A Games Unlike Any Other

Chapter 8 Snow Fixes a Problem

"Good afternoon, Captain Thread – Mr. Snow," said the Chief Gamesmaker. "It's a pleasure to meet with you today."

"I'm afraid it's business, not pleasure," said Snow. "I will need access to all of today's footage, to explain my problem."

Penelope Thread was startled by Snow's bluntness. The Chief Gamesmaker was one of the highest-ranking personages in Panem. Nobody was that brusque in dealing with them.

But the Chief Gamesmaker ushered them into an adjoining room containing numerous 3D displays, asking an assistant to accompany them.

"First, bring up the footage of the tributes as they rise into the room," said Snow. "The unedited footage, not the shots used for public broadcast."

The Chief nodded to the assistant, who operated the controls. Penelope realized that the Chief brought in the assistant simply to avoid carrying out Snow's orders personally, looking like his subordinate.

"Show shots of tributes outside Districts 1 and 2," ordered Snow. "You will notice that they are looking up, down, and around the room."

"Of course," said the Chief Gamesmaker. "They had no idea what the arena would be like, and are trying to absorb it before the Games starts."

"Exactly," said Snow. "Now show the four tributes from Districts 1 and 2. You will see that they are NOT exploring their surroundings. They are focussing on the Cornucopia, determining where the most useful weapons and supplies are. From which I deduce that they ALREADY knew what the arena is like."

"But that means – " began the Chief.

"That there has been a leak of information about the arena, yes. Which is my duty to track down. We need an investigation of your department."

"You're basing that just on what people are looking at?" said the Chief, naturally upset at the threat.

"No, I have more –"

KNOCKNOCK.

"Come in," called the Chief Gamesmaker, obviously relieved at the interruption.

A young woman came in. "Chief, we've retrieved the body of the girl from 5. She was killed an hour ago by the girl from 8."

"And why was that worth interrupting this meeting?" asked Snow.

"Something unusual. The body was naked. The girl from 8 stole the clothes before we got it."

"Well, that IS interesting," said Snow. "The 8 girl was the one who boasted that she could use whatever tools at hand, wasn't she? What do the rules say, Chief?"

"That tributes are allowed to rob supplies from the dead, because in theory all the supplies are gifts from us to the tributes in general."

"So I suppose that it was within the rules. You supplied the uniforms, right? You'll have to let it slide."

The Chief was clearly annoyed at having Snow dictate her reaction. She turned to the visitor. "Make sure the victim's nakedness is not shown in the broadcast. And make a note that we may want to amend the rules before the next Games."

"Yes, ma'am." The young woman went out.

"Now back to the important business," said Snow. "Please put up a diagram of the center of the arena."

The assistant brought up a gridwork on the display.

"Thank you," said Snow. "Now, note that a tribute can make a quick circuit by going out one corridor, taking a cross-corridor like this one, and coming back via an adjoining corridor. That is obvious to US, looking at the diagram. It would NOT be obvious to a tribute inside the thing. Yet the tributes from District 1 and 2 immediately began an organized search pattern once they had secured the Cornucopia room. Apollo, the district 1 male, went out what you've labelled corridor 1, took cross-corridor A and came back on corridor 2. Aura, the district 1 female, went out corridor 3 and came back corridor 4 –"

"And got killed," said the Chief Gamesmaker.

"Yes, but that doesn't invalidate my argument. Ruby, the district 2 female, went out corridor 5 and came back corridor 6. Rocky, the district 2 male, stayed to guard the Cornucopia stash, but once Apollo came back Rocky took care of the last 2 tunnels. They knew what they were doing – covering all the approaches to the Cornucopia, though of course Aura's death showed that the plan wasn't perfect."

"All right," said the Chief wearily. "I'll let you investigate."

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It turned out to be Penelope that found the leak, and it was absurdly simple. Apollo and Aura had stupidly talked in front of an Avox, apparently assuming that a slave that couldn't talk couldn't give them away. But the Avox could write perfectly well, and gave Penelope a lengthy account in exchange for lenient treatment.

"One of the arena engineers was sleeping with a guy named Via Valley, who was scheduling the trains for the escorts and tributes," she explained during the next meeting. "He learnt about the arena layout, and travelled to Districts 1 and 2 to sell the information. He told each district rep that he was dealing with the other district and that they would be at a disadvantage if the other had a monopoly of the secret. The district reps passed the information to the mentors. I've arrested Via, the district reps, and the mentors. I'll let the Gamesmakers hierarchy deal with the engineer that couldn't keep her mouth shut in bed."

"Excellent," said Snow. "But there are 3 people left that we have to neutralize."

"Who are they?" asked the Chief Gamesmaker.

"Apollo, Ruby, and Rocky, who are benefiting from information that they had no right to."

"Well, they're in the arena now," said the Chief Gamesmaker. "There's no way to erase the information from the tributes' minds."

"No," said Snow, "but we can erase the tributes."

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Bruce was leading a miserable existence, though he thought grimly that it was better than the alternative, which was to cease existing at all. After claiming the dead Career's supplies – a few weapons and some food – he retreated to the far end of the tunnel so that the Capitol could retrieve the body. From the empty room at the far end he went at random into another tunnel, but did not walk its length; he wanted to stay near the Cornucopia, but be out of range of the Careers when they came to investigate the girl's death. Eventually he felt the need to relieve himself; for lack of any facilities he used one of the other tunnels for the purpose and avoided it henceforth. The rest of the time he simply sat in the dark and brooded on his situation. Every once in a while he heard a cannon go off, but of course there was no way to tell whose death it was marking.

At one point the Gamesmakers suddenly played the National Anthem over the loudspeakers. With no sky available for showing pictures, they read out the names of the fallen instead. Bruce realized, too late, that he should be trying to memorize the names, because there was no other way of keeping track who was still alive. But he did note that there were roughly a dozen names, and Diana's was not among them. So she was still alive somewhere in the arena. The high death toll was probably due to the initial fight at the Cornucopia.

His little batch of food was giving out fast; he didn't even know why the Career had been carrying the food in the first place, unless it was some sort of protocol that they followed. That was one reason that he wanted to stay near the Cornucopia, the only place in the arena that he knew to have food. Unfortunately the Careers never left it completely alone.

Another National Anthem and list of fallen. Three more: the pair from 12 and the boy from 4, leaving about nine tributes. Diana was still unlisted.

Suddenly:

"AUUUUGH" "AHHHHHH" "MMMMMMM"

Odd yells from the Cornucopia room. Unable to contain his curiosity, and wondering if the source of the commotion might come toward him, Bruce ran down the tunnel toward the room but stopped when still protected by darkness. He was looking at a bizarre sight.

Each of the three surviving Careers was being encircled and crushed by a boa constrictor.

The remaining girl fell to the ground unmoving and a cannon went off. Surprisingly the snake stopped moving as well. It was a mutation, designed to do a certain task and then die. There was another dead boy and dead snake.

The third boy was still wrestling with his snake. Bruce's mind told him that he should simply run and leave the Career to his fate. The Careers were his enemies. But his instincts told him that in a fight between man and brute, his sympathies should be with the man.

Bruce dashed forward and tried to cut at the snake with his sword, at least decreasing the pressure on the victim. The snake-muttation unwound the front of its body, then whipped its head around with amazing speed. The force knocked the sword out of Bruce's hand and sent it flying several meters away. That might have hurt the snake, too, but of course it wasn't a real animal that would retreat when wounded. Bruce ran to the sword and picked it up, only to see the third boy collapse before he could do anything else. A third cannon went off.

The Gamemakers had just eliminated all the surviving Careers. Why?

TO BE CONTINUED.