by Chris Babu
Except…
What would Tim want him to do? He would never wish for Drayden to fail, to wilt away and die. Tim wouldn’t have been the slightest bit upset with him. Tim would insist it could have happened to anyone, or the same thing would have happened if he’d pulled the detonator. Tim would expect him to collaborate with Catrice to advance Sidney through the intelligence challenges. He’d compel Drayden to team up with Sidney to carry Catrice through the bravery ones. And he wouldn’t give a damn about Charlie or Alex, demanding Drayden stand up to them. Tim never feared those guys.
Charlie was misguided, but he displayed basic morality outside of Alex’s influence. Alex presented a real problem, though. While Drayden could defeat him in a fight, the strongest or most skilled person didn’t always win fights. Sometimes it was the person who was willing to do what the other person wasn’t. If the stronger threw punches while the weaker attacked with a knife, the weaker would win. That was Alex.
What was Alex up to anyway? He’d sabotaged the three boxes challenge, though it could have been an honest mistake. He generally didn’t help, particularly on the intelligence ones. Nevertheless, he swore he would move into the Palace. He couldn’t possibly believe he’d be the one selected, yet he seemed sure of it.
Instead of battling against Charlie and Alex, should Drayden befriend them? He didn’t have Tim on his side anymore. They outnumbered him. And he might need their help on the remaining bravery challenges, especially with his busted ankle and various bomb injuries.
Charlie and Alex plodded along up front, with Catrice alone behind them. Sidney walked beside Drayden.
“Sid,” Drayden said, “how did you guys all get those cuts on your heads? Weren’t you behind the pillars?”
“We were, and assumed we were safe. When the bomb exploded, we got sucked forward somehow, like hard and fast. We all smashed our heads against the steel pillars.”
Charlie turned his head back. “It’s called blast wind. The blast wave blows out, and the blast wind pulls you back. I braced myself for it. I was working harder than a one-legged man in a butt kicking contest. Unfortunately, the blast wind was too strong.”
Drayden hurried to catch up with Charlie and Alex. “That’s interesting, Charlie. Where’d you learn that?”
“My Guardian buddies. Being in an explosion turned out to be not so fun, but I still wanna join the Guardians.”
“You guys get banged up pretty bad?” Drayden asked.
“Looks like someone needs a friend,” Alex said. “Isn’t that right? Not so tough without Tim around.” He sneered at Drayden. “Sucks when you need a friend and they’re not there for you, doesn’t it, Dray?”
Alex may not have been book smart, but he was certainly street smart. It had taken him all of two seconds to see through Drayden’s disingenuous attempt to buddy up to them. Drayden slowed down to let Catrice catch up.
She continued straight ahead, stone faced. She refused his eye contact and passed by without a word.
The brightly lit Fourteenth Street station marked the beginning of the Lab. It meant they’d finally left the Dorms.
Drayden felt a tinge of sadness as he bid farewell to the only home he’d ever known. Whatever happened, he would never see it again.
The bomb was both a bravery and intelligence challenge. The impending challenge could be either. Thankfully, that last painkiller had kicked in. It dulled the pain from Drayden’s injuries, and even soothed his mind. He’d never taken one before the Initiation since they didn’t exist in the Dorms. He mentally added painkillers to the growing list of luxuries the Bureau had that the Dorms didn’t.
He slogged up the stairs behind Sidney.
She turned back and offered her hand.
“Thanks,” he said, accepting her assistance. Sidney had shown her true colors since the bomb. She cared for and comforted him, even putting his needs before her own, the same way Tim had done. While he hadn’t seriously considered Sidney in a girlfriend way, despite her obvious attempts to draw his attention, he couldn’t ignore her any longer. Maybe Tim was right about her.
Drayden actually snorted out loud at the thought. What did he know about girlfriends? What did he know about friends? It had just been he and Tim, and now Tim was gone. Just like after the exile, once again he was alone, except this time it was real. He was fresh out of people. Sure, there was Dad and Wes, but they didn’t get him as Mom and Tim did. Nobody could know him as they did.
Down the platform, a white wall cut off the station again.
“Are those…people down there?” asked Charlie.
The pledges approached. Two men draped in black robes displaying red Bureau pins stood on opposite sides of two black doors in the wall. Both men were tall, and older. The one on the left was pale and bald; the other was dark, with bushy gray hair. Neither moved, said anything, or even made eye contact with them. A long table bearing a note sat in front of them. A hanging clock displayed the time remaining: 03:59:52, 03:59:51…
Charlie walked up to the bald guy. “Hi,” he said.
The Bureau man didn’t react, merely gazed straight ahead.
Charlie shrugged and strolled to the picnic table. He picked up the note and read in a comical voice like he was impersonating Premier Holst. “Think before you ask, or this will be your last task. Deductive reasoning skills are paramount to success in the Bureau. Prove you have them by solving this riddle. Standing before you are two doors. One leads back into the tunnel. The other leads to exile. These men are the guards to the doors. One always tells the truth. The other always lies. You do not know which is which. You may ask one question to one of the guards, and then you must choose which door to walk through. You have five minutes. The clock above will begin counting down momentarily. Good luck.” Charlie shook his head and shoved the note into Drayden’s hand.
Drayden glanced at the note. “Catrice, can we work together again?” The weight of this challenge fell on his and Catrice’s shoulders, and the consequence of failure was exile.
Her eyes downcast, she plopped down with her paper and pencil. “I’m going to work on this one alone.”
Drayden was unable to hide his disappointment. Witnessing Tim’s death must have shaken her.
“I’ll work on it with you Drayden,” Sidney said, flashing Catrice a dirty look. “If I can help at all.”
“Thanks.” After sitting, he touched his fingers to the brim of his hat. He and Catrice had made a stellar team on the brainteasers, and she’d seemed to enjoy working with him. Now he’d just have to focus on his own, like on the first challenge. So what did he know? Two guards. One tells the truth, the other lies.
“Why don’t we just ask which door we take?” Charlie asked.
“Because,” Drayden said, irritated, “we can’t tell which guard lies and which tells the truth. If we ask one and he points at a door, we don’t know if he’s lying or not.”
“The bald guy is the liar,” Charlie said. “Bald guys always lie.”
“Shut up, Charlie,” Drayden snapped. “Stop being such a nerf. I need to focus here.”
Sidney knelt beside Drayden. “Four minutes left, Dray. How can I help?”
She could let him concentrate; that’s how. “Um, if you can keep telling me the time, that would be huge. Thanks.” He’d heard this problem before, possibly in school? But he didn’t remember the solution. What was the trick? You could never know which guard was which. If you wasted your one question ferreting out the liar, you wouldn’t have any questions left to decide which door to choose. So the question must result in them pointing to one of the doors.
Alex flopped down, wrapped his arms around his head, and started rocking.
“Three minutes,” Sidney called out, growing increasingly frenzied.
“It’s all over!” Charlie cried out, his arms in the air. “We’re dead. The Bureau’s gonna kill us all.
Don’t you see? It doesn’t matter anymore.”
“Will you guys please be quiet?” Drayden asked. What was going on with Charlie and Alex? Alex had gone catatonic and Charlie had lost his mind.
Catrice wrote furiously, pausing every so often to tap her pencil on the side of her head.
Charlie hovered over her shoulder. “Man, she’s busier than a one-armed paper hanger. Hey, how mad would you guys be if I asked the bald guard what his favorite color is?”
Drayden groaned, and squeezed his pencil with all his force. This was impossible. The team chemistry soured without Tim here to direct, or at least keep Charlie and Alex in line. Sidney tried to help, but got in the way. Catrice seemed upset. Exile awaited them in minutes, and he couldn’t solve this.
Focus!
Sidney cupped her mouth with her hands. “Two minutes, Drayden! Hurry!”
The one question you ask must point to the right door, regardless of which guard you ask. One question must lead to the liar pointing to the same door as the truth-teller. That’s it.
What question would do that? Drayden bit down on his pencil.
Charlie danced around in front of one of the guards. He made faces and googly eyes. Unable to elicit any reaction, he strolled over to Drayden. “Ask the guards one question. Ask the guards one question. Ask the guards one question. Ask the—”
“Chotch!” Drayden barked. “I’m begging you. Please shut the hell up!” The pressure of the Initiation, and seeing Tim die, had clearly gotten to Charlie.
“Oh, I thought you liked that. You were lovin’ it the first time.”
Drayden buried his face in his hands. They were screwed.
“I’ve got it,” Catrice whispered.
Drayden released a breathy sigh and closed his eyes.
Catrice stood and headed toward the bald guard, her paper and pencil in hand.
“Catrice, wait!” Drayden shouted. “We have ninety seconds left, don’t you want to talk it over? Have another set of eyes check it?”
She turned back, looking annoyed, like he’d just called her a flunk. “Fine.”
Drayden and the others crowded around her.
Catrice checked her notes. “We can only ask one question, and that question must result in them pointing at a door. We don’t know which guard will tell the truth, so the question also must result in either of them pointing at the same door, regardless of who we ask. Everyone with me?”
“You lost me when you said door,” Charlie said.
Sidney whacked him on the arm. “Why are you joking around? Let her finish!”
Catrice continued. “So we pick either guard, and the question is, ‘If I ask the other guard which door leads to the tunnel, which one will he point to?’ In this case, both guards will point to the wrong door. We’ll go through the other one. Get it?”
“Yes!” Drayden said. “Nicely done, Catrice.”
She met his eyes, looking pained.
Sidney scratched her head. “I don’t get it.”
“Let’s say the guard we ask is the one who always tells the truth,” Drayden explained. “Since he always tells the truth, he’ll actually tell us what the other guard would say. The other guard is the liar. The liar would point us to the wrong door, the one that leads to exile. So the guard we asked will point to the wrong door too, and then we take the other door. Make sense?”
“I think so,” Sidney said doubtfully.
Catrice slammed her notes into her legs and made a face at Drayden. “We don’t have time to explain it to her!”
Sidney scoffed. “Screw you!”
“Everyone calm down,” Drayden said. “We still have time. Sid, let’s say the guard we ask is the one who always lies. Since he always lies, he’ll lie about what the other guard would say. The other guard is truthful. He would point to the correct door, the tunnel door. So the liar will point to the wrong door, to exile. Either way, both guards will point to the wrong door. That’s brilliant, Catrice. Why don’t you do the honors?” Drayden peeked at the clock.
Ten seconds left.
Catrice rushed to the bald guard, glancing back at the others. “If I ask the other guard which door leads to the tunnel, which one will he point to?”
He started to move his arm, and paused. He pointed to the door nearest to him, the one on the left.
The pledges all looked at each other. Catrice walked to the other door, on the right. She lowered the handle and pushed the door open.
CHAPTER 16
The pledges descended a dark staircase which led right onto the tracks.
“Woohoo!” Charlie yelled. “Way to go, Catrice!” He picked her up by the waist and thrust her high in the air. “This cat’s sharper than a two-edged sword!” Charlie couldn’t contain his joy over the pun. “Get it? Cat? Cat-rice?”
She pretended to hate the attention.
Heat flowed into Drayden’s cheeks. For someone who wasn’t too clever, Charlie had a knack for wedging himself between Drayden and the few people he liked.
Sidney nudged him and whispered in his ear, “You would’ve totally gotten it in another minute. You’re way smarter than she is.”
Charlie set Catrice down.
She straightened her gray t-shirt and pulled her backpack straps tighter. Her eyes met Drayden’s.
Drayden stormed ahead of everyone else down the tunnel.
He set a brisk pace, despite his limp. Leaning on Catrice for the intelligence challenges made some sense. It relieved the pressure. With Tim no longer around to hold his hand, he’d have to step up on the bravery challenges. Catrice would need him on those, while Sidney would be an asset. Essentially, he needed to be more like Tim.
The frequency and difficulty of the challenges had increased. The next one would presumably be at Christopher Street, the following One Line stop, only a few blocks south. It would almost certainly be a physical test. Drayden decided he wasn’t going to back down, or be afraid. He would take charge, just like Tim.
There was one tiny problem. He wasn’t Tim. You couldn’t fake being a leader, being strong and confident. You might be able to fool others, but never yourself. Everyone tasted dynamite the last time he assumed command. With the rats, his concern for Catrice propelled him through the challenge. It made him forget, or ignore, his own fear. That was real.
“Hi,” a soft voice behind him said.
Drayden glanced back at Catrice. He continued to walk without responding. Now she was talking to him?
She caught up, and walked beside him. They carried on for a minute without speaking.
Drayden still wouldn’t look at her. “How come you didn’t want to work with me on that last riddle?”
She paused before answering. “Sometimes I just prefer to work alone. That’s how I’ve always done it.”
“I thought we worked well together on the three boxes and the wicks problem. We made a great team, no? That is, before I bungled it and killed Tim and almost everybody else, including myself.”
One step, then two. “I think the Bureau intended for the bomb to go off,” she said.
He stumbled a bit. “What?”
“I mean, what if the detonator wasn’t enabled to be pulled out? I think the challenge was surviving the blast.” They picked up the pace again. “Maybe we were supposed to die.”
Drayden’s mind spun back to those terrifying minutes under the desk in Lily’s office, when he’d overheard the Bureau’s mass exile plan. People who would do that could easily murder a bunch of kids. At best, they were indifferent about the pledges dying, and at worst they were trying to kill them. Perhaps he should tell Catrice what he’d heard. She might believe him. The other pledges wouldn’t. How could they? It was too horrible to believe. Then again, so was the idea of blowing up six teenagers.
It could cause her to worry about her family though. Too muc
h. Distraction in these tunnels meant certain death. He knew that now. No, telling her wouldn’t do her or anyone any good.
“That might be true,” Drayden said. “But if the Bureau intended on killing us, we should be scared about the challenges coming up.”
Catrice shivered. “I am scared. Actually, I’m terrified.”
“It’s all in your head,” he said, adopting Tim’s bravado. He waved his hand casually. “You just push out the negative thoughts and imagine success. Poof. Gone.”
She side-eyed him. “That’s what you do?”
“It’s what I try to do,” he allowed. He wasn’t Tim, not by a long shot. “I’m not very good at it.”
“You’re probably better at it than you think.”
“I don’t know.” They walked for another minute or two, then Drayden turned to her. “You know, you never answered my question. About us making a great team.”
“I thought we made a great team too, but…”
“But what?”
She gazed into his eyes before looking away. “Nothing.” She deflated a bit. “I guess I’m just different from you. Tim died, Drayden. This is life and death, and we’re all, like, in competition with each other. I’m just not used to working with other people. Before the Initiation, I barely worked with anyone on anything. You have. With Tim, and Sidney.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I think you’ve connected with everyone. I saw Sidney helping you in the rat challenge, Alex saved you on the rock wall. And you seem to have clicked with Charlie.”
She tilted her head and gave him a look. “Seriously?”
They walked for a few minutes without speaking. The silence in the tunnel, except for their footsteps and breaths, was so unnatural. Drayden felt like his senses were numb. Maybe the explosion had done something to his brain. Or he just didn’t feel human anymore.
“Hey, Catrice? Can I ask you something?”