“What are you, the Riddler? What the fuck does that even mean?” Jay asked.
“Don’t talk to him like that,” Drake said calmly, staring hard at Jay before shooting a wide grin at Remi, like he expected to be rewarded for coming to his defense.
Instead, the boy just rolled his eyes as Luca said, “Then tell your boyfriend to start making sense.”
“Jesus, give him a minute,” Diego said, playing with his inky black hair.
Park closed his eyes and prayed for patience—for those around the table and for Gift, whose foot was still driving Park to distraction, giving him the world’s slowest…footjob. Was that even a fucking thing?
“Can you please explain, Remi?” Park asked, voice raw.
Remi nodded. “To find the entrance to the game, you have to find the gatekeeper. A picture is posted and tagged on Instagram with the new location of the gatekeeper at random times.”
“The gatekeeper?” Gift asked. “Who’s that?”
Remi toggled back to the game and quickly took his character to a wave pool with palm trees and beach umbrellas where cartoon animals lingered around. “The gatekeeper is a player you’ll meet when you follow the emojis to the corresponding location. That gatekeeper will tell you where to find the entrance to the real game and the password to get into it.”
“How do you know all this?” Morgan asked.
Remi flicked his gaze to the girl briefly. “Because I found them and asked to enter the game.”
“How did you know who the gatekeeper is? Was?” Dove asked. “I’m assuming they don’t just have a sign over their heads.”
“No. They have a flag,” Remi said. “A pixelated cyclone flag to be exact and their little conversation bubble literally says gatekeeper.”
“How did you figure all this out in one night?” Drake asked, staring at Remi like he’d never seen him before.
Remi stared hard at the other boy, then shrugged, dropping his gaze. “It’s just a logic puzzle. I’m good at puzzles.”
“So, once you talk to this gatekeeper and you get the information, then what?” Payton asked, eyes shiny with excitement.
Remi hit a few more keys on his laptop. “Then you go to the game entrance. This is where it got tricky. The gatekeeper will tell you where to find the entrance but they won’t tell you how to unlock it. When I didn’t see anything outside the funhouse, I figured there was an Easter egg in there that I needed to find.”
Park frowned. “An Easter egg?” he managed, snatching Gift’s foot and finally just holding it in place.
“A hidden feature within the game, one that’s not easily noticed,” Remi explained. “In this case, it’s the clown.”
They all watched as Remi took them to the funhouse, all of them sitting up when he clicked on the broken clown sign resting against two wooden planks in the shape of an X.
“X marks the spot,” Morgan murmured.
Everything went dark and the pixelated cyclone filled the screen, then a box appeared, asking him to enter a password. He typed the password and the screen shifted once again to what looked like a…casino?
There were flashing white bulbs around a neon pink welcome sign. It was just as garish as Las Vegas itself. When the screen faded, a new one appeared with a simple question:Enter the game? Yes or No?
“What is this?” Mos asked. “All this for a gambling site? Seems a bit anticlimactic, no? Gambling is legal in Vegas.”
Remi hit yes and, suddenly, they were in a game. A poker game.
“That’s the thing,” Remi said. “They’re targeting high school kids. Kids who are betting with real money.”
Gift shook his head. “I don’t get it. What is it about this game that’s worth killing for?”
Remi shrugged. “I don’t know. I think we’re going to have to play the game to find out.”
Diego looked at Park, speaking for the first time since the meeting started. “Isn’t Archer a professional poker player? Can he help?”
“No teachers are allowed to help,” Luca reminded, his smile borderline condescending.
