"So the cube you gave me to track Venus?"
"A rather ingenious way of ensuring that you were looking in the wrong direction as I prepared the coup de grace."
"And I suppose if President Holmes had planted the other cube on me before I left…"
"It would have suffered a rather unfortunate malfunction, rendering the Ministry unable to find you in time."
"Just tell me why? Tell me why you would take the trust of the country that gave you back your life; gave you fame, honor, and fortune and then spit in its face?"
"Please, don't insult my intelligence with your pseudo-patriotic dribble, Colonel Snow," he says to me with his motionless lips. "Isn't it obvious? Revenge. It really is the most simple of motives. After all, not everything requires an elaborate chain of explanation."
"If you wanted the lives of the other fifteen, understandable. If you want my life now, fine. But why her?" I yell pointing at Lizzy still trapped in the tube.
"When she took the last name, Snow, she made her choice."
"Let us go you sadistic fu.." Lizzy screams from her plastic prison until Ohm suddenly moves his hand over a control panel next to the tube. She immediately falls quiet.
"That is really quite enough from you, Mrs. Snow," Ohm says matter of factly, still holding his finger over a large red button. The way Lizzy suddenly stopped her words fills me with anguish. Whatever that button does, it is enough to instantly silence her with fear; meaning she has already suffered torture at the hands of this maniac. The rage boils over from inside of me.
"I'm going to kill you," I spit at him with a deep seated, fiery hatred. I have never felt a darkness like this inside before.
"That is truly arrogant of you to say considering your present circumstances, Colonel. I respect that. Really I do. But it's not going to change things."
"I never really liked you, Ohm, but I always thought that you were a good man. You saved the lives of everyone in District 13, probably saved the lives of everyone in this country. You still at least owe me a better answer as to why you would do this?"
"I may have been a good man, once, but that was before everything I ever loved was ripped away from me by a man named…Snow."
"A man who was executed for his crimes over twenty years ago!"
"Wrong, Dear Colonel! Wrong!" Ohm says with an intense emotion I did not know his Reevox was capable of producing. "He was a man who died laughing from satisfaction so hard that he choked on his own arrogance. That is not justice. That is travesty."
"And murdering the tortured descendants of his inner circle is justice in your eyes?"
"Colonel," he says returning to his normal flat affect, "no one was ever murdered here. Murder is a crime that only your kind engages in."
"Then you and I have a very different definition of murder. I saw the pictures of what you did to them….and to my sister."
"Ah yes, the "trophies" that you so astutely indentified…
"Dammit, Driva," I think to myself. "You promised you wouldn't contact him with that information."
"I assure you, all those individuals had at least the chance to survive."
"What do you mean?"
"Why, the hunt, My Dear Colonel. No sane person ever considers the trophy buck to be the victim of the hunter. Merely, the kill is the completion of an ancient right of combat between man and animal."
"So, we are just animals to you?" I ask still fuming.
"Aren't you? Your forefathers certainly were. It's in your genetics, my boy. Why, your sister practically agreed with me on that point when she was standing in that exact spot just a few weeks ago…"
"Don't you dare mention Venus you bastard…" This time, I am silenced by his finger poised over the red button. Lizzy tenses as if she is about to feel the anguish again.
"So, you do care enough about someone to act in a civilized manner," Ohm says grinning from ear to ear. "Good, that is precisely what I hoped for."
"Whatever your sick plan is, let's just get it over with."
"Come, come now, Colonel Snow. Have a little sport about you. I would think after a lifetime of watching the Hunger Games, you would want to finally test yourself in an arena."
"I wouldn't want to force that horror on anyone…especially myself."
"Now, why don't I believe that coming from a man who has dedicated his life to war?"
"I find that ironic coming from the most prolific weapons designer of the modern age."
"Exactly! We are both killers, my old friend."
"I'm not your friend."
"Pity, if you insist on being so formal then, the rules: As you have probably guessed, you are on a volcanic island on the northern end of what's left of the Hawaiian Archipelago. Don't bother trying to escape. I have made certain modifications to ensure that it is quite impossible. Plus, we wouldn't want to risk anything happening to the lovely Mrs. Snow, now would we?" Ohm says gesturing to Lizzy. She can hear every word and tears begin to stream down her face. My hands clench in fists of fury.
"Agreed," I shout through gritted teeth.
"Rule Number 1: When the clock starts you run. Rule Number 2: When the clock starts you will have one minute before they start running after you," he says gesturing to the twenty guards still standing behind me.
"Don't have the courage to come after me yourself, Ohm?"
"Colonel Snow, let's be honest with each other. With my frail body, I wouldn't last an hour in that jungle out there. Luckily, some things that were true a thousand years ago are still true today: With the right amount of money you can acquire anything."
"Including mercenaries willing to sell their souls for a buck."
"I prefer to call them 'Soldiers of Fortune:' dedicated to fighting for the collective good while still seeing to their personal comfort and happiness. I call that a win-win situation. Wouldn't you?"
"You're insane."
"Perhaps, it's hard to tell anymore. I mean, you can only view the footage of your wife and child dying at the hands of your slave master's men about a hundred or so times before reality becomes a little hazy." I change the subject back to the hunt.
"What's the clock you're talking about?" I ask.
"Ah yes, you have twenty-four hours, My Dear Colonel. Twenty-Four Hours to live or die. Of course, none of your compatriots lasted near that length of time. However, you are Ares Snow, The God of War himself. Therefore, I've decided to add a special little twist for you: As you can see, I've constructed a little aquarium for your beautiful mermaid from District 4. If your heart is still beating when the clock runs out, she drowns."
"Then why don't you just kill me now and let her go!"
"Now where would the sport be in that? It is your choice, of course, but if you refuse to play the game, then I'll have to just go through with the consolation prize for your gorgeous wife. You see, even if I get the satisfaction of watching you die, I can't just let her go. She's seen too much and I can't have her talking to anyone." The way he says "talking" fills me with dread.
"You can't be serious!" I exclaim as I realize what he is implying. Slowly, Ohm's silent, grinning lips part and for the first time I see inside the mouth of an Avox. "Mutilated" does not even begin to describe the horror of what I see. I am forced to swallow the vomit from the back of my throat. Lizzy appears about to pass out. Finally, Ohm ends the visual torture by closing his mouth and continues speaking through his artificial voice:
"I have never attempted the procedure myself, but I am anxious to give it a try."
"Why, of all people, would you want to do that to another living human being?"
"I happen to think it's very poetic: the voice of a Snow in repayment for the voice of an Ohm. Worry not, Colonel. In your dying breaths you can take comfort in knowing that her life as my servant will be very pleasurable. Her duties will be light, and they will consist mostly of seeing to my comfort.
There it is, laid out as plain as Ohm's insanity. I have two choices: Fight the hunt and live on without the only reason I wish to stay alive, or die with the knowledge that my one true love will spend the rest of her grotesque life as the butchered, mute concubine of a madman.
The world begins to spin. I cannot comprehend the hideous circumstances that I am forced to confront. Lizzy has collapsed to the floor of the plastic tube and is sobbing uncontrollably.
"Any other questions before we get started?" Ohm interjects.
"Just how all of us could have been so oblivious to the evil that was corrupting us all."
"Philosophical matters are those for your priest, Dear Colonel, not me. Are you ready or not?" I steady my resolve. I know that I cannot let him…or Lizzy…see any sign of weakness on my part.
"Before this is all over, Ohm, you will curse the day that the Rebels didn't shoot you in that courtyard."
"Oh, Colonel Snow, believe me. I already do." Silently, Ohm reaches for another button on the control panel and presses it. The steel doors in front of me violently swing open, revealing a long corridor that leads out into the jungle. Below the tube, a digital holoclock appears and begins counting backward from twenty-four hours. At that moment, a slow trickle of water begins from over Lizzy's head, beginning the inevitable flooding of "my mermaid's aquarium."
"Ares!" Lizzy screams down at me. "Run, save yourself!"
"I would listen to her, if I were you. After all, you have less than a minute before my hunters make the choice for you." Ohm chirps excitedly.
My mind and soul still feel trapped in that horrible pit, but luckily my body has enough sense to save us. I find myself sprinting down the corridor towards the dark jungle ahead. Just before I clear the outer doors, I hear one last sentence from the mechanical voice of my tormentor:
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Let the Games Begin!"