Page 55 of No Escape

“The only words we can make with the letters in the tray are JIG, HIM, and HEM,” Winston finally said. “Clarissa and I can find places to play them on the board to make four-letter words like HOME or TIME, but nothing fits that would relate to forty-eight points or the balloons. We’re completely stumped.”

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. Logic had to be the key. “Okay, let’s try working this backward. How can we get forty-eight points? We have a lot of high-value letters, but we would still need to use a double-word or double-letter score to reach forty-eight points, right? So, let’s look for the places where we might do that.”

Since the board was full, there were only a couple of spots where we would benefit from a double-word score. As it stood, only one of the triple-word squares was uncovered. In fact, the only place to take advantage of the triple word score was to connect it with four letters to the start of a word already played. TEEN.

Clarissa suddenly squealed. “Eighteen! That’s it! Eighteen.”

She picked up the letters and added the EIGH to make eighteen. “If you count the points, we get two points for the G, eight for the H, which is a double-letter score, and all the rest are one point each. That totals sixteen points, and if we triple that, it’s forty-eight points.”

“Good work, darling,” Winston said, kissing her on the cheek.

“I agree wholeheartedly with that,” I said. “Good work to both of you.”

“Okay, so now we have two numbers, forty-eight and eighteen,” Gio said. “How do we determine what balloons to shoot from that? Come on guys, just give me something to shoot at.”

I considered for a long moment. This decision could make or break the game for us. “I think we’re only working with the number eighteen. The words48 pointswere already written out for us and didn’t require any problem solving.”

“That still doesn’t help,” Mia said. “How do we know which balloon is number eighteen?”

I strode to the base of the slide and turned back to look up at the ceiling. The balloons were divided by color and numbers. Did the colors mean anything? Those closest to me on the right were red, blue, green, and orange, in that order. On the other side of the ceiling, they were purple, yellow, brown, and black. Eight different colors.

A single width of white balloons divided each of the colored sections. I could discern no pattern to the colors. I stole another glance at the clock, noting we had less than seven minutes to finish.

Since the balloon sections were numbered, that had to be a clue. Numbers were my thing, so I had only to figure the pattern. The sections ran from one to four down the left side of the room, starting at the shooting gallery, with the right-side sections numbering five to eight back toward the far wall.

Eight was the highest number. There was no eighteen.

Big picture. Big picture.It was as if my subconscious was trying to send me an important message.It’s right there in front of you—just wake up and see it.

But there was no Section Eighteen, and none of the sections had eighteen balloons.

I let my vision and thoughts drift as I looked down the length of the ceiling balloons. After a moment, I took a deep breath and snapped back into the moment. My eyes immediately latched onto the one sign to the left, and then the eight sign to my right. One and eight. Eighteen.

The answerwasright in front of me.

Stepping forward, I pointed at the signs. “While there isn’t a Section Eighteen in here, the one and eight sections are adjacent. I bet the balloon we’re looking for is in this line of white balloons between the two sections here.”

Winston came to stand beside me. “That, son, was brilliant thinking. Well done.”

I wasn’t sure I’d kept the surprise from my face at his compliment, but thankfully he wasn’t looking at me, but at the balloons.

Gio, too, was staring at the white row of balloons. “But which balloon? There are twelve of them.”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, looking at the clock. It slipped just under five minutes. “Shoot them all.”

Gio set the dart, cocked the crossbow, aimed, and fired at a random balloon in the row. There was a loud pop and a fluttering of a tattered balloon, but nothing else, and no gold disc.

“Uh, we have a problem,” Gio said. “The dart stuck to the ceiling. That means we’re down to two darts and ten balloons.”

“That gives us less than a 20 percent chance of picking the right balloon,” Winston said, blowing out a breath. “There has to be something we’re missing.”

“If we’re trying to find a golden disc, shouldn’t we be able to see the outline inside the balloon?” Alessa asked. “Or, at least, won’t one of the balloons look heavier than the other?”

“How can we tell in this light?” Clarissa complained. “If only it were a little brighter on the ceiling.”

“That’s it!” Mia said, running to the shooting gallery.

I immediately knew what she was thinking. “Come on, everyone,” I said, following her. “We need to shine our laser guns on the balloons. Hurry.”

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