Slingers by Matt Wallace Read Free Book Online

on the side Kem didn’t see when the kid shoved it in his hand.
    Scrawled on the back of the facecard in what is obviously a child’s hand are these words:
    “Please help us Kem they are killing us”

MEDIA BLITZ
     
    Sling City.
    The press conference to announce The Reapers’ newest starting slinger.
    The entire team is seated on a dais in front of a corps of reporters speaking every language found on the face of the Earth. A banner hung behind them bears the standard of every team, while their own typhoon of scythe blades takes center stage, blown-up five times as large as the rest.
    Xen is seated to the right of the podium, wearing the clothes she wore to Nico’s earthly ceremony. They were rushed from the transport straight to the press conference.
    There’s an empty chair where Kem should be sitting, soon to be filled by her newest teammate.
    Benny London, clad in his familiar Reapers jacket, steps to the podium and calls for silence before addressing the press corps.
    “I know I say this every time, but I’m not a big talker, so let’s get to it. As you all know in our last match The Reapers lost two slingers, and in my opinion two finer gladiators never stepped onto a Sling City deadway. But the world and the games move on, and my people here have to meet the Gravity again one month from today. To do that a new gladiator has to don the black and white, the scythe blades, and take up the battle.”
    Benny pauses as he often does during these addresses and fishes a mint from his jacket pocket, popping it into his mouth and sucking with a complete lack of decorum or etiquette.
    “After careful consideration I’ve elected a man I feel is unequaled for the job, and I think you’ll agree.”
    Xen bites her lip and drops her head, trying not to betray her coach’s next words before they come.
    “Because that man is Kem Carbassa!” Benny announces with as much grandeur as the old man can muster. “And ladies and gentlemen, he’s back!”
    Everyone in the audience is on their feet by the time Kem emerges from behind the banner and walks across the stage. They blast questions no one will ever answer. Cameras would flash if they still did such an archaic thing as that.
    He and Benny clasp forearms like old warriors.
    The Coach smiles.
    Kem does not.
    Benny relinquishes the podium and Kem grasps its edges, leaning over the mic. He may be a man about to deliver a eulogy.
    Everyone in the room feels the weight of it. Every pair of Reaper eyes are on their head slinger.
    All except one. Xenia doesn’t look up at him.
    “I’m going to keep this short. I don’t have a lot to say about anything that’s happened in past few weeks. But I came back to Sling City for two reasons, both personal. Only one of those reasons matters to the fans, and it sure as shit matters to the Gravity.”
    Every reporter in the room and the whole of the world far, far below them is hanging on his words like a slinger dangling for dear life from the arena deadway.
    “I’m going to kill Tondo Vasile. I’m going to do it in the arena, with honor. Then I’m done. Consider me retired after that.”
    Kem turns and leaves the podium, the dais, the room, practically before the echo of his final word has died.
    Calling the press corps a “circus” at this point would be an affront to professional clowns all over the world.
    His team can’t believe what they’ve just heard. Jackie looks worried. Wade looks ready for war. Al and Maggie look confused and seek each other’s eyes for comfort.
    Xen’s face is a mask carved from the most indifferent of stone. She wasn’t surprised when he walked out, but inside she’s as surprised as the rest of them now.
     

TO THE SLAUGHTER
     
    It takes him less than two hours to find the boy.
    Kem thought it would be a real mystery in need of solving simply to locate the kid who’d slipped him that macabre pleading message. The boy was obviously a vagrant. Kem had heard about the squatters in Ghost