THE 69TH HUNGER GAMES - Book 2: Trainer

Chapter 14 - The Control Lounge pt 4

I walk into the control lounge to find Gina looking extremely stressed, sitting on the sofa.

“There you are!” Gina snaps while getting up. “The only time I actually need to talk to you, you’re not in here,” she exclaims as she grabs me by the arms and pull my out into the hallway.

“Gina, what on earth is going on?” I ask.

“Hold on, I need to find somewhere private,” she snarls while taking me back into the elevator.

She presses a button to take me up to the very top floor, which seems a bit unusual. Once we reach the top floor, I finally understand why she took me there. It is just an empty storeroom with a few mops and buckets lying around. It must be a janitor’s closet or something. Someone has to keep these control lounges tidy while the trainers watch over their tributes.

“Okay, Gina, will you explain what is going on?” I snap. “Why on earth were you on that hovercraft?”

“Hyora, sit down,” Gina snaps, while pointing at the floor.

“Jeez, alright,” I mutter, while sitting down.

Gina sits down in front of me and grabs my hands.

“I went to the Capitol,” Gina says, sounding very authoritative.

“Why?” I ask.

“I went to get more sponsors for Dean and Lianka, since you appear to be so hopeless at it,” Gina says. “So the first thing I did was visit some Capitol celebrities and wealthy business moguls, and I happened to stop by Klieo’s mansion.”

“Klieo?” I say.

“Yes, Klieo, the pop star,” Gina mutters impatiently.

“Yeah, I know who she is,” I snap, “It’s just that, I’ve already asked her for help and she refused. I don’t see how she is willing to help again, just because you asked her.”

“That’s not the point, Hyora,” Gina mutters, now sounding extremely impatient. “The point is, I visited her house to get sponsors, and while I was there, I saw something.”

“What are you talking about?” I murmur. “You’re starting to scare me.”

“I went and asked her to help us by sponsoring Dean and Lianka,” Gina exclaims. “She obviously said ‘no,’ but then offered me a cup of tea while I was there. I thought it wouldn’t hurt if I stayed for a bit and had a cup of tea with her, so I did. While she was in the kitchen preparing the tea, one of her avoxes was in the living room dusting some of the furniture. The avox would constantly give me very shocked looks, as if she knew me or something,” Gina exclaims.

“What does this have to do with Dean and Lianka?” I mutter.

“Well, while Klieo was preparing the tea, the avox approached me,” Gina explains. “She just stopped dusting the furniture and walked towards me. She then kept pointing at my face, then continue to point at her own face. It was perplexing at first, but then the avox did something that really shocked me. She grabbed a pen from the desk and wrote the words ‘Suzy Coco’ on my hand.”

Gina lifts up her hand and showed me the spot where the avox had drawn on it. Just as Gina said, the words ‘Suzy Coco’ is written in faded ink on her palm.

“That’s not all,” Gina mutters, “at first, I was shocked that the avox knew mum’s name, but what shocked me even more was that I realised that on one of Klieo’s many awards hung up on her walls, it showed her full name. Klieo’s full name is Klieo Evolie. Remember last year when we broke into school to find records of mum? The document said that mum was working for the Evolie family in the Capitol?”