Read Online The Hunt by Brad Stevens - Free Book Online Page A

hadn't been for that, they'd have caught us all immediately.
    “ I ran around a corner and down an alleyway, hoping to throw them off. And it worked for a while. Then I saw this tall building which looked like it belonged on another planet. It seemed to have no connection with the surrounding rubble. It was the Hunters' apartment block. I was standing in front of it when a Hunter arrived carrying an unconscious woman. He had her slung over his shoulder, like a sack of potatoes. I was so scared I couldn't move. But the fucker just smiled at me and went into the building. I suppose he didn't need another victim. I felt like fainting, but I managed to run in the other direction. I eventually came to this old office building, and thought I'd try hiding in there for a while. There was a vending machine nearby, so I took a sandwich and a bottle of water, and climbed up the stairs to the fifth floor. There must have been fifteen floors, but the fifth seemed safe enough. I went into the first office I found. There was nothing inside it but old filing cabinets and a broken chair. The window was filthy, but it gave me the opportunity to see what was going on outside. That's the advantage of a dirty window; it's easier to see out than in. Every so often, I'd observe men walking along the street holding these machines with illuminated screens. They looked kind of like laptops. I think they were body heat detectors. But they were so small, they would only have been able to pick up somebody within the immediate area, and I was high enough to be out of range.
    “ Anyway, as it started to become dark, I noticed men wearing what were obviously infra-red goggles. There's no electricity in the area, except in the Hunters' block, and no street lights, so at night the arena is pitch black. Whatever you do, don't move around in the dark; you'll be a sitting target. I somehow managed to sleep for a few hours. When I woke up just after dawn, I was desperate for a drink, but I'd already finished my water, and didn't dare go outside to use the vending machine. So I stayed by the window and stared at the street below. After a few hours, I spotted this one guy I hadn't seen since the Hunters viewed us in the meeting area. I remembered him because the creep shook my hand and said he looked forward to getting to know me. He was strolling along, calm as you please, scrutinising a handheld device. It wasn't one of those body heat detectors. Much smaller. But whatever it was, he seemed to be paying close attention to it. He walked right up to the building I was hiding in and went directly to the entrance. Didn't even glance at the other buildings. Then I heard him coming up the stairs. He didn't stop at any of the other floors, just walked straight up to the fifth. Of course, I was trapped. There was only one door to the office, and I had nowhere to run.
    “ When he came through the door, he didn't seem surprised to see me kneeling by the window. I don't know how, but he'd found some way of tracking me. He was wearing a backpack; as he walked towards me, he took it off, dropped it on the floor at my feet, opened it, and took out a Taser. He waved the Taser in my face and said, ‘We can do this the hard way or we can do it the easy way’.
    “ I looked up at him and said, ‘Easy way’, in this pathetic voice. He put the Taser away and took a steel collar out of the backpack. He handed it to me, and told me to secure it around my neck. It fastened at the back, and once it was locked on I couldn't remove it. He showed me this remote control he wore on his wrist, told me it was connected to the collar, and said that by pressing a button he could immobilise me, even if I was a mile away. He didn't demonstrate it then, but he did later, and he hadn't been bluffing. Then he commanded me to walk in front of him, and directed me to the Hunters' block. Once we were there...you can guess the rest.”
    Mara hardly knew what to say. “I want you to know how much I