"No idea," Kenza said. "He never replied, but we registered that he did read the message."
"Any other surprises for us?" Sang asked with a long, heavy sigh.
"I don't know. They were communicating very steadily with me for a while, but lately I've just been getting short bursts of information from them," Kenza answered. Sang could see that tears were beginning to well up in her eyes.
"How long have you been working with them?" Neil asked.
"Long enough," she whispered. "I'm sorry."
"You're sorry you got caught," O'Hara said. "Not only are you a regular traitor, but you're also a race traitor. And not in the ethnic sense. You're a human race traitor."
"There will be some of us left," Kenza said. "And the wars will all be over. The fighting gone. Plagues, famine, suffering? All of it will be gone. How could I say no to that? Everyone dies eventually."
"They really got to you," Sang said as she shook her head. "How can you believe that?'
"It's not much different from what you did two weeks ago," Kenza said. "That's the real reason Draco's kept you alive so far."
"What are you talking about?" Sang asked as she felt her blood run cold.
"When you killed those players in the game? When you murdered a restrained man?" Kenza whispered. "You were trading the good of one person for the good of the collective. They liked that. It shows that you have hope of being like them."
"I didn't murder anyone," Sang replied as she shook her head. "That guy was gonna get free and kill me the moment he could. I'm not like Draco at all."
"So you say," Kenza said, "but at the end of the day, you'll do whatever it takes to protect the collective. The ends justify the means to you. How is that any different from us?"
"Shut up," Sang said as she stood up and walked away from Kenza. "Just shut the hell up."
"Those aren't my words," Kenza said. "It's the profile Draco sent us."
"Us?" Neil echoed.
"Crap!" Kenza exclaimed. Sheer panic came over her face for a moment, followed by an expression of inspiration. "I'll sell all of them out if it means I get out of this okay."
"Sang, you've got to get back into the field in the morning," O'Hara said as she wrenched Kenza off the bed and dragged her to the door. "Get some sleep. We'll take care of this."
"Nice work, Sang!" Neil said as he raised his hand, expecting a high five from her.
"You punched me in the eye and shoved a gun in my mouth," Sang said. "I'm not giving you a high five."
"I'm not asking for a high five for that; I'm asking for a high five because we cracked the case of the mysterious mole!" Neil said, his face shining with pure enthusiasm – and perhaps a touch of delirium.
"If I high five you, will you go back to the hospital?"
"Maybe."
Van opened his eyes and realized that he was standing in a large square room. There were hundreds of objects scattered all over the floor – pots, pans, swords, marbles, and even something that looked like a bicycle.
"Interesting," Van muttered as he inspected the room. He realized that there was some kind of pattern to the items, but he couldn't quite figure out what the pattern was.
"I'm here," Kylian said as he appeared in the room with Van. "I miss anything?"
"Nah, you're early," Van replied as he looked around some more. "I think this is the next part of the tournament."
"Gee, you should have been a detective with that kind of insight," Kylian said.
"Is there a reason you've gotten more grumpy lately?" Van asked.
Kylian shrugged. "I'm an old man, I can be as grumpy as I like. I worked hard to stay alive this long and that means I get to enjoy the fruits of my labor."
"You're gonna enjoy my boot up your –" Van's words were cut short as Sang, Sahara, and Fredlin all logged into the game at once.
"Yes, let's do this!" Sahara said as she began to spin around. "What is all of this crap?"
"Looks like some kind of puzzle," Sang said.
"I could not sleep well last night," Fredlin said. "If I stop responding, it's because I OD'd on Cwake."
"I'm pretty sure that's the case with all of us," Van replied.
"The hell is Cwake?" Sahara asked.
"One of those new fangled stimulants; they're called drugs," Van said. "They're really popular with the kids these days."
"I've forgotten more about drugs than you'll ever know," Kylian shot back.
"Did we miss the rundown?" Sang asked as she walked over to one of the tables and inspected it.
"Nah, we're still waiting on someone to give us instructions," Van replied.
"Well, I wish they'd hurry up – I'm getting bored," Sahara said as she kicked one of the cups on the ground. As soon as she kicked at it, though, the floor began to rumble and groan.
"Great, what did you do?" Fredlin asked.
"I didn't do anything!" Sahara protested as the ground continued to rumble.
"You have one job," an ethereal voice within the room said. "To escape!"
"That's not much of an instruction set," Van said. "How long do we have?"
There was no reply, but the rumbling sound grew a little more intense.
"Well, I don't know if we have time to ask for repeat information," Kylian said. "Let's figure out how to get out of this damn room."
The room itself was nothing special – it looked like a standard dungeon interior with hard stone walls. There were eight torches on the walls, but no doors.
"Well, maybe there's a secret room," Sang said as she began to feel along the walls with her hands.
"Doubtful," Fredlin said. "These items all correspond in some way. It's gotta be a puzzle."
"Holy crap, I found a note in this pan!" Sahara said as she held up a scrap of paper that was tightly bound. She ripped it open and read aloud. "If you wish to escape, you must find that which has a heart but no other organs."
"That some kind of a riddle?" Kylian asked. "Alright, I'm gonna figure this one out."
"What has a heart but no other organs?" Sang asked as she looked at all of the clutter.
"Does a plank of wood count?" Fredlin asked. "Wood has hearts, right?" He picked up a piece of wood and waved it around for a moment, but nothing happened. He shrugged and went back to searching. "I freaking hate puzzles."
"Aha!" Van said as he pointed to a deck of cards sitting on one of the tables. "A deck has hearts!"
"Brilliant," Sang said as she walked over and grabbed the pack. She opened the card deck and looked inside. "It's empty."
"Tear it open," Kylian said as he grabbed it from her. "Watch." He gingerly ripped it open and turned it inside out. Sure enough, there were more words on the inside of the card deck's box.
The clock ticks and the beast awakens, it read. To escape this room, you must find that which has a head, but not a body, and a tail, but no eyes.
"Any idea what this would be?" Van asked.
Sang began to sift through some of the items on the tables, mumbling to herself. "I know I heard this one before. I just can't remember from where."
"Probably grade school," Fredlin said. "I had all sorts of riddles that they made me solve when I was in grade school."
"Got it!" Kylian said as he pointed to a large, golden medallion sitting on the ground. "It's gotta be a coin." He picked up the coin, causing a loud click to emanate from one of the walls. There was a grinding noise as the wall slowly began to swivel, revealing a secret mirror.
"Aha!" Sahara said, pointing at the mirror. Then she reflected, "This… this does nothing for us."
"Maybe we should smash it?" Sang asked. "The secret passage has got to be behind that thing."
"We need to think like a developer," Fredlin said. "Any game designer would know that the first thing any player would do when trying to solve a puzzle is to smash stuff. So that can't be the answer."
"Good thinking," Van said as he leaned forward to investigate the mirror. As he looked at his own character's reflection, though, he realized that there was something different about the wall behind him. The torches in the reflection were flickering, turning off and on rapidly. Yet, he spun around to see that the actual torches were quietly sitting, perpetually burning.