Zoe pushed on the locked doors, listening to the chains rattle. But when they refused to budge, she looked around, hot tears burning in her eyes, to look around the cage she found herself in. It was about three paces wide and three paces long and was only a few centimetres taller than her head.
Zoe couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe that after fifteen years of training, she'd allowed herself to choke as she'd stared into the faces of those KORPS agents who had come to collect 'The Spectre'. All she'd been able to think of in those moments was Stella, telling her to lift her game or there'd be consequences. As a result, she was in locked up like a caged rabid animal, with the speaker in the corner continuously spouting reminders every two seconds that the Shadow Games were starting soon.
"Contestants, prepare for battle." Said the queer male voice, echoing around her. "The Shadow Games are about to begin."
Zoe swallowed her tears and pulled out her broken pieces of what remained of her communicator, pushing them together and asking softly, "Aneisha? Tom? Dan? Frank? Stella? Can anyone hear me?"
All that met her was silence and Zoe swallowed her tears, shoving her useless communicator back into her pocket. She rubbed at her cheeks with her hand, looking around her cage helplessly. When she spoke, her voice sounded more like the whimper of a small child.
"Dan." Zoe whimpered softly. "Help me."
Remembering the last time Zoe was taken, Dan leaned against the table with his hands flat against the top of the table and fought to keep his raging fire of a temper under control as Tom said, "It must KORPS. They've been looking for her for months."
"They'll be wiring her up to that mind transfer machine right now." Aneisha said, pacing back and forth.
"Must have been there to meet Spectre for the Shadow Games." Dan managed to say, crossing his arms over his chest. "Maybe that's where Zoe's been taken."
"What are the Shadow Games?" Aneisha asked.
"You know SKAPULA?" Stella asked.
Aneisha nodded. "Assassins. They're the division of KORPS the Crime Minister calls for if she wants anyone assassinated."
"The Shadow Games are SKAPULA's way of finding a new leader." Stella explained. "The four top assassins in the world fight it out and the winner becomes new Shadow Master."
Aneisha looked away, raising her hand to her forehead as Dan paced anxiously along the back of HQ.
"It's weird. The footprints showed there were only three of them. There were scuffmarks on the ground. She didn't even fight back." Dan said softly, looking down. This was so unlike Zoe. "Why?"
Frank and Stella exchanged guilty looks when Aneisha and Dan weren't looking, but Tom caught it as he looked up from his computer. "What was that look for?"
Stella sighed. "There's concern that Zoe might not be suited to life as an agent after all."
"And you just had to tell her, didn't you?" Dan said bitterly. "By telling her that she's distracted, you've by default made it the only thing she can think about."
"Guys. I found something." Tom said, nodding to Frank. Frank pulled it up onto the screen and they all watched.
"It's the greatest show on Earth." The loudspeaker onscreen announced. "Let's get ready for The Shadow Games!"
"They televise it?" Aneisha asked, appalled.
"Only on a secure channel." Tom promised. Aneisha noticed that he sounded older and more serious than usual. She desperately wanted young Tom back, the boy who joked simply because he could as he said, "It's almost impossible to hack."
"First up, The Melbourne Monster." Onscreen, there was big, burly man in orange and black clothing, thick black glasses and thick brown moustache. "Careful, or he'll take you down under. Mm-hm! He's got quite the temper, you know."
"Is this a joke?" Aneisha asked.
As an answer, the program replied, "It is said that he can walk through solid walls and grind bones to dust."
"Funny. He's got such a kind face." Tom commented. Aneisha turned to look at Dan, still pacing back and forth as the picture changed to a young woman clad in pink and white, with a pink a white feathered mask covering most of her face.
"Next, Mrs Deadman, the slayer who will really stitch you up. With her needles, she'll knit you a nightmare. She may look friendly, but no, no, look out, Mister!" the announcer said as onscreen, Mrs Deadman threw a plate at a KORPS agent outside the cage she was sitting in and it embedded itself in the man's forehead.
"Who actually watches this stuff?" Aneisha asked.
"Mainly members of SKAPULA." Frank replied. "Gives them a chance to see who they might be working with."
"Are you listening? I said, are you listening? We are in the presence of greatness – the Voice of destruction himself; Thalamus."
"You will lose." The man onscreen – with curly black hair and black beard and wearing Mexican-looking orange and black clothing – said in an oddly soothing voice. "My voice will be the last thing that you will ever hear."
"Come on. It's just a reality show for meglo-maniacs and assassins." Dan said.
"And finally, the lightning slayer, The Spectre, Samantha Stiletto." The announcer said, just as the picture changed to zoom in on a girl, roughly sixteen or seventeen years of age, with soft, delicate features hidden by a silver and black mask. Her expression remained impassive, but Dan saw something, something in her eyes that no one else probably saw – the fear, the fear that so clearly screamed at him, get me out of here.
"That's Zoe." Dan said desperately.
"What's she doing there?" Aneisha asked.
"Oh, she is one of my favourites. . ."
"It looks like we got lucky." Stella said. "They have no idea who she really is."
"Lucky?" Aneisha asked. "How's she meant to stand up against some of the best assassins in the world if you've told her she's no good?"
Stella looked away as Dan stared at the split screen of The Monster, Mrs Deadman, Thalamus and Zoe. His heart pounded painfully against his ribcage and he gripped the edge of the table until his knuckles turned white. Desperation made his eyes appear almost black as he asked with barely controlled frustration, "Where is this place?"
"They keep the location secret." Frank said as Stella started typing furiously on the computer. "There's nothing on the MI9 data base."
"It could be the best Shadow Games since Alexis von Hades destroyed all of his opponents." Said the announcer.
"We need to stop this." Dan said. "There must be someone who knows where this place is."
"They just said Alexis von Hades won The Shadow Games. We could ask him." Aneisha said.
"Yeah, maybe he'll feel he owes us." Tom agreed.
"No one's seen or heard of the ex-Shadow Master since you broke him out of prison last year." Frank said.
"That's not strictly true." Stella said.
"Hey?" Frank asked as Dan and Aneisha turned to look at Stella, their eyes full of hope.
"It's classified." Stella said.
"Stella, come on." Frank said, unable to believe that she would even think of refusing them any lead that might lead them to Zoe.
"I'll send the address to your spy pods." Stella said. Shooting her an angry look, Dan turned towards the lift with Aneisha and, surprisingly, Tom following him.
"I'll come too. If he's not there I'll hack into his computer. Maybe find out where she's gone." Tom said.
"Agents." Stella said. "Bring her back. Please."