Page 107 of No Escape

“Arrrgh,” Mia complained. “Why won’t this game ever end? Why can’t it just say, ‘The End, Go Eat’ already?”

“It looks like an address, or at least part of an address,” Tito said.

“There’s no city or country listed, but the address is in Italian,” Slash said. “And translated into English, it means ‘the street of the colosseum.’”

“As in the Roman coliseum?” Dad asked.

“I would assume so. If we had our phones or a laptop, we could confirm there’s a street in Rome named the Via del Colosseo.”

“What if we had a map?” my mom asked.

“That would work,” said Slash. “Does anyone know where we can find a map of Rome?”

Gio grinned and slapped his brother on the back. “I sure do. The map room. Follow me.”

We followed Gio to the library and got a quick demonstration of how his team had found the hidden room. When we entered the map room, I looked in awe at the giant statue of a wolf suckling two human babies, as well as lots of shelves, drawers, and tables with maps, tubes, and cartography equipment. Gio bypassed all that and led us straight to a wall where two giant side-by-side maps of Rome hung. The map on the left was of old Rome and on the right was modern Rome.

“This is super cool,” I said, checking it out. “Where’s the Colosseum?”

“Here,” Father Armando said, tapping the map of new Rome. “It’s located in the center and oldest part of Rome.”

“Score,” Stefan exclaimed, peering at the map of ancient Rome. “I’ve found Via del Colosseo. It’s right next to Colle Palatino and il Forum.”

“What’s Colle Palatino?” Mom asked.

“Palatine Hill is the oldest of the seven hills of Rome,” Slash explained. “Legend has it that Rome was founded on Palatine Hill, and it’s where many of the subsequent Roman emperors lived and built some of their greatest buildings.”

“Via del Colosseo is a street running along the base of the hill toward the Colosseum,” Stefan said, running his finger along the street. He switched over to the modern map of Rome, locating the same street. “Lexi, what’s the street number again?”

“Twenty-six,” I confirmed.

Stefan ran his finger along the street, his nose practically touching the map. His finger stopped on a small building northwest of the Colosseum. “This is it,” he said. “On the map the address is identified as La Fine, R&R 753.

“What does that mean?” Dad asked.

Father Armando smiled. “La finemeans the end. I suspect, or at least hope, we are close to the end.”

“Oh, thank God,” Oscar said. “I don’t think my brain can take much more.”

“Or my feet,” Vittoria groaned. “I’m going to go sit on the couch in the library and take a rest.”

Mom looked at Vittoria’s swollen ankles and lifted an eyebrow at me, almost as if she was asking if it was okay to take Vittoria out of the equation before the problem was solved. How had I never noticed the subtle and kind ways my mom took care of people?

I gave Mom an imperceptible nod, and she smiled.

“I’m with you,” Mom said in a loud voice, linking arms with Vittoria. “I’ll come keep you company. Let’s permit the rest of them to take it from here. You and I can relax and talk about all the wonderful Italian wine and dessert we’ve earned.”

“Perfetto.”

Mom and Vittoria left, and the rest of us stood looking at each other, not sure how to proceed.

“So, team, what do we think the two names are?” Tito asked. “Wasn’t that what the gamemaster said? We had to give him two names to win the challenge.”

“It was a really cryptic statement,” I said. “Honestly, I’ve got nothing on that front. How about you, Slash?”

Slash pushed off the wall against which he’d been leaning. “Not a thing.”

“Well, how about we focus on interpreting what R&R 753 means?” Stefan suggested. “Maybe something will come to us. What do you think it means?”

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