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“Hala, tell me you’re okay,” Bo called out.

“I’m fine. Send over those weights now. I’m getting out of the way.”

Bo waited until she disappeared before heaving a weight across the red zone. Jax threw one, and Bo hurled one more. Thankfully none of them landed in the red zone, incurring any more penalties.

“Perfect,” Frankie said, clapping her hands.

“That should do it,” Hala cried, coming back into view.

While we raised the ladder again, Hala arranged the weights by the door. On her command, we slid the ladder carefully down the wall. She caught her end and helped guide it onto the weights.

Kira, Mike, Frankie, and Wally helped slide the weights under the ladder on our side, and voilà, we had a ladder bridge right across the red zone with nothing touching. Exactly as Hala had envisioned.

“Who wants to be first?” Jax asked.

“I’ll do it,” Kira volunteered.

She walked carefully across the ladder, making it easily to the other side. “Come on,” she shouted. “It’s easy.”

One by one everyone followed, except for Bo and me.

“You go next, Bo,” I said. “You’re heavier and I can hold it steady on this side for you.”

Nodding, he crossed and I followed. I was almost across when one of the weights slid a little. Panicked, I jumped the rest of the way, ducking through the door just as the timer above my head flipped to thirteen minutes.

Chapter Forty-Nine

ANGEL SINCLAIR

We dashed into an outdoor, walled courtyard with a white wall about ten feet high.

I did a 360-degree turn, examining the layout. In front of the wall were eight giant 3-D wooden puzzle pieces. The pieces were made out of square wooden blocks with some of the pieces two and three blocks long. I got closer to one of the pieces, I saw the puzzle piece was painted red with only one visible white side. Each piece appeared to have two indented white areas with small metal bars that were obviously designed so the blocks could be picked up and moved. I was still figuring out what we needed to do with the puzzle pieces when Mike spoke up.

He was way ahead of me.

“We have to assemble the puzzle and use it to climb over the wall,” he said, walking around the pieces. “We can’t touch the red sides, but each piece has at least one white side and two handles. It shouldn’t be too hard to drag and lift them into the position we want. I assume all the white sides all go on the same side so we can climb on the white side and have a white top to stand on to get over. Come on, everyone help me assemble them.”

Everyone started pulling pieces together when Hala collapsed on the ground. “My ankle,” she said ruefully. “I injured it when I jumped.”

I expected an evaluator to swoop in and get her, but Kira knelt next to Hala, whipping off her shirt. She’d worn an extra tank underneath, which was brilliant since the last time the girls had to give up our shirts, we had only sports bras underneath. “I’ll stabilize it,” she said. “Don’t worry. Hala. We’ll get you over that wall. Everyone is going to finish this.”

“Don’t bother,” Hala said. “It’s too late for me anyway. I’ll never make it over in time.”

“Yes, you will,” Kira said, carefully removing Hala’s shoe and expertly wrapping her shirt around her ankle. “We’re all going to finish this.”

“We need to figure out where to assemble that puzzle,” Bo called out. “There has to be something on the other side of that wall. Kira, you’re tall. Come over here. While the rest of the team assembles the puzzle, let’s take a look at the other side, so we know what’s there and if we need to get the puzzle situated in a particular place.”

Kira firmly tied the final knot around Hala’s ankle and stood. “She’s good to go, and so am I.”

Bo held out his hands and crouched down. With surprising ease, Kira took his hands and stepped on his shoulders, bracing herself against the wall. With an impressive chin-up, she pulled herself up onto the wall until she could flip a leg over the ledge.

She lay there, looking over the other side. “Guys, there’s a giant inflatable slide on the other side, this way.” She started crawling along the top of the wall, then stopped. “Line up the puzzle up right here. When you get to the top, you can just slide down. It looks like the finish line is just beyond that. All we have to do is slide down and cross the finish line. Woo-hoo!”

She suddenly disappeared, presumably down the slide. “Kira?” Wally shouted, but was met by silence. He tried again. “Kira!”

“Give it up,” I said to Wally. “She’s already down the slide and across the finish line by now. Good for her. Come on, let’s finish getting this puzzle assembled so the rest of us can get over.”

A loud voice boomed over the loudspeaker. “Mr. Drummond and Miss Youseff, your time has expired. However, participants may continue to the finish line if they’re able and so desire. Individuals who elect to complete the course may receive some small extra credit over those who don’t finish at all. Anyone who wishes to leave the competition at this point needs only to let us know.