Page 16 of Billion-Dollar Ransom

“OH, WOW, you have Mastermind!” Finney exclaimed.

“Of course we have Mastermind,” Three said. “That happens to be our all-time favorite game. And no matter what my wife says, I am the master of all the minds!”

“I’ll bet I can beat you,” Finney replied.

“No one has ever beaten me at Mastermind,” Three said.

Four responded to this with an eye roll.

She knew the truth. Until a few days ago, Three had never heard of Mastermind.

Shortly before the abduction, Three and Four received a list of Cal’s and Finney’s favorite board games.

None of them required power or Wi-Fi; these were old-school board games like Clue, Monopoly, and, yes, Mastermind.

Three and Four were given no instructions, just the list, typed on a plain index card and mailed in a crisp white envelope, but they’d understood what to do.

They’d gone out that night, purchased every single one, and brought them to their hideaway in suburban Garden City, California, just outside of Pasadena.

Three and Four still didn’t know how they’d ended up on One’s radar. But they were the couple best suited for the task at hand. Or so he had claimed.

And right now, the task at hand was keeping Cal and Finney happily distracted. They were smart kids and needed to stay fully engaged.

“Set up your pegs,” Finney said. “I’ll guess first.”

“Never in a million years, my friend,” Three replied.

“I’ll guess it in five moves!”

Cal nodded. “You don’t understand,” he told Three. “She’s really, really good.”

“Did you know,” Finney said, “that Mastermind was invented by an Israeli communications expert as a way to practice code-breaking?”

“Is that right,” Three said, staring at the game board as if it had suddenly transformed into a difficult math problem.

Four knew that Three was very bad at math.

He had no idea how to play the game. The box had made it look simple—little colored pegs on a plastic board with holes in it. How hard could it be?

“While you all master each other’s minds,” Four said, “I’ll get dinner started.”

“What are we having?” Cal asked.

“Flatbread pepperoni pizzas.”

Finney looked concerned. “I don’t know how much kidnapping research you did, but I happen to be a vegetarian.”

“She is,” Cal confirmed.

“Don’t worry,” Four said. “We did our research. I’m making one without pepperoni and with plenty of mushrooms and green peppers.”

“That’s my favorite!” Finney exclaimed.

Four smiled. “I know.”

Truthfully, someone else had done the research (and, yes, the children’s dietary habits were fully detailed). But Three and Four had had to choose the hideaway location. The only rule One had insisted on was that no one could help them or be in contact with them at any point.

That meant no babysitters, no spotters, no nothing. If One discovered they had secret coconspirators, he’d warned, two things would happen: They would never see a dime of the ransom, and they would be turned over to the authorities within the hour.

It’s not as if they would be in a position to point a finger at One; nobody knew his name or had any way to identify him.

Finding the hideaway had been left up to them, and that was a whole other challenge. Cal and Finney were white. Three and Four were not. There were certain neighborhoods where that would attract attention. And they wanted zero attention. So that shrank the map of possibilities.

Luckily, Four was a part-time real estate agent, one of her many side hustles over the past seven years, so she’d searched for an ideal neighborhood with a house that had been on the market for a while. Which was difficult these days; LA’s housing market was so tight, it practically squeaked.

But Four had kept searching—she always worked best under pressure—and found this modest town house in Garden City, which had been a multiracial town since its founding.

The private garage on the ground level was a bonus.

As was the well-equipped kitchen, which was far nicer than the one they had at home.

As she opened the oven, Four was startled to find Cal watching her from the doorway.

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure,” Four replied.

“Why are you doing this? Kidnapping is a serious felony.”

“What we’re doing,” Four said very carefully, “has nothing to do with the two of you. You and your sister will be safe and well cared for. You have my word on that.”

“I’m not worried about us,” Cal said.

“You’re not?”

“I’m a good judge of character,” Cal replied. “And like I said, you and your husband seem like very nice people.”

“Why, thank you.”

“But clearly you didn’t do all your kidnapping research, because my father is not a very nice person. And he’s not going to like that you did this.”

From the other room, Four heard a cry of disbelief from her husband, followed by a bit of gloating from Finney Schraeder.

“Guessed it in three moves!”

“Are you cheating?”

“Ha-ha-ha! Who’s the Mastermind now ?”