Chapter 8 · Marked for Meat

"Move, Vance!" Valerie slammed her shoulder into my ribs and drove me across the arena just as the floor dropped six inches under our boots.

Thirty men roared around us. Not spectators. Fighters. Big ones, armored ones, men with glowing cards nailed into their collars and red target marks burning over their chests.

A gravity trap snapped on.

My knees buckled. Valerie caught the back of my coat before I hit the metal floor.

"You shoved me," I growled.

"You were standing still."

"I was thinking."

"Try doing it while moving."

The next gravity pulse hit harder.

Every body in the arena slammed down at once. Metal screamed beneath us. The fighters grunted, rolled, and came up with weapons already in their hands. One man lifted a cleaver made of solid blue light. Another tore a chain from his belt and let it spark across the floor.

Above us, a red holo-screen flashed two names.

TARGET TEAM ONE.

JESSE VANCE. VALERIE VOSS.

A second line appeared beneath them.

REWARD: ALL ACTIVE CARDS AND CORPSE RIGHTS.

Valerie looked up at it. Her mouth tightened.

"Corpse rights?" I said. "That sounds personal."

"It means whoever kills us gets to strip our decks."