"... You sure that's a good idea?" I greeted her, pointing at the bottle.
"Look, to do what I'm about to do, one must be either crazy or drunk. ... So I thought, why not both."
I sat beside her. "I guess you're right. Anyway. Look, I... I know how this ends."
"There are rules."
"I wouldn't bet anything on them."
"He's an honest man, you know."
I couldn't hide a sad smile. "I wouldn't be so sure about that. Look, don't do this. It's not worth it."
"I've been in hell, for years. How bad can half an hour be?"
"What's the worse you've been through."
She pointed at the barcode on her wrist. "Can't get worse than this."
"You're underestimating him," I said, Andrei's words resonating in my mind. Show her what hell is, make her realize that we're worse, make sure she can't ever forget. "There's a reason so many people think he's the Devil."
"I won't change my mind. It's a lot of money, and he's right, this is my best chance at a new life."
"Then do a few normal fights. In a couple weeks you could have just as much. This is something else."
She locked her eyes on mine. "He's sent you to fight me, hasn't he?"
"Yeah."
She smirked. "Well, the good news is you're not him."
"And now you're underestimating me." I sighed loudly. "I'll do anything he asks."
"You sure you can?"
Yes, you fool. "Don't do it. It's not worth it."
She took another long gulp from the bottle and got up. "Let's get this over with."
She took the lead to talk to the commentator about the match. I was going to follow her when I almost crashed into Andrei, who, as usual, had appeared out of nowhere. "So?"
I froze in place. Shit. I had to remind myself to take a breath.
He casually put his hand on my shoulder, a friendly pat to anyone who didn't know him -- it sent a chill down my spine. "I told you you could change your mind. What are you going to do?"
"Will you at least tell me what to do?"
"Just ask."
I sighed. "That's exactly what I'm doing."
"Does it include a 'Hurry up Sandy, people are waiting for you to get into the cage'?"
"I guess." I couldn't help smiling at his bad joke.
- - -
I hurried to the cage -- the girl was already waiting, doing a light warming up. I was climbing the steps when my comms chip beeped. "Check your inner pocket. This is not a fight. Take control as soon as the bell rings."
I discreetly checked it, only to find Andrei's revolver. He must have put it there, without me noticing, during the last bit of our conversation. As always. Shit.
The commentator did the presentations much less enthusiastically than before. The girl kept looking at me, ready to put up a fight -- a good show. She surely knew this wasn't an ordinary fight -- but she couldn't possibly imagine what was coming up for her.
Everybody was cheering at us in a deafening cacophony when a loud electronic bell rang, well above their voices. I looked at her, the voices surrounding us slowly but steadily decreasing in volume. She got ready for the fight. If it hadn't been clear from her previous match, now it was -- she had quite some experience in this.
My comms chip beeped again. "Sandy, don't take any risks. That's an order."
"Are you going to stand there like a dummy?" She yelled right before lunging at me, trying to score a hit. Okay, she was good, but not nearly fast enough.
I grabbed her wrist and twisted her arm around her, hugging her from her back a split second after I pulled the gun out of its hiding place. Before she could react, I let the barrel rest against her temple. "Told you not to do this, my dear. Say, did you really think this was going to be a fair fight?"
If the voices had been a loud murmur 'till then, now there was an uneasy, dead silence echoing around. She cursed under her breath out of shock. This was not what she was expecting, at all. "You can't do that." She finally said.
I couldn't help smiling as I whispered in her ear. "Told you not to trust him, didn't I?" I dragged her to the center of the cage, right below the dangling chains and ropes, and raised my voice so the audience could hear. "This is not a fight, my dear, this is a show. Don't try to fight me -- you'll only get hurt."
The eerie silence kept ringing in my ears as one of the chains rattled downwards, the final foot split in two, a huge fishing hook dangling from each tip. Shit.
