Private Games

Chapter 58

I AM SUPERIOR, Petra told herself as she moved parallel to the vault pit along the railing and towards the Gurkha with the thin black moustache. I am not like them. I am a weapon of vengeance, a weapon of cleansing.

She carried a stack of towels that hid her right hand when she smiled at the Gurkha with the moustache, and said, ‘For the vault station.’

He nodded. It was the third time the fat woman had brought towels to the pit, so he didn’t bother to go through them.

I am superior, Petra said over and over in her mind. And then, as it had as a young girl, during the rape and the killings, everything seemed to go strangely silent and slow-motion for her. In that altered state, she spotted her quarry: a slight man in a red sweat-jacket and white trousers, who was starting to pace as the first Chinese woman adjusted the springboard and prepared to vault.

Gao Ping was head coach of the Chinese women’s gymnastics team and a known pacer in big competitions. Petra had seen the behaviour in several films of Ping that she’d studied. He was a demonstrative, high-energy man who liked to goad his athletes to big performances. He was also a coach who had committed repeated crimes against the Olympic ideals, thereby sealing his fate.

The assistant coach, a woman named An Wu, and no less a criminal herself, had taken a seat, her face as emotionless as Ping’s was expressive. An Wu was an easier target than the ever-moving head coach. But Cronus had ordered Petra to take Ping first, and the assistant coach only if the opportunity followed.

Petra slowed in order to match her movement to Ping’s pacing. She handed the towels over the rail to another Game Master, and moved at an angle to the Chinese coach, who was bent over, exhorting his tiny athlete to greatness.

The first Chinese girl took off down the runway.

Ping took two skipping steps after her, and then stopped right in front of Petra, no more than eight feet away.

She rested her hand on the rail, intent on the head coach’s neck. When the Chinese girl hit the springboard, Petra fired.

I am a superior being, she thought as the dart hit Ping.

Superior in every way.