‘That’s quite enough. Come on now, cheer up, admit you’re special and go off and find your friends.’

She giggled. ‘All right, Mac! I will!’ And she turned and ran.

‘Don’t stray too far!’ he called after her, but she was already gone.

Albert watched her go, and then began walking towards the rocky steps that led back down. The ledge offered a great view of the valley below, and he looked at it as he walked, soon coming to a point where he was directly opposite, although still some height above, the elevated mud platform that was the Arena. He stopped, amazed at the sight. The barren, empty spot he had seen not long ago had completely transformed. Ropes ran from pole to pole, turning the platform into a circular ring. Two bright spotlights, mounted on long poles, shone down upon it. And clustering all around the ring, there were people, close to fifty people, maybe twice that, maybe more, falling over each other in their eagerness to get closer to it. And there were still more outside trying to get in—the valley floor was swamped with people, muscling their way towards the Arena like little rabid ants. The noise must have been deafening—he could hear it from where he stood.

Looking ahead to his left, Albert spotted Marcus. He was sitting among some rocks with his back to Albert, looking down at the Arena as well. Albert walked towards him, Marcus turned his head to look at Albert as he approached, then turned away again, looking back down, staring intently at the Arena.

‘Watching?’ asked Albert conversationally.

Marcus gave no sign that he had heard, continuing his scrutiny of the platform, unmoving, unblinking. Albert wasn’t even sure he was breathing. He decided to try again.

‘So you like the fights, do—’ he started, then broke off, noticing the look of pure fury on the man’s face. ‘Well, maybe not.’ He laughed in what was meant to be a nonchalant fashion, but to his ears sounded more like a whiny engine backfiring. A really nervous whiny engine.

Marcus turned to fix Albert with his unblinking stare. With nothing else to look at, Albert looked back at him.

‘What do you want?’

‘Well, I just wanted to thank you. You know, for getting me—us here and—’

‘And now you have.’ He turned away, staring back into the valley. A moment later, realizing that Albert was still standing there, he turned back and looked up at him. ‘Well?’

‘I wanted to ask you something, too.’

There was no response.

‘I wanted to ask you about those Renegades.’

Marcus turned to look at him. He could feel those bottomless, dark eyes boring into him, and concentrated on looking elsewhere.

‘Why are you asking me?’

‘Well, because I thought if anyone would know of them, you would. Everyone says that nobody knows the tunnels like you do.’