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Kara looked at it in dismay. It was the sphere all right. But it was hovering eight feet off the ground. Grabbing it would be a challenge, and if she tried surely it would just scoot off again?

She thought back to the conversation she’d had with Vahn on Minerva-6. The first part of the game was finding the xantha sphere. The second was holding on to it while it tried to shake you off.

If it succeeded it went and hid again, thus restarting the game. If it didn’t, you won. So, Kara reasoned, did that mean once you’d found it, ithadto let you grab it?

Only one way to find out.

“Er, hi,” she said out loud. “I found you, okay? I found you. So now I’m going to, um, try to hold onto you.”

The sphere didn’t react in any way. Kara took a step forward, feeling a little foolish. It didn’t even twitch. Encouraged, she went to stand under it. Even with the anti-grav boots, getting high enough to touch it would be difficult.

She looked round for anything that could help and spotted some rocks beneath the tree. Dragging these out, she managed to pile three on top of each other in a precarious tower beneath the hovering sphere.

It wasn’t remotely stable but she only needed it to bear her weight for a millisecond. Satisfied, she collected her rucksack and shrugged it on. Then she took several steps back from the sphere.

Drawing a deep breath, she touched the braid of Vahn’s hair for luck. And ran full tilt towards the rocks.

She put one foot on the teetering pile and pushed off hard. They started to tumble almost immediately but she’d already broken contact, kicking on her anti-grav boots at the precise moment she launched into the air.

The boots gave her the added boost she needed to come level with the sphere. Muttering a small prayer, Kara curled her body around it and hung on for dear life.

The moment she made contact the thing bucked like an enraged bronco. It shot forward, dipping and weaving, zig-zagging like crazy until she was dizzy and breathless.

The violent motion started to make her nauseous. She closed her eyes and locked her hands together, hugging the ball into her stomach with grim determination.

For several long minutes the sphere careened through the forest, zipping through the trees and spinning erratically. Bile rose into her throat. Sweat dripped from her face and she thought there was a serious danger she might actually slip off the damn thing altogether. Her arms began to ache from the strain.

Just when she thought she couldn’t hold on any longer, there was a loudclick. The sphere stopped moving. It fell to the ground, Kara still on top of it. She groaned as the air was knocked out of her.

Rolling onto her back, she tried to regain her breath. The xantha sphere lay quietly next to her, now as harmless as a beach ball.

Vahn,she thought.I love you. But you owe me big time, snake-boy.

Thirty One

The wild ride had taken her further north into the forest and she was now about eighteen kilometers from the rendezvous point. Given the terrain, it would probably take her two hours to cover. If she hustled, she could make it before sundown.

She checked on the others’ positions. None of them were heading for the finish line, they were all still roaming in the forest. She saw with a start that Layahn was now much closer to her, probably only a couple of kilometers away. She’d be sure to give that bitch a wide berth.

She was even more concerned when she saw Vysh was still circling in a grid pattern. Unease pricked at her. What if she didn’t find a sphere? It would be awful if she failed at the first challenge. Her father sounded like a first rate asshole and he’d never let her live it down.

She plotted a new course, one that brought her into contact with Vysh. It would add precious time to her journey but she could afford it. She’d tell Vysh how to find the spheres and still be at the finish line by nightfall.

She set off, sticking to a nice, easy pace that wouldn’t exhaust her. Her time on Minerva-6 had honed her muscles and given her a level of fitness she hadn’t achieved even as a soldier. All that constant exercise. Climbing and hunting and running from predators.

And the sex. Don’t forget about the endless sex. Never mind aerobics, those marathon sessions with Vahn had sometimes lasted for hours.

She fell into a reverie as she ran, reliving some of their most precious moments. It wasn’t until her throat was parched and sweat was dripping down her back that she allowed herself to stop for some water.

She checked the map as she regained her breath and saw Vysh was just up ahead. She started to move in that direction and paused. Something had snagged her attention, but she couldn’t figure out what it was.

She watched the dot marked ‘4’ for a moment but nothing jumped out. Vysh was just circling as she had been for the past few hours. Poor woman must be knackered. Stowing the map, she went to find her.

Vysh was, indeed, exhausted. Fatigue pulled at every muscle and tiredness weighed on her feet. Only force of will kept her going.

So when she saw Kara materialize from the trees in front of her, she nearly fell over from the shock.

“Drek’aa bereshand all the fiends of Xesh! What are you doing here?”