Page 57 of The Knights of Gaia

“I see it!” Kylie told us. “The trail marker! We just need to grab the phone attached to it and…” Her voice trailed off as she stopped at the post.

“What is it?” Asher asked her.

Kylie turned around to face us, worry lines crinkling her brow. “It’s not there. There’s no phone.”

CHAPTER8

OFF THE PLAYING FIELD

Bronte rushed forward. “No, the phone has to be here somewhere.” She circled the trail marker, surveying every splinter of wood on it. “It has to be here.”

“Bronte,” I said quietly.

She circled the post again, muttering over and over again, “It has to be here.”

“If there’s no phone, how are we supposed to call the General’s soldiers to come get us?” Kylie wondered. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

Dutch was frowning. From the looks of it, he’d come to the same realization that I had.

“They were never going to come and get us,” I said.

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Bronte shook her head, hugging her shoulders. “That’s not what the assignment said.” She started pacing. “The assignment said we just had to make it here, and then we’d be extracted. Then we’d win.”

“Bronte, I think…” I tried to figure out a diplomatic way to say this, but I just couldn’t. “They lied to us, Bronte. This whole Quest was a lie.”

“Why?”

“I’m not sure. I guess they wanted to see how we’d react when everything went sideways.”

“But how do wewin?” Bronte looked to me like I had all the answers.

“I don’t think they expected anyone to win this,” I told her.

Bronte kicked the wooden post.

I caught her arm before she punched it too—and hurt herself. “Look, just because they designed this Quest so no one could win it, that doesn’t mean we can’t still win.”

Bronte’s arm relaxed. The tension in her body eased, and hope crept into her eyes.

“What do you mean, Savannah?” Asher asked. “How do we win?”

“Think back to the scenario card,” I replied. “The backstory.”

“Your team of Knights from the Green Nation has discovered a rare treasure—designated Object 2861—in the Woods, unclaimed territory,” Bronte quoted perfectly, word-for-word. “Your objective is to bring Object 2861 to the point indicated on your map. There you will find a phone you can use to call in the extraction team. They will rescue you and bring you and your treasure to the General.” She shook her head. “But there’s no extraction team, Savannah.”

“That doesn’t matter. It’s just an irrelevant piece of exposition,” I said. “The important part iswherethe treasure needs to go: to the General. And we’re perfectly capable of delivering it to him ourselves.” I gave my teammates a triumphant smile.

No one smiled back.

“The General’s office is in the Black Obelisk,” said Kylie.

“Yes. So we bring the treasure there,” I said.

Kylie frowned. “Have you forgotten that they locked the Castle gates after we all arrived this morning? And there are Watchers guarding the gate. And I bet the General instructed them not to let anyone in or out of here until this game is over. How are we supposed to get past those soldiers?”

“By thinking outside the box,” I replied.

“This isn’t just out of the box,” said Bronte. “It’s way off the playing field.”

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