Game Of Survival

Chapter 32

MR E.

"What will you do? James." I asked the large screen in front of me. Grinning like a man who has conquered the world.

"Are you going to save your friend or will you let her die?"

"Are you sure this plan would work Mr. E?" Grace asked as she stood beside me. "We don't even know if he knows yet."

I smirked.

"That guy he's certainly smart, I'm sure he knows and I have a feeling he's not going to sit idle about it."

"Hopefully, we'll get him and we can finally get rid of the bottleneck in our hands." She heaved a light sigh.

"Are we ready?!" I announced and the group behind me answered in unison.

"Yes!"

Each of them were seated focused on their systems. Even though they looked stern, I was certain fear was grounded in their heart. They wouldn't want to fail this time, they knew the dire consequences.

"The guards are ready and the security is as tight as ever." Grace affirmed.

"Good." I smiled and I returned my gaze to the screen. I watched carefully as Eve climbed the stage. I was also excited at the same time, I was finally going to get that lab rat. No doubt the was going to lose his mind like he did for his brother and try to save her. But this time, his plan was going to fail. Once we get him, I'll personally see to his matter. No matter the interest I had in him, James Hendrix was just too dangerous for us to handle. He was the first to escape from one of the rooms and if we didn't tame him sooner, more disastrous things were going to happen!

My smile deepened as my eyes fell on her opponent. Whether James came to save the day or not, Eve Finley was going to die today. That's one of the prizes he was going to pay for defying our authority.

"Now let's see what kind of magic will happen this time." I muttered but the screen suddenly went blank. Grace and I frowned, staring at each other like idiots.

"What just happened now?" I asked tbe group at the back but they were all fidgeting.

"Didn't you all hear me?! What the hell happened, why is the screen blank?!" I barked.

"Sir, it appears we have lost connection with the third Arena." One of them muttered in a shaky tone.

Anger spiked within me immediately, my breaths were coming out like a storm and my eyes were boring holes into them.

"Looks like the third Arena has been hacked sir." A Lady interjected.

"What?!" I roared. "How is that possible?!"

"The third Arena has never been hacked ever since it was established! That's impossible!" Grace yelled too.

"Whatever, can't you override it?!" I raised my voice again.

"We're trying our best Sir."

"No you're not! With every moment that's passing we don't know what's going on over there?! Something might be going horribly wrong!" I gestured in an infuriated manner. I glanced at the screen but it was still the same, almost one minute had passed and the situation was still the same. I tapped my left shoe against the floor repeatedly, I was getting restless. This has never happened before. What worried me most was our viewers and my superiors.

"It's been two minute now and we still haven't been able to get back online!" I yelled pointing at the blank screen.

"Who the hell is behind this?! I need answers right now!"

But none of them dared to answer. They were entirely focused on their systems even in their fidgety state.

"Sir, we're unable to trace the hacker."

"What do you mean you're unable to trace the hacker?!" I growled walking furiously towards the guy. I gripped his shirt, raising him above his chair as our face came close.

"You better find whoever this person is or else you'll find yourself in a position worse than death!" I growled. I threw him to his seat back, staring at the others who did dare to meet my gaze.

"Are you all just a bunch of useless people?! This show is currently live, our superiors are watching. If anything goes wrong, just know you are all done for!" I proclaimed.

"Could this be the work of James?" Grace asked. My frown deepened and my heart skipped a bit.

"No." I wriggled my head but my words lacked the conviction it needed itself. "No." I said again. "That's not possible, we checked his details. Although we had limited information about him and I'm very certain he's no hacker." I asserted.

"But this can't be a coincidence, can it?"

"No. It can't. The third Arena is completely unhackable from the outside and never before has it happened." I replied, trying to calm my breaths as possible.

"So what you're insinuating is…" Her voice trailed off as we gave each other a knowing glance.

"Yes. Someone in the arena is most likely involved in this." I affirmed. "Think about it, James recently escaped, there's no way he would be so balanced to hack into our system."

"Even so, who would dare to do such a thing? Why now? Why would anyone want to help James or Eve?" She asked with a slightly worried look.

"I don't know Grace. We have to deal with this problem first before we begin any investigation." I scratched my low cut hair in a frantic manner.

"No progress yet?!" I barked again and none of them could give a reasonable response. I glanced at my watch, three minutes had passed and nothing had changed yet.

"What the hell is going on?! Give me a status report from the third Arena!" I ordered whilst scratching my head all over again. Sweat was crawling out of my pores and my restlessness was only increasing by the moment. This wasn't what I bargained for. This wasn't the outcome I was expecting. By now I should be rejoicing that we've got eyes on James Hendrix but the situation has drastically changed. I didn't know why but I had a feeling something bad was going on!

"Mr. E!" A man arose with a terrified expression painted on his face. "We have a major problem."

My heart skipped a bit.

"What could possibly be worse than this?"

"Contestant two hundred has gone out of radar. Neither her tracker nor the IED is working."

I gasped as an empty feeling encroached me. This was indeed a major problem. I was in soup this time.

"How is that possible?! How is that possible for crying out loud!"

Fear was beginning to swallow me. A situation I thought I had kept under control was going out of hand!

"This is bad, this is bad, this is bad!" Grace mumbled, she was just as reckless as I was.

"Connect me with the Supervisor, I want to speak with him directly!" I ordered and the screen brightened, showing the face of the supervisor. He too had a terrified expression like I had.

"What the hell is going on?!" I barked at him and he stuttered.

"I don't know sir, we're trying our best to handle the situation. The battleground is on a total lockdown, we have no access to it or whatsoever." He explained while my palms curled into a fist.

"In case you don't know, Contestant two hundred, Eve Finley, has escaped!"

His jaw dropped.

"Why are you giving me that look? You better do something about it before things get a lot worse!" I ordered.

"We're trying our best, Mr. E."

"Your best is not enough! It's been over four minutes already. I'm already receiving complaints!"

He wiped the sweat off his forehead, nodding like an obedient child.

"Our superiors are definitely not going to like this." Grace mumbled beside me.

"I know that Grace!" I wiped the sweats off my forehead too. Even though the air conditioning was working perfectly, I still felt heat inside and outside.

"We haven't even dealt with one and now our problems have doubled."

"Place a shoot on sight order on Eve!" I ordered while Grace gave me a skeptical look.

"We don't have a choice, we're in soup already. We can only prevent our situation from getting precarious."

"How about the other contestant?" I asked.

"He's still at the battleground Sir." The supervisor answered.

"And Eve? Where was she last sighted?"

"Unfortunately, we don't know either. Access to her precious location has been jammed sir."

I heaved a heavy sigh. I glanced at my watch, and five minutes had passed. This wasn't a joke any longer. The fear that I was subsiding, exploded at a dangerous level. My body began trembling even though I didn't want to. It wasn't fear of Eve's disappearance but of my superiors. They were dangerous when things didn't go as planned. And that's one side of them I didn't want to see. No doubt, I was going to receive a query about this incident.

"We've got access back Mr. E!" A Lady chirped from behind. I almost heaved a sigh of relief as I stared at one portion of the screen displaying footage of the battleground.

My jaw dropped, my eyes weren't deceiving me. The other contestant was beaten unconscious and the two guards themselves were injured too. There was no way in hell, Eve handled these people on her own. Someone had definitely helped her. I looked around the other videos currently playing and there was no sight of her.

I stared at the supervisor with predatory eyes. If only he were here, I would have definitely beaten him to stupor.

"All of you there are just incompetent fools!" I growled. "For the first time, a problem this big is happening and you all failed to handle it properly."

"Forgive me, Mr. E…" The supervisor tried to talk to me, but I cut him off abruptly.

"You don't need to apologize. The damage has already been done and you must pay the consequences of your actions." I toned in the iciest my vocal chords could give me.

"What do we do now?" Grace asked almost in a whisper.

My eyes kept wandering at various portions of the screen. This was the first time a major calamity like this happened and we completely failed at handling it well. All thanks to James Hendrix, the bastard that was going to doom us.

"Cancel the live broadcast." I ordered and the Supervisor frowned. "The Third Arena is going to be on a forty eight hour lockdown. I want an intensive search for James Hendrix and Eve Finley. I don't care if you have to sweep the Arena out from bottom to the top. I want them captured alive. Failure to do this and you can forget your position as the supervisor of the Third Arena."

"Y-yes sir." He stuttered and the video call got disconnected. I turned to the crew behind me, giving them an icy glare.

"And that goes for you all as well. Failure to find both of them, you all should consider yourself fired." I declared and I stormed out of the room in anger. Grace followed closely behind me too.

"Now I finally understand what you meant by James Hendrix is not to be underestimated." She quoted beside me and a heavy sigh escaped my breaths. Yes, I usually said that but I wouldn't deny it that he completely shocked me too.

"I think we've made a mistake." I answered. "A dangerous contestant like him should have been eliminated." I said and I recalled the time Grace had been skeptical about saving him and his group back then. Now I was filled with regrets and fear.

"It's too late to start regretting now. We need to find a solution as soon as possible. Now that we've cancelled the live broadcast, our viewers are going to raise an alarm and there's no escaping a query from our superiors."

"We better have a good explanation to give them." I answered with a sigh. "But if we've learned anything today, It's the fact that James is not working alone." I paused as we held each other's gazes.

"We have a black sheep among us and I need you to visit the Arena personally."