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Robin blinked and then out came those dimples. ‘I guess you’re right. I am the brains of this operation.’
‘I wouldn’t go that far,’ Sienna said, fighting a grin that won.
With horror, Sienna realised they were smiling at each other. They were having a warm moment.
Robin was the first to look away. ‘Come on, let’s figure out what we’re supposed to do with my favourite cliché.’
Twelve
Five clues later, they unlocked the exit door. Robin swung it open to reveal the teenage staff member waiting out in the hall, scrolling TikTok.
‘Bob’s your uncle,’ Robin said. ‘Hex broken. Though honestly, if this alchemist’s curse can be undone by two podcasters, he needs to rethink his line of work.’
‘Time remaining,’ Sienna said, looking at the clock, then back to Robin. ‘Forty-two minutes.’
Robin shifted her weight, suddenly feeling terribly self-conscious. Earlier, in a moment of frustration, she’d let slip how much it actually stung when Sienna acted like Robin was just some bimbo.
Robin wished she could take it back. Having Sienna try to be nice to her was downright disturbing.
‘Are you serious? Eighteen minutes?’ Robin said, trying to sound jovial. ‘That’s embarrassing for them. Who designs a sixty-minute puzzle that takes eighteen minutes? I mean, I guess I could have been here for days. But they really didn’t count on you, did they?’
Sienna didn’t take the bait. She just kept looking at her, her dark eyes entirely unreadable. ‘You solved several pieces of the puzzle,’ Sienna said quietly. ‘It was a team effort.’
‘Yeah, well...’ Robin rubbed the back of her neck with her free hand, her cheeks warming. God, if Sienna could just be her usual rude self, it would be so much nicer. Robin knew what to do with that. ‘Even a broken clock gets the time right eventually, right?’
‘Robin.’ Sienna took a small step closer, the chain between their wrists clinking softly. ‘I meant what I said earlier. You’re no dummy.’
Robin swallowed, picking at a thread on her sleeve. She didn’t know what to do with a compliment from Sienna Vance that wasn’t coated in sarcasm. ‘Right. Well. Don’t go spreading that around. It’ll ruin my reputation.’
Sienna didn’t smile, didn’t say a word. She just looked at her. Robin felt horribly exposed.
‘Let’s get detached,’ Robin said quickly, desperate to fill the space before things got any more real. She pulled Sienna by the wrist through the doors.
‘Hey, easy!’ Sienna said sharply. ‘I’m not your dog.’
‘Of course not,’ Robin shot back over her shoulder, a flash of her usual grin returning. ‘My dog listens when I tell her we’re leaving.’
Thirteen
Sienna and Robin were heading back toward the Violet Audio building at a leisurely pace. By the time they got there, sixty minutes would be up, more or less. If Dora wanted to slap their wrists for going a few minutes under, so be it.
‘Well,’ Robin said, swinging her arms as they walked. ‘That was eighteen minutes of perfect collaboration. We didn’t even raise our voices once.’
‘I never thought we would,’ Sienna replied dryly.
They reached basecamp and headed back to the equipment room, where a tech unclipped their lapel mics, slipped off the belt packs and released them from their duty. There was no sign of Dora.
Out in the hallway, Robin stopped near the water dispenser, grabbing a paper cup.
‘Right,’ Sienna said, her tone dropping into a low whisper as soon as the tech room door clicked shut behind them. ‘Now that we’re off the record... we need to address Gemma.’
Robin, midway through filling her cup, looked up. ‘What about her?’
‘I know you’ve probably considered what I’m going to say, but I’m saying it anyway so we both know that we both know.’
While Robin looked at Sienna in confusion, her cup overflowed. She yanked her finger off the button, too late. Water splattered her Converse. ‘Ah, bugger. I blame you for that, being all mysterious and weird. Get to the point.’
‘The point,’ Sienna said, leaning in slightly, ‘is that what we just did in the escape room is precisely what we need to keep doing. We need to keep this entire experiment... unexciting.’
