“What would we do if this were a video game?” Raymon asked. They were upstairs in the flight deck room where they’d been trying to make sense of the remaining clues on the chart.
“Probably turn it off, vow never to play again, then start over the next day,” Hendrix said. They’d all made that threat several times while playing Time Hunters. And yet they always found themselves back online, playing as if they’d never doubted they could win.
Raymon nodded. “Let’s do that.” He caught Hendrix’s questioning gaze. “What I mean is, let’s start over. From the very beginning, as if we were coming through the door for the first time. Look at everything as if we hadn’t seen it before. Now that we know more about what kinds of things we’re looking for, maybe we’ll notice something that didn’t seem important before.”
“Okay,” Hendrix said. He didn’t really want to waste time retracing their steps, but he didn’t have any better ideas.
They went down to the kitchen and stood in the doorway, trying to remember how everything had looked originally. They didn’t see anything that matched the symbols they needed, so they moved on. As soon as they walked into the living room, Hendrix saw the wall next to the gadgets. I should ask Raymon how to get it open, he thought, feeling guilty.
“I’m sorry,” Raymon said before Hendrix had a chance to speak.
“About what?”
Raymon took off his glasses and rubbed at his eyes. “I’m supposed to be the smart one. I’m supposed to be able to figure this all out, but I can’t. I’m letting you down. I’m failing the team.”
“Who says . . .” Hendrix had the answer to his question before he even finished asking it. “Did Ms. Pinkney tell you that?”
Raymon nodded. “She said I needed to be extra clever and solve most of the challenges. That’s why I insisted on doing that puzzle.”
“And it’s a good thing you did,” Hendrix said, patting him on the shoulder.
“Yeah, but I still can’t make it work. So many times I’ve looked right at something and not been able to figure it out. And then one of you guys does, and I feel like a failure.”
Hendrix could have said exactly the same thing. He’d felt like the worst leader since the moment they started. He’d been so busy worrying about what Ms. Pinkney and the studio thought about him that he’d forgotten the point of the game.
“You don’t have to be the smart one all the time,” Hendrix told Raymon. “Just like I don’t have to be the leader.”
Raymon looked up, confused. “What do you mean?”
“Ms. Pinkney told me I had to be the leader of the team, that I had to keep everyone on track,” Hendrix explained.
Raymon just shook his head in irritation. “I guess we all had roles to play.”
Raymon’s comment brought Hendrix up short. It was true. He’d been playing a role instead of the game. Clearly Raymon had too. What roles were Ander and Kane given? Hendrix thought, thinking through the last eight hours. He remembered the way Ander handed Raymon that code before they’d gotten into the den. How he never seemed to want to share his ideas. The way he’d reacted when Hendrix had apologized for thinking he was just a dumb jock.
And Kane. He’d been working against them from the start. Even before that, when they’d been playing Time Hunters at the hotel. Kane was never a cheater, never dishonest or disloyal. He must have been told to act that way.
Hendrix assigned the roles in his head. He was the leader, Raymon was the smart one, Ander was the dumb jock, and Kane was the betrayer.
Everything about his friends’ behavior made sense in that light, and Hendrix suddenly felt more confident than he had throughout the whole game. Those guys were never meant to win this contest, he thought with determination. But Hendrix, Raymon, Ander, and Kane are.
“Raymon,” Hendrix said, “can you show me how you got the secret panel to open up in the metal room? I think it might work on this wall too—I’m sure there’s a secret panel in it.”
Raymon examined the wall for a minute, went to a spot that looked like it was the exact middle, and put his hand against it. A small square pushed back into the wall and then slid down, revealing a cubbyhole with two keys inside.
“How did you know to do that?” Hendrix asked, impressed.
Raymon blushed. “It was luck. I was trying to measure the wall and happened to press there. I only realized it was the center after I’d found it.”
Hendrix felt a lot better about not being able to find the compartment himself. It seemed like a lot of the breakthroughs they’d had depended on luck.
“I think this one goes to the kitchen cabinet,” Hendrix said, holding up the smaller key. “And the only other door that needs a key is the one in the hallway. Should we try them out or get the others?”
“Let’s try them first,” Raymon said. “Better to give them good news than false hope.”
They went to the kitchen first and were able to get into the cabinet. Inside they found a teapot with symbols all over it.
“I’ve seen this teapot before!” Raymon said excitedly. “It’s on the chart. And these are the same symbols we found in the book from the den. I can use this to decipher the code for the metal room!”
“Let’s try the other key first,” Hendrix said.
Out in the hallway, Hendrix’s hand shook a little as he tried the key. What are the chances of two big breakthroughs at once? Unless this means we’re close to the end? He hoped that was the case.
The door swung open to reveal another completely empty metal room. Now Hendrix was sure they were close to escaping the house. Raymon tried a couple of walls before finding the secret panel. The keypad inside had the same symbols as the one in the other metal room.
“Do you want me to go figure out the code we just found?” Raymon said.
“Yes, but don’t try it out yet,” Hendrix said. “All we have left now is to find the codes for the two metal rooms. I want us to do this as a team. There’s something I have to do too.”
Hendrix went back to the living room to where Kane and Ander were searching.
“Come with me,” he said, grabbing Kane and practically pulling him to the bathroom. He shut off both their microphones and looked his best friend straight in the eye. “Tell me the truth. Why are you trying to make us quit or fail?”
Kane blinked a couple of times. “I didn’t . . . I didn’t want to,” he said, looking away. “They told me it was going to be really hard and we probably wouldn’t win. But if I got the rest of you to quit then I’d get a bunch of money. I thought, if we weren’t going to get the scholarships anyway, I might as well take the cash and run. My dad . . .”
Kane took a deep breath and finally looked at Hendrix. “My dad lost his job a couple of months ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Hendrix asked. He couldn’t believe Kane hadn’t trusted him. Or that he hadn’t noticed something was different.
Kane just shrugged. “It’s not your problem.”
“Hey, that’s not true. We’re best friends. You were there for me during the worst time in my life,” Hendrix reminded him. “Of course I’m going to be there for my best friend when he needs me.”
“You mean, we’re still friends? Even after this?” Kane’s eyes opened wide.
“Come on, man, of course we are.” Hendrix clapped him on the shoulder. “And more than that, we’re part of a team. And I don’t care what they told you. We’re going to win. Or at least, we are if we all work together. What do you say?”
Kane chewed on his lip for a minute. “They won’t be happy.”
“They want you to be a traitor, right? So go ahead—but betray them instead of us.”
The wicked grin Hendrix was so used to seeing finally made a reappearance on Kane’s face. “They would really hate that, wouldn’t they?” Kane snickered. “Let’s do it!”