their songs, all of whom Persey kinda sorta recognized. She stepped back, taking them all in. The cartoon world of Green Day’s “Basket Case.” A dapper trio called Bell Biv DeVoe posed on a graffiti-covered concrete wall to promote their song “Poison.” A movie poster from something called The Bodyguard featuring the Whitney Houston song “I Will Always Love You.” Radiohead’s “Creep,” “Sabotage” by the Beastie Boys, LL Cool J’s “Mama Said Knock You Out,” and “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls, which took Persey back to the early days of her childhood when she (secretly) wanted to be Sporty Spice.
Which probably said more about her personality than she’d ever be willing to admit.
In addition to the music-themed decor, sleek black-leather sofas were clustered together, facing an old-fashioned tube TV that had some kind of antiquated video game system hooked up to it. At the other end of the loft, three wide stairs led to a double door with impossibly shiny brass knobs, while an oversize desk stood facing the steps, supporting an iMac desktop with dual monitors with both a regular and piano keyboard attached. Massive speakers stood on elevated stands facing the desk, which, along with a huge mixing board and microphone, signaled that this might be some kind of musician’s studio.
Boyz Distrikt, if she recalled the whiteboard flowchart correctly, though she had no idea what the name meant. Probably set in the ’90s, judging by the choice of music posters, which made sense because the loft was hyper modern in an utterly dated kind of way—the ancient iMac, tube television, even the leather sofas screamed of a decade long past.
But more important than the dated decor and pop music references was the fact that Persey was totally and completely alone.
Did that mean she was the first one who had figured out the PIN? Seemed unlikely that Persey, who had only taken the SAT as a bargaining chip with her dad, would have been the first person out. Maybe this was still part of the Individual Challenge, and each of their ATM booths opened into a different room? That must have been expensive.
“Five minutes.”
Persey snapped back to reality. Was the countdown still going? Was she supposed to find another exit in just five minutes? That wasn’t enough time. She spun around, searching the loft. Mounted in the middle of the brick wall at the far end of the room was a digital timer—the kind Persey would expect to see on the scoreboard at a high school basketball game—which very clearly showed that the clock was still ticking from the same place she’d just left it in the ATM booth.
Keep your eye on the clock, Leah had said. If it ever reaches zero, you will lose.
The clock had continued its countdown, which meant the last challenge wasn’t completed.
She turned back to look at the door through which she’d entered, which still hung open on its hinges, exposing the dark closet beyond. Circling to the other side, she saw that the door contained a poster mounted in such a way that the edges of the black wooden frame were flush with the edge of the door itself. Sinéad O’Connor’s brooding “Nothing Compares 2 U,” a song about a woman mourning the loss of a relationship. Was that supposed to represent her in some way?
When pushed, the door swung noiselessly closed, locking into place with the faintest of metallic clicks, and the only sign that a door even existed was a thin line, camouflaged by the poster frame, which delineated the wall from the door itself.
Persey scanned the room. There were eight framed posters on the wall. She had to assume that behind each of them, another contestant was sequestered in front of an ATM machine, trying to figure out the PIN while the oxygen was slowly sucked away. Which meant she had been the first to solve the puzzle. Crazy.
“Four minutes.”
Almost immediately, the Green Day poster swung open and Wes stumbled into the loft, wheezing as he gasped for breath.
Persey wanted to laugh. “Basket Case” seemed like the perfect theme song for this guy, but she decided not to antagonize him since he was currently her only ally.
“You okay?” she asked, eying him closely as he slowly straightened up. His face was slick with perspiration, his eyes wide, pupils dilated.
“Yeah.” Like Persey, he looked around the room. “You’re the only one?”
She nodded.
“Sweet.” A slow smile spread across his face. “That narrows down the competition quite a bit.”