Hello Again,

Here's Chapter 2, hopefully it will have more action and will be more entertaining. It will also be more divergent with the novel, as there is less information in it that Haymitch will care about.

Thank you again for reading.

Sincerely,

Draco Ranger

Please not that I do not own the rights to any of these characters or the book itself.

Screeching and Science

Gong!

With that resounding noise, the Tributes dive into the water. Some appear to be floundering, others, like Katniss, are off towards the pile of weaponry. The Mentor's Lair is pandemonium, the people from the Capitol are celebrating the death of their beloved tribunes, while the mentors are hurriedly contacting everybody from bookies to supporters of their contestant to the ultra rich. Anything for that extra edge. The support group, which includes the fashion designers and similar people, is standing listlessly, not needed or wanted. All nonessential personal are riveted to either their personal receivers or to the main holo-desplay, which is now narrated by Caesar Flickerman.

"And we have arterial spray, everybody! Nice first kill by Enobaria! Inventive idea to use her polished fingernails slash open the jugular. Then again, she did rip a person's throat out with her mouth!" Caesar takes way to much enjoyment from this...

Damn, I wish I didn't drink.

"EKKK!" Effie screams.

God, you'd think her voice box would have shattered...

"Katniss doesn't know how to swim! Why is she diving into the water?! She's going to die!"

Can't take it any more... need to leave... or get her to leave...

"Effie!" I shout. She jumps and has a deer touching electric cable look. "Can you get me..." damn, what's something she can't possibly find? "a loaf of toast?" That should keep her occupied for a few hours...

"Of course!" She twitters, possibly shattering the screen of her receiver. "It will help Katniss, right?"

"More than you can imagine..." I trail off, wincing in anticipation of the next auditory onslaught. But for once, she doesn't speak and just hurries off to the elevators.

I turn back to the holo-screen, just in time to see Katniss aim her arrow at the back of Finnick, who I had spent three sleepless nights working on to get him to agree to help her. Suddenly she releases the arrow and fires at another Tribute that had been swimming towards the pile. She appears to have accepted an alliance with him, a situation that could not have been better considering the map.

Ok, I can probably assume that at least Peeta or Katniss is going to survive, so I might as well figure out what they need. Food, Katniss can hunt just about anything. Shelter, not much of an issue, they can build one easily. Water; is the lagoon salt or fresh?

"Engage salinity scanner. Alter to hovercraft main" I call out to the technicians. The holo-screen changes to a view of the entire map with a red-blue shading pattern. A salinity scanner is a useful device that measures the electrical conductivity of a given area. With a little experience, it can be used find water, people, and traps, as all of these are made out of different materials, which allow small amounts of electricity to move at different rates. The scanner gives the background, which in this case is the coral of the lagoon, an arbitrary setting of zero and highlights it green. As calcium, the primary element in coral, is a metal, anything that is redder is very conductive and will jump out.

Three things jump out at me. At the northern end of the lagoon there is a massive tree. It is instantly recognizable as pure metal, and a very conductive one at that. The next is a small dot on the pile of weapons that appears to be almost a superconductor. The last is that the lagoon itself is fairly conductive, meaning it is probably salty and undrinkable.

If the lagoon is undrinkable, what other sources of water are available? They can construct a solar still, and get half a cup of water a day. They can chew on the plant leaves and get water that way, sort of a desperation plan but it might work. I wonder if the plants store water...

I turn to the District 12 private messenger, which is basically a secured computer that allows the mentors to get into contact with nearly anybody in Panem. I open the smart interface and say, "Can I get a botanist in here?"

In a cool female voice, the computer replies "Error... Error... Command not recognized, please try again."

Arg... I swear, no matter how much work is put into these things they never works. Fine, manual, then. I rapidly type "Command, message; Recipient, Trainers; Message, District 12 needs a botanist, end message."

The next thing I need to do is get some money to get a desalinator or something sent to Peeta and Katniss. Whom do I know that might be willing to splurge this early? Brutus? No, to uncertain. Saturnalia? No, too high a ranking. Perhaps Maximilian? He might be willing to pay, if I can give him an inside scoop...

The message command is still open, so I compose a new letter. "Max, inside scoop, worth a lot. Meet me for more details. -Haymitch" and I send it.

Within thirty seconds I get a response, "Sending ramjet, be here in 20. -Max"

Looks like he is taking me seriously enough to splurge. Things are looking u-

"I found the loaf of toast!" I hear screeching behind me. 10 minutes can't come soon enough.

Sorry about the relative shortness, I am off the computer next week and thought I might as well send out something rather than nothing. Thanks to those who reviewed, Thanks Audrey for proof-reading, and I'll get the next chapter up as soon as possible.