Page 91 of No Escape

“That’s entirely up to you,” Brando responded. “Now, let me review the challenge once more. First, Lexi must drive at least one of the radio-controlled cars onto the platform. If she fails, the challenge is over. If she succeeds, the door to your left will open, and one or more of you will proceed in the dark along an obstacle-ridden path to another platform guided only by her instructions. If you step off the path for any reason, you’re eliminated and must exit the game immediately. The game will be frozen until you are out, so I suggest you move quickly. If one or more of you manages to make it to the platform, there’ll be additional obstacles. If you conquer those, you must solve the remaining puzzle to acquire a code. Once you have the code, at least one of you with a nonalarmed braceletmustreturn to the control room with the code and use it on the keypad for you and Lexi to exit the room.” He looked around the room. “Any questions?”

I stared at the screen and back at Brando. “Just to be clear, I have to have at least one person with an alarm bracelet that hasn’t been activated and the code obtained from the platform in order to exit the room and win the challenge.”

“Correct. You’ll have two hours to complete the challenge. After that, the screen, the cameras, the infrared lights, and the screen will turn off and the house lights will come up. I warn you, this room hasneverbeen solved before. In fact, only one team has even made it past the cars, so best of luck.”

We all looked at each other as Brando exited the room and the clock over the door began its countdown.

“Okay, I guess the first part is up to me.” I faced the screen, sliding the headset onto my ears and adjusting the mic in front of my mouth. I’d already briefly checked out the console. On one side was a high-end gaming controller with dual thumb sticks, four triggers, and four face buttons.

Slash climbed up one of the steps and examined the setup over my shoulder. “Must be Bluetooth-connected,” he commented as I lifted the console and saw it didn’t have any wires.

Several sets of multicolored buttons were on the left side of the console, and in the center of it was a square button labeled “microphone.” Only three buttons on the left-hand side were illuminated.

I picked up the controller and tentatively moved the thumb stick but saw no response on the screen.

“Try that,” Slash said, pointing to a green-lit button.

I pushed it, and one of the three cars came to life with a green light pulsing on its roof. I tried using the thumb stick again, and the car moved forward a foot or so. I pulled back, and the car returned to its position.

“While I would have preferred a racing controller, I think I can handle this,” I said. “But it seems too easy. There has to be something I don’t know yet, especially since only one team has conquered this section of the challenge.”

Slash murmured his agreement as I briefly turned on each of the cars. I also pulled and pushed a couple of levers on the side of the console, discovering they moved my stool up and down and even rotated it.

“That’s pretty sweet,” I said, moving the stool into a position that gave me a full view of the track.

I started driving the green car slowly around the pad to get the feel for it before driving it onto the track. In the process, I discovered one of the thumb sticks acted as a brake. That could be useful. I tried a few more moves before I uncovered a significant issue.

“The controls are backward,” I said. “Slash, check this out.” When I steered the car right, it went left. When I steered the car left, it went right. The forward and back movements were accurate, but the right and left were reversed.

“That’s going to affect your accuracy, timing, and reflexes,” Slash said. “Be careful with it.”

“Easy for you to say. Okay, let me check that it’s true for all three of the cars.” I experimented a bit and confirmed the same setup on all the cars. “Well, this is going to make it a lot harder, but not impossible. I’ll just have to go slow and steady, but we have to get moving.”

“You’ve got this, Lexi,” Mia called, and I smiled as I carefully maneuvered the first car onto the track. I moved it up the ramp and onto the track. I negotiated the first simple turn with a few small adjustments. Feeling slightly more confident, I picked up the pace slightly and made a couple more turns.

“It’s not easy fighting my instincts honed from years of play,” I said. “Right is left, and left is right. It’s crazy.”

Still, I was making progress, so that was good. In fact, I started to think I was getting the hang of it when I approached a steep hill on the track. I slowed as I reached the top, but once I started down, I was going too fast to make the hard right turn at the bottom. I tried to correct in the moment, but my instincts moved the car in the opposite direction, and the car tumbled off the track.

The room fell deadly silent.

Slash, who still stood watching over my shoulder, patted my arm. “Consider it a necessary learning curve,cara. You’ve got this.”

Inhaling a deep breath, I fired up the second car with determination. I carefully retraced my steps, but the fact that I was eating up the clock was adding to my anxiety. I had to strike that delicate balance of accuracy and time, and it wasn’t going to be easy.

I started driving again, and it felt like I was starting to get a handle on the backward steering. My confidence on the turns and braking increased even though I almost lost it a couple of times. I finally reached a set of four climbing switchback turns about three-quarters of the way into the track. I was close to finishing. I took the first two turns slowly, and then the third one with a little more confidence, but on the fourth, I made the same mistake. Needing to go left, I steered left, and the car slid off the right side of the track before I could react.

Gasps sounded in the room, and I closed my eyes. But I wasn’t upset—I was mad. The track wasn’t that hard. I’d played on dozens of tracks a lot harder than this and won them handily.

“It’s part of the mental challenge,” Slash said. “The more skilled you are at these kinds of games, the harder it’s going to be for you.”

“That’s the problem. It really isn’t that hard. But if I lose concentration for even a second, it’s fatal. It’s like trying to drive fast while going in reverse. I’ve always struggled looking in the rearview mirror. It would be fairly simple if I could reverse the course back to normal.”

“What if you looked at the screen in a mirror?” Oscar asked. “Wouldn’t that reverse it the right way?”

“Of course, but where would we get a mirror?”

“What about the mirror tiles on the wall?” Oscar suggested. “Looking at them made me think maybe one of them could act like a rearview mirror for you.”

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