Page 89 of Mongrels United
Throughout the intermission period, Grady watched the Civil Guards moving through the crowd, climbing over seats, and sometimes running people down as they saw them coming and tried to escape.
In all she saw ten people arrested, most of them in the upper tiers, and at either end of the arena.
The game begun for the final period and Grady could think of nothing but urging the Mongrels on.
Then the Mongrels scored their third goal. They were ahead!
The whole arena came to its feet, screaming their delight. Nash leaned close to Grady’s ear. “Look at Carpenter!”
She looked over at the Captain’s box. Siran was on his feet, pumping a fist in the air, too.
Grady laughed until tears came into her eyes and had to wipe them dry so she could see the game.
Very few people returned to their seats, after that. The stomping and the shouting was accompanied by everyone jumping about, screaming, and urging the Mongrels forjust one more! Just one more! Just one more!
Another goal would surely seal the game, Grady thought, pressing her fingers to her overworked heart.
The Dreamhawks team were growing desperate. The chimes for penalties rang out more frequently, as Mongrels players were sent tumbling to slam into the tank walls, or were pushed down to the heavy zone with a well timed shove from above, to land heavily and climb slowly back up to the zero-gee level, shaking bruised joints and limbs.
“They’re getting desperate,” Nash said. He had to speak loudly, or in her ear, for her to hear him. The noise around them was ferocious. “They’re tasting the fear of defeat.”
Grady grew mortally aware of the readout on the game clock, as it counted down the minutes. Only ten minutes to go…
The crippling tactics of the Dreamhawks stepped up a pace, for they could see the clock as well as Grady. The Mongrels doggedly played on, relentlessly regathering every time they were blocked, or the ball stolen from them.
Three minutes to go.
Grady realized she was wringing her hands, in between waving her fist and urging the Mongrels for just one more goal. Her chest felt as though plasteel had been poured down her throat and allowed to swell and set in there. She couldn’t simply stand. She shifted. She rocked and bounced. In a way, she was jumping about as much as everyone around her. Even Nash was screaming at the Mongrels to hold on, just one more goal….
Forty seconds! Grady gasped, almost breathless with the agony of hope. The Dreamhawks got a breakaway, as the ball shifted to green—zero grav. Their bottom man flung the ball up to the zero-gee level, and the ball rocketed toward their end of the tank.
The clock was racing through the final seconds, as the Dreamhawks top man grasped the handle. Grady knew enough about tankball now to know he would grip another Dreamhawks player and use them as an anchor to spin around and toss the ball at the goal.
She groaned, her heart breaking. The Dreamhawks wouldn’t miss the open goal—there wasn’t a Mongrels player near them!
The Dreamhawks top man gripped his teammate’s ankle, and pulled on it to turn himself over, and up. The ball in his other hand completed an even bigger arc around the anchor player, picking up speed. The top man let it go, timing the release so the ball shot toward the open goal.
It was the perfect shot. The speed of the ball was incredible.
And just as the ball approached the open moth of the goal, a hand thrust up from underneath and grabbed the handle, halting it, and drawing it away from the goal.
Grady gasped again. It was Kailash holding the ball! But he was a groundsman….
Then she saw that the Mongrels had formed a chain all the way down to the heavy zone. They had seen this play coming, and had formed a ladder.
“They pulled himupthe ladder!” Nash screamed in her ear. “Pure Quiver and Crave! I’ll bedamned!”
The siren blared.
Grady clapped her hands over her ears as the noise threatened to deafen her. She realized she was crying and laughing and jumping up and down. But so was everyone else.
Nash swept her up into a huge, hard hug, squeezing her and kissing her soundly.
But so was everyone else in the Mongrels seats.
Against the most amazing odds, the Mongrels had won the ribbon. They were the champions.
“Listen!” Nash shouted in her ear. “Can you hear it? Outside the arena!”
