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I did, but I had to jump before he exited. If I landed this leap, I could jump straight to the platform and be safe.

I oriented myself and took a deep breath, flashed the strobe, and leaped into the darkness. Behind me, I saw the flare of Tito opening the exit door.

Chapter Forty-Five

Slash

I landed on the platform, hit my knees hard, and rolled once before coming to a stand.

I’d made it.

I glanced over my shoulder, noticing the light over the door was out. Tito must have exited, and no additional alarms had gone off, thank God. I couldn’t be sure if it was because the alarms were disabled or I’d gotten lucky. At this point, I didn’t really care.

“Slash, is that you on the platform?” Lexi’s shocked voice came through over the speakers. “How did you get to the platform already? I thought you and Tito had been eliminated.”

I’d have to explain it all later, but for now, I had bigger problems. I didn’t have my bearings. I wasn’t sure where I was on the platform or where the walls were. I needed help.

I waved my arms, hoping Lexi would get the message that I needed direction. Sure enough, she came through.

“Okay, I don’t know what you did or how you got there, but well done,” she said. “Let’s finish this. Turn 110 degrees to your right. You’re now facing the back wall. You’re about one quarter of the way along the platform toward the wall. Walk straight forward.”

I stepped gingerly in the dark toward the back wall while Lexi informed me that we had less than twenty minutes left. I figured that would be just enough time if I could get the code and relay it back to Mia. I was tempted to use the strobe light to hasten things, but I wasn’t sure how many flashes it had left. It had noticeably dimmed the last time I’d used it.

As I moved forward, I heard a deep humming sound and a swish, like a giant fan. But I felt only a slight breeze blowing on me.

I took another step forward, and the humming noise increased slightly in pitch, but the airflow didn’t increase. Strange, it sounded like the fan, or whatever it was, had started to move faster the closer I got to it.

“Slash, it looks like there’s something moving on the wall in front of you,” Lexi said. “It might be a giant disc or something. I can’t get much of a reading on it because it’s the same temperature as the walls. But the center is now showing as warm, which means there might be a motor there, and the edges are warming from the air friction. You’re about ten feet from the disc. Be careful.”

I walked closer to the spinning disc, and as I did, it whirred faster. Possibly a giant fan blowing away from me. To test my theory, I backed up a couple of steps, and it slowed. That meant I controlled the speed of the fan by my distance. That was important somehow.

But time was slipping away, and I needed to see what I was dealing with. I had to risk using the strobe. I aimed it at the disc and pulsed it several times. The image spun, but my brain retained enough to see that it wasn’t a fan but a large disc about as tall as a man. On the disc were one or perhaps two long shapes wrapping around the face of the disc. Another flash of the strobe light and I spotted some Roman numerals. Unfortunately, in the flashing light, the image jumped each time, and I couldn’t read it.

I suddenly knew the solution. I had to synchronize the speed of the spinning disc to the flashing of the strobe light. At that point, the image before my eyes would freeze and I would be able to read the numbers.

Now I just needed to estimate where that exact spot would be.

Recalling my last images, the successive flashes had made the image to appear to rotate to the right. That meant that it was moving too fast for the strobe light, and I needed to move backward. I took one step back and heard the disc slow slightly. I should be close to the right spot. I raised the strobe light and pressed the button.

Nothing happened.

The battery was dead.

Chapter Forty-Six

Lexi Carmichael

I knew Slash had a plan, but I was stunned when Tito deliberately stepped into the beam, eliminating him from the game.

Then my screen froze. It seemed to take forever until I could see what was going on again. When I did, both were gone. At first, I’d thought they’d both been eliminated. I’d seen no movement in my camera view. I quickly scrolled the cameras forward, hoping against hope that Slash was somehow still alive. At the edge of the screen, near the platform, I thought I saw a brief movement. I switched to the platform view and realized it was Slash.

How did he get to the platform by himself in the dark?

I didn’t have time to figure it out now. Mia told me she’d heard Tito yell something about leaving a strobe light on the track. I didn’t know what that meant, but she’d also reminded me we had only fifteen minutes to finish, which meant I had to help Slash get that code and worry about the rest later.

I helped him orient himself on the platform and watched as he moved back and forth on the platform in an odd manner. I had no idea what he was doing. After a moment, he stopped and waved his arms.

I hit the mic button. “Slash, is there a problem?”