Iron Heart (The Gauntlet #2)

Chapter 44 - Capable Hands

So they'd figured out Keefer Darkwood's secret of success. Now the question remained: what to do about it?

Their little gang of conspirators had found solace in one of the small meeting rooms in the upper levels of the Arena, but Codi was acutely conscious of the fact that they were running out of time to stop Keefer Darkwood. The next round of quarter finals came in two days – the semis three days after that. That left Cardle North in the firing line first, but beyond that, assuming Ripple made it through her quarter final, she would be the next to face Black Horizon's destroyer.

The frustrating thing was the subtleness of the tweaking. Darkwood was already good, so throwing even an extra five percent behind that talent and size made him virtually unstoppable, but to the average observer nothing looked amiss. Codi drove a hand through her locks of black hair, staring down the table as they argued over their next move.

"We need to lodge a formal complaint," Ripple said flatly. "We can prove that his exoskeleton has been tampered with to make it non-regulation. That should be enough."

"No, no, no," Kye snapped, slapping his palm against he table angrily. "I told you, if you do that they'll ask how we got the information. We'll have to admit we broke into the damned lock tech unauthorised and violated another academy's property. If Black Horizon has a coach worth a damn they'll lodge an instant counter-appeal and send the whole thing spinning through the Gauntlet's judiciary panel for months."

"We don't have months," Codi interjected. "The semi finals are in three days. If we don't do something now it'll be too late."

Rokki Thakkar let out a snort of frustration, seated with his feet slung up on a table. "Hate to say it, gang, but brains there is right. You got two choices. First, try complain straight up and see how it takes you. Second, you gotta get a bunch of other folks on board and make some noise at the same time. Otherwise no-one'll listen."

"It'll take too long." Kye slumped forward, leaning his chin on crossed arms. "Even if by some miracle we could get the head instructors of the other major academies to support a Battlecast complaint, think how this looks to the administrators. This whole year has been about how Battlecast has a monopoly on the competition. Then, the second it looks like someone has your number – whoosh – accusations of cheating, tampering with exoskeletons, trying to get them disqualified just days before the semi-final." He sighed. "They'll never bite on it. Black Horizon timed this perfectly."

Codi pinched the bridge of her nose with a groan. "We have to try, Kye."

"It won't do any good."

"Well, what the hell is your plan then?"

"I don't know!" Kye shot her a grim look. "And frankly, it's not my problem. I've got no horse in this race."

"If you really didn't care you wouldn't have bothered helping us in the first place," Codi shot back. "So just tell me, what do you think we should do?"

"I'm not ..." He hesitated, hunting for the words. "We need to do something more direct."

"Like what?"

"If we don't have time to expose what they're doing maybe we can find someway to sabotage it instead – level the playing field somehow. But I'd need to know how they're transmitting it in the first place; figure out the frequency of the signal somehow." He threw up his hands helplessly. "I just don't know where to start."

"Start with the coach," Rokki grated. "Somebody's gotta trigger those gadgets once the fight's started. Who else you think it's gonna be?"

"So what do you want to do, follow the guy around like a damned spy?"