Page 112 of No Escape

“Ladies and gentlemen, it is my sincere pleasure to have hosted you. As I’ve mentioned before, I had no expectation that you, a family gathered to celebrate the happy occasion of a wedding, would solve a single escape room, let alone every single one of the challenges. But you did, against all odds, and so, in addition to the all-expenses-paid honeymoon here on the island that I am offering Vittoria and Gio, I would like to present you each with a little memento to mark your time spent at Castrum Augustus.”

Lorenzo returned, carrying a basket. He set it on the table next to Dante and stepped back. Dante reached into the basket and held up a small black velvet pouch. “Each of you shall receive an authentic, ancient, two-headed Roman coin for participating in the challenges. The two-headed figure is not Romulus and Remus, but the god Janus. Still, I hope it will remind you of the secrets of the castle. Ladies, for you, the coins have been fashioned as a pendant to be worn around the neck. Men, you will receive a coin mounted on a money clip. Father Armando, you will receive a coin as well, but as it’s unlikely you’d wear jewelry with a pagan god on it or carry a money clip, I had your coin embedded into a block of Lucite that you can keep in your apartment or have on your desk. I hope that you all look back at your time spent here fondly.”

There was a smattering of applause, and Mia wiggled in her chair as Lorenzo, Ciro, and Chiara handed out the gifts to each of us. Lorenzo handed me my bag, and I opened it, admiring the coin pendant. Totally cool. It would be a lifelong treasured item for me.

Once everyone received their gift, Dante spoke again. “Now that you’ve successfully solved all the puzzles in the castle, I would ask a favor. Please refrain from speaking of your experience here, other than in general terms, to protect the secrets of the castle, the puzzles, and their solutions. This will give me the opportunity to invite others to try to solve them, but also to refine my technique and approach. Since you’ve been singularly and astonishingly successful at solving even my toughest challenges, I extend an offer to you. As I develop new and restructured escape rooms, I would like to invite you to return in the future to test out any new challenges I’ve come up with—all expenses paid, of course. As compensation for your puzzle expertise, I will offer you all the amenities of the island during that time as a getaway vacation.”

My dad immediately stood up. “Well, you can certainly count the Carmichael family in. What an absolute honor it’s been to participate in these challenges, all while meeting my daughter’s wonderful new family and…” he looked over at the pope “…friends.”

Gio also leaped to his feet. “You can count on us, too. This was the most fun I’ve had in years, maybe ever. We’d love to come back to Castrum Augustus. Andgrazie millein advance for the honeymoon. I know that Vittoria and I will enjoy every minute of it.”

There was a lot of laughter and good-natured ribbing before Dante asked us if we had any questions about the puzzles.

“I have one,” I said. “These challenges all seemed to feature numbers. For example, 753, which was the founding of Rome, of course, but there were numbers on the golden discs. Were the numbers random or was there any particular significance to them?”

Dante beamed. “Excellent question. The numbers on the discs were clues themselves, although it was not necessary to understand them to solve the final challenge. Still, they were there if the players were to recognize them. The number on the gold disc from the maze in the garden was 509. Rome first became a republic in 509 BC. The disc in the gaming room had the number forty-five, which was the year Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and defeated the Republic’s army, establishing himself as the emperor. Rome, under Nero, burned in 64 AD, the number on the pool’s disc. Hadrian’s Wall was finished in the year 121, which was the library’s disc number, and that year also marked the height of the Roman Empire. The disc from the room with the bull was 395 AD, which was when the Roman Empire split into the western and eastern empires with capitals in both Rome and Constantinople. Finally, the fall of the Roman Empire and the official start of the Dark Ages is widely considered to be 476 AD, which was the number on the disc in the blackout room.”

I shook my head. “Wow, so clever! We missed those clues.”

“And yet you didn’t need them,” Dante said. “Just more opportunities to point you in the right direction, which was Rome, its founding, and its two founders—Romulus and Remus. But perhaps you didn’t need those clues because the rest of the escape rooms were too easy.”

The immediate chorus of “no” that filled the dining room was loud and clear.

“I assure you, Mr. Zachetti, the challenges were plenty hard enough,” Stefan said. “As it was, we barely finished most of them, with luck playing somewhat of a role in at least one or two.”

Others chimed in with their points of view. I wasn’t sure they’d convinced him, but he didn’t press us on it any further. We finished our heavenly dessert, coffee, and wine and then stood around chatting with the pope, Father Armando, Dante Zachetti, and each other. At some point, my dad approached Slash and me. He put a friendly hand on Slash’s shoulder.

“Slash, I have to say, I truly appreciate the fact that since I’ve been in Italy, I haven’t been shot at once or had my life put in danger. Which is a good thing, since this trip started off on the wrong foot. So, hopefully things are looking up on the danger front.”

At that exact moment, a loud, sudden popping noise sounded from behind us. Without a shred of hesitation, my dad hit the floor, covering his head with his hands.

I looked over my shoulder and saw Gio holding a napkin over the top of a now-open champagne bottle. I bent down to tap my dad on the shoulder. “Relax, Dad. Gio was just opening the champagne.”

My dad looked up, removing his hands from his head. “Oh, well. Old habits die hard.”

We laughed as Slash stuck out a hand and helped him up. My mom joined us, and we talked for a bit more until Stefan and Gio came over.

“Excuse me, may we borrow our brother for a moment?” Gio asked. He wavered a bit on his feet and seemed tipsy.

“Sure,” I said, although I wasn’t sure why they had to ask my permission, or why I had to give it. Gio slung his arms around both his brothers as they staggered onto the veranda, talking rapidly in Italian.

“That’s one good-looking group of brothers,” Dad observed.

“No kidding,” I said.

Mom gave me a sly smile. “So, I guess that means I’m going to have good-looking grandchildren.”

“Mom!”

She laughed and leaned over to kiss me on the cheek. “It’s just too easy with you. I’m kidding. Let’s get through your wedding day first, okay?”

There was no way I going to argue with that.

Chapter Fifty-Four

Slash

It had been years since I’d spent any significant time with my brothers. Life had become busy for all of us, and it was difficult for us to get together, seeing as how we were spread out internationally.

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