Assassination Game
Read Assassination Game Online
Authors: Alan Gratz
It’s all in fun until someone gets hurt—or killed.
The rules are simple: draw a target. Track him down and “kill” him with a spork. Take your victim’s target for your own. Oh, and make sure the player with your name doesn’t get to you first. The game ends when only one player remains.
James T. Kirk is playing for fun. Leonard “Bones” McCoy is playing to get close to a girl. But when a series of explosions rocks the usually placid Starfleet Academy campus, it becomes clear that somebody is playing the Assassination Game for real.
Is it one of the visiting Varkolak, a ferocious species with whom the Federation has a shaky relationship? Or could it be a member of the Graviton Society, a supersecret group at the Academy that works to eliminate threats to the Federation?
As Uhura, Sulu, and Commander Spock infiltrate the society, Kirk and Bones attempt to uncover who’s behind the explosions. But just as in the Assassination Game, they can never be sure who they can trust—and who’s out to get them.
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© 2012 Paramount Pictures Corporation.
® & © 2012 CBS Studios, Inc. STAR TREK and
related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc.
All Rights Reserved.
Ages 12 up
Simon & Schuster
by Alan Gratz
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
New York
cover illustrated by Craig M. Staggs
cover design by Nicholas Sciacca
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
© 2012 Paramount Pictures Corporation. ® & © 2012 CBS Studios, Inc. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc.
All Rights Reserved. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in ant form. SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
0612 FFG First Edition
ISBN 978-1-4424-2059-5 (hc) •
ISBN 978-1-4424-2058-8 (pbk) •
ISBN 978-1-4424-2060-1 (eBook) •
Library of Congress Control Number: 2012934033
For my friends and colleagues on the USS
Potemkin
CH.02.30 How to Speak Varkolak
CH.05.30 Special Relationships
CH.09.30 Human Courtship Behavior
CH.12.30 Circumstantial Evidence
CH.17.30 Usual and Unusual Suspects
CH.19.30 The Fate of the Galaxy and All That
CH.20.30 Dragons, Dog-men, and Ninjas
CH.21.30 The Rules of Engagement
CH.23.30 Secrets Within Secrets
CH.26.30 Any Landing You Can Walk Away From
CH.27.30 The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Starfleet
TAG
“Ladies, gentlemen, hermaphrodites, cogenitors, and asexual life-forms,” Nadja Luther said, her eyes sweeping the Starfleet Academy cadets gathered around her, “welcome to the Assassination Game.”
Leonard McCoy rolled his eyes as Jim Kirk grinned and nudged him.
“I don’t know why I let you talk me into this nonsense,” McCoy groused.
“You know
exactly
why, Bones, and if you don’t be quiet, she’s going to think you’re not interested.”
Jim was right. The only reason he’d come along for this damn fool business was because of the senior cadet leaning against a desk at the front of the classroom. Nadja Luther. She was lean, tall, and as cool as a mint julep in July. Her auburn hair reminded McCoy of a Mississippi sunset, and her blue eyes reminded him of Romulan ale. Perhaps most importantly,
nothing
about her reminded him of his ex-wife.
“The Assassination Game is simple,” Nadja told them. “Each of you will be given the name of another player. Track down and assassinate that player. When you score a kill, you inherit your victim’s target. If
you
are killed, you’re out. The game ends when only one player remains.”
The cadets around the room broke into quiet but animated discussions.