Page 90

“Well, that stinks,” Hala said. “We’re going to have to be quick to figure out how to get out of the room.”

Mike stood, helping Hala to her feet, while Jax pulled me up.

“Let’s go,” Jax said. “We can’t waste any more time.”

We made our way back to the room, not using the flashlight. When we entered the room, Jax led us to the door, while explaining our situation to the rest of the crew. “We’ve got a flashlight, but it doesn’t have much power or life. We need lots of eyes on the door to figure out what to do next. Is everyone ready?”

There was a chorus of yes, so Jax told Mike to connect the wires to the battery. Suddenly the room was lit by a flickering light. Several heads swiveled to whatever was on the door. I backed away and instead glanced around the room. I saw the empty chair and desk Kira had told us about, as well as several strange paintings hanging on the wall. Frankie was still looking for a light switch. She reached out to examine a painting when the flashlight flickered wildly and died.

Once again we were plunged into darkness.

Chapter Forty-Seven

ANGEL SINCLAIR

“Not again,” Wally shouted. “Turn the light back on.”

“I can’t,” Mike said, cursing. “It’s out of power.”

“What kind of challenge gives you a dead battery?” Kira asked in frustration.

“Well, one thing is for sure,” Wally said. “We aren’t getting through that door if we don’t have any light.”

Someone slammed a fist against the wall, while others started grumbling.

“Wally, what did you see on the door before the light went out?” I called out.

“Some kind of colored wires,” Wally said. “I think we’re supposed to connect them.”

Jax told Mike to hand over the flashlight. He also tried to get it working, mostly by banging it, but repeated attempts failed to make it come back to life. Someone moaned the challenge was unfair. I was working my way toward Wally and the door when the light in the room came on, effectively blinding us.

“What the heck?” Mike exclaimed in astonishment.

I shielded my eyes with my hands, blinking rapidly, trying to get accustomed to the brightness.

“Who turned on the light?” Bo asked, squinting at me.

“Me.” When my eyes adjusted, I saw Frankie standing next to a light switch hidden behind a large hinged painting. She’d apparently swung it open to reveal the switch.

“Guess what I found, guys?” she said, grinning.

After a moment of shock, we jumped on Frankie, hugging and congratulating her. However, our excitement was short-lived when a voice came over the intercom.

“Once the timer expires, the door will remained locked for two hours,” the voice said.

We whirled around. Above the door, a new countdown timer, apparently just for this task, had illuminated. It showed 4:35 and was ticking down, indicating it must have activated when the light switch was thrown.

As a group, we rushed to the door, examining the wired panel. Like Wally said, instead of a door handle, there were two horizontal rows of ten colored wires coming out of the panel. The bottom row had the same colored wires as the top row.

I stared at it totally uncomprehending. “What are we supposed to do withthat?”

Mike, who had knelt in front of the panel, looked at me over his shoulder. “I think we need to match the right combination of top wires to the bottom wires to unlock the door.”

“That’s an impossible task given the time constraints and the fact that there are way too many possibilities to try in that short of a time,” I said.

“You can figure it out, Angel,” Frankie said.

A combination.There had to be an answer.