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bottom of his boots were covered in her mother’s blood, shook her head. “I told you everything I know.”
    “OK, Princess,” Keller stood. “Looks like we have our newest Darwin Games player. And good thing, you’re just in time. A new game starts tomorrow.”
    “What?” Ana said, falling back in her bed.
    “You don’t want to cooperate with us,” Keller shrugged. “That’s fine, we understand. But there are examples to set, and we must set them. So we’ll be putting you somewhere where your poor decisions are on full display for the benefit of the entire City to learn from.”
    “I told you!” she screamed. “I don’t know anything. I wasn’t in that fucking church!”
    “I’m sure,” he said, turning from Ana and stepping through the sliding door.
    “You can’t just put me in The Games, you have to try me in court first!”
    Keller turned back, smiling.
    “No,” he shook his head. “I don’t. Suspected traitors can’t be put on the stand without compromising City security. You’re guilty as charged, declared by me.”
    She screamed, “You can’t do that!” as Keller turned halfway through the door and smiled.
    “I can and did. Enjoy your final night of freedom, Ms. Lovecraft. Tomorrow we have a daughter following in her daddy’s footsteps for the first time in the history of City 6. Fans will love that, and you. Who knows, maybe you’ll even make it to City 7, so you can reunite with your murdering daddy. I bet you two have so much to catch up on.”
    Keller left laughing, while Ana stayed inside her cell screaming, at first into her pillow, and then at the walls, which echoed her anger.
    Even when she stopped screaming out loud, Ana couldn’t silence her mind.
    Who will protect Adam?

CHAPTER 8 — Jonah Lovecraft
    Two days earlier…
    J onah imagined the clean efficiency of the City 7 hospitals and smiled. No waiting, no assembly-line medicine — true rest and whole-body healing was just another short van ride away.
    Every part of Jonah’s body ached from its inside-out beating, but there was solace in knowing that was now part of yesterday’s worry. City 7 had soft beds and strong medicine. Jonah would be healed, back to himself, and better than ever in no time. He might even feel something close to normal — or as normal as he could following the murder of his wife and destruction of his family.
    While Jonah was thrilled that he’d won The Darwin Games, he wasn’t entirely surprised.
    He had seen enough Games from beginning to end to believe he would make it to the middle rounds at least, and had believed it from the second he was tossed outside The Wall. Once Jonah made it to the middle, he figured there was a reasonable shot of his seeing the Final Six. Once there, Jonah knew he would eventually be facing off against Bear.
    But he never believed he could kill Bear, at least not until he knew that he had to.
    He had, and his life was saved. Jonah had earned a new dawn at City 7.
    It’s what he had fought for, bled for, and what he deserved.
    What Jonah didn’t deserve was the reputation that would follow him into the coveted City, where he would be forced to live the remainder of his life without any hope for repair. He could never return to City 6 or prove to his family, friends, and loved ones that he wasn’t a monster.
    That made City 7 a prison, despite its presentation as a paradise. No one ever left City 7. You lived in luxury but never returned. Leaving was impossible, at least according to legend.
    Jonah had never been to City 7 himself but knew its history well, like everyone else. Much like the Australia of the old world a half millennia before, City 7 was initially settled by convicts — all of them former winners of the Darwin Games.
    Rehab facilities inside City 7 were the best in The State, turning many of The City’s convicts into productive members of the almost-Utopian society.
    The entire City was practically one giant Arcade, and despite the one-time criminal population, or perhaps because of it, City 7 was said to be freer than any other City in The State even though there were some rules and it still operated within The State. It was such a paradise that many lined up to willingly enter the Darwin Games in hopes of winning a new life in City 7.
    Jonah was heading into City 7 carrying a handicap none of the other winners had to tote behind them. He was former City Watch, which meant he’d put thousands of citizens away during his decorated