She perked up, sensing that important clues were forthcoming. “Can someone write this down?”
“On it!” Neela opened a text document on the computer and typed quickly while B.J. sang.
“Am I unlocked by code?
Am I a song you know?
Am I the hidden choice?
Am I twelve tones that you need?
You better play your song right now!
Everybody…”
Then he looped back to the opening chorus and struck a dramatic spread-eagle pose as the music ended.
“Bravo! Encore!” Kevin rocketed to his feet, applauding enthusiastically.
But Mackenzie looked disappointed. “That didn’t even rhyme.”
“Not really the point.” Arlo began pacing back and forth, her anger with Leah and Escape-Capades forgotten when there was a situation where she could take control. “Something unlocked by a code. I think that’s where we start.”
“The ATMs?” Riot suggested.
“Maybe,” Wes said. “But we already solved that, so why give it to us again?”
“It could be a starting point,” Neela suggested. “The next line refers to a hidden choice. So what could be a hidden choice in this room?”
It was the word “hidden” that triggered Persey’s memory. “Hey,” she said, tapping Kevin on the arm. “When you were talking about this video game, what did you say about it?”
Kevin scrunched up his face. “I don’t remember.”
“Then clearly it wasn’t important,” Wes sneered.
Persey ignored him. “Something about unlocking characters with a hidden code?”
“DUDE!” Kevin said, his eyes wide. “Yes!”
Wes stiffened, unwilling to admit that Persey might be onto something. “That’s ridiculous.”
“Why would it be ridiculous?” Neela asked, joining Persey and Kevin at the television. “B.J., what did you say about things spelled with the letter K?”
B.J. shifted his pose, dropping one hand to his side and laying the other on his heart as he took a deep breath. “They’re speh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-eh-shul!” he sang.
“Right.” Persey smiled. “Mortal Kombat with a K.”
“Shit,” Arlo said, rushing over. “I think this is it.”
“Twenty minutes.”
“Fuck this,” Wes said, and wandered off toward the back of the loft. Which was fine. Persey was pretty (completely) sure he was useless in the face of a challenge anyway.
Mackenzie elbowed past Persey and sat down on the sofa next to Kevin, leaning possessively on his arm. “Do you know how to do it?”
He winked at her. “I know how to do a lot of things.”
“Ew.” Persey couldn’t help herself.
“Jealous?” Kevin asked.
Double ew.
Shaun snatched the controller out of Kevin’s hand. “We don’t have time for flirting,” he said, firing up the game. “We need to figure this out.”
“You sure you know how to use that thing?” Kevin asked, eying Shaun skeptically. “You gonna plug it directly into your USB port?”
Neela snorted. “There were no USB game controllers in 1998!”
“I know my way around a Nintendo,” Shaun said.
Persey was getting tired of the posturing. It didn’t matter who solved the puzzle—it only mattered that they did. “Yeah, but do you know how to get to the screen where you can unlock the secret characters?”
Shaun pursed his lips, wavered, then handed the controller to Kevin.
“That’s what I thought,” Mackenzie said, leaning on Kevin possessively.
With an impressively deft sequence of clicks and joystick swivels, Kevin eventually brought up a fighting challenge. The game announcer laughed ominously as play began, and Persey quickly found Mortal Kombat to be true to its name: two combatants fought to the death in a vaguely Asian-inspired setting. Kevin had obviously invested (wasted) many hours of his life in this game, or one like it, and in less than five minutes, his character—a guy in a big white hat who could apparently harness the power of lightning—beat his reptilian ninja opponent by electrocuting him until his entire body exploded and rained down around the victor as severed limbs and bone.
“That’s disgusting,” Mackenzie said, wrinkling her nose.
Kevin’s character was celebrating his victory on the screen. “Be thankful I didn’t pull his spine out. Now watch this.” Pressing a series of buttons, the voice on the video game said, “Outstanding,” before Kevin opened up a secret menu. “These are the new characters,” he said, highlighting them one at a time. “Human Smoke and Khameleon.” He turned both of their options from off to on, then returned to the regular game play.
“Is that it?” Shaun asked.
Kevin shrugged. “I guess.”
“Great,” Arlo said, turning her back on the screen as Kevin continued to play, weighing in with his own commentary. “We opened new characters. Now what? We watch numbnuts play until the clock bottoms out?”
“Remind you of your average Friday night?” Kevin asked, his eyes still locked onto the TV screen as he