Chapter Forty-Two

Lexi Carmichael

We waited in the dining room while the gamemaster took the other team away. Ten minutes later, he returned and led us toward the front of the castle, down some stone stairs.

We stopped in front of a metal door with a keypad next to it. He punched in some numbers, and the door swung open. “Please, everyone, enter carefully. It’s dark.”

I stepped into the room, which was lit only by red lights coming from hidden fixtures. It took a minute or so for my eyes to fully adjust. The walls of the room were a checkerboard mix of black and mirrored tiles that gave the room an eerie atmosphere. One wall had a scorpion made entirely of red mirrored tiles.

Weird.

The room had only one piece of furniture: a small metal keyboard mounted on a pole and attached to a raised chair in the center of the room. There were two metal rings around the base of the chair that appeared to serve as steps. The chair faced a large video screen that was currently dark. Brando turned on the screen with a switch on its side before walking to a closed door on the left side of the room and pulling on it, apparently confirming it was locked.

The video screen jumped to life. A small, elevated track with three shoebox-size, radio-controlled cars came into view. The elevated track was hilly and curvy as it wound back and forth through a room about the size of a one-car garage. The narrow track was not much wider than the cars, and there was a drop of a couple of feet from the track to the ground, meaning the slightest mistake would cause the car to fall off the track. A raised platform with a ramp from the track was at the end of the track.

“Lexi, as the designated gamer, I ask you to take a seat in the chair,” Brando said, sweeping his arm out toward the chair.

I climbed up the metal steps and sat down. A control console swung up from the side of the chair and in front of me. Hooked on one side was a pair of high-tech headphones.

“Okay, that’s pretty cool,” I said.

“Indeed,” the gamemaster agreed. “Now, Lexi, you may not leave this chair until it’s time to exit the room. I’ll explain further in a minute.”

I ran my fingers over the console buttons, getting familiar with them while the gamemaster continued.

“This challenge has two parts. The first part is a combination of skill and problem solving. The second part will test your teamwork, powers of observation, ability to communicate, and willingness to learn from your mistakes. To complete the first part of the challenge, Lexi must navigate at least one of the radio-controlled cars onto the platform at the end of the track. Doing so will unlock the closed door to my left so you may begin the second part of the challenge. To succeed at the second task, Lexi must navigate you to the platform at the far end of the room, where you’ll find the code to exit this room. Be warned, you’ll be able to hear Lexi, but she’ll not be able to hear you. The room efficiently absorbs sound.”

It sounded odd, but at least it appeared relatively straightforward…so far. However, since the challenges had become ridiculously harder, I doubted it would be easy.

Brando picked up a cloth bag off a thin counter that ran just under the front of the screen. He asked everyone except me to hold out their right arms while he affixed a small plastic bracelet around each wrist. When he finished, a dim red glow outlined the edges of the bracelet.

“Only I can remove the bracelet with a special tool after you exit the room,” he said. “The purpose of the bracelet is to notify you when you’re eliminated from the challenge. This will happen if you get to the second half of the challenge and step off the path in the far room. At that time, your bracelet will flash red, and a door will be illuminated on the side of the far room. You are to proceed to that door and exit the challenge. The bracelet will provide just enough light for you to safely exit the room. Until you do, the control room lights, cameras, and microphones will be inoperative. So, any delays will cost your team valuable time. You will then proceed and wait outside the entry door until the challenge is over.”

“So, team members can actually be eliminated, and we can still win the challenge?” I asked.

“That’s correct. I will explain further in a moment.”

He put the bag that held the bracelets on the counter under the screen and picked up two more items that looked like flashlights. “These are strobe lights. You’ll need them to complete the challenge. I warn you, however, they have an extremely limited battery life. So, if you attempt to use them for any other purpose, like to navigate the walkway, they’ll not have sufficient battery life to accomplish their intended purpose.”

“But there are only two strobe lights and six of us,” Juliette said. “Who gets to use them?”

“That’s entirely up to you,” Brando responded. “Now, let me review the challenge once more. First, Lexi must drive at least one of the radio-controlled cars onto the platform. If she fails, the challenge is over. If she succeeds, the door to your left will open, and one or more of you will proceed in the dark along an obstacle-ridden path to another platform guided only by her instructions. If you step off the path for any reason, you’re eliminated and must exit the game immediately. The game will be frozen until you are out, so I suggest you move quickly. If one or more of you manages to make it to the platform, there’ll be additional obstacles. If you conquer those, you must solve the remaining puzzle to acquire a code. Once you have the code, at least one of you with a nonalarmed bracelet must return to the control room with the code and use it on the keypad for you and Lexi to exit the room.” He looked around the room. “Any questions?”

I stared at the screen and back at Brando. “Just to be clear, I have to have at least one person with an alarm bracelet that hasn’t been activated and the code obtained from the platform in order to exit the room and win the challenge.”

“Correct. You’ll have two hours to complete the challenge. After that, the screen, the cameras, the infrared lights, and the screen will turn off and the house lights will come up. I warn you, this room has never been solved before. In fact, only one team has even made it past the cars, so best of luck.”

We all looked at each other as Brando exited the room and the clock over the door began its countdown.

“Okay, I guess the first part is up to me.” I faced the screen, sliding the headset onto my ears and adjusting the mic in front of my mouth. I’d already briefly checked out the console. On one side was a high-end gaming controller with dual thumb sticks, four triggers, and four face buttons.

Slash climbed up one of the steps and examined the setup over my shoulder. “Must be Bluetooth-connected,” he commented as I lifted the console and saw it didn’t have any wires.

Several sets of multicolored buttons were on the left side of the console, and in the center of it was a square button labeled “microphone.” Only three buttons on the left-hand side were illuminated.

I picked up the controller and tentatively moved the thumb stick but saw no response on the screen.

“Try that,” Slash said, pointing to a green-lit button.

I pushed it, and one of the three cars came to life with a green light pulsing on its roof. I tried using the thumb stick again, and the car moved forward a foot or so. I pulled back, and the car returned to its position.

“While I would have preferred a racing controller, I think I can handle this,” I said. “But it seems too easy. There has to be something I don’t know yet, especially since only one team has conquered this section of the challenge.”

Slash murmured his agreement as I briefly turned on each of the cars. I also pulled and pushed a couple of levers on the side of the console, discovering they moved my stool up and down and even rotated it.

“That’s pretty sweet,” I said, moving the stool into a position that gave me a full view of the track.

I started driving the green car slowly around the pad to get the feel for it before driving it onto the track. In the process, I discovered one of the thumb sticks acted as a brake. That could be useful. I tried a few more moves before I uncovered a significant issue.

“The controls are backward,” I said. “Slash, check this out.” When I steered the car right, it went left. When I steered the car left, it went right. The forward and back movements were accurate, but the right and left were reversed.

“That’s going to affect your accuracy, timing, and reflexes,” Slash said. “Be careful with it.”

“Easy for you to say. Okay, let me check that it’s true for all three of the cars.” I experimented a bit and confirmed the same setup on all the cars. “Well, this is going to make it a lot harder, but not impossible. I’ll just have to go slow and steady, but we have to get moving.”

“You’ve got this, Lexi,” Mia called, and I smiled as I carefully maneuvered the first car onto the track. I moved it up the ramp and onto the track. I negotiated the first simple turn with a few small adjustments. Feeling slightly more confident, I picked up the pace slightly and made a couple more turns.

“It’s not easy fighting my instincts honed from years of play,” I said. “Right is left, and left is right. It’s crazy.”

Still, I was making progress, so that was good. In fact, I started to think I was getting the hang of it when I approached a steep hill on the track. I slowed as I reached the top, but once I started down, I was going too fast to make the hard right turn at the bottom. I tried to correct in the moment, but my instincts moved the car in the opposite direction, and the car tumbled off the track.

The room fell deadly silent.

Slash, who still stood watching over my shoulder, patted my arm. “Consider it a necessary learning curve, cara. You’ve got this.”

Inhaling a deep breath, I fired up the second car with determination. I carefully retraced my steps, but the fact that I was eating up the clock was adding to my anxiety. I had to strike that delicate balance of accuracy and time, and it wasn’t going to be easy.

I started driving again, and it felt like I was starting to get a handle on the backward steering. My confidence on the turns and braking increased even though I almost lost it a couple of times. I finally reached a set of four climbing switchback turns about three-quarters of the way into the track. I was close to finishing. I took the first two turns slowly, and then the third one with a little more confidence, but on the fourth, I made the same mistake. Needing to go left, I steered left, and the car slid off the right side of the track before I could react.

Gasps sounded in the room, and I closed my eyes. But I wasn’t upset—I was mad. The track wasn’t that hard. I’d played on dozens of tracks a lot harder than this and won them handily.

“It’s part of the mental challenge,” Slash said. “The more skilled you are at these kinds of games, the harder it’s going to be for you.”

“That’s the problem. It really isn’t that hard. But if I lose concentration for even a second, it’s fatal. It’s like trying to drive fast while going in reverse. I’ve always struggled looking in the rearview mirror. It would be fairly simple if I could reverse the course back to normal.”

“What if you looked at the screen in a mirror?” Oscar asked. “Wouldn’t that reverse it the right way?”

“Of course, but where would we get a mirror?”

“What about the mirror tiles on the wall?” Oscar suggested. “Looking at them made me think maybe one of them could act like a rearview mirror for you.”

Slash jumped down from the chair. “Brilliant idea, Oscar. Let’s see if we can pry one of them off the wall.”

Everyone began pulling at the tiles.

“They’re not coming off,” Mia complained.

Suddenly Tito gave a whoop as one of the tiles popped off. “I’ve got one. How are you going to use it, Lexi?”

Slash held it up behind me, and after fiddling around and trying to sit sideways in the chair and work over my shoulder, I remembered I could pivot the chair. I rotated the chair, facing away from the screen. After Slash repositioned the mirror a few times, I fired up the final car and drove it onto the track.

“It’s working,” I said, making rapid progress.

“Don’t get cocky,” Tito warned.

I easily made it past the section with the four switchbacks and approached the final, sweeping turn right before the ramp to the platform. I drove confidently and was almost over the rise before the last turn.

“Stop!” Oscar suddenly shouted.