Free Stand By Your Hitman by Leslie Langtry Page B

off to talk tothe camera about the game, our chances, strategies, etc. When they returned with Sami, shaking their heads, I figured she’d cursed a blue streak, leaving them with nothing but bleeped-out language.
    When it was my turn, they took me off to the ocean and asked me to sit waist deep in the water and talk about the show so far. I hate staged photos. You know how the newspapers do it, right? The guy who woke up to find a bullet hole in his car is usually standing there, staring through the stupid hole, looking all serious. That is so stupid.
    But I sat there, in the water, in my swimsuit, not knowing what to say.
    “Just tell us what your strategy is for winning the game,” Ernie begged.
    I shrugged. I mean, I could hardly say that my game was over once I killed Isaac and that my goal was to be naked in a hammock with Lex, drinking margaritas, now, could I?
    My hand went up to the piranha teeth and so I said the only thing I could think of.
    “I named the fish Bob. He was okay. I figure I just moved too fast on that last pearl grab and it startled him. I mean, he’s just hanging out in the completely murky depths of a plastic pond and wondering what the hell is going on, right? I still feel sorry for him. Gloria up at the spa made this necklace for me. I guess I’ll always have a piece of him.”
    It was kind of like having an out-of-body experience. Why couldn’t I just shut up? No. I had to keepgoing on about some dead piranha like an idiot to a cameraman who’d recently seen me tell monkeys that I love them.
    As we walked back to the group, I realized that I was the fish out of water here, not Bob. If only the Council had selected my cousin Dak, or Gin. They’d have been ten times better than me.
    “Let’s go!” Cricket called. She looked like she was badly in need of a clipboard.
    “About goddamned time!” Sami grumbled.
    Isaac took the map and the lead, with Lex and me trailing behind him. I was torn between studying my Vic and flirting with my new boyfriend-who-didn’t-know-he-was-my-boyfriend.
    “So, what do you think, Missi?” I realized Lex was saying something to me very quietly.
    “Huh?”
    “About the alliance? You, me, Sami and Isaac?” He looked a little frustrated.
    “Oh. Yeah. Sure.”
    Isaac looked back at me and winked and I smiled involuntarily. This was getting worse. And I had no idea how to fix it.
    According to his dossier, Isaac was a bad man. A cold-blooded killer. But my gut was telling me that he was one of the good guys. What the hell was going on here?
    “I’ll fill Sami in after the challenge,” Lex said.
    The challenge. Right. I could figure out a solution after the challenge. After all, I was on a mission, andthat mission involved staying on the show until I could off Vic. Isaac. Vissac. Hmmmm.
    My brain was exhausted by the time we came to the clearing where the immunity challenge was to take place. The protein bars were starting to kick in, and I could see the other team was struggling. It was highly likely they hadn’t had any food or water (or protein bars dropped from seventeen-year-old primates), so this looked to be fairly easy.
    “Welcome back,” our snarky host, Alan, said. I wondered if I could kill him instead. The whole show was a joke.
    “Listen!” Julie shrilled. Oh yeah. She was already dead to me.
    Alan continued, “This challenge is for immunity. The tribe that wins goes back to camp. The losing tribe will vote someone off tonight.”
    He pointed to the course and I started laughing. Did Mom set this up? It was an exact replica of the ropes course on Santa Muerta! How weird. Although I wouldn’t put anything past the Council—they wanted to ensure I’d get the job (the one I no longer wanted to do) done.
    “You’ll work as a team to get through each of the segments of the course. At the end, you’ll zip-line to the finish. The other team members can help, but the last one through the course has to fasten themself on to the zip line