Smoke and Mirrors, Part 2

There was a mechanical whirring and thumping and clicking from within the maze chamber, and silhouetted shapes could be seen moving through the frosted glass. Jeanna was reading through the provided manual after kicking Roman out of the guide's chair. George put on the headset with a gentleness that suggested he was afraid of breaking it.

Roman said something to Valerie, but she couldn't hear him over all the noise. She frowned and pointed to her ear. He leaned in.

"Pay close attention to what they do." His breath tickled her skin.

Valerie waved him back dismissively. She wanted to trust in the wisdom he had no doubt cultivated from years of experience, but something about him rubbed her the wrong way.

After a minute or two, the noise coming from the chamber stopped. A nearby segment of the glass wall detached and slid into the floor with a faint hiss, forming an entrance.

"The maze is ready. Team One, please choose your runner and guide."

George stood in front of the opening. Jeanna set the manual aside and pressed something on the keyboard. The screens came to life. One of them displayed the live feed from the runner's headset camera, one displayed a countdown timer, and others showed images from different parts of the maze, but the screen closest to Jeanna was what caught Valerie's attention. It looked like something from an old arcade game—white angular shapes against a black background, with a handful of green pixels forming a primitive, smiling face at the center. As if sensing Valerie's curiosity, Roman grabbed the manual from the desk and held it out to her.

"I guess you want me to be the guide," she said coolly.

"Of course. The runner's job is more dangerous."

"Were you that kid who always did all the work on group projects because you didn't trust anyone else to do it right?"

Roman shrugged. "Probably. I don't remember. That was a long time ago."

"Oh come on, you can't be older than… thirty-five."

"Thirty-two."

"So you're only a few years older than me." Valerie crossed her arms.

Roman chuckled. "Got any gray hairs yet?"

She rolled her eyes and started thumbing through the manual.

George stepped inside the maze chamber, and the glass wall slid back into place. Everyone else's eyes were glued to the monitors.

"Team One, your twenty-five-minute turn begins now. To exit the maze, return to this spot and follow the procedure described in the manual. Good luck."

The metal walls of the maze towered over even George, but the concrete paths between were only about six or seven feet wide.

"Forward," Jeanna barked into the microphone.

The giant obeyed. He moved quickly but not with any particular hurry, and Jeanna was always ready with another command. Left. Right. Left. Forward. Valerie continued reading the manual and soon deduced her goal. The screen that had caught her attention earlier was not, in fact, an arcade game, but a map. The green face represented George, and the white lines showed the walls of the maze. But much of the map was missing from the start. To complete it, the runner needed to find certain clues hidden within the maze.

George rounded a corner and stopped. Valerie glanced at the map. There should have been something in front of him, represented by a blinking blue square, but the camera showed nothing but a dead end.

"What do you see?" Jeanna asked.

George pointed to the wall in front of him. "Lines." His husky voice boomed in the speakers and echoed through the room.

The clues took the form of symbols etched in the metal, but only the runner could see them. By some trick, they were invisible to the camera.

"Describe them."

"Three round." He traced shapes in the air as he spoke. "Connect. One, one."

Jeanna thought for a few moments, then her plump fingers moved across the keyboard with alarming speed. A new section of the maze blipped into existence on the map.

"Go back, then turn left," Jeanna said.

"Whoa, whoa," Ozzie said. "How did you understand what he said?"

"If I couldn't understand an idiot, wouldn't that make me a bigger idiot?" she replied without turning to look at him.

Ozzie just laughed. Valerie flipped through the manual. It was not especially long, but the entire second half was an index of symbols that could appear in the maze—everything from hieroglyphics to astrology to religious iconography. Not only had she translated George's odd manner of speech, but she also had apparently memorized all of this within minutes. Valerie shot a side glance at Roman, suddenly concerned that she was out of her depth as she remembered what he said about competition.

Things proceeded smoothly for Team One for ten minutes. Jeanna used George to map out the maze, which was even larger than Valerie had imagined, and they located two items. Both the respirator mask and the hammer tool were placed in small satchels marked with red exclamation marks on the map. George slung these over his shoulder and marched on.

Eventually, he reached a space where the distance between walls suddenly widened in a kind of clearing. The camera feed went still.

"I said forward." Jeanna repeated her last command.

George didn't move.

"Why are you stopped?"

"No go."

"Why?"

"No go."

Jeanna sighed. "We're going to stay here until you listen to me."

George continued looking at the empty area ahead of him.

Roman scratched his beard. "He sees something we don't."

"Like what, a wall?" Ozzie said.

"I think he's scared," Alvin said.

"I don't care." Jeanna leaned toward the microphone. "There's nothing there, you dumbass. Move!"

"No go."

Everyone fell silent. Valerie watched the seconds, then minutes, drain away. George was completely immobile.

"Bring him back," Valerie finally said. "There's no point to this, and if he isn't out in time, you'll lose what progress you've made."

Jeanna looked at her with thinly veiled distaste. She muttered something under her breath. To the microphone, she said, "Turn around."

As soon as his back was to the clearing, George obeyed her without hesitation. She guided him to the starting point and typed the command to end her team's turn. The screens went dark, and the maze entrance slid open once more.

George had barely stepped out of the chamber when Jeanna stopped him.

"I hope you understand what you've done. All you had to do was follow my instructions, but you couldn't even do something that simple. Well? What do you have to say for yourself, you useless piece of shit?"

Wordlessly, George held out both of the satchels. Jeanna snatched them away.

"I hope you didn't wager whatever's left of your brain," she hissed.

"Team One's turn has ended," came the announcer's voice. "The second maze will now be prepared. Team Two, please stand by."