The high school gymnasium smelled of floor wax, and absolute, suffocating terror. Over five hundred students and faculty members knelt on the hardwood basketball court, surrounded completely by heavily armored HWSD kill squads.
At the front of the hostage crowd, Rize knelt with her hands tightly clasped behind her head. Her crisp white blouse was wrinkled, and her red-framed glasses sat slightly crooked on her nose, but her dark eyes glared fiercely at the enforcers pacing in front of them.
Inquisitor Vance, the high-ranking executioner sent to replace Manuel Bailey, walked heavily across the painted court. Blue kinetic energy crackled violently around his steel gauntlets.
