27
The chow hall was full and rowdy as I stepped in. Like everything else on the SDM campus, it was high class. One whole wall and most of the arched ceiling was glass that let in the morning light, and the tables were circular and widely spaced enough for people to move despite it being crowded.
Everywhere I looked there were aliens. Quite a few duoden and packwren, and other breeds I was aware of. I'd killed examples of most of them, but there were more than a few I couldn't have named if asked.
All along the wall across from me was a vast, winding buffet with stations where chefs prepared made-to-order dishes.
All the tables had expensive-looking table cloths and there were chairs in a dizzying variety of styles to fit a dizzying variety of hind end.
Above this was an absolutely gargantuan display. On it was a leaderboard with the top twenty names, and to the left of that there was a visual on a packwren along with a name and several relevant details. The packwren was in fifteenth place, but before I could read what was written there it shifted and displayed the swamp thing I'd seen fucking in the lobby yesterday, who was apparently in sixteenth place.
A look at the names on the leaderboard confirmed that the one in first place was Silent Knight.
Me.
As I gazed around I noticed a drop in the ambient noise, and that more and more people were looking my way. There was a ripple effect that eventually brought about a near silence.
Behind me, Phoebe giggled and said, "Wow. You sure know how to make an entrance."
"All I did was walk in," I said, glancing back at her in annoyance.
"A male with a reputation as deadly as yours doesn't need to do much else," Yim said, stepping up next to me. "You're on top of the leaderboard for being a one-male massacre."
Hearing her call me a male rather than a man annoyed me, but there was no point making an issue of it. I hadn't wanted to come here but there was literally nothing available in the suite to eat except those food bars and I wanted something with taste. I didn't even care if it tasted bad, so long as it was different.
So here I was, now the center of attention for being hungry.
It was fucking annoying, so I glanced up at Yim and asked, "So what's the protocol here, go get food, take it to an empty table, and eat?"
She blinked once, then said, "Yes, normally, but you're at the top of the leaderboard so it's a little different for you."
She pointed, and I looked to see there was a table on a dais at the far end of the room. It was empty, and I said, "You're shittin' me."
"What? Ew. No. We sit there and people will come and ask us what we want. They'll serve us."
I turned around and said, "Fuck that. I'm not about to sit and get stared at-"
I bounced off Pala's abs before I could finish and she said, "That is exactly what we'll do. We're here, we eat. You're not the only one who's hungry."
"Did you really have to be right behind me?" I asked plaintively, looking up past her boobs at her.
"If I gave you space you'd have too much momentum for me to stop you," she said, giving me a feral grin.
"You knew I'd-"
"Yes I did," she said as she spun me by the shoulder and shoved me along in front of her as she said, "Now move. I'm hungry."
By now the place was rowdy again as most people returned to their meals and conversations, though as I passed I heard my nickname more than once.
The chairs around the table were obviously suited to the various members of my party, and I was fascinated to see that the one for the avian Astra was literally a series of wooden poles. She gripped the lowest with her feet, bent her legs around the next highest, and leaned back against one at shoulder height with nothing at all under her ass.
She caught me staring and said, "Tail feathers. I don't sit like you mammals."
She did indeed have a rather impressive set of black tail feathers accented in red, and I could see how sitting might be a technical impossibility for her, but I asked, "And ... that's comfortable?"
"Yes yes! Thank you for your concern but I'm fine!"
"Suit yourself," I said and took the only seat sized for me, ignoring the fact that it was tall enough to be a bar stool.
A brightly cheerful voice behind me got my attention.
"It's an honor to see you, Silent Knight. What would you like to eat?"
I twisted to look, then blinked as I saw way too many eyes blinking all out of sync at me out of a face defined by furry white pedipalps curled in front that hid everything beneath the largest pair of eyes. They were nothing but white with huge black pupils. The two biggest were focused on me, but the others seemed to be darting around at random.
"Is ... is something the matter?" the creature asked, raising a serving dish with white armored arms to hide her palps. Those arms ended in more articulated fingers than I could easily count, all of which had too many joints and ended in sharp points.
"Uh ... first of your kind I've seen," I stammered.
"Oh! I do hope to make your first experience a pleasant one," she chirped, lowering the dish again as her palps spread apart and lifted as though to smile. That gave me a view straight down her gullet, which was lined in swirling bands of curving fangs that flexed in a pulsing rhythm, seemingly with her good humor.
With wide eyes, I managed a slow nod and tried not to let the fear show. I knew the packwren with me would smell it, but hoped this ... weird fucking monster wouldn't pick it up.
"What can I get you to eat, sir?" she asked, palps mercifully closing to hide her mouth. "And please rest assured, a complete chemical work-up was provided to the kitchen. Nothing we serve you will be in any way harmful."
"Two pounds of mammalian meat cooked until the center is pink, and two different kinds of vegetable, seasoned appropriately. Just water to drink," I said, taking my mind off the horror show by concentrating on food, though my appetite had mysteriously vanished.
The femme taking my order was tall and willowy, with a fluffy head of white hair and wearing a jumpsuit of red, blue and gold. She had no boobs to speak of, but since she looked like a three-way cross between human, spider, and lamprey, I'd have been kinda shocked if she had. I thankfully couldn't see her lower half as she was standing behind me and I resolutely didn't look down.
"Certainly!" she said, her voice still eerily bright, at least from my perspective. She turned from me and got orders from the others as I lowered my eyes to the table and tried to get my heart rate down.
Under the table I felt a hand that, given she was sitting next to me, could only be Pala's. She leaned in and murmured, "Despite how they look, chiele are the friendliest, most outgoing people you'll ever meet. Relax."
"I just looked down a man-sized spiral of death and she tells me to relax," I muttered, thinking of the dozens of aliens I'd spent the last week killing.
All that, and the scariest thing I'd seen since waking up on this world was the waitress.
"That shit's gonna give me nightmares."
"Well, have them later. I know some contestants get arrogant with the servers but there's no cause for it, and they can be helpful down the road, depending on circumstances. Be nice."
"Right! No problem. I can be nice. Sure ..."
The back of my neck tightened until it made me shudder as I shook my head, trying to reset. Being nice would be easy because I didn't want her to eat me.
Phoebe said, "And that is a completely perfect example of genetic memory. Don't worry about it, Taz. Every species reacts that way to something."
"Oh yeah? What gets to a borealan?" I asked.
Phoebe's big blue eyes wandered, then she said, "Every species but that one."
I rolled my eyes and took my mind off it by looking around the room. Here and there I saw aliens staring back, though I couldn't always be sure because some of them didn't have pupils ... or recognizable eyes.
"Succubi fuck all these species?" I asked no one in particular.
"With enthusiasm," Pala said wryly.
When the food came I didn't ask what animal it'd come from. It was grilled, it was a bit bloody, and it tasted ...
I grit my teeth to hide my disappointment, then took another bite. It tasted like beef liver. I'm not one of those that hates liver, but I'm also not a fan. Had it often enough on hunting trips, and when mom insisted, but never touched it again once I actually got control over my diet.
Still, if it tasted like liver, I could at least hope it was as nutritious. And, it must be said, it didn't taste like nothing. That was a technical improvement.
I finished the meat in five minutes and the vegetables in another three. They were good palette cleansers and I knew I'd need the roughage. Once done I set my utensils down, finished the water, and noticed that everyone at my table was staring at me.
"What?" I asked, glancing around.
"No one's going to steal it," Yim said, making a face at me as though disgusted. Her plate was still two thirds full. As I glanced around I noted that was about par for the course. These people obviously lingered over their food. Telling them I bolted my meals so I could get back to work wouldn't do me any good, so I didn't bother.
Frowning, I stood up and said, "You're right, because it's gone. You guys take your time."
"Where are you going?!" she asked, but I just waved and walked away. Privacy might be an illusion, but even so I could use a few minutes on my own to explore.
As I moved toward the exit I noticed Maximus stand from his table and start moving my way.
Not wanting the confrontation to be in the middle of the chow hall I pretended not to see him and left. The passage leading to and from was broad and glassed in, same as the main hall, with morning light filling the space. There were a few people still straggling in but no one leaving yet. The borealan caught up with me about twenty yards down the hall. I noticed his clawed hand enter my peripheral but ducked before it landed on my shoulder, turning to face him with hands spread.
"Relax, I'm not here for a fight," he said, raising his hands peaceably. "I just want to talk."
"What about?" I asked, eyes flicking past him to catch sight of a succubus hurrying our way. A pair of what I could only assume were drones hovered over her shoulders, and she had the determined look of a reporter.
I said, "Make it quick, we've got company coming."
Maximus blinked, then twisted to look over his shoulder. "Her? That's just an SDM rep."
I took a deep breath and let it out, reminding myself that this was a reality show, and there was no way a confrontation between the top two on the leaderboard wouldn't rate a few extra cameras.
"What do you want, Maximus?" I asked, tone flat.
He said, "What you said out in the field bothered me. I wanted to ask about it."
"I've got nothing to tell you."
"You don't even know what my question is yet."
"Maximus, nothing I say can help you, me, or anyone. Go live your life for whatever you can get."
As I turned, I caught movement out of my peripheral and tried to twist aside but didn't quite manage it. Maximus caught my jumpsuit at the shoulder but before he could tighten his hold I grabbed his thumb and broke it with a sharp twist.
He clearly wasn't expecting the response and hissed like a cat as he let me go and jerked his hand back, looking at his disjointed thumb with wide eyes as he said, "What did you do that for!?"
"You're too smart to ask me that," I said, voice flat. "The next time you touch me plan on violence, because that's what you'll get."
He covered his thumb and wrenched it back into alignment as he glared down at me, but his expression was more frustrated than angry. I had to give it to him: Maximus could take pain like a hardened professional.
He said, "I want to team up with you."
Blinking, I paused. I had not expected him to say that.
"What for?" I asked. "We're both killers. You don't need my help and I certainly don't need yours."
When he didn't immediately answer I said, "You don't even know what you want."
"I want to win!" he snarled.
"Why?" I asked, tilting my head to look curiously up at him.
He blinked, and the relative silence told me all I needed to know about his motivation.
I grinned and said, "Yeah. Good luck. You'll need it."
"You'll never survive without a team!" he called after me as I turned away.
"Probably not!" I cheerfully agreed, lifting a middle finger over my shoulder idly as I walked away. He wouldn't know what it meant, but it made me feel better anyway.
The truth was, Maximus scared me. He was stronger than I was, bigger, just as fast, and he'd beaten me as easily as I'd beaten everyone else. I didn't want someone like him learning my tricks, and I didn't think sparring him would help. If I was going to beat him, I had to do it some way other than combat.
"Silent Knight!"
Shoulders sagging as I sighed, inwardly begging God for patience, I turned and said, "Yes?"
"My name is Valenteen, embedded on the Sex, Death, and Money campus to help cover the season. May I have a few minutes of your time?"
I looked her up and down pointedly and had to admit whatever time I gave her would be at least visually appealing. She was so dark red as to be almost black with a skintight, dark blue thing that exposed a lot of that skin. She had all the curves and her hair was done up in that sexy teacher style, complete with glasses. Her wings had golden accents which I thought were a nice touch, and her tail was swaying in a way I could only describe as sultry.
Yet, given my preferences, I'd have turned her away were it not for Yim's explicit instruction: "You are to grant all interviews and be polite!"
"What can I do for you, Valenteen?" I asked, folding my hands behind my back as I squared up and faced her. She was a little taller than Mauren had been, but not by much. That meant looking her in the face would eventually give me a crick in my neck.
"What does this mean?" she asked, aggressively thrusting her middle finger up between us.
I raised an eyebrow, thought for a moment, then said, "It means, 'Have a nice day.'"
Her eyes narrowed — which she somehow made sexy — then said, "I think you're lying."
"I think you're right," I said, smiling pleasantly. "However, as was made very clear to me, lying is part of the game. Was there anything else?"
"You aren't supposed to lie during interviews!" she said sharply.
"Oh? I didn't realize this was an interview. You just asked me for a few minutes of my time," I noted. "Interviews are supposedly conducted in private, which this most certainly is not. Was I misinformed?"
As I said this, I made a mental note to thank Yim for filling me in on the details of this particular facet of the game, which she had done this morning before breakfast because she knew I'd be confronted like this at some point after what I'd done during the ally selection.
I also noted that a crowd was beginning to gather around us, with allies, other contestants, and a few others in the red, blue, and gold colors I'd come to associate with functionaries of the game. Even Maximus was hanging around, watching.
Valenteen drew in a slow breath and straightened a bit, turning her head to look down on me out of one eye with speculative intensity. Then she said, "I suppose I have to let it pass. Do you intend to form any alliances at all this season? What we just witnessed marks the second time you've turned down Maximus. If not him, what kind of ally are you looking for?"
"I was under the impression allies were gathered from the events. Maximus is a competitor. All competitors are ultimately my enemies."
"So you intend to participate in the inevitable team events with random contestants?"
I'd been warned about the team events and neither Yim nor Pala had really offered a solution to that particular problem. Neither of them believed I could form any kind of reliable alliances with the other competitors, which was the real reason I wouldn't be trying to do so. Still, the fact that I now had an audience meant I could break the rules without actually breaking the rules. Sometimes, when one has a reputation, the best thing to do is lean into it.
Hard.
I shrugged and said, "If necessary, I will take control of any such group and ensure they work smoothly together for the duration of the event, even if that means I'm the only one of the team to actually take the field."
"Violence is-"
"Always an option, yes," I said, smoothly interrupting her. "You must understand that if my choice is between losing because my team is uncooperative and losing because my team is injured or dead, I will choose the latter course. Should that result in my disqualification entirely I will make sure they're dead because if I go, I won't go alone. I'm not here to make friends. I'm here to do what I can to justify Liminal Science's faith in me, and they certainly didn't sponsor me for my charming personality. They sponsored me because I'm the deadliest fucker to ever walk this planet. One thing that every competitor in this game should understand is that they are all already dead, and if they get in my way I'll prove it to them."
As Valenteen gaped at me, I smiled my most insincere smile and asked, "Now, was there anything else?"
"What is wrong with you?" she breathed.
I wasn't sure if the question was deliberate or if it just slipped out, but I'm not one to miss an opportunity. I said, "I've always found killing easier than talking."
Valenteen's eyes widened behind their glasses, but her jaw dropped when I furrowed my brow and looked away with a deliberately conflicted expression on my face as I musingly added, "Division Four seemed to encourage it too. They even offered me my own wrangler to do with as I pleased. I wanted to let her live because she was the best dick sucker I've ever encountered, but when she threatened my trainers ... well. Let's just say the team events coming up won't be the first time I've had to ... forcibly improve the company I keep."
I met Valenteen's shocked gaze with a smile and a wink, flipped her the bird, then turned and sauntered off. The now sizable crowd parted like the Red Sea for Moses to let me pass. The silence in the hallway was complete.
Heh.
Let Director Lane sort that shit out ... if she could.
My work here was done.