*sigh*

If the last cliffy killed you, you guys are going to HATE me when Chapters 29, 30, and 31 roll around... (insert evil laugh here)

Okay, I'll throw you guys a lifeline and update today. BUT ONLY TODAY will I deviate from my usual every-other-day updating schedule...

You're lucky.

*blows raspberry*

Chapter 28

The Arena, coordinates N 7, W 12, Sector 19

Caius curled up tighter in the corner of his cave, trying to fall asleep. But sleep eluded him, repelled by the relentless thoughts that pecked at him. Am I crazy? Why did I do…that? Seriously? Why? I knew what would happen. If she wasn't so stunned, and if I hadn't done it so fast, she would have slapped me. I don't love Artemis. I don't even like her. She's imperious, suspicious, egocentric, acerbic, insensitive, sadistic, manipulative, dictatorial, bossy, hostile, cocky, beautiful, perfect, amazing –– what? Shut up, brain! Shutupshutupshutupshutupshutupshut ––

His mental tirade was interrupted by a strangely familiar dinging noise, coming from outside. Could it be…? A sponsor? No! It couldn't be! It had to be another bomb! Like the one that had killed his sister…

He choked back an involuntary cry. If it was a trap by the Elites, which was not likely but probable, there was no use in telling them that he was here. Steeling himself, he got to his feet as silently as he could manage and slowly drew his short black sword. He made his way to the mouth of his cave and peered out from the shadows. No one was in sight, but there it was! A small silver parachute, floating down from the sky. It landed on the ground not five feet away with a faint thud. Caius froze as he stared at it, his breath caught in his throat. The capsule at the bottom was narrower and shorter than the ones tied to the exploding parachutes he had seen before.

After a full five minutes of waiting, Caius darted out of his cave, snatched the parachute, and fled back into the shadows within the space of two seconds. Nothing exploded, so he relaxed his tensed muscles and gingerly unclipped the parachute from the capsule. It was then, when he was opening the silver container, that he noticed the three letters engraved on the side.

A. H. G.

Artemis Hecate Gossamer.

She would hate him forever if he opened it, he knew.

She already hates you.

He opened it.

Inside was a tiny black pouch. Caius unzipped this and found not food, not a weapon, not medicine, but a sleek, matte silver device nine centimeters long, four wide, with a black screen covering the front and a small lock button on the top. This he switched on, but when the screen lit up there was one word flashing –– password.

Caius rolled his eyes. It was just like Artemis, he thought, to lock a device that, he suspected, would help her win the Games. But if it was Artemis's, why was it in his hands?

And what would he do with it now that it was?

The answer came quickly when he remembered his ring. His silver ring, on the middle finger of his right hand. It was just a simple, smooth band; nothing fancy. But it had hidden secrets, too –– embedded inside was a tiny, advanced-frequency scrambler, a device that scanned and automatically disabled any firewalls or virtual defenses on a piece of electronics or a security system. Virtually untraceable by outside scanners, it was nearly infallible. It was this ring that had helped him, at the age of eight, break into President Snow's mansion and steal a pen from the presidential office, partly because he was bored and partly because his own pen had run out of ink. It was this ring that had allowed him to deactivate the watching cameras of his hideaway. It was a beautiful piece of technology, he marveled as he slid it off his finger and rolled it around his palm, even though he had stolen it from his own mother. She hadn't minded, and he doubted she would now.

He held the ring up, and with the pinky finger of his left hand rubbed the smooth metal on the inside of the ring four times. Visibly, nothing happened, but the faint, almost imperceptible vibration of the ring told him that it was on. He slid it back onto his middle finger, then waved his hand over Artemis's silver disk. Up, down. He flipped the disk over. Up, down. And he waited.

At first, nothing happened. And then the screen lit up, glowed red for a second, and then went to the home screen.

Caius breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe Artemis's virtual defenses weren't so advanced anyway. This sigh of relief was cut off when he saw a single banner that had just appeared across the top of the home screen, and read the message on it –– Congratulations. You've just activated Artemis Hecate Gossamer's control disk without being blown to oblivion. If she is not dead, please give it back to her, or you soon will be. Thank you, and have a lovely day!

His initial thoughts, or rather, thought the singular, was NO. He was not an idiot. He knew what an object like this was capable of, if it was what he suspected it was. Just because he might maybe have probably had a tiny small little eensy-weensy crush on Artemis didn't mean that he trusted her with this potential weapon of mass destruction. No. He would not give it back to her.

But what if there was something missing? The Gamemakers would not have dared give it back to her if they didn't have any reason to, unless the sponsors really, really wanted her to win. Which they probably did not. No, there was something else going on here.

Something else…

Everyone knew that Artemis was a genius. But what wasn't widely known was the extent of Caius's own intellect. Now, he might not have been able to recite all the names and ages of every tribute since the First Hunger Games, or solve college-level calculus equations without using a calculator. But he was not stupid. No, not by far.

When he was seven, he had discovered a box of old mystery novels in the depths of his father's closet. He would read one halfway through –– many times less when the mystery was easy enough –– then put it down and try to solve it by himself. Oftentimes he did. The child was a genius in his own way.

And so Caius Adrian Angelico crouched in the depths of his cave, fingering the control disk as his detective's brain put the puzzle pieces into place.

Anyone else notice that Artemis's initials also stand for A Hunger Games?