Natalie Yamnson was crouched down and not moving. She was barely breathing and watching someone. She was watching a lot of things actually, watching every direction for other opponents and listening out for them too. It would be unbecoming for her to allow herself to be ambushed. Speaking of ambushes, that’s what she was waiting to do herself. Ahead of her, only a few metres or so, was another candidate: Katie Rell. Natalie had memorised the names of all the candidates involved in the battle royale. Everyone from Jeremy Batter to Moe Monett, both of whom she’d dispatched of almost immediately when the battle royale began. She’d gained two tags and was lying in wait to get a third. Katie Rell wasn’t the only candidate she could see. The body of Jack Hight lay nearby, and was unlikely to be getting up any time soon. Katie Rell was wielding a high power sniper rifle and had already used it to great effect on Jack Hight. Now she’d set a trap down on the platform below and was perched above, hidden away but with a perfect view of the area below. The perfect sniping position. And Katie Rell was good, Natalie could tell. She had never once let her guard down while setting the trap and now, as she waited for some unfortunate soul to come and take the bait, she still hadn’t let that guard drop. She was still alert. Natalie was only a few metres away but she knew that if she got any closer the sniper would notice her instantly. And thus she also waited for someone to take the bait. During that wait the second tone sounded, shaking the arena. Katie Rell adjusted her grip slightly, Natalie didn’t budge. A short while after the second tone, Katie Rell began shooting, someone had entered her sights. Natalie wondered why Katie Rell was leaving such long gaps between her shots, surely she could shoot at a higher rate than that. The plan became clear when she reloaded, which was a smooth and efficient movement that took about as long as the gaps she was leaving between shots. She was masking the rhythm of her shots so that her quarry couldn’t work out when she was reloading, when she was vulnerable. Yes Katie Rell was an excellent sniper. She also still hadn’t dropped her guard. Even now, with her prey in sight, no one would be able to get the drop on her. All Natalie needed was a moment, a single moment when her focus was taken up entirely by the candidate she was shooting at. But that moment wasn’t coming. Natalie moved slowly and ever so slightly craned her neck to see what or, more accurately, who Katie Rell was shooting at. It was the platinum haired candidate: Cyrus Beem. He was holding a long metal baton and was running from side to side, managing to leap behind walls and cover before Katie Rell could line up a shot. Through his erratic movement he was somehow staying alive. He’d also seen the bait. Katie Rell had taken the tag from Jack Hight’s body and had left it out on a waist high wall, just begging for someone to come and pick it up. She had also rigged the area around that wall to explode when someone ran through there, for example if someone ran past the wall to grab a tag they desperately needed. It seemed that Cyrus Beem desperately needed a tag though, as he sidestepped another shot, which blew another large crater in the floor of the platform, and turned sharply, running straight for the tag.

In that moment Katie Rell let her guard down. It was only for a moment and Natalie didn’t really blame her. Her quarry had just taken the bait and, even if the explosions didn’t get him, she would have an easy time of gunning down the panicked Cyrus Beem. Or she would have if Natalie didn’t use that moment, when Katie Rell was focussed entirely on Cyrus Beem, to dash forwards and smash down on the head of her fellow candidate. Katie Rell’s forehead connected with the concrete ground with a satisfying thunk and her body went limp. She was out cold. Cyrus Beem was gone, having fallen down the new large hole that had formed in the platform. Natalie wondered if the arena was ever repaired between assessment days. It was a little disappointing, she’d hoped that the explosion would have been enough to take care of Cyrus Beem and she could have gained more than just one tag from the endeavour. She could have let Katie Rell take Cyrus Beem out, then gone for Katie Rell when the opportunity arose but Natalie couldn’t have been sure that another chance like that would have come, and she had no time to consider her options. Either way she now had four tags and could pursue the presumably worn out Cyrus Beem. But at the moment she was about to stand up, from the unconscious body of Katie Rell and the deceased body of Jack Hight, she froze. Someone was nearby, and it wasn’t Cyrus Beem. She turned her head to the right and saw the person watching her. The mountain of a man, Hugh Jaman. He was only a few metres away and he’d approached her without even making a sound.

“You noticed me.” he said, his voice somehow booming even when he himself was speaking softly. Natalie only nodded, not breaking her stare, not even blinking. “A pity.” Hugh Jaman looked almost wistful. It was an odd expression to see on his face. “I was hoping to find you, Natalie Yamnson.” he continued to speak, his voice would have sounded cordial and polite if it didn’t make Natalie’s very bones resonate. “I had to crush a couple of weaklings on my way here, but I just had to come and ask you a question.” Natalie raised an eyebrow and slowly stood up.

“A question? This is hardly the time to be having a conversation.” Hugh Jaman laughed when Natalie said that.

“Yes but this is no normal assessment day. That woman, Millicent Lute or whatever, doesn’t seem to have a clue what’s going on here. And then there’s you.” he pointed a huge finger at Natalie, “What are you doing here? Why is the daughter of the Chief Executive Officer and Imperial Steward of Coca-Cola, Isaac Yamnson, being assessed for a job like assistant graduate trainee intern? As Coca-Cola royalty, aren’t you meant to be married off to the head of a company or something?” Hugh Jaman had a point, it was most irregular for Natalie to be here, fighting them all in this battle royale. He was also right about another thing. And that thing was the entire reason she was there, facing him down for the chance of employment.

From a young age Natalie Yamnson was raised with one particular purpose in mind: to act as a political pawn. This purpose had been decided for her the moment the doctor told her father and mother that she was a girl. If she had been born male she would have been given a high ranking position in Coca-Cola and would be making big decisions regarding the direction of the company, as would be her birthright. Having been born female, her parents had a far different intention for her. Regardless she was raised and trained fiercely. She was taught how to stand and sit up straight, how to hold cutlery properly, how to identify and talk about wine and champagne, how to walk with elegance, how to perform complex mathematical operations in her head, how to speak all four of the major international languages: English, Mandarin Chinese, American and Klingon, how to kill a human being with just one hand, how to detect poisons and toxins and how to treat them, how to perform minor surgery on people and on herself, how to make explosives, how to diffuse explosives, how to disassemble and reassemble most firearms and how to use all of them, how to present herself as elegantly and beautifully as possible, and a range of other skills that were expected of any child of a man as powerful as Isaac Yamnson. If she had not kept up she would have disappeared, like many children before her. But Natalie survived and not only met the expectations of her station, she exceeded them. Indeed Isaac Yamnson, her own father, himself lamented that she had been born a girl, as she would have made a valuable asset to Coca-Cola if she was a man. But all this talent did not have to go to waste, Isaac Yamnson would find a use for anyone, and it would be foolish of him to ignore this asset that he had created in his daughter. So when he defeated Amazon Prime in single combat and Coca-Cola acquired Amazon and everything it owned he proposed a way to make the acquisition a little smoother. His offer would show that there was no bad blood between Coca-Cola and Amazon, and that they were now stronger together than they had ever been when apart. With the destruction of Amazon Prime, leadership of Amazon had fallen to a man named Gareth Miller, who had the official title of Executive Officer of Customer Satiation and Steward of the Amazon Fiefdoms, and Gareth Miller also had a child, a son, who had suffered the same misfortune as his father, as he had also been named Gareth. Gareth Miller Jr was, save for his name, a highly desirable man. The weekly business gossip magazine Forbes had names Gareth Miller Jr the most eligible bachelor in the world. He was young, in his early twenties, handsome, highly intelligent and was the son of the second in command to what was, until recently, one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. Isaac Yamnsons proposal was, well, a proposal. Natalie Yamnson would marry Gareth Miller Jr. It would be the marriage of the century, and send a clear message to the world that Coca-Cola and Amazon were truly allies. Isaac Yamnson was, reportedly, very pleased with himself for this idea. Natalie Yamnson was less pleased. Truly she had known that, no matter how capable she was, this was always to be her fate but now that fate was coming closer and closer. But Natalie had been raised well and had been raised to use knowledge of her opponents against them, and she had a lot of knowledge about her father. The key fact was this: Isaac Yamnson could not resist crushing the spirits of those who stood against him. Thus Natalie went to him with a proposal of her own. She requested that she be allowed to apply for a job, just for one vacancy. If she got the job then she could work there for the rest of her life, and would not have to marry Gareth Miller Jr. As Natalie had expected, her father was more than happy to accept these terms for the very simple reason that he would not pass up on the opportunity to see someone who stood against him fail, even if that person was his own daughter.

And so Natalie Yamnson applied for the position of assistant graduate trainee intern at a company called Extech. As expected she was invited to the assessment day, and she sailed through the various stages of the assessment with ease. All that was left was the battle royale, and she would be free of her engagement, and of her father.

Natalie explained none of this to Hugh Jaman. It was a waste of time to talk. Hugh Jaman smiled with a wry expression.

“Well I tried. Now can you hand over the tags you’ve collected. By my estimation you should have four on you.” The revelation that Hugh Jaman had worked this out shocked Natalie but she didn’t react. “You want to know how I know that?” Hugh Jaman guessed correctly, “Well that’s simple.” he smiled again but there was nothing wry or wistful about this one. It was a smile of pure joy and of pure malice. “I’ve been watching you for over an hour, from before you began stalking that sniper actually.” This shocked Natalie enough to make her let out a small gasp. This man, this huge heavy man, had been following her undetected for that long? “In fact I only let you know I was here, now that you’ve refused to answer my question well…” Hugh Jaman shrugged, “There’s no need for me to let you live now.” That had to be a bluff. There was no way a man built like that could move so quietly. There was no way he could have gotten so close to Natalie undetected! “I’m not bluffing, Natalie Yammnson.” With that Hugh Jaman took a few steps back into the shadows, and disappeared.

Impossible! The area he’d entered had been where Natalie had been hiding from Katie Rell. It was a web of concrete branches and tress, plenty of corners and shadows, but for someone like Hugh Jaman to just disappear in there was… Natalie breathed steadily. She was panicking, and if you panicked then you were already dead. It seemed she had suffered the folly of underestimating her opponent. Well if Hugh Jaman could move with such stealth and little presence then there was only one thing she could do. She would have to go up against him with all of her might.