The doorknob was turning, very slightly, very slowly.

He held the gun in both hands and aimed it at the door.

The door jumped a fraction as the catch released.

Tom held his breath. Gritted his teeth. Checked his grip on the gun. Felt his world start to tilt as the door swung open, slowly, so slowly …

The dim light of the breaking dawn was enough to cast only the faintest of shadows. But Tom still caught the movement behind him.

He whirled around. Someone big and ugly was standing behind him, his fat fist swinging towards Tom’s face.

Then the world jarred into blackness.

g

For Kate, the hours were passing slowly and uncomfortably in claustrophobic darkness. Swagger had forced her inside a cramped locker. There was no room to move, and her long legs were buzzing with pins and needles. It was hard to breathe; she had to sit with her mouth pressed up against the grille in the narrow door, snatching gasps of the foul smelling air. Her muscles ached with inaction, and she had to fight the rising panic that kept threatening to overwhelm her. What was he planning for her?

‘Better keep quiet,’ Swagger had hissed as he’d squeezed her inside. ‘If you start screaming, remember your mom’s right across the hall.’

It was impossible to tell how much time had passed. She’d been stuffed inside the locker around seven in the morning, and left for what felt like for ever. Swagger, or one of his men, had allowed her out twice for a few minutes’ ‘exercise’. What a joke. By the time she’d finished flailing about on the damp floor trying to ease the cramps in her arms and legs, they were ready to bundle her back inside. Her back throbbed with pain, her head was splitting; this was torture, pure and simple, but she was damned if she would let Swagger see how much she hurt.

What was he going to do to her? Was this just some sadistic payback before he handed her over to Takapa? Or was he planning to have her himself? The cold thoughts rolled around till her whole head felt bruised.

Six o’clock in the evening had rolled around at last; she knew because Kes and the rest of Swagger’s mangy generals had come to distribute little phials of serum – liberated from Stacy’s labs? Or had Takapa brought his own supplies with him?

In her darkest moments, Kate wished she’d been left behind in the blaze at Woollard’s place; anything would be better than being trapped here in the dark waiting for the end to come. But as she heard the so-called gladiators moaning and screaming and fighting for their meagre fix of the drug, she found herself counting her lucky stars that she wasn’t amongst them.