Page 70 of Knight Moves

“Whoa, what?” Wally said.

“We’re going to have to shuffle as a group with Angel as she pulls on the rope at the same time,” Bo repeated.

“Well, whatever we’re going to do, we’d better do it fast,” said Mike. “We’ve only got six minutes left.”

I gulped, then shouted, “I’m ready, let’s just do it.”

“Angel, which way do we go?” shouted Bo.

I froze. Good question. Why hadn’t I thought to add that to the one question I asked Mr. Donovan?

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “I’m going with clockwise. It’s the most logical.”

“Maybe that’s exactly why we should go counterclockwise,” Wally shouted back.

“Just decide and do it quickly,” Jax yelled. His voice sounded strained. The collective weight of all of us on his and Bo’s shoulders had to be killing them.

“Clockwise,” I said decisively.

“Clockwise, it is,” Bo shouted. “On my mark, I want everyone to gently shift their weight with me to the right. I’m going to shuffle about an inch, and then I’ll call a stop. Just try to stay with me. Then we’ll go another inch, and so on, until that baby pops off.”

I pressed my lips together and tightened my hands on the rope. They were slick with sweat. The odds were high our stack would collapse when we moved.

“Now,” he shouted and I could feel the group move slightly to the left. For a second we swayed precariously and then straightened out. I pulled on the rope, but nothing. What if Wally was right and it was counterclockwise? I would have ruined it for everyone.

Focus, Sinclair. Second-guessing at this stage of the game isn’t helpful.

“Again,” I yelled.

“Now,” Bo called out. He shuffled, the rest of us coming along. This time we swayed even more. There were a lot of groans and some muffled cussing. I wasn’t sure we could take one more movement.

“Come on,” Jax shouted. “You can do it, Angel.”

I pulled as hard as I dared, but nothing happened. In sheer desperation, I lifted myself slightly off Hala’s shoulders, putting all my weight on the rope. I felt the object turn, and then with a pop, it flew off the pole and headed toward the mats below.

I almost went with it.

“It worked!” I shouted. I landed back on Hala’s shoulders a bit harder than I intended, but she steadied my ankles with her hands. For a moment afterward, our balance was precarious. Miraculously, we all managed to lean into the pole and stay up. We let out a collective sigh of relief.

After that there was a lot of cheering until I heard Frankie speak. “While that’s all great and wonderful, guys, the clock is still ticking. How the heck do we get down from here?”

I looked over at Mr. Donovan and noticed he was clapping his hands. “Jump,” he shouted at us. “It’s safe. You’ll bounce on the mats.”

Since I was on top, I had to go first and have faith he was right. Closing my eyes, I pushed away from the pole and jumped. I landed on the mat and bounced around a bit, but eventually rolled off.

“It works,” I shouted. “Jump!”

One by one, everyone unstacked and collapsed in exhaustion.

Bo again kept us on track. “We have one minute and seventeen seconds left. Who goes across first?”

“I vote for Bo,” I said. “He was our commander today, and we wouldn’t have made it without him.”

“I agree,” said Wally. “Without him, we’d all be toast. Especially me.”

One by one, we nodded our consent.

Bo shook his head. “I don’t feel right about this. This was a group effort.”

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