laying Games (Games #2)(31)
Author: Jessica Clare

"Thank you," Liam said, handing the man some money. "You don’t have to wait."

I started at that, then realized…this was the last stop. He wouldn’t have to wait because we were done with the race. Mouth dry with a sudden burst of anxiety, I grabbed my bag and handed Liam his, and we piled out of the cab. As we emerged, Liam held his hand out for me and I took it.

To my surprise, he lifted our twined hands to his mouth and kissed the back of my hand. "We didn’t start this as a team, but we’ll end it as one."

I smiled at him. "I’m just sorry we couldn’t win."

"I’m not," he said. "I got a lot more out of this race than just a paycheck."

I felt my entire body flush with the heat of those words and we headed forward.

As soon as I saw the Rocky statue, I laughed to myself. This was why this place was referred to as ‘the Rocky Steps.’ A large statue of Rocky Balboa was off to one side and we passed it, heading toward a massive series of steps led to the pillars at the front of the museum. I vaguely remembered a scene from the Rocky movies where he’d jogged up them.

At the base of the steps, there was a World Games mat, a series of boxes off to each side of the judge waiting there. I squinted at the top of the stairs – Chip Brubaker waited there, along with a fleet of cameras and a finish line tape that was intact.

Midway up the steps stood Tesla and Brodie, moving slowly as they carried a yellow mini-Trojan horse on a litter.

"They’re not done with the last task," Liam told me, surprise in his voice. "No one’s won yet."

I blinked at my brother and his partner, unable to believe it. Sure enough, I watched as Tesla dropped the front of the litter, spilling the Trojan horse to the ground. She put her hands on her knees, panting, and I watched a look of frustration contort Brodie’s face.

This wasn’t done yet.

I gave Liam an incredulous look, and as one, we both broke into a sprint and raced to the judge’s mat at the bottom of the stairs.

"Welcome to the last leg of The World Races," the judge told us in a low, smooth voice. It was a woman this time, dressed head to toe in the colors of the race, the big planet logo of The World Races emblazoned across her chest. She proudly held out the last clue disk.

I disentangled my hand from Liam’s and took the disk with shaking fingers and flipped it over, reading it aloud softly. "Welcome to your final task. For this task, you must take the marked litter and, one by one, take a series of objects to the top of the steps and place it on the numbered mats designated for your team. Each of these objects represents a leg of the race, and you must put them in chronological order. Once you have placed your object, return to the bottom of the stairs for the next one. When you have placed all eight objects in order, the judge will give you your final token. When you have that token, you may cross the finish line."

"That shouldn’t be too hard, then," Liam murmured into my ear, his breath tickling my skin. "We can do this."

"We can," I agreed, excitement pounding through me. I shrugged off my backpack and tossed it next to the series of large black boxes and the litter that was off to one side. The pink group of boxes was untouched – Summer and Polly were still at the last challenge. Off to one side, the yellow boxes were demolished, all but two opened. They were close to the end, then. If we worked hard, we could do this. "Come on."

We opened the first box. It was a replica of a sphinx. "This one’s Egypt," I told him. "Not first."

"We need to find Greenland," he told me, opening the next box. "Here, this is it." He tossed the lid of the box aside and I moved to view it. It was a wooden replica of a sled, about three feet long and complete with wooden dog at the front, all painted in black. Cute. Liam began to pull it out of the box and then grunted. "Jesus, it’s heavy."

I moved to help him and was surprised at how freaking weighty the thing was. "Did they weigh it down with lead bricks or something?"

It took both of us to drag it over to the litter, and I grabbed the front, Liam with the back. I grunted indelicately as we hoisted it into the air. The thing weighed a fricking ton. No wonder Tesla and Brodie were still doing this challenge.

As a unit, we moved forward, and since I was in front, I set the pace. I started out charging up the stairs, but that quickly gave way to a steady, slow climb. You couldn’t move fast with the heavy litter, and the stairs seemed like and endless procession. It felt like it took forever to get to the top, and by the time we did, my hands and shoulders were burning. We barely passed Tesla and Brodie on the way up, and my brother didn’t seem worried. As soon as we got to the top, I knew why. They already had five of their eight objects at the top. It was a disappointing sight to see, but I forced myself to concentrate on our team. What Brodie did no longer mattered. It was all about Liam and I.

We headed over to our marked mats, and I noticed that there was a grid set up like a tic-tac-toe board, with a big World Games globe logo in the center. Each of the empty squares were labeled one through eight, and we headed with our litter over to slot one, and dumped our sled. I was breathing hard and disgusted at how difficult this was. This last challenge was going to come down to sheer strength. Frustrated, I glanced over as Brodie and Tesla dumped their latest object onto their yellow mat, studying them.

Sled, an enormous book, a chandelier, a temple replica, a sphinx, and as I watched, they put down an enormous stringed instrument like the kind Liam had played in Cambodia. I squinted, something about that not seeming right to me.

"Come on," Liam encouraged me, and we grabbed our litter and headed back down to the bottom.

Going back down was leagues easier than heading up, and we trotted back down the stairs in record time. We headed back to our boxes and I leaned in to Liam. "Next leg was Ireland."

"I remember," he told me, prying open the next box. "You kissed me just for the hell of it."

I laughed, feeling warm. "Do you remember all the legs in order by the stages of our flirting?"

"I do," he said, and his face was serious as he looked over at me. "I got to put my hands all over you in Paris, then we had a mini-date in Pompeii. Went all the way in Egypt after you clung to me in the pyramids. Night two in Turkey, and then we fought in Cambodia. Waste of a perfectly good twelve hours in a hotel room, if you ask me."

I chuckled. "That was all you."

"I know it was," he said, and grimaced. "This box is the wrong one," he told me. "Cambodia wasn’t until the seventh leg." And he showed me the stringed instrument.

Something pinged my memory again, and I squinted up at the top of the stairs, where Brodie and Tesla were descending back down to the bottom, their empty litter at hand. I looked over at their boxes – two remained. And Cambodia was seventh…

I turned and grabbed Liam’s arm as he opened the next box, my fingers digging in to his skin. "Brodie and Tesla made a mistake," I whispered at him. "They’ve got the order wrong."

"They do?"

I nodded. "When we go up again, look at their mat."

His eyes flared with excitement. "I guess now that they don’t have anyone to copy off of, they’re forced to rely on their own brains."

"Then Brodie and Tesla are screwed," I told him with a grin. "My brother’s a lot of things, but brains is not his strong suit."

"We need to hurry," he told me, heading for the next box and prying the massive lid off.

I thought for a minute, then leaned in. "What if we leave the item in the box and take it up the stairs? The rules didn’t mention anything about that. Brodie and Tesla won’t be able to see what we’ve got in what order, and so they won’t be able to copy off of us once they figure out that they’ve done something wrong."

Liam grinned at me. "Sneaky. I love it."

"Let’s do it, then," I said, opening the next box.

It took a few more before we found the large book that signified our stop in Dublin and the visit to the University Library. We left it in the box and hauled it up the stairs, going as fast as we could despite our cramping legs. There were only seventy-two steps (I counted) but it might as well have been three hundred. We dumped our box and raced down for the next one. After that was a chandelier, for the opera house in Paris. As we headed up again, we passed Tesla and Brodie, who were on their way back up with their next object. They were slowing down, their faces covered in sweat. I couldn’t blame them – we were on our third pass up and this task was killing my legs. But we couldn’t afford to slow down. Not when victory was this close.

My heart hammered in my chest as we dropped off our box, and then took the box containing the small temple up the stairs. Once we got to the Trojan horse, my legs were cramping and moving slower and slower. Liam’s face was shining with sweat, his black hair sticking to his brow. I was exhausted, but sheer adrenaline kept me going.

As soon as we dumped our Trojan horse, I watched, my entire body tense, as Brodie and Tesla called over the judge. The woman picked through their pieces, then shook her head. "No. Try again."

I bit back my squeal of excitement. They had it wrong. There was time to fix this. We could still win.

We headed down the stairs at breakneck speed, and I watched as Brodie’s gaze moved to our still-boxed objects. Nice try, big brother, I thought to myself. There was not going to be any copying off of my hard work today. Liam and I were both gasping for breath by the time we made it up the stairs with the stringed guitar-thing from Cambodia. I glanced over at Brodie’s mat, and they had maneuvered things again, the Trojan horse now occupying the completely wrong spot.

"I’m sorry, no," the judge said again, and I smiled to myself to hear Brodie swear.

Excitement made our feet pound down the stairs, even though we were exhausted at this point. We grabbed the last box and hauled it onto the litter with weak, trembling arms.

"One more, Katy," Liam encouraged me. "We can do this. We can."

I nodded, saving my breath for the climb up those horrible stairs, and we continued forward. Each step felt enormous, and I counted them off in my head. Twenty steps, and I was gasping like a fish out of water. Thirty steps, and my sweaty hands were slipping on the wooden beams of the litter. Fifty steps, and my legs were cramped so tight that every step felt like knives. But I kept going, and Liam hadn’t slowed down a bit. Sixty five steps, and we were close enough to see Brodie and Tesla standing over their mat. My brother had his hands twisted in his blond hair, and he looked utterly frustrated. Tesla had her tattooed arms crossed over her chest, giving Brodie a furious look, as if it was his fault. I felt a twinge of pity for my brother. Just a twinge.

And then we were up to the top of the stairs. I stumbled, my legs giving out on me, and we crashed to the ground.

"You okay, Katy?" Liam was immediately at my side, the litter forgotten. He helped me to my feet, his hands strong and sure as he grasped my arms.

"I’m fine," I wheezed. "Let’s finish this."

We grabbed our litter and dragged it over to the final place on the mat, just as Brodie and Tesla waved the judge over again.

I held my breath as the judge considered their puzzle board. Then, she shook her head and I thought my heart would burst. "I’m sorry, no."