“Looks like. Guess they wanted to save the big reveal until the end.”
Adi examined Carter more closely, and suddenly it clicked. He didn’t do social media. Being online, publicly posing and peacocking, was as superficial as Hollywood. But he’d watched every episode ofThe Escape Gameto study for this, as well as some videos on a fan website. He’d seen Kick It Carter’s stuff, but he’d never seen the girl behind the videos before, only her avatar, who was as sharply polished as his mom’s lacquered fingernails.
Yuck.
Jarius clicked his tongue sympathetically. “Man, were the producerstryingto screw you over? You know why they did it, too. The ads write themselves. ‘Come for the puzzles, stay for the psychopath.’ ” He slapped Carter on the back. “Let’s chat.”
The rest of the contestants returned to their conversations. Adi and Beck hung back. Adi knew what he was supposed to do. Play nice. Shake hands. Make small talk.
Instead, he headed to a table, digging a book from his backpack. He was only a few pages in before he realized he wasn’t retaining anything. There was too much buzzing in his brain. Killers with tattoos on their arms. Shrinks asking about murders. The abbreviations from the periodic table of elements.
Now,therewas something that would keep him up at night.
Li Si O Ca Ne Ag Al
Alliances. Gallons. Calling. Closing. Lasagna.
“What are you reading?” said an attractive apple-shaped girl with a maroon hijab as she sat beside him.
“Playboy,” said Adi, because he was clearly holding a thriller.
“Funny. I’m Nadia.”
Adi let his book thud to the table. Not like he was concentrating, anyway. “Adi.”
“How’d you do in the snag round?” Nadia held out an open packet of salt-and-vinegar chips as an offering, which almost made up for the interruption.
“It was fine,” he said between crunches. “A cinch.”
“I didn’t like not knowing my team beforehand. What did you think when you saw Sierra Angelos?”
Adi shrugged. “That it was a practical joke.”
“I heard the producers mess with contestants, but this is next level. And to be with Carter Kelly, too! You’re on the team everyone’s going to be watching.”
Adi made a noncommittal noise. He only cared if one specific person watched.
Nadia jerked her chin toward Jarius. “And then we’ve got Jock Face over there. I’m pretty sure the producers cast him for entertainment value, because he couldn’t even figure out how to get hot water out of the dispenser.”
Adi helped himself to more of Nadia’s chips. “What’d you make of the element anagram?”
“The what?”
“In the room. The element numbers corresponded to our combination locks, but I never figured out what their abbreviations were supposed to spell.”
It was murder to admit, but he’d rather find out the answer from someone else than never know.
“They weren’t supposed to spell anything,” Nadia said. “We just needed the numbers.”
“You don’t think it was a snag we missed?”
“Naw. I thought the same thing at first.” She held up her phone. “I even checked an anagram solver when I got out. I know what you mean—itfeelslike they’re supposed to spell something. But I guess they were a red herring.”
The chair on the other side of Adi pulled out and Carter swooped into it. Her mouth was locked into a painful-looking grin as she whispered through her teeth, “Save. Me.”
Half a second later, four more people descended on their table— Jarius Paisley-Whatever, a ghost-pale girl with a bubblegum-pink pixie cut and dark sunglasses, another white kid who looked like a poster boy for Old Navy, and a Latina girl with enormous turquoise earrings who could have been a supermodel. Jarius’s team, Adi guessed, judging from how they shared the same predatory grins.
“Kick It Carter,” said Jarius, “meet Delphi, Neil, and Gabriela. We’re still figuring out our team name, but we’re leaning toward Team Dread. You know, like we strikedreadinto the hearts of our competitors.”
