Page 36 of King’s Ransom

‘What the hell do you want?’ Hooper snapped. ‘To be the guy who solves it every time?’

‘Not at all, it’s just, well, this guy’s references in the first riddle were—’

Hooper waved me away.

‘We don’t have time for this. We’re going to 61.’

He dashed into the elevator with Juno.

Xiao went with them.

Like me, Merritt Garrett wasn’t quite convinced. He stayed. So did Audrey.

‘What were you about to say about this guy’s references in the first riddle?’ Merritt Garrett asked.

Time check.

Eight minutes.

I said, ‘I was going to say that they were the references of an older guy: Superman, Lex Luthor, Otis. Hudson in Aliens, which came out in the 80s. I think you were right about the prime number, but I think they’re wrong about this riddle being a reference to some new nightclub.’

‘I’m older, too, and I have an idea about the answer,’ Garrett said.

‘I’m listening.’

‘You ever watch the NBA? Basketball?’

‘Not so much.’ (I didn’t at all, actually. I watched SportsCenter, though, so I could participate in conversations with people who did watch professional sports.)

Garrett said, ‘Well, this riddle comes down to who the “other worm” is. Our kidnapper said, “Exclusive clubs, celebrity parties . . . kind of like when the other worm was in L.A.” Whoever this other worm was, he or she went to glamorous parties during a stint in L.A. I think it’s an old NBA reference.’

‘To who?’

‘Dennis Rodman.’

Even I’d heard of Dennis Rodman. ‘The basketball player with the rainbow-coloured hair and nose rings? From the Chicago Bulls, who played with Michael Jordan?’

‘Yeah. Rodman’s nickname was the Worm. And after his time at the Bulls, he spent a couple of years playing for the Lakers in L.A. . . .’

Garrett was now tapping on his phone, looking up something.

‘. . . where his jersey number was . . .’

He held up his phone so I could see it:

A picture of Dennis Rodman in a Lakers jersey, numbered 73.

‘. . . 73. And 73 is also a prime number,’ Garrett said.

I liked this logic much better.

I said, ‘We need to get to the 73rd fl—’

Suddenly, the radio on the belt of one of the NYPD cops squawked loudly.

‘All units, this is chopper unit. I have a visual on something on the north face of the building. Looks like—oh, Lord—it’s people! It’s two people attached to the outside of the building.’

‘To the outside of the building?’ Garrett repeated.