‘Good,’ she simply says, giving my hand a firm squeeze.
‘The question now is,’ Owen starts, spinning in his office chair. ‘Where’s the party in this place? It’s famously supposed to have one, but fucking where? It’s all just walls and office chairs. And there’s barely anyone here.’
‘Maybe the enigma that is Ransom will continue to elude us forevermore,’ I say with a shrug.
‘Don’t let Josh hear you say that,’ Owen warns. ‘He’ll become unhinged.’
‘Maybe it’s more of an art installation. Or a place to reflect, rather than being about music?’ Hennie offers.
‘Hard to reflect when I feel like I’m in an office. And a dark, depressing one, at that,’ Owen replies, sneering at our surroundings.
‘It definitely feels like a hard reset,’ I agree. ‘Like a preview of real life before Firecrest ends.’
‘Please.’ Owen makes a sound of distress. ‘I can’t deal with the idea of real life yet.’
Elliot and Josh soon arrive in tandem and all we move on. Whether we’re looking for anything that relates to the treasure hunt or just anything of interest is now up in the air. We continue to walk through the labyrinth of corridors and desks and shady corners, only walking past a handful of people in the process.
We turn into a larger space tucked into one of the corners of the warehouse. It consists of an undecorated bar and an enormous egg-shaped table with chairs surrounding it. It’s a clean and glossy white, giving the impression that it belongs in a sleek office rather than here.
‘I spy a lobster,’ Owen says under his breath.
He nods towards one end of the table, where a man with glossy blonde hair sits with his elbows on the table, his face lit up by his phone screen. My attention goes straight to his t-shirt, which has a large lobster emblazoned across the chest. My pulse stutters.
‘Seems a little easy, doesn’t it?’ I muse.
‘To be fair, this treasure hunt has beenanythingbut easy,’ Elliot retorts.
‘Agreed.’ Hennie leads the way towards the man.
He sees us approach and sits up with a polite smile, quickly putting down his phone.
‘Hello!’ he says brightly. He looks remarkably… alert.
‘Hi, we’re, um – looking for the next clue in a treasure hunt. I don’t suppose you’re the right person to speak to?’ I ask, nodding at his t-shirt.
‘The clue led us straight to you,’ Owen says behind me.
‘Indeed!’ he says, his voice clear and crisp. ‘You’re correct. For formality’s sake, I’m afraid I must ask: where exactly did you find the clue that lead you here? We’ve had a couple of cheeky short-cutters, you know?’
Elliot and I exchange a look before he replies. ‘The phone box in Neptune’s Lounge.’
‘Excellent! Lovely stuff!’ He claps his hands together. ‘In that case, well done on getting this far. This is officially the last step before the winner is elected, so. Almost there, you know?’
My heart races. Victory is so close I can almost taste it.
He stands to take a step closer to us. ‘So. I’m sure you noticed that you’ve just walked past hundreds – if not thousands – of individuals’ desires expressed through the medium of messages on post-it notes. It’s the Ransom thing, you know. This year, anyway.’
We all nod, mystified.
‘Your last challenge is this,’ he says, enjoying this moment far too much. ‘If you can locate and bring me a post-it that perfectly encapsulates the meaning behindoneQueen Ego song, the prize is yours.’
I blink. ‘That’s it?’
‘That’s it,’ he says with a self-satisfied smile.
‘Isn’t that a bit… disrespectful? Feels insensitive to just rip them off the wall and use them for something like this,’ Elliot asks.
He smiles patiently. ‘We’ll put them right back after and make sure they’re not harmed.’
