up the dodecra-thingy in victory. Each side was now a solid color. “Less than three minutes! It was easier than I anticipated. An amateur must have set it, and unlike the standard three-by-three of a Rubik’s or similar puzzle, the solving of a Megaminx is really all about who sets it up.”
“If it’s solved,” Shaun said slowly, “then why isn’t your door open?”
Neela’s face fell, confidence shaken. “I…I don’t know.”
“I’ve got a weird old-fashioned typewriter over here,” Arlo called out from the far side of the room. She was like a well-oiled machine when it came to rummaging through other people’s stuff. “Ring a bell for anyone?”
Shaun stood on tiptoes to peer over the wall into the cubicle. “That’s an original SIGABA, also known as an ECM Mark II encryption device, circa 1944. Standard-issue Allied electric cipher machine.” He sounded neither excited nor impressed.
“Then Ima guess this is for you,” Arlo said, stepping aside.
“Riot’s books were on cryptography, and Shaun’s thing is an encryption device?” Neela muttered at Persey’s side, the solved puzzle toy still firmly clasped in her hands as they rounded the wall to where Arlo had discovered it. “That can’t be a coincidence, can it?”
Persey seriously doubted it. “Let’s figure out what to do with your mega-thingy.”
The cubicle she and Neela were currently in was the least decorated workplace Persey had seen in the room, other than the one Shaun described as being mostly empty, making the appearance of the brightly hued puzzle toy that much more striking among the drab, impersonal interior. And it also meant that the solution to Neela’s challenge should be easy to spot.
Except not so much. “Arlo,” Persey asked. “Where did you find that thing?”
“In a drawer,” Arlo replied from the last cubicle in the row.
So (not) helpful. “Which one?”
Instead of answering, Arlo verbalized her search process as she went. “This desk is cluttered with tchotchkes, collectible toys, novelty paperweights, a mouse pad designed like a Pac-Man maze. I think this one is mine.”
“Thank God,” Neela muttered under her breath. “Maybe she’ll stop talking now.”
As much as Persey had to acknowledge the irony of Neela’s words, she also had to laugh. Cuz yeah.
“I believe my door is open,” Shaun announced. Persey hadn’t seen what he’d done, but he was right. One more section of the wall had slid open, revealing a dark passageway beyond. “I shall be leaving now.”
“Okay, Shaun-bot,” Arlo laughed dryly. “Don’t let the door swat your metal ass on the way out.” She was fixated on something, which probably meant she too was just moments away from opening her door.
Meanwhile, Persey and Neela were getting nowhere.
“Let’s list everything we see,” Persey suggested. “Sometimes it helps to say it out loud.”
“Computer,” Neela began, starting with the obvious. “Keyboard, mouse, external speakers, stapler, empty document caddy, pen holder with exactly one pen in it, and a coffee mug warmer.”
Persey’s eye was immediately drawn to the black-and-white tray meant to keep one’s coffee cup from getting cold. Everything else on the desk would have been standard-issue office supplies, except that. That was something the company wouldn’t have supplied. Something the employee would have brought from home. As she stared at the generic device, its white plastic shell and circular black metal base began to take on a familiar pattern. Leaning closer, Persey could see that someone had drawn a shape in black marker, almost imperceptible except for the fact that the dried ink reflected the lights in a different way. There were five lines drawn inside the circle, creating a pentagon.
Just like one of the faces of the Megaminx.
“Put it on the coffee warmer,” Persey said, pointing.
“You think?”
Persey nodded quickly. “Look close. There’s a pentagon drawn on—”
“There’s a pentagon drawn on here!” Neela squealed. “Jinx, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten,” she said, rattling off the numbers so quickly as she tried to undo the bad luck created when the two of them said the same thing at the same time, that she sounded like an auctioneer on cheap trucker speed. Then, with a flourish, she lined a face of the Megaminx up with the shape drawn on the coffee warmer and placed it delicately on the surface.
Something on the desk clicked, then another door opened.
“Holy cow babies!” Neela cried, throwing her arms around Persey’s neck. “Thank you so much. I never would have seen that myself. I get a little, um, crazed when my adrenaline is up.”
“A little?”
Neela blushed. “Right.”
“There!” Arlo cried. The door beside Neela’s opened