The Kazak Guardians Read Online Free Page A

felt at peace for the first time in my life. It never crossed my mind that I could fail and have to go back to just surviving a day at a time.
    I had told Gabe that I would pay all the expenses, but he probably wasn't sure what I had meant or what that included. I knew he must have brought some money with him just in case. When we stopped for the night at Nephi, I repeated my promise.
    "Gabe, don't worry about money. I'm paying for all the expenses: gas, food, motel, and anything else we need. You're providing the car." Ironically, for most of my life I'd had nothing. I'd lived at the whim of others, who weren't inclined to be generous or even charitable. Today, I had more money than I needed or wanted. In Vegas, I had made a good living and my needs were simple. The money went into the bank and kept piling up. Besides, Gabe was not only a good friend; he felt more like a brother.
    "Thanks, Lynn. I'm glad you're stupid enough to come with me to the Kazak competition. Our talk with Master Jianyu scared me, and I'm a man. According to him, the odds are poor for men but much worse for women. Like the two women he mentioned, I know I wouldn't like the life, but I'd like to experience at least a couple of years there."
    I'll survive because I want it ten times more than you or any man who will be competing .
    We stopped at the Best Western where I rented two rooms and then treated Gabe to a home-cooked dinner at a nearby Country Kitchen. It was a small restaurant, which looked to be a favorite of the locals. I had a liver dish with fried onions, which Gabe turned his nose up at. He had a rib-eye steak.
    After a leisurely breakfast the next day, we left Nephi and were in Pocatello, Idaho, by six. Although we left late each morning, stopped for lunch, and quit early each night, we were fast approaching our destination. The following day would take us to Missoula, Montana, our last stop before the Hollister Mountain range where the competition would be held.
    Gabe and I were quiet at breakfast on the last day of our journey. Today we would reach our destination and an unknown fate-a sobering thought. It took only three hours to reach Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, and two hours more to reach the small dirt road that wove into the foothills. An hour later, we saw an iron gate and behind it hundreds of cars of every make and model. At the gate stood a small wooden shack and three armed guards.
    "Names?" a burly man with a disheveled beard and an unfriendly frown asked.
    "Gabe Wilkenson and Lynn Sagal."
    The man typed something on his hand-held device and a sticker from a nearby printer emerged, which he slapped onto the windshield. He then handed Gabe and me each a token. As the gate opened, another man appeared next to Gabe's door.
    "Take your stuff out of the car. I'll take it from here. The trail to the competition is over there." He nodded back to a dirt path two young men had just entered. Gabe and I got out and retrieved our bags. We had only brought one each, because we had heard the school would provided the necessities if you passed the first challenge.
    We weaved our way up a narrow, steep trail until we reached the sheer granite face of the mountain, which looked twice as tall as the Stratosphere in Vegas. At the base hung a large net, stretching a hundred feet or more across, with two men bouncing up and down on it. On the ground, twenty feet below the net, were four-foot square air mattresses. Forty feet off to one side of the net, medics were crowded around a man lying on the ground. Several minutes later, two medics carrying a stretcher arrived and carried him down the trail.
    "My God, Lynn. I think he fell and missed the net. It appears we have to climb that cliff to qualify. Jianyu wasn't kidding when he told us about the potential dangers associated with the challenges, and that they eliminated most of the candidates the first day." Gabe looked a bit pale.
    I couldn't help staring at the mountain. Twenty or more individuals