“Harsh,” Carter said.
“Hollywood,” Adi reminded her.
“But that movie came out, like . . . seventeen? Eighteen years ago?” said Beck. “Wouldn’t that mean . . .”
There was a long, silent moment. Carter gasped. Beck’s eyes rounded in disbelief. “Victor Cunningham is yourdad?”
Adi’s lips tightened.
“No freaking way,” Beck said. “What’s he like?”
“No idea. Never met him. Symphony didn’t tell him I existed, and I can’t contact him without sounding deranged.Hey, Victor, remember that woman you slept with eighteen years ago . . . ?He’d think it was some scam to get his money.”
“Great mom,” Sierra said, deadpan.
“Except,” Adi said, “if she got him to agree to sponsor this show, shemusthave told him about me. Maybe even got a paternity test. He wouldn’t be going along with her shenanigans otherwise.”
“Then why hasn’t he contacted you?” Beck said.
“Because . . . I’m Symphony Parvesh’s son? I figure he’s waiting to see whether I take after her.”
“I don’t think—” Sierra started, but the room erupted in a chorus of groans and boos, cutting her off.
“That’s cheating!” yelled Ollie from Team Illuminati.
Delphi cackled. “That’s winning.”
Ollie reached out and gave one of the handles an angry spin. “I’m done.”
“Sore loser,” Neil muttered. But the other teams were clearly finished with the tournament, and no amount of Jarius calling them scared little wimps was going to change it.
When things had settled down, Nadia, the leader of Team Mind Hack, asked loudly, “So are we going to talk about it or not?”
“What?” said Neil. “That four of you losers are going home today?”
Delphi smacked her bubble gum, her glance cutting toward Carter. “Or the fact that Team Hell-Suck got themselves stuck in a freezer?”
Beck felt his teammates tense. By now everyone had heard that someone had locked them in with a padlock and that the masked assailant wasn’t identifiable on the new security cameras. Only Team Dread had mocked them for it.
“Or maybe we should talk about how Ginger spewed all over me?” Jarius added.
“None of that is what I meant,” Nadia said, raising her voice. “I was talking about the coded ribbon.” She paused, waiting. “From the last room? Asking us to solve a murder?”
Emma from Crown Jewels piped up, “We figured it was the producers messing with us. Same as the Alicia Angelos anagram in the snag round. A publicity stunt.”
“We thought it could be some sort of memorial to Alicia,” said Beck, “but that note was . . .”
“Real,” said Carter.
“But what’s the lie in the clues?” Nadia demanded. “And why has this person askedusto figure it out?”
“Um, because we’re supposed to be the smartest people in the studio?” Jarius said. “Though that’s obviously not the case for all of us.”
“F-U,” said Sierra.
Everyone’s heads swiveled toward her.
“Excuse me?” Jarius demanded.
