The Gauntlet Assassin by LJ Sellers

won the first round of the Challenge, beating twenty-four-year-old Kirsten Dornberg of Florida. Lara’s official time is 59 minutes and 12.5 seconds.”
    Lara looked at the big digital clock with pulsing red numbers. Could that be right? She felt like she’d been in the tunnels for hours. She tried to remember the competitors’ times from last year, then realized it didn’t matter. The Challenge was different every year.
    “You were in trouble for a minute on the elevated maze,” Minda said, her voice breathy. “How did you manage to catch yourself and get back up? That looked impossible.”
    “Some of it was luck, but years of martial arts training have honed my reflexes and taught me to go into the fall. So I pushed myself to the beam, rather than lose my balance.” Lara flashed back on the moment, but it was a blur. “Getting up was a slow and careful process. It wasn’t something I could have ever practiced for.”
    “No one expected you to win your round of the Challenge, so the analysts and bookies are scrambling. I hear the odds against you have dropped to seventeen to one.” Minda shoved the mic at Lara, as though she’d asked a question.
    “The odds have always been against me and I’ve never let it stop me. I think the viewers tested me and I earned their support.”
    “You definitely did. After Kirsten grabbed you underwater, the viewers brought the wall down to give you a break. Do you think you could have won without that?”
    “We’ll never know.” Lara wanted to remind the director that she’d beat Kirsten in the elevated maze and in the tunnel, but it was better to be gracious. “It was an intense race and Kirsten was a formidable competitor.”
    “You have a day and a half before your next event. How do you plan to spend your time?”
    “I hope to get permission to leave the arena and see a little of the capital. This is my first visit to D.C.”
    Lara saw one of the cameramen swing his focus behind her. Kirsten must have finally come out of the water pit and through the door. Lara resisted looking back.
    “Congratulations again.” Minda grabbed Lara’s hand and shoved her arm into the air like a prizefighter. She hoped the viewers were cheering for her in their homes. She would need their popularity points in every phase, especially the final vote. After a moment, Minda nudged her to step aside. It was Kirsten’s last turn to chat up the viewers before heading home. As Lara walked away, pain flooded her legs, but the smile stayed on her face.
    She trudged down the wide hallway that circled the arena and passed a technician at a control panel, but no one else. The media only had access to the main lobby area. Lara hoped to find a way out of the building that would allow her to bypass the lobby where many of the contestants hung out. On some level, she wanted their congratulations, yet she’d been a loner for so long, it was habit to avoid social encounters, especially groups.
    The gray hallway went on forever, with occasional overhead doors for machinery and a few regular doors for people. Eventually, the hall hooked left and fifty yards later, Lara pushed through double doors into the common area where she’d started. The room held groups of soft chairs, a small cafeteria, and a few NetCom stations that had blocked access to the Gauntlet program and all social media sites. The organizers did their best to keep the participants from learning any details about the arenas before they competed.
    A group of contestants swarmed her, offering their congratulations. They slapped her shoulders and gave her high fives, their mouths smiling but their eyes distant, calculating. Even though they couldn’t watch the events, they could see the scoreboards, which were updated constantly.
    Jason Copeland gave her a friendly punch to the shoulder. “You kicked ass, old woman.”
    Lara fought the urge to put a fist into his solar plexus. “I hear you wanted to go against me in the Challenge,