was not burning him. He was so hot and desperate for water. His body was dripping with sweat.

  Fortrillium would not finish them there and then, he was sure of that. There was usually a way to survive, but you had to spot it. He thanked his good fortune for having Clay in their group. The others had been useless, nobody knew what to do. Joe didn’t know what to do either. He’d been too slow to see the solution. He’d have to sharpen up if they were going to survive this.

  He pulled the collar of his overalls further over his mouth, closed his eyes tight, and like the other eleven Justice Seekers prayed that the shallow trench would not become his grave.

  Force

  Talya had not wanted to hurt Max Penner, but he was clearly more scared of Fortrillium than he was of her. She understood his fear. As she’d prepared to kick down his door, she was terrified – not just for her own life, but for everything that she was about to do. It was the realization that she was committed to a course of events and there was no way out now.

  The exits had been sealed the minute she became a Law Lord. Damien Hunter had forced the issue when he arrested Lucy. It would either end in Hunter’s death or her own. One of them would not escape this scenario.

  If only Talya hadn’t got Lucy to think about. If she could act on her own, it would be better. But everything she did, she had to consider Lucy. It was knowing that the trial was about to begin that had urged her to violence. She knew Max was hiding something. There was no time to dance around the issue.

  He certainly hadn’t been expectin
g her to burst through his door after their encounter in the street. She felt ashamed of herself, but she’d seen the fear in his eyes when she stormed up to him in his house. Like a bully, she could smell fear on her victim and she knew he was vulnerable.

  ‘Tell me what that was on your desk, Mr Penner. I won’t ask you again!’

  ‘Get out of my house. You have no right to burst in here, I’ll tell Fortrillium, they’ll never allow it—’

  Talya wasn’t playing that game anymore. She’d spotted a carving knife on the worktop next to where Max was standing, his left hand resting on the kitchen table. He’d been preparing a meal. She picked up the weapon and plunged it into the centre of his hand, bones cracking and splintering as it tore through his flesh. Max screamed. She winced – she’d never had to use violence before, but she had to get Max to talk.

  ‘Tell me about the WristCom!’

  Max was crying, desperate to get the blade out of his hand, but it had lodged securely into the wooden table as it passed through his flesh.

  ‘I can’t tell you anything. You know they’ll kill me!’

  ‘I’ll kill you if you don’t talk. My daughter is in The Grid, and I’m not going to let her die if there’s a way to save her.’

  Talya took the handle of the knife and rocked it from side to side. She heard Max’s flesh tearing. She wanted to be sick. She hated herself for what she was doing. Max was a victim like everyone else. If the sacrifices they were making were going to be worthwhile, there would be more deaths, more suffering to come. Talya had to make it matter – she deserved to perish if she couldn’t make what she was doing count for something.

  ‘Max, just tell me!’

  ‘I can’t,’ he cried through his pain. ‘Please, just leave me out of this!’

  Talya grabbed his skewered hand and twisted it. The blade tore more flesh. Max screamed out in agony.

  ‘Tell me!’

  ‘It had been hidden in one of the dead bodies – I found it …’

  Max was speaking through tears of pain, his whole face contorted.

  ‘Whose body?’

  ‘The one who got to the end of the last trial – they called him Jay, I think.’

  ‘Where is it now?’

  ‘I don’t know. Honest, I don’t know!’

  ‘Tell me what happened to it after you took it off your desk.’

  ‘I can’t, they’ll kill me. I don’t want to die in there.’

  In spite of the terrible pain, Max would still rather deal with Talya than face Fortrillium and The Grid.

  Talya pushed his hand into the direction of the blade, and it cut further into his flesh. He screamed again, writhing to escape from his torturer. The kitchen table was smeared crimson, the floor below sticky with blood.

  ‘I sent it in there. I tried to look inside, alright?’

  Talya looked at him and moved towards his hand. Max flinched. Talya despised herself.

  ‘Where is it now?’

  ‘It’s still in there. I lost it.’

  ‘Does anybody know about it?’

  ‘No, just me, but I need to get it out of there. If they find it they might trace it back to me.’

  ‘Can you still connect to it?’

  Max was silent. He knew he’d never shake her off if he answered.

  ‘Can you still connect to it?’

  Still no answer.

  Talya grabbed Max’s wrist and pushed it towards the blade with all the force that she could muster. It was nearing his fingers now, she’d almost torn right through his hand.

  He let out another scream. She felt as if she was going to pass out from the barbarity of what she was doing.

  ‘Yes, yes!’

  Max just wanted it to stop now.

  ‘I can still connect to it, but it’s lying there on the floor. I can’t get to it.’

  Talya relaxed. She’d got the information she wanted. She felt woozy from the violence of the past few minutes. She was sickened by the sight of the torn flesh.

  Max felt the tension easing, and he looked down at his hand. His face was white. Talya hadn’t noticed that – he was ashen.

  She watched his eyes fade as he passed out. Instinctively she rushed to break his fall, but she was too slow. Max fell to the ground, and as he did so she heard the sickening ripping sound of flesh as the knife tore through the rest of his hand.

  Talya had finally got the information she’d come for. She cursed Damien Hunter for the things he was forcing her to do, but now she had a way to communicate with Lucy – if they could get the WristCom to her, they might all stand a chance.

  She felt dizzy. The sudden ending of the violence had made her exhausted and weak. She vomited painfully, as if her body were rejecting what she’d had to become to torture Max. She understood his fear and she wished him no harm. He was acquiescent, like the rest of them. His only crime was wanting to stay alive.

  It was not over for Max. She’d patch him up and apologize to him for what she’d done, but if he wouldn’t help her with what was coming next, she’d do it all over again – and worse.

  Before she began the next part of her interrogation, she needed to place another request with Damien Hunter in her capacity as Law Lord. If he’d felt inconvenienced by her last visit, he was going to like this one even less.

  Death Sentence

  Reevil96 watched the live close-up of Zach Fuller’s grip loosening as Joe held his hand, offering a final gesture of comfort before he died. The cameras caught everything in The Grid, and they’d zoomed in on that final moment of life. It would be a boost for the engagement scores, a poignant scene like that was good for everybody.

  Hannah had done well. He had to try to think of her as Janexx2. That was who he was competing against here; he had to view her as competition, not a human being. She was good, better than the rest. He couldn’t figure it out, her style of gameplay was different.

  He’d first observed it in the Gridders’ challenges. The other players knew the games well – they were masters of gaming conventions. But Hannah stood out. She was obviously comfortable in the gaming environment, but she was more advanced than the rest. It was as if she’d not only studied gameplay, but also human psychology. She was always a step ahead of her opponents. She anticipated the games; she could read her opponents well –her strategic thinking was astonishing. It was as though she’d profiled the Justice Seekers before the gameplay, as if she could read their minds and know what they were going to do before they did.

  He would have to watch Janexx2. She was a threat. Her opening to the trial had been magnificent – it was a masterstroke going for a kill so early into the action. Most of the Gridders would have gone for the man from the Institution – Rampage, as he’d become known by the commentators on the screens. It would have been an easy win. She could have tugged at the heartstrings and targeted a Justice Seeker who frankly was never going to be a contender to reach the end of the trial.

  But Janexx2 had been cleverer than that. She’d studied the relation dynamics between the Justice Seekers, and she could see that Parsons had a high affinity score with Slater and Fuller, even though none of the Gridders were privy to the names of the Justice Seekers. It was sensible to go for Fuller – he’d lost a leg, there was only so long he would be able to survive in The Grid anyway.

  But to sacrifice him within minutes and disorientate Parsons when under such extreme pressure from the flames? That was pure theatre, it was a perfect moment in The Grid.

  It wasn’t over yet. Reevil96 was watching the live action on his monitor. He saw views that nobody else got to see. The fire was as close as it was going to get to the Justice Seekers. They were all lying still in their shallow dirt trenches, surrounded by flames.

  Janexx2 had played well – this was a great visual scene. The blaze would die soon – they’d be in danger of suffocation or dehydration if it didn’t end. This Justice Trial needed to last some time; there was a lot of capital to be gained from having Talya Slater’s daughter
in there. The one called Clay looked like he was built from the same stuff as Jay. He was going all the way to the end.

  He rubbed his eyes and continued to watch the twelve still and silent bodies in their shallow graves. He’d have to watch Janexx2, she was a danger to him. If he let her win, it would be over for him. That’s how it worked. Nobody had come even close for many years. But if this Gridder was as good as he thought, he might have to finish her off himself to protect his own family.

  Chapter Two

  Collaborators

  Mitchell had not been subjected to the same inconveniences that President Josh Delman reserved for Damien Hunter. When he’d summoned Mitchell to a meeting, he’d been on time and shown great courtesy.

  Mitchell had panicked he’d got the invitation. He’d been making his way back to The Climbs with a bag full of illegal tech. He knew they were after Wiz, but he wasn’t sure what his own fugitive status was. Thankfully he’d been away from the sewer on the night the others were caught.

  He hoped he’d avoided detection – he was extremely careful with his tech. They couldn’t track what he was doing, Mitchell was sure of that. So why had he sensed the black vehicle following him, just as he was about to approach the road to the security gate into The Climbs?

  He’d considered running as he watched the car stalking its prey in his peripheral vision. It would be hard to hide in his part of The City, probably impossible. Unlike The Climbs, there were security cameras everywhere. They formed a security matrix throughout Silk Road – there was no hiding in the ruins of the tower blocks as Wiz had been forced to do.

  Could he beat the surveillance systems if he went on the run? Mitchell wasn’t sure. They’d all got the Gen-ID chips implanted, and they could certainly check which side of The City he was on. But could they locate his whereabouts from that? Mitchell thought not, though they’d be able to get a rough idea of where he was.