Chapter Eleven, Great Minds Think Alike
As soon as she got out of the crystal elevator, Silyah crashed on the couch of the District 3 apartment's living room. Needless to say, training had been extremely exhausting.
The girl made a strange sound, halfway between an enraged sigh and a yawn. She then kicked her training boots on one corner of the room in order to let her toes breathe.
"Silyah!" exclaimed Artemis. "You mind looking out before tossing your boots at me?"
Silyah raised her head, which had been hanging upside down from the couch. "Sorry, Artemis…" She turned her whole body back so that her feet would actually be closer to the ground than to the ceiling. "I didn't know you were there…"
"Clearly," murmured Artemis.
"That last obstacle course the trainers had us do completely drained me," she commented, rubbing her neck. She stretched for a long moment and sighed.
"Likewise… I am feeling my muscles aching in places I did not even know I had muscles…"
Silyah tried hard to smile, but her face would not cooperate. "The joys of being brains…" she whispered.
"Make some space for me, will you?"
She sat up, tucking her legs under herself, and then patted the cushion beside her.
"Thank you," Artemis sat slowly, afraid that the pain in his legs would double if he sat down too fast. "This is why I keep away from physical activities…"
"Normally, I would say 'I feel your pain,' but I think that my own is just enough for now," she laughed, tired.
"For now, yes," nodded Artemis, a shadow of a smile threatening to form on his lips.
One of the Avoxes walked in the living room to look up on the two tributes' needs. Silyah almost felt bad for asking, but she really felt like she could use a cup of warm tea and therefore ordered one from the quiet servant.
The Avox brought her a small teapot. He showed four of his fingers, pointed to Artemis and then showed off two fingers. "For you too," he probably meant.
"Oh," Artemis gave the man a polite smile. "Thank you…" He had no idea as to what wrong the Avox might have done, but he truly felt sorry for his captivity.
Silyah thanked the man dressed in white, who responded by bowing is head as if to say, "No need to be sorry, or to thank me." The Avox then disappeared in the kitchen, as quiet as ever.
Silyah poured two cups of tea as Artemis looked at the spot that had previously been occupied by the slave of the Capitol. He sighed, taking one of the cups. Had Holly seen this, she would have kicked the rear end of whoever had been responsible for that injustice.
Closing her eyes, Silyah slowly sipped her tea. "Can you actually believe that we survived our first day of training?" she said, a small spark of humor appearing in her tired eyes as she opened them.
"Nothing is official yet. Perhaps tomorrow you will come into my room to discover that I will have died from stress during the night," he said, matter-of-factly.
"Don't die on me overnight..." She said with a hint of a smile while shaking her head. "I need you to help me remain mentally stable."
Artemis gave her a vague smile, "I don't think I would be able to die in those beds, anyway."
"And I'm probably sure that the Gamemakers would not allow you to die while you are not in the arena."
"For some reason, I believe that this statement is accurate."
Silyah nodded. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow, then," she smiled at him and got up lazily from the couch. She would take a long, warm shower and drift off into sleep.
The rest of the training days were about the same as the first one. The tributes would get up in the morning, head to their coaching sessions with their mentors and escorts and finally, they would go to the gymnasium to work on their skills.
Somewhere in the middle of the second day, people began to whisper about some kind of tribute gathering secretly organized by Peeta and Katniss. The rumors were all confirmed when the two victors from District 12 gave everyone a small role to play in the organization of the event, which would occur the night just before the interviews with Caesar Flickerman.
Most of the tributes were starting to be calmer and in a slight more festive mood as the day of the gathering approached. The mentors, however, were starting to get nervous for their tributes and would try to make the most out of their time spent with them…
Effie clapped her hands, delighted to see that Silyah was absolutely amazing when it came to etiquette, attitude and "walking with high heels" lessons.
"My work is done!" She declared. She had coached the young lady for about twenty minutes everyday, which had been more than enough. "Do you want to go see Beetee right away for your last private session with him?" She asked the girl. Silyah did not object. She liked her sessions with Beetee; they almost made her feel confident and hopeful.
Thus, Silyah made her way to the study-like room Beetee had claimed for an office. The door was opened when she arrived, but Beetee did had not seemed to notice her yet. He was on the phone… That could only mean one thing: sponsorship deals were being made. The District 3 victor hung up the phone and raised his glasses over his eyes. "You're here early," he said, looking at his watch.
"Yes, Effie finally freed me from her nine inch high heels," she smiled.
The mentor grinned back at her, wondering what was worst; the heels or the Games. He shook the silly thought from his head and took his notebook, beginning Silyah's daily training session.
He talked about strategies, probabilities, statistics and ways to survive the ruthless arena. Silyah drank in every word he spoke, mentally recording them, engraving them in her brain.
The mentor was about to let Silyah go, when he remembered something he had intended to tell her previously. "Silyah?" the young girl turned around. "I would suggest you don't get too friendly with Artemis… I have noticed how you two act together and I think that…" He stopped in mid-sentence, trying to find a way to express the concept, even though he did not need to do so. Silyah had understood perfectly. She would not be able to handle his possible death if they got too close.
Well, it's almost too late to call this an advice… She thought as she nodded at Beetee before leaving his office.
"District 3, Silyah Natho," called a voice coming from the speaker in the room in which the tributes waited for their private sessions with the Gamemakers. The girl took a deep breath, waved encouragingly at Artemis and left, following the same path the tributes from 1 and 2 had taken moments ago. As she walked away, Artemis briefly wondered what she had in store for the Gamemakers…
His gaze then went to the waiting room, sweeping the faces of the other teenagers. Some of them seemed nervous while others appeared overly confident, completely confused, or all three at once.
About fifteen to twenty minutes quietly went by as Silyah was being evaluated and then, the same voice that had called the others pronounced Artemis's name.
The boy stood, controlling his breathing, feeling his heart beat get faster with each step he took.
Once the big doors of the gymnasium closed behind him, Artemis could not help but to notice that the Training Room felt really empty without anyone throwing weapons everywhere… Though the thought of being alone in a room full of people planning you death somehow felt stranger…
The Gamemakers were far from being bored yet; Artemis was only the sixth tribute to be evaluated, which meant that all eyes were on him. However, each of the Gamemakers seemed to have a distraction close at hand, just in case the show would cease to be good. For most of them, the distraction laid in the glasses of wine and plates of food in their hands.
On the other hand, one Gamemaker in particular was one hundred percent attentive to the raven-haired boy. Her chocolate brown eyes followed him as he walked through the room.
Artemis ignored the stare, which seemed to be burning into him. She was certainly not going to make him lose one ounce of his concentration.
Feeling the boy's slight discomfort, the Gamemaker smirked and popped a truffle in her mouth. Artemis Fowl, we meet again… She thought, trying to stop a hysterical laughter from escaping her throat.
Artemis's eyes searched the room, noticing a weak shimmer separating the Gamemakers from the tributes. Artemis frowned… A force field, perhaps… Then, a plan sparked in his mind.
Disabling the force field would be a neat way to show that Artemis could outwit his enemies by attacking their main defenses… How suitable, the boy thought. He browsed through the room for the right materials to perform the task. Apart from the weapons, there was not much to work with…
Then, Artemis remembered the obstacle course at the back of the gymnasium. Surely, there were some mechanical and electronic components in there…
With a careful manipulation involving the chain of a hiking harness, the power source of the obstacle course and an arrow shot at the right place – just inside the room's electrical panel, the boy executed his plan.
The Gamemakers briefly wondered what the boy would show them. He had been rummaging through the room for good ten minutes… They simply looked at him go and waited for something to happen.
Artemis smirked. The masters of the Games had not even noticed that their force field hand went off. He took a small berry from the stations that had been used as the "edible and usable plants" station and threw it towards them.
The brown-eyed, dark-haired Gamemaker caught it with an inhuman accuracy. Their eyes then met; chocolate brown and mismatching blue and hazel.
Nonchalantly, she tossed the plant right back at him. "I prefer my truffles to these… Things," she said.
Artemis stepped away. He was not going to catch the berry, so he would at least make it look as if he had planned it. He grinned at the woman.
While this silent conversation took place, the Head Gamemaker, Plutarch, was furiously trying to contact those who could reactivate the force field. Why and how could tributes come up with these crazy ideas? Very clever, but quite enraging… he thought. Now that had an idea about Artemis's capabilities, he dismissed him, eager to go on with the Private Sessions.
Artemis slowly left the room, the sound of the dark-haired woman's laughter ringing in his ears…
The District 3 team was seated in their living room shortly after the Private Sessions. Patiently, they waited for the results…
As a reward for their training being over, Silyah went to the kitchen and fetched two cups of hot chocolate. "Look at this..." She said as she got back. She handed a cup to Artemis and sat beside him. "Our dear Geneva, self-proclaimed queen of the warriors only scored a seven."
Effie sighed, not because of Silyah's comment, but because of the hot chocolate. Hopefully, this time would not be as messy as the two previous ones, she thought with a laugh.
Artemis clutched his cup and nodded. "It can be a tactic… But her attitude might be the thing that brought her down."
"True… From what we have seen in training, if she gets her hands on an ax, we better run away from her," Silyah would never take such risks as confronting a Career on her own.
"Running won't help," Artemis shook his head. "She would take us down even more easily with our backs turned to her."
Silyah rolled her eyes, both to Artemis's statement and to the picture of Caskar that had appeared on the television screen. Of course, the boy had scored a ten.
"Well, that will certainly not bring down his ego," murmured Artemis.
"What could bring down his ego, anyway?" Sighed Silyah, her usual smile brightening up her face.
"Good point," admitted Artemis.
The District 2 tributes' scores then appeared on the screen. The girl, Crelin Spooks, had scored an eight while the boy, Elon Jokter, had obtained a seven.
"We're the next ones!" cheered Effie, bouncing in her seat. Silyah's official tribute picture came into view on the television; beside it flashed a seven.
"Well done," said Artemis. "What did you do?"
"Let's just say that I got crafty…" Something flashed in her eyes and she smirked in a way that reminded Artemis of his own vampire-like smile. Artemis raised an eyebrow.
"Your turn, mustache boy," she whispered to him. Ilranor, who had heard the strange comment, turned to Artemis, wondering what mustache Silyah might have referred to.
The boy gave his District partner a look. "When are you going to get tired of that?" he asked.
"Probably when the Games will be over…" She shook a morbid thought from her head as a number appeared beside Artemis's picture. Seven.
"Good job!" said Silyah and squealed Effie.
Beetee scribbled down his tributes' scores in his notepad. "Very good kids! So, now tell me, what kind of scheme did you come up with to avoid physical activities?" He laughed.
Artemis gave his mentor a smile, but not exactly the one that would make one feel better. "I turned the Gamemaker's force field off," he said with a shrug.
Silyah's jaw almost touched the floor when she turned to Artemis. "You have to be kidding! You used the electrical panel right?"
Artemis nodded, "Yes, that is correct."
"You won't believe this," she paused for a moment before adding, "I think that we did the same thing."
"What did you do with the electrical panel exactly?" Effie asked, worried about any possible damage they might have done to the Training Center.
"I played around with a spear and changed the settings of the force field. I actually disabled parts of the field before it vanished and the holes in it were shaped like a "S" – which truly was caused by the waves of the force field – but I guess the Gamemakers thought I was trying to spell my name or something…" Replied Silyah. Artemis also retold his own session, much to Beetee's enjoyment.
The mentor clapped for them. "Now you're talking! What were the odds of you two playing around the Gamemaker's defenses?" Beetee was one happy coach at the moment. "You're plans were both harmless and clever. Really good!"
Artemis smiled. Beetee reminded him more and more of Foaly.
Each District had their turn on screen, the highlights of the Private Sessions being Harbor Pearl, from 4 and Scpencer Ross from 12 with scores of ten, Novia Imous, from 5 and Thea Garber from 8 who had obtained nines and Kalheb Frotz, District 9 closely followed by Zinque Chart from District 11 with the incredibly high scores of eleven.
According to Silyah, the most surprising result had been Silver's. "A six?" She said, in disbelief. Maybe the girl's fearless attitude had gotten her on the Gamemaker's bad side…
"It seems to me that it could be a strategy," pointed Artemis out.
"I hope so for her…"
"You're worried? In under three days, she might be hunting you down."
"I know that the first person she will hunt down will be Caskar. If she finds him, she could easily rid everyone in the arena from him," explained Silyah.
"True," agreed Artemis.
Silyah's stylist, Xarone, suddenly got up from his seat. He discretely tapped on the watch he wore on his upper arm, like a bracelet.
This was the signal.
Every stylist had been made aware of the gathering and they had all agreed to help their tributes prepare for it.
"We must be on our way," said Ilranor to the escort and the mentor of the District 3 team.
Each of them taking their assigned tributes to their respective rooms, the designers left, leaving no explanation behind.