Chapter 7

With Glimmer at his side Cato's Academy scores soared. They skyrocketed past the stratosphere out into the void where no Tribute cadet had gone before. Even his father was forced to admit his progress was impressive. Thor was less grudging in praise, but still guarded. "You should know, there are envious eyes on your back. A lot more than there ever were before," Thor told him when they ran out on the trails where it was impossible for the Academy to monitor their conversations.

"Why?" Thor's extreme caution seemed paranoid to him. There was always more jealousy as cadets entered the last years of training. It was the nature of competition.

"Right now you're the Golden Boy with the highest scores and you have a beautiful girlfriend with whom you don't have to sneak around or pay bribes to have sex. It's a luxury no Academy cadet has had in recent memory. Even some of the instructors resent it. Watch your back." Thor said.

That hadn't occurred to him, but it was reasonable. Their instructors were all either former Champions or former cadets. Weekends with Glimmer were an extraordinary privilege, but he wasn't going to give them up just to please sexually frustrated adults. He was almost an adult himself and he knew above all else that Glimmer was good for his training. It wasn't just in fighting skills either. Glimmer improved his academics. She spent a lot of time in the Academy Library. It was so quiet and boring there was nothing to do, but study while Glimmer poured over ancient manuscripts and old filmstrips. Sometimes he teased her for spending so much time on such obscure information.

"I want to know about the past," she said.

"Don't you get enough of that in history class?" he asked.

She leaned so close to whisper her answer in his ear it felt like foreplay. "You know most of what they tell us in class isn't the truth."

Actually he hadn't thought about that ever. He knew the truth of his own family's history. The rest was just facts to be memorized and repeated on tests or whenever necessary in interviews, not something to be considered or analyzed.

"Don't you ever wonder what's beyond Panem?" she asked.

He hadn't thought about that either. His life was the Games. Until meeting Glimmer he had thought that was enough. Sometimes the questions she sparked sent his mind reeling. "Not really. We've got it good here, so why worry about somewhere else?"

"Not everybody has had as good a life as you," she said.

He remembered the horror in her childhood. Why hadn't he thought of that before he spoke? Because Glimmer was so perfect sometimes he forgot the mud she came out of. "I'm sorry."

"I know you didn't mean anything bad by it." Her voice was soft again. She believed him! She showed him pictures she had found of Olympic champions. He knew the Olympics had been predecessors of the Games. Only the Olympic Tributes had been adults mostly and they hadn't fought to the death.

"One of my mother's Peacekeeper lovers served in District 5. Sometimes when the Peacekeepers patrolled out into the ocean past the fishing boats, they could see ships in the distance. Ships with different flags. Some of the ones he described were like the ones they show here." She pointed to different flags in the album. "Canada, Brazil, China, Russian Commonwealth. These countries may still exist."

"Then why don't we hear about them visiting the Capital when it's time for the Games? It's the biggest news in Panem. Surely it would be newsworthy to foreigners?" Cato said.

"Maybe they don't want to know about the Games? Maybe the Games are the reason they don't want anything to do with Panem?" Glimmer said.

Cato's hand shot up to cover her mouth. That was dangerously close to treason.

The room started to tremble. She grabbed his hand and pulled him up. "We need to get out of here."

"Is it an earthquake?" He had heard of earthquakes, but never experienced one. Sometimes, they were even part of the Arena in the Games.

"We're not in earthquake territory," she said pulling him along.

Outside the air was thick with smoke and dust. Emergency personnel and Peacekeepers scurried around them. A medic shinned a scanner into Cato's eyes. "You're fine. Head to the perimeter." The medic pointed at a wall of Peacekeepers further away.

"What's happening?" Cato shouted.

Glimmer pushed him forward. "Quiet. Just keep walking until we're safe."

She wouldn't let him turn around until they had passed through the Peacekeeper barricade. When he did his blood ran cold. A nightmare had been at their backs. Black smoke bellowed up from the spot where the senior dorms had been. Fire still burned in the rubble. This was a free period after evening meal. Most cadets would have been in their rooms. He could see bodies being brought out wrapped in bloody sheets, but very few live victims for the medics to work on. By nightfall all anyone could talk about was the gas leak that led to a tragic explosion in the senior dorm of the Academy. It wasn't until his cousin Darius traveled through the district that they found out the truth. Even his father and Drucilla came to dinner that night.

"There was a fertilizer bomb again, so we would know it was same group and they used something new. Remote-controlled aerial bombs that flew through the windows." Darius told them.

His mother's grip nearly cut off circulation in Cato's hand. Glimmer sat at his other side. Her hand was loose, cold, and clammy.

Ajax assessed the information. "District 3 and 5 have the technology for remote-controlled bombs."

"Possible, but I don't see them as the origin point," Darius said. "Usually Fredrich's forensic team processes all crime scene evidence in District 2. This time a team from the Capital took everything before all the bodies were even identified." Darius's gaze turned to Cato. "My condolescenes over the friends you lost."

Cato nodded his thanks, but Glimmer found the right words. "Thank you for valuing the lives of strangers."

"Not all Peacekeepers are heartless," Darius replied.

Cato's mother finally spoke. "You must not spend anymore time at the Academy than necessary. Attend your classes, but you can study at home."

"I want Glimmer to move here," Cato said.

"Absolutely not!" His father thundered.

"Why not? She sleeps here on weekends. It might affect my training if I'm worried about her safety." Cato said.

Darius covered his mouth with his hand. A nasty cat smile spread out across Drusilla's face. Cato wanted to slap her. "You're learning little brother, but there is only so much leniency the Academy will allow," Ajax said.

"I wasn't trying to have you move in just so we could have sex more often," Cato told Glimmer later that night while they ran. He had got his mother to agree that a few laps around their neighborhood with its fortified gates and increased Peacekeeper patrols was probably safe.

"I know." She reached for his hand while they ran. Even on such a bleak night, she could still make him happy to be alive.

"One thing's sure with so many dead, I should be going into the Games at least a year earlier," he said.

"Why do you think I won't be going into the Games next? I am a few months older." She taunted.

He knew her question was just for laughs, but it brought them to the edge of a subject he wanted to discuss, but hadn't dared before. Might as well cross here. "I don't want you to ever go into the Games," he said.

She rolled her eyes, but not in the hard way. "Don't be silly, Cato."

He stopped the run, put his hands on her shoulders and tried to look tough, but concerned. "I'm serious. You're a good fighter, but anything can happen in the Games. We've all seen years where the best fighter wasn't the victor. I don't want to lose you. Couldn't you drop out of the Academy?"

Glimmer's eyes turned harder than he had ever seen them, harder even then that first day in the cafeteria. There were daggers just under the irises ready to skew him alive. She shoved his hands away. "And do what? Dance naked in the Vicehood? Whore myself out to some decrepit old Peacekeeper?"

Suddenly, he was grasping at straws. "Your grandfather was a quarry worker. Isn't there some way you could go back to your family there? An aunt or a cousin who would take you in until I'm a Champion and we can get married?"

Her anger was like fire out of control and as frightening as his father's wrath. "You think I haven't tried that?" she shouted. "Once my mother was cast out, she was cast out for good. The quarry workers have a strong society, but it's a strict society. There's no mercy for bastards." She ran away from him.

It took him over a mile to catch up with her. Her face was still blazing and something else. Her nose was rosy and her eyes were wet. Glimmer didn't cry! He felt like Thor had gotten a lucky punch right into the center of his solar plexus.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry!" He said it over and over until finally she stopped or maybe it was just exhaustion. She had been running way faster than usual. He didn't have any tissue, so he pulled off his shirt to wipe her eyes. "I don't want to lose you," he said.

"It's sweet, Cato. The sweetest thing ever that you want to protect me. But you can't. The Academy is my only chance. It's the Academy or selling my body." She said.

She wasn't angry anymore, but it was something worse, a doomed sorrow that twisted a knife in his stomach. He knew she was right even if it wasn't fair and he didn't know what else to do, but hold her. A flame flickered inside him. There should be another way. But he didn't know how to even begin looking for that path. They went back to the Academy and he gave the Peacekeepers their bribe, so they could use the special guestrooms that were the only ones in District Two good enough for people from the Capital. The rooms weren't that great in Cato's opinion. He had seen just as good in his or his relatives' houses, but at least they didn't seem as tainted by his father or the Games.

"Your father is going to be mad when you don't come home," she said as he lowered her into the giant tub. After so much running her muscles needed the warm water.

"It's more important for us to stay together tonight," he said.

She kissed him with her teeth. "Why?"

"Because if I can't keep you safe, at least, I can give you pleasure." The voice coming out of his throat didn't seem like his at all now. The explosion had changed them, remade them, like fire tempered steel, and he didn't feel like a boy anymore even if he wasn't really a man yet.

Her limbs twisted around him like iron bars. "Can you make me forget about the terrorists?" she asked. Her eyes were growing wet again.

He sucked up the saltwater. "I can try."

He tried most of the night, in the oversized bathtub, on the rug just outside and finally on the bed where he let Glimmer take over for awhile doing things to him he wouldn't have thought would be pleasurable, but he learned he could quickly get addicted to. The next morning when Ajax brought him fresh clothes, his brother acted shocked. "Are you sure she was willing?" Ajax said while Cato changed shirts.

"She said they were love bites," Cato replied. He relished the proof of Glimmer's affections even if he would have to exercise fully clothed for awhile.

"Tell her to be more careful. You need baby smooth skin for the Games." Ajax said.

"It's not that bad," Cato said. Ajax's comments weirded him out. He knew enough from Thor and other guys that nothing he and Glimmer did last night was extremely kinky. That Ajax thought it was made him wonder how perfunctory Drusilla and Ajax's marriage was. He probably didn't want to know the answer to that just like he didn't like to think too long about how his parents' lived. Whatever the future held for Glimmer and him, it had to be better than that.