Michelle Maddox - Countdown

"You look like a superhero," I said.

"If you say so." He met my eyes, then leaned over to snatch the rest of the clothes off the floor. He threw them to me.

I turned the pieces over in my hand. "You've got to be kidding me."

"You'll look like a superhero, too."

As if things couldn't get worse. "Yeah, a slutty superhero."

He raised an eyebrow. "What the subscribers want, the subscribers get."

"Christ."

My costume consisted of a pair of thong panties. A skimpy bra. A short pleated skirt that barely covered my ass. A tight long-sleeved shirt, low-cut in the front, thigh-high stockings, and knee-high combat boots.

All black.

Since my other choice of outfit at the moment seemed to be bedsheets, I slowly put on the clothes.

Rogan eyed me when I was done. "It's wrong that I think that outfit's hot, right?"

I glared at him. "This is no time for jokes."

He was fighting to keep a grin off his face. "You'd be beautiful no matter what those bastards made you wear."

Then he bent over and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and held on to him tightly.

"We're in this together," he whispered against my lips. "Don't ever forget that."

I kissed him again. "Easy for you to say. You're not wearing the thong."

The door opened again and Jonathan appeared. "Rogan, we're going to have you wait for a bit. Kira, I'm going to need you to come with me."

"Why?" I asked warily.

"Because somebody wants to meet you."

I chewed my bottom lip. "Not really in the mood to meet anybody right now."

"That's too bad. Gareth, however, doesn't grant an audience to just anyone. Consider it a great privilege afforded to no one else."

Rogan tensed and he grabbed my hand. "I'm coming with her."

"No," Jonathan said, and he had his remote control out. "You're not."

He pressed a button and Rogan cried out in pain before he fell to the floor in a heap.

I collapsed beside him and touched his face to assure myself he was only unconscious.

I glared up at Jonathan. "I can't believe I ever trusted you."

His face was expressionless. "If I told you I was truly sorry for all of this, would you believe me?"

"No."

"Then it is pointless for me to say anything at all. Come with me. Don't put up a fight."

I decided to put up a fight just for the hell of it. But after a few moments the men in white coats easily managed to restrain me, and dragged me kicking and screaming from the room.

Gareth Ellis sat in a large white room that had a small table in the middle. It reminded me of a sterilized prisoner interrogation room, like the ones I'd seen in my parents' DVD collection of old movies. The men in white coats shoved me into the room and slammed the door behind me.

Gareth, unlike the room, was all in black. I restrained myself from rolling my eyes at the appropriateness of that color. After all, he was the bad guy in this piece, right? He must have personally chosen our new Countdown uniforms. I tried to stop myself from pulling the skirt down to cover the bared tops of my thighs.

If I weren't so damn angry I'd be embarrassed.

Gareth Ellis was a handsome man-but how could he be anything else with Rogan as his brother? They looked very similar. I couldn't tell which of them was older. There must have been only a year or two between their ages. Gareth's hair was a shade lighter, a lot shorter, and he was clean shaven. If Rogan was currently sporting the convict-chic look, his brother was all about business. Very crisp. Very professional. Very suave and perfect.

His eyes were also the same color as Rogan's-a jarring ocean blue-green.

Yeah, there was no doubt that they were truly brothers.

"Kira," he said. "Come sit with me."

"I'll stand, thanks."

"I wasn't asking you; I was telling you." His expression hardened for an instant, but then a small smile appeared on his lips. "If you please."

Okay, so this wasn't going to be fun.

Without taking my eyes off him I slowly approached the table and slid into the seat across from him. He studied me as if I were a project in a science lab, his gaze resting on everything from my hair to my cheeks to my nose, lips, neck, and the rest of me visible above the white tabletop.

"Do you like your new outfit?" he asked.

"No."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I think you wear it well."

I just glared at him.

"You're our first female competitor," he said after a moment.

"I know."

"How are you enjoying the game so far?"

"Enjoying the game?" I repeated. "Enjoying it? You must be fucking crazy if you think I'm enjoying your sick little game."

He cocked his head to the side. "You were enjoying it half an hour ago. Quite vocally, in fact."

I clenched my fists at my sides. "Go to hell."

He smiled thinly. "A girl with a bit of spirit. It's refreshing, actually. Most of the women I meet nowadays are so wrapped up with the desire to go to Offworld that they'll say anything if they think it could help them achieve that goal."

"I guess I'm not most women."

He didn't reply, but continued to study me in a way that made me extremely uncomfortable.

"So what now?" I asked. "Are you going to stare at me all day?"

"Just trying to see what my brother sees in you, while he was at one time a ladies' man, he never settled for only one. In fact, he preferred dozens. He used women for their bodies and they used him for his money. It made things very simple."

I just looked at him.

"Have you fallen in love with Rogan?" he asked. "Or was it just sex?"

"I don't know the whole story about what you did to screw Rogan over, but what I have heard doesn't make me want to have a long, detailed discussion with you about my love life. So, sorry."

He raised an eyebrow. "I know that he told you what happened."

"Are you going to try to deny it?"

He shook his head. "No. Rogan got in the way of The Countdown becoming everything it could be. I had to stop him from ruining my plans. It's that simple."

Simple. Sure. This guy was obviously off his rocker.

"Are we done here?" I asked blandly.

"No, we're not." He stood and came around to lean against my side of the table. "I don't believe in psychic phenomena, Kira. I believe in science."

"I don't really give a shit what you believe."

He hit me hard across my left cheek. I hadn't even seen it coming. I pressed my hand against my face and looked up at him, the shock quickly changing to anger.

"I believe that you are a liar and a thief, Kira. Four weeks ago you picked my pocket on the street. You took my wallet, removed the money from it, and threw the rest away. I followed you and saw the squalor that you lived in. But I liked the way you moved, the sheer desperation in your actions. I knew you had what it would take to be on The Countdown. And then I asked my employees to research you. We got a sample of your DNA, and I know more about you than you probably know about yourself. I analyze, Kira. I analyze and I study and I learn. And I use all of that to help The Countdown grow stronger and stronger and better, and better until one day it will spread itself across all of this city, this world, and Offworld itself." He leaned forward and banged his fist against the table. "Are you listening to me?"

I blinked heavily. "Sorry, I think I just fell asleep a little bit, that story was so damn long. Were you saying something about your wallet?"

His mouth twitched, and it reminded me disconcertingly of Rogan when he smiled. Only with Gareth it wasn't pleasant, and there was something much darker behind it.

"You truly believe you are a psi? If you had any significant abilities at all you would be in a study program Offworld. Scientists would be prodding you daily, trying to figure out what makes you tick."