We began the painstaking process of spacing dominoes while avoiding the pipes beneath. Fortune soon forfeited, feet too blocky to dodge them, and even a hasty Barnes tripped the mechanism twice.
After about thirty agonizing minutes of methodically arranging my line, the distant whir of propeller blades announced the second helicopter, and Erika and Imogen emerged with Zara in tow. I was finishing theVofENDEAVORwhen the girls ran to the end of my table. “Perfect timing,” I exhaled.
“Luke, stay put,” Imogen advised, surveying the situation. “I’ll do theOwhile Erika does theR. We’ll clip to you after. Get back to the start so you can trigger it once we’re done.”
I gingerly navigated the pipes back and noticed Barnes frantically trying to finish his own setup. “Don’t forget your promise,” he warned, but I kept walking.
I got to the start right when Imogen signaled. I prayed we wouldn’t have to reset these damn things. My finger knocked that first domino, the pint-sized devils and angels cascading their cursive path. I raced along the table, following the dominoes until the last one perilously tipped—andjustgrazed the switch. My key dropped from a shelf suspended above the table. Right as I reached for it, Fortune slammed me to the ground, shaking the table, dominoes flying.
“Where’s the key?!” Imogen shouted, combing through the wreckage.
“You can’t let him keep doing this!” Erika railed at Zara.
Barnes crowed next door as his own key released. “Fortune, bring him over,” he called after opening his gate. Fortune started pulling me across the stony ground, but I grabbed the pipe grid under my table. After all, I’d proven in Alaska I knew how to stay put, and Erika and Imogen rushed to anchor me. An irritated Barnes set his key on the table before latching my carabiner to the hook on his belt. “Luke, you promised.”
“Not without them.”
“I can’t afford that math,” he replied, grabbing my thigh to drag me too.
The struggle persisted, until Fortune finally paused. “Is he really worth it, boss? The prize money alone’s not a bad payday.”
Consideration briefly flashed across Barnes’ face, but I refused to even allow him that option. I grabbed a nearby rock and rammed it into the hook on Barnes’ belt, crushing it until my carabiner was jammed against his belt, the hook so bent and contorted that the carabiner would never unclip now. “Luke, what did you just do?” Barnes asked, dread in his voice.
“I promised we’d cross the finish line together, not that we’d be the first people doing it,” I replied blankly. “Where’s the lie?”
Fortune examined Barnes’ mangled belt and sighed. “You almost had it, boss.” He then grabbed Barnes’ key and turned to the already open gate. He marched through, slamming it and pocketing the key.
“Fortune, we had a deal!” Barnes cried in his wake, before furiously turning to me. “Do you realize what you just threw away? For the kids? For them too?” He gestured at Imogen and Erika. “I was going to take care of all of us.”
“Like hell you were,” Erika snapped.
Barnes groaned, smacking his hands to his face, but as satisfying as it was to watch him implode, we had places to be. “Im, over here.” I offered my hook to her. “Barnes, get up.”
“Why?” he asked. “It’s over.”
I revealed my key, hidden in my fist. “Because I’m stuck with you.”
All three of them gasped, and Imogen grabbed me joyfully by the arm. Barnes’ face softened, actually proud. “You got your key before Fortune tackled you.”
“Now get up. Unless you’d rather give Fortune more of a head start?”
We unlocked my gate and sprinted into the woods. The terrain grew steeper, but Fortune had made good time. Eventually we burst onto a plateau, revealing a panorama of Milford Sound and five wide-open gates, each bearing one of our names. Beyond them, five rope bridges crossed a ravine, the ocean beneath and the whole crew on the other side. The finish line at last.
Fortune was staggering toward the gates, so drained he looked drunk. Seeing us, he stumbled onto the middle bridge, the one with my name scrawled over its gate. “That dumbass isn’t even on the right bridge!” Barnes jeered. “We’ll outrun him on mine!”
“Drew said the key has to match the bridge. We only have Luke’s key!” Imogen said—right as Fortune halted, deliberately blocking our path.
We tentatively boarded my bridge, Barnes already strategizing under his breath. “Okay, so we play along. Luke overpowers him—”
“No,” I said. “It’s over, Barnes. We go together, everyone gets paid, and you fulfill your deal. He doesn’t have to lose for us to win.”
“Next you’ll say we each get courage, brains, and a heart,” he grumbled, but left it there.
“Fortune!” I called. “All together?”
He offered a beleaguered thumbs-up, and Barnes huffily clipped to him.
“Let’s do this.” I turned to Erika. “After you.”
