by Kim Long
Lexi laughed. “I know, but at least he eats fast. You guys were really quick—it was hardly thirty minutes.”
“The Grotte wasn’t far.” Mal curled strands of hair behind her ears. “How many statues do we have left?”
“Four,” Lexi answered. “And I don’t have the map, so I have no idea how far they are.”
Mal motioned toward the opposite side of the plaza, where the Solar Flares and Powerful Protons were running out of the garden. “So many teams are leaving. I’m kind of surprised. I don’t think we’ve been that slow.”
“I know,” Lexi said. “I’m hoping that they don’t know where they’re going yet, though. If they have thirty-nine words to sift through, it might take a while. We’ll have only the thirteen we need.”
“I hope so,” Mal replied, bouncing on her toes. “France has been great, but I want to see where they send us next.”
Mal tightened her purse straps, and she and Lexi entered the maze as Ron, map in hand, flew by. For the next hour, Team RAM scurried through. This side was twistier than the other, and even Ron had to backtrack at one point after realizing he had led them down a wrong path. Finally, only one word remained.
“The last one should be only a few turns ahead,” Ron said.
“Good,” Mal puffed. “I’m so ready for a rest. I hope we have to take a train a long way to our next location so I can take a mega long nap.”
The tip of a white pillar came into view. Statues of a mouse and a frog stood atop two columns. A stream of water arched between them with the water ultimately trickling into a goldfish’s mouth at the base of the pillars.
The Mouse and the Frog
Ron leaned over to the tournament plaque. “Father,” he said. “The clue for fable number twenty-five is ‘father.’”
Lexi wrote it down and reviewed the list.
Fable #3: FOR
Fable #6: YOUR
Fable #8: NEXT
Fable #11: LOCATION
Fable #15: VISIT
Fable #16: THE
Fable #20 LAST
Fable #22: OF
Fable #24: THE
Fable #25: FATHER
Fable #28: OF
Fable #31: COMPUTER
Fable #37: SCIENCE
“Something’s wrong,” Lexi said. “This doesn’t make sense.” She read the clues aloud, “For your next location visit the last of the father of computer science.”
Mal and Ron gave quizzical looks.
“Huh?” Ron asked.
“Yeah, I know,” Lexi said. She tilted the notebook so Ron could see, too. “Here, take a look.”
As Ron and Lexi reviewed the list, Mal retrieved her tablet. “Has anyone ever heard of an Alan Turing?” she asked after a minute. “According to these websites, everyone seems to agree he’s the father of computer science. He created a machine that translated words into numbers, so in a way he invented the first computer.”
“You know what?” Ron said. “That name is familiar.”
“Yeah,” Lexi agreed. “It is. I don’t know from where, though.”
Ron snapped his fingers. “I know. It’s from a movie my dad likes. Alan Turing built a machine that helped Britain decipher encrypted messages in World War II.”
“Yep, that makes sense,” Mal said. “From what I’m reading, Turing was born in London and cracked codes at a place called Bletchley Park in England. He died in England, too.”
Lexi punched a fist into her hand. “Great. So we know it’s something to do with Alan Turing and we’ll be going somewhere in England. We just have to figure out exactly where.” She glanced at Ron and gestured to her notebook. “Did you figure anything out?”
He tapped the page. “Yeah. It’s the word ‘last’ for statue twenty that screws everything up. It doesn’t make any sense.”
Lexi hiccupped over the word. “Last?” Her voice trailed and she shifted her eyes between Mal and Ron as her stomach sank. “That’s the one Haley gave us. Do you think—”
“She lied to us!” Mal yelled as she stomped over and snatched the notebook out of Ron’s hands. “But why?”
Ron shook off his backpack and tossed it to the ground. “I thought you were friends?”
Lexi didn’t move. Haley lied? She flipped off her baseball cap and ran a hand through her hair, jostling her glasses in the process. They fell to the ground with her cap, and she let them be. Her heart pounded. Haley couldn’t have lied. It had to have been a mistake. Her head spinning, she extended her arms, trying to stay upright.
“Lexi! Sit down,” Mal said, lightly pressing her against the hedge. “You look terrible.”
Panting hard, Lexi slid to the ground. She set an elbow on her knee and wiped her forehead as she wracked her brain for a reason Haley would have lied. She had apologized for her earlier comments and said how awesome it would be to hang out—Lexi caught herself. The lunch invite. It had been part of her scheme to lure them away from visiting the statue so she could give them the wrong answer. The whole apology was a sham.
Lexi shook her head, her tired brain unable to figure out Haley’s motive. Why sabotage them when it was obvious they were so far behind, as Haley herself kept pointing out?
“I don’t get it,” Lexi said. “We’ve been best friends for years.”
“What was she talking about?” Ron asked. “You know, before—when she said she asked the others, but they said no?”
Lexi rose to her feet. “While you were plotting the course through the maze, she came over and said we should think about working with another team. I asked to join her alliance, and she said she didn’t see how we could help given we were so far behind. She was telling me she had checked with the other teams, and they said no.”
Ron guffawed. “Couldn’t help? Really?” He reared back and kicked the grass.
“Oh, I get it,” Mal said with a sneer. “She thinks we’re stupid. I’ll have her know that I’ve won five statewide art exhibitions, I speak four languages, and both my parents have PhDs. Plus, I’ve been all over Europe. That’s real world experience—not sitting behind a desk at an academy.”
Ron jumped in. “And I’m being recruited by high school teams and college coaches for football and basketball. I also get all As and Bs. I’d like to see her read and memorize a football playbook if she thinks she’s so smart.”
Lexi picked up her glasses and cap. She hadn’t known any of these things about her teammates, either. Though she liked to believe she had given them more credit than Haley had, she had to admit that, in reality, she had thought she’d have been the one leading the team. Thinking about it now, she had no idea where she’d be without Mal or Ron. She put on her glasses and cap and faced her teammates.
“Tell me something.” Ron motioned to the exit. “Is that why you wanted to join her alliance—because you don’t think we can win on our own?”
“Yeah,” Mal added, turning to face her. “Do you think we can’t win because we’re not super smart science students?”
Lexi flinched. “Of course not. I asked you to be on my team, didn’t I?”
“That’s not saying much,” Ron muttered. He set his hands on his hips. “You’ve only been in school this semester, and it’s not like you have tons of friends.”
“I have friends,” Lexi said. “They’re just… at the academy…” Or so she thought. She blew out a breath. “Look, I admit that I thought there was going to be tons of science puzzles and I might be—okay would be—doing most of the work, but I asked you guys because I know you’re smart, too. You both rocked our Egypt project.” She tapped Ron’s shoulder. “You’re Hieroglyphics Man, remember? I figured if you could create your own fake language, you’d have a knack for puzzles, and I was right.”
She looked at Mal. “And you are so freaking fast on a computer, Mal. Yeah, I didn’t know about all the languages you speak, but every tournament requires us to research things.” She crossed her arms. “So, no, I’m not like Haley. In fact, I told her it was better if we
didn’t join her stupid alliance because—”
Lexi gasped as she put the final pieces together. Dr. Vogt. She had told Haley that the scientists were impressed with her because she was leading a team that didn’t have a science background. Of course Haley became threatened, and her solution was sabotaging Team RAM so they’d be eliminated today. Lexi shook her head. This whole time she’d been trying to get back to the academy to save her friendship with Haley, and Haley… Lexi slumped as the truth hit her. Haley didn’t care about their friendship at all.
“What is it?” Mal asked.
Lexi shook her head. “I figured out why Haley lied. We were talking about the internship. Haley really wants it, too. If we don’t make the elimination today, she figures it’ll be hers.”
Ron and Mal didn’t move.
“I’m sorry,” Lexi said. “I should have kept my mouth shut, but she kept saying how we were so far behind and she was on one of the top teams and Dr. Vogt knew about her.… I got upset and wanted her to know we still had a chance, too.”
Ron arched an eyebrow. “Well, if she thinks she’s so smart…” He grabbed Lexi’s notebook. “Give me that.”
“Yeah,” Mal said, stepping to his side. “We’ll show her.”
Ron flipped to the list of words. “You know,” he said. “We might be able to figure this out without going back to that statue. It’s really just a fill-in-the-blank puzzle—Wheel of Fortune style. All we have to do is pretend the word last isn’t there. What word can we insert that makes sense?”
With renewed energy, Lexi advanced toward her teammates. “Hey, yeah. That’s a great idea.” She turned to Mal. “You’ve read a little about Turing. Is there a word we can plug in that works?”
“Other than England?” Mal chortled. She retrieved her tablet. “Hmm,” she said after a few swipes of the screen. “How about ‘hometown’—as in For your next location, visit the hometown of the father of computer science.”
“But where in his hometown?” Ron said. “The hospital where he was born? His childhood home?”
Lexi tapped her lips. “Yeah, ‘hometown’ might be too vague.”
Mal kept reading. “That Bletchley Park place is a well-known tourist attraction. They call it the home of the Codebreakers, and there’s a bunch of exhibits on codebreaking.”
“But that wouldn’t be one word,” Lexi said. “And it’s real specific. If the clue was ‘Bletchley Park’ everyone would know where to go after visiting that one statue.”
“True,” Ron said.
Mal hopped in place, and her eyes got wide. “Okay, how about ‘memorial’? As in, For your next clue, visit the memorial of the father of computer science?”
Ron tilted his head to the side. “Before I answer, is there a memorial?”
Mal shifted her weight and eyed Ron. “Duh. And get this, it’s in a place near Manchester University called Sackville Gardens, and the memorial is actually a statue of him. It makes perfect sense—so far the clues have sort of related to one another.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Ron said. “We’d be going from one place with gardens and statues to another place with gardens and a statue. It’s kind of like how the Hall of Mirrors at King Ludwig’s Linderhof Castle was connected to the clue on Da Vinci’s mirror writing.”
Lexi hurriedly retrieved her tableau and unfolded it so she could see what teleport stations she had listed for England. “Oh wow. The teleport station for Manchester is at the university!”
Mal and Ron beamed.
“Well?” Ron asked. “Retracing our steps all the way to the statue would take another hour, and then we’d have to walk all the way back to the entrance. This is riskier, but if we’re right, we can make up some time and…”
“… shove Haley’s stupid ‘last’ clue right in her face,” Mal avowed, pulling the ribbon on her ponytail tight.
“Mal!” Ron and Lexi cried.
Ron burst into laughter as Lexi stared at Mal’s tight jaw and steely eyes.
“I say we go for it,” Mal added.
Ron turned to Lexi. “What do you say, Magill?”
Lexi remained still, stunned at the sight of her teammates, her two excited and totally invested teammates. Grinning, she punched a fist into her hand. “Manchester it is. Let’s do it.”
Team RAM rushed to the maze’s exit. An orange team and a lime green team mingled at the food tent, but no other teams were around. Lexi turned to exit the plaza.
“Hold up,” Ron said. He marched to the food tent.
“Why am I not surprised?” Mal murmured.
Lexi chuckled. “Actually, I can go for another baguette.” She opened her mouth to call, but Ron was already returning—empty-handed.
“Wow,” Mal said. “That was fast—even for you.”
Ron removed his backpack. “Just wanted to check with the official on something,” he said. “By the way, the food tent didn’t close and isn’t closing. Haley lied about that, too.”
Lexi met Ron’s eyes. She had no idea what to say. Facts were facts, and the ones she had proved Haley had tried to sabotage them. She remembered Haley’s comments about plotting the coordinates to France and wondered if that was a trick to slow them down, too.
“Well, we were dumb enough—and lazy enough—to believe her,” Mal said, kicking the ground. “We said we were worried about missing our chance to take photos and sell stuff. She knew we’d trust her answer instead of going to the statue ourselves.”
“I know,” Ron said, unzipping his pack. He started pulling out his gear and setting it on the ground.
“What are you doing?” Mal asked. “You know we’re behind. You’re not really going to sell stuff now, are you?”
Lexi shot Mal a look and wondered if Mal had read her thoughts.
Ron waved at the tournament official at the booth, and the official came over. “This is it,” Ron said. “Whatever you don’t sell, if you can bring it back with you, that’d be great.”
“No problem,” the official answered, stacking the swag into his arms.
Lexi’s mouth hung open as the official left. Ron folded in his backpack, snapping and attaching clasps to make it smaller. When it was reduced to the size of a large—but not extraordinarily large pack—he unzipped a small pouch and pulled out… lipstick?
Ron screwed off the cap and twisted the bottom of the tube. A black stick peeked out. He raised the stick to his face and drew two black lines under his eyes. Swinging his pack across his shoulders, he faced his teammates.
“It’s Game Time.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Back in the Paris teleport station, Team RAM waited in line for the telepod engineer to wave them forward. Lexi kept turning around to peer at the curtain behind the tournament booth. Teams inside were working, but which teams and how many remained a mystery.
Even though the tournament officials said they could enter, Team RAM decided not to waste the time. If they hadn’t guessed right and memorial was the wrong word, they’d have to come back to Versailles and check the statue themselves. The better move was getting to England as soon as possible.
The engineer motioned to Lexi, and she stepped to the telepod. The e-mail from Wren Tech flashed to her, and she shuddered. What she had brushed off last night without too much thought poked at her now. To be safe, maybe she should visit a Wren Tech store. She placed the Tel-Med into the slot, and the shield closed.
Moments later, Lexi opened her eyes in Manchester. She exhaled.
After the crowds in Florence, Kraków, and Paris, the nearly empty university station was a welcome sight. But was it too empty? Lexi looked for another team or a tournament booth as Ron and Mal joined her.
“Well?” Ron said.
“I don’t see anyone, but I haven’t really moved.”
Team RAM took a collective breath. “All right. Let’s go,” Ron said, and he led the charge into the next room.
“Good afternoon!” a tournament official called from the corner.
&nbs
p; Team RAM ran over, and the official proceeded to check them in. Lexi inspected the official’s face, looking for a sign they were in the right place. Like Dr. Harrison had explained in the beginning, the tournament had set up booths in cities off course because they had anticipated some mistakes.
“You can have these back,” the official said, returning their passports and badges.
Lexi held her breath, waiting for the official to reach under the counter and pull out an envelope.
He didn’t.
“Okay,” the official said. Lexi, Ron, and Mal leaned in. “For this puzzle, you’re limited to Sackville Gardens and the university grounds. Once you’ve figured out the next clue and where you want to go next, come back here. There’s a special Travel Request Form to fill out during this round.”
Lexi excitedly beat her hand against the counter and jumped off the ground. They’d guessed correctly!
“Yeah!” Ron whooped.
Mal leaped into the air, clapping. “We did it! Without the word. Guess we’re not so stupid, huh?”
Still celebrating, Team RAM made its way to the exit when Lexi halted and checked the time. She reset her watch from 6:45 to 5:45. They’d gained an hour coming to England, but the time also meant they’d spent over seven hours running around the maze in Versailles. If the tournament kept up with its three-puzzles-a-day schedule, Team RAM would have to solve two more before the next travel cutoff at 10:00 p.m. or risk falling behind.
Surging ahead, Lexi exited the building, where an asphalt path wound its way through rows of green leafy trees. Benches bordered the path, and a few students mingled about. “Anyone have any ideas?” she asked.
“It’s either to the left or the right,” Mal said, glancing at her tablet. “Pick a direction.”
“Okay,” Ron said. “I choose right,” and he hurried to the path.
Lexi rushed after him, with Mal only a step behind. A short stretch down the path, a blue-and-gold streamer waved in the wind, beckoning them forward. The ribbon was tied to a bench, where a bronze statue of Alan Turing sat.
“Alan Turing, father of computer science,” Lexi read from a plaque near the statue.