Chapter 19 - An Alliance Offered

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  For the first stage, the contestants were led to the East Egalisian Sea, the country's only coastline.
After being fed high-calorie meals, the five competitors gazed into the aquamarine of the stormy sea. Dark clouds gathered overhead as the wind whipped the ocean into a frenzy.
Mr. Sotia pointed at the five submarines floating in the water. "Each submarine will carry one cameraman and one reporter to broadcast the Extraordinary Competition to the viewers at home, as well as follow each contestant around. The submarines are not allowed to interfere at all, even if it's a life-or-death situation."
He then indicated the scuba-diving gear in front of each contestant. "Please put on the diving gear."
Each candidate put on the scuba-diving gear.
Theo was glad that he knew how to swim. His mother had taught him when he was a kid.
The contestants were given a quick lesson on how to use the gear and then Mr. Sottia explained the rules for this particular stage.
"For this first leg of the competition, you will each be required to retrieve one large Pearls of Lao-Tzu from monstrous giant clams one thousand kilometres down on the ocean floor, haul them to the surface, and then cross the finish line there. Remember: take just one. Don't be greedy. Follow the submarines down to the giant clams. These are no ordinary clams, so be careful. You have only one hour's worth of oxygen in your tank, so don't dawdle."
He pointed to the white line etched onto the ground in front of a row of palm trees. "Whoever is last will be eliminated. Oh, and don't bother crossing the finish line without the pearl. If you return empty-handed, you will be disqualified, unless, of course, one of you dies."
Theo readied himself for the first stage.
He was excited but wracked with nerves.
His mother had always said, "Slow and steady wins the race. Think carefully before you act."
He would definitely take her wise words into consideration.
The contestants now in scuba-gear, Mr Sotia started to climb into his submarine. "I myself will be on a random submarine. Remember guys, I'll be watching you and so will the audience at home. We want lots of fighting and backstabbing and sabotage. It'll make for a great show."
Then, he paused and in a low voice, he said, "Remember what His Majesty the King said: if any one contestant dies during any stage, the rest of the contestants are free to move on to the next stage as long as one of you has the required item, so it's in your best interest to cause a bloodbath. That's right: try to kill one another. That's what makes for an exciting show."
And with that, Mr. Sotia fired a gun into the air and the race was on!
Theo eyed his fellow contestants.
He wasn't sure how much backstabbing and sabotage and killing he was willing to do to the others, but if they had no problems playing dirty, he would be forced to do so as well. Otherwise, he'd be at a disadvantage.
Borm, Senator Chammy, and the monk Anugit quickly waded into the water and soon disappeared underneath.
Releasing he was already falling behind, Theo was about to hop right in when Sovana put a hand on his shoulder.
"Hey, kid," she said. "How about you and me form an alliance and a non-aggression pact? We help each other and not attack each other. Instead, we try to eliminate all the other contestants. That would ensure that the final stage would include at least you and me. We can fight each other for the championship then."
Even wearing the scuba-diving headgear, Theo could see Sovana's disgusting pock-marked face.
He didn't trust her, but at this point, he had nothing to lose by making the alliance.
"Sure," he said.
They shook hands.
"Just you and me," she said. "We can have no other allies."
He had a feeling that she would betray him somehow later on, but for now, the alliance would do.
It was still better than to head to the final stage with Borm.
In their clunky scuba gear, the two new allies stepped into the sea and soon vanished underwater.

***

As swordfish and archerfish and barracudas swam around her, Sovana dove as rapidly as she could.
She was thinking about what she would do with the $1,000,000 a year. Of course, she'd be set for life, but she still wanted to use the money to open a beauty parlor, her dream for many years.
Born into wretched poverty, Sovana had to work at the age of twelve to support her disabled mother, deadbeat father and five younger siblings.
She went to Lotus Hill and worked in the garment factories. In addition to the squalid room that she had to share with four other women, she, along with many of the mainly female workers, suffered from a variety of challenges in the factories: long hours and no overtime pay, short-term contracts with no job security, supervisors that made unreasonable demands and threatened to fire them if disobeyed, unwanted sexual advances, and heat and chemicals that caused fainting and sickness.
But still, Sovana pressed on.
Her mother and younger siblings needed her. She was their only breadwinner.
Unfortunately, only a year after opening, the garment factory closed down shop and the foreign owner skipped town, taking with him most of his employees' salaries.
Sovana had no recourse to recover her lost wages and so, she had to take another job.
She had heard through the grapevine that there were high-paying jobs as domestic servants in the richer neighbouring Republic of Europeia and so, she took the plunge.
To avoid the competitive process, she paid an agent $500 to smuggle her to Europeia illegally. As soon as she arrived, her new employer took her passport to ensure that she wouldn't be able to escape.
At her new employer's mansion, she was forced to work fourteen-hour days washing and cleaning and cooking. And when she wasn't doing that, she was beaten, starved, raped and almost killed.
One desperate rainy night, she ran away from her employer and sought refuge in the Egalisian embassy.
Her home country repatriated her back to the Kingdom and she returned to her home village to live with her parents and siblings.
Once happy-go-lucky in her youth, scarred by her terrible abuse now, she became sullen and silent.
She had virtually become a slave to her traumatic experience in Europeia.
Her behaviour became bizarre.
She would throw herself from the porch of her family's tiny stilt house, run to the local market buck naked and offer her body to strange men on the streets.
Her mother had to chain her to her room to prevent her from displaying any more erratic behavior.
But once Sovana heard about the Extraordinary Competition, she became lucid again. Because she never had any, money always had a way of motivating her.
And by chance, she found a pyrope.
It must have been the Universe's will that she enter the competition and win.
$1,000,000 a year working for the King.
No more garment-factory work where the loud machinery damaged her hearing.
No more domestic service where the cruel employer delighted in abusing her.
Just money - loads and loads of money.
She was willing to do whatever it took to win, including murder.
So breaking an alliance, if it came to that, wouldn't trouble her conscience in any way.

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