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The girl feels long, gangly fingers curl around her kicking legs – and then she’s sucked down beneath the water. I gasp, and watch as two Toads drag her into the dark depths of the tank – and to what fate, I can only guess.

For a second there’s still, and the water settles down below.

Then, the leader of the Toad guards steps forward sure-footedly, and reaches for the chain and cuffs securing Tessa to the rest of us captives.

Knowing this might be the last chance I get, I stretch my arms forward – grabbing and squeezing her hand tightly. I hate that I can’t give Tessa anything more than that.

She turns to look back at me with those big, light brown eyes of hers – and I’m filled with loathing for my helplessness. I hate that I’m too weak to help her – to even help myself.

The leader of the Toads angrily yanks Tessa’s hand from mine, and then uncuffs the restraints around Tessa’s wrists.

I gulp – this is my last chance to save her…

…but I can’t.

I’m more helpless than she is! My hands are cuffed together, my ankles are shackled, and even if Iwasfree – I have nothing but my bare hands to fight the towering Toad.

I can’t help her – there’snothingI can do to help her. Ling would have found a way – she’dalwaysfound a way...

But I can’t.

Tessa, however, demonstrates her own resourcefulness.

As she staggers free – and before the Toad can punt her into the water, as he did with the first captive – Tessa turns and plunges off the walkway herself; diving headfirst into the water down below with her long arms stretched gracefully in front of her.

She shears through the water like a knife – barely making a ripple. Then, a few seconds later, Tessa comes breaking back through the surface of the water with powerful strokes of her long arms.

I don’t know where Tessa learned to swim like that, but she’s a natural in the water – as sleek and graceful as a mermaid.

As she circles the pool, I hear jeers and laughs echo up from the viewing windows down below. Clearly, the bidding has started – and it’s even more heated than with the first captive. Croaks and gurgles grow louder and louder as the Bullfrogs on the other side of that glass argue over the price of Tessa’s flesh.

I shudder. That beautiful, willowy woman is soon going to be turned into a brutalized toy for a sadistic and disgusting alien – one who outweighs her by hundreds… even a thousand pounds. I squeeze shut my eyes, remembering the horror stories I’d heard from the captives Ling and I had rescued – about how few of the women dragged to the aquariums of Bullfrogs lasted long.

Tessa? With her slight build?

She won’t last a day.

Then, suddenly, the gurgling and jeering reaches a crescendo down below, and one of the faceless creatures behind the glass roars in triumph as they secure ownership of Tessa.

Peeling open my eyes, I glance down into the water – and see the same two frogs loom up out of the depths to drag Tessa beneath the water.

She doesn’t resist. There’s no fight in her. She’s resigned to her fate, and merely takes a huge gulp of air before her face disappears beneath the water.

The last thing I see are her light brown eyes – looking up at me pleadingly until the water covers her face.

I feel a sob wrack my chest. I feel so worthless. I couldn’t help Tessa – and I can’t help myself.

The bulbous eyes of the Toad guard turn menacingly toward me next.

He stares at my bare breasts, slurping his glistening tongue across his thick lips. I squirm at the hunger in his gaze, but offer up my hands – beckoning him to step forward and uncuff me before he gets any ideas about laying those slimy fingers on my body like the previous guard had.

The one the Aurelians had decapitated and left lying in the water.

The leader of the Toads gurgles an angry warning, and advances on the guard with his electro-rod. A crackle of electricity quickly motivates the guard to hurry this process along – and instantly dissuades him from groping me.

Sticking that drooling tongue out of the corner of his mouth, the Toad focuses on working his key into the lock – and suddenly, the old me awakens in my mind.

I narrow my eyes. The Toad’s got sloppy – complacent after the obedience of Tessa and the other prisoner. That’s a mistake – and Ling taught me that the mistakes of others are opportunities for me.