used his body to mimic the moves he was trying to make with the controller, leaning left, then zigging right.
They’d revealed the new characters, which was hopefully the first part of the puzzle. “Neela, what’s the next line?”
“‘Am I a song you know?’” she quoted, repeating it from memory.
“Human Smoke and Khameleon,” Riot mused. His hand crept to his Mohawk and patted the tips to make sure it was still standing at pointy attention. “Can anyone name that tune?”
Neela rushed back to the wall of records. “Maybe it references one of these.” She picked the closest record off the shelf. “‘Tearin’ Up My Heart,’” she read.
“’NSYNC,” Mackenzie replied.
Riot joined her at the wall, starting from the other end. “‘Step by Step.’”
Mackenzie knew that one too. “New Kids on the Block.”
“‘Because of You,’” Riot asked, as if testing her.
Mackenzie never hesitated. “Ninety-Eight Degrees.”
“‘I Wanna Sex You Up.’”
Kevin sucked in a breath. “So. Many. Jokes.”
“Color Me Badd.”
“‘End of the Road’?”
“Oh my fuck!” Arlo cried, rolling her eyes. “We get it. She’s a nineties-boy-band savant. Woo-fucking-hoo.”
“Boyz II Men,” Mackenzie whispered.
Neela paused with a record in her hand. “‘Chameleon’?”
“I said, Boyz II Men,” Mackenzie repeated, raising her voice.
“No, this record. It’s called ‘Karma Chameleon.’ One of the characters we unlocked was named Khameleon.”
Persey was pretty sure that song was not by a nineties boy band. “Can’t be a coincidence.”
“It’s nah-ah-ah-ah-aht!” B.J. yanked off his aviator glasses and winked at them; in the far corner of the room, Persey saw Wes flinch.
“That is an old song by Culture Club,” Shaun said.
Neela shook her head, examining the album. “This says it’s by Boyz Distrikt.”
“Really?”
“From the album…” Neela’s voice trailed off as she stared at the record.
“From the album what?” Persey asked.
“Distrikt by Numbers. I think I saw that file name on the computer.”
As Neela rushed back to the computer, B.J. danced toward the back of the loft, where Wes was sulking, using a series of boy band moves as he slid and shimmied his way around the desk, sofas, and television set. “You think ri-ri-right. Right right.”
“Ten minutes.”
They weren’t close enough to a solution. They weren’t going to make it. What will happen then?
“Here it is!” Neela cried, opening the folder. An “enter password” box came up and Persey felt the press of bodies behind her as people gathered around the computer screen.
“Password protected,” Mackenzie said with a defeated sigh. “We’re screwed.”
Riot wasn’t about to give up. He pointed at Kevin. “What’s the key sequence? To open the new characters in Mortal Kombat?”
“Uh…” Kevin glanced at the ceiling, thinking. “Left, right, A, B, B. Pretty sure.”
Neela didn’t need to be told what to do. She was already typing it in. “L, R, A, B, B.” Persey held her breath as the folder popped open, revealing a single song file inside labeled “No Escape.” When Neela clicked on it, a music player opened and loaded the file, starting the song immediately.
It had a techno beat similar to the Backstreet Boys tune B.J. had sung earlier, but the melody and lyrics were different, and though Persey wasn’t a musician, it sounded as if this song was made up entirely of a simple chorus, looped over and over again.
“Sound familiar at all, Mack?” Wes asked, rejoining the group. He seemed way too comfortable using a nickname for someone he’d just met.
Mackenzie shook her head. “No. This one’s an original.”
“‘Am I twelve tones that you need?’” Neela said, quoting B.J.’s introductory song. “‘You better play your song right now.’”
Persey’s eyes drifted to the Casio keyboard beside the mixing board. “I think we’re supposed to play the first twelve notes of this song.” She spun toward the back of room, where B.J. had ended up after dancing his way across the loft. “Is that—”
Persey froze. She’d intended to ask their guide if they were on the right track since she didn’t believe Leah really wanted anyone to fail this competition just yet, but instead of seeing the melodious boy band member leaning against the brick wall in some kind of character-appropriate pose, she saw his pair of Timberlands sticking out from behind the sofa, toes pointed at the ceiling, motionless.
“Anyone know how to play the piano?” Kevin said.
“Guitar,” Riot said.
“Flute,” Neela added.
Mackenzie elbowed him aside and stood before the keyboard. “Um, hello! Royal College of Music.”
“Guys,” Persey said, taking a few tentative steps toward the brick wall. She didn’t like the way B.J.’s body appeared totally and utterly still. “I think something’s wrong.”
No one responded. With the clock ticking down, Persey