Playing Games
Page 33

We'd stopped to snag cups of coffee and headed back out to the dock at Alexandria, where the starting mat was. It overlooked the harbor, and I stared down at it, feeling the air ruffle my hair as we waited for the clock to tick down to our start time. "Who do you suppose got booted?" I asked Liam.
He thought for a moment. "Joel and Derron, I think. They were big guys and I'm betting one of them had trouble with the pyramids, too. Those were some cramped spaces."
I shuddered at the memory.
"Two seventeen am," an assistant announced, and tapped a watch. On cue, our cameraman hovered, light shining in our faces. A local came forward, camel reins in one hand (nice touch there, World Games) and our disk in his other.
"Thank you," I murmured to him and took the disk with a small smile. As was our usual, I turned it over and Liam read over my shoulder. "Make your way to Canakkale, Turkey. There, look for the marked car lot at…." I wrinkled my nose at the unpronounceable street name, and then skipped it. "You will find five marked vehicles and your next destination. You have one hundred and ninety-eight dollars for this leg of your journey." I looked up at Liam. "Is it just me, or are they giving us a lot of money?"
"How so?" He took the disk from me and pulled off his backpack to slip it in.
I thought back to the prior seasons I’d watched, frowning. "I don't know. I just seem to recall that on a lot of the shows, no one ever got much money for each leg of the journey."
"Maybe we're going to expensive places," Liam suggested.
Or maybe they want us to keep getting hotel rooms, I thought, but didn't say it aloud. That was just Cranky Katy being cynical all over again, no doubt. I'd keep my suspicions to myself.
Plus, I liked getting a hotel room with Liam. It was kind of a win-win as far as I was concerned. I just hoped my parents didn't watch our season of The World Races. Ugh. I tried not to think about that. The last thing I wanted was my parents to see me hook up with a rock star while in a game.
 
 
~~ * * * ~~
 
 
Once we arrived at the marked car lot, I counted the marked cars that were left. All five. "We're still in the lead," I told Liam. "But we shouldn't be." All five teams that were left had been on the same flight, though separated into different parts of the plane. Liam and I had snagged two seats in the very front, while Brodie and Tesla had been in the back of the plane. Too bad for them. The Olympians - Summer and Polly - and Joel and Derron sat together on one row. They put their heads together and I knew they were plotting on how to overtake the lead. It worried me a little…until Dean and Abby got the seats behind us. Seeing them made me feel better, and we'd planned on following each other out to the next destination so we could tackle our tasks together.
But at the airport? We'd gotten separated when our cab driver had stopped for gas and we'd had no way to flag down Dean and Abby and let them know. They'd zoomed on past while we'd waited at the gas station, and I'd felt first place slip away. Liam hadn't been concerned, though. He'd only squeezed my hand and then pulled me in for a long kiss while our driver went in to pay.
And I found I couldn't be all that concerned about last place, either.
Still, it was weird to get to the car lot and realize we were the first ones there. Had everyone else gotten lost? We paid our taxi and picked out our car, settling in even as the cameraman sat in the passenger seat to film us. Liam sat in the front seat and I slid into the back, picking up the packet of paperwork back there.
It was the next clue. I tore open the paper seal attached to the map and began to read. "Make your way to the village of Hisarlik, just outside of Tevfikiye. This is the site of the ruins of the ancient Homeric city of Troy. There, you will meet a Greek soldier at The World Races flag who will give you your next clue."
"Off we go, then," Liam said, and our little car sped out of the parking lot.
 
 
~~ * * * ~~
 
 
The ruins were not all that difficult to find, or that impressive. I guess I'd been expecting some sort of massive city, but it was really just a bunch of half dug-out hills, tumbled stones, and areas that had been roped off that we weren't allowed to see. Nothing at all like Pompeii, and since we’d just come from there, they paled in comparison.
There was an enormous fake Trojan horse at the entrance of the ruins, though, and sure enough, the flag and The World Races station was there. Liam parked the car and we bounded out, racing for the flag.
Our next disk was handed to us. A team task, and one that didn't surprise me, given the five stations and blocks of colored wood set aside. Our team task was to build a duplicate of the Trojan Horse. Once we had our wheeled contraption built to the specifications of the Greek soldier supervising the task, we had to push it across the ruins on the marked path. Once we'd arrived at the end of the path, we'd receive our next disk and clue.
We set to work, heading for the pile of wood that had been colored black to match our team shade. As we did, I glanced around at the four other piles that still had no one working on them. "Liam," I said quietly. "While we're the only ones here, should we talk about the Ace?"
He picked up one of the four wheels on our mat of pieces and examined it, glancing over at me. "What about the Ace?"
"There are only three more eliminations," I told him. "Should we make a team decision on who we want to use it on?"
He gave me a serious look. "Katy," he murmured, moving closer so no one could overhear us. Not that it mattered. We were wired and mic'd for sound. Had been the entire trip. "The only team I think worth saving that would help us out is Abby and Dean. But…"
"But," I agreed. There was that whole 'Tesla and Brodie' thing. "So basically we can either play the Ace to be nice and save Brodie and Tesla if we need to, save Abby and Dean to try and propel ourselves ahead, or be dicks to everyone and not use it at all."
"Heh. That about sums it up."
I considered, then sighed. "Abby promised me that if she got an Ace, she'd use it to save us."
"Did you promise the same thing back?"
"No. It didn't come up in conversation. But I'd feel bad if we had an opportunity to save them and we didn't."
"Well," Liam told me, handing me the wheel and then picking up another, considering it. "The way I look at it, someone's feelings are going to get hurt. We can use it to push ourselves ahead in the game, or we can use it to salvage relationships outside of the game."
"And what if the Ace means another split?" I hated the thought of it.
"It won't."
I shielded my eyes from the sun and squinted up at my partner. "How do you know that?"
"Because splitting us up made good TV." He leaned in and gave me a firm kiss on the mouth, ignoring the fact that the cameraman hovered merely feet away. "Splitting us up again robs them of a lot of romantic scenes. Tesla and Brodie, too. They won't part us."
I blushed and handed him the wheel back. "So what do we do?"
"Whatever you want to do," Liam told me, his expression serious. "I'm leaving it up to you."