Then she saw Hipshot trotting at the group’s heels and realized that the Gold Shirt was only Piranha . . . and Sonia and another girl were with him! Rianne? Kendra’s joy at seeing her friends erased the inexplicable sense of grief she’d felt when she watched the fifth-level freak die. Why hadn’t she killed it herself? The creature had wanted to bite her, yet she’d felt such an odd connection . . . She and her friends bumped fists and slapped palms. “We were just on the way to rescue you,” Terry told the others. “Why send children to do a man’s job?” Piranha said. The stranger with them squirmed with discomfort, her arms folded as if she were covering a bare chest. “None of you should be here,” she said. “I’ll be banned from the ranch—” “Everyone, this is Rianne,” Sonia said, hooking her arm around the tall, beautiful girl’s waist. “She thinks she wants to stay here, but there’s a little something we want to show her in the tunnel.” “Perfecto,”
