“When she stumbled out of the ATM booth, she was completely wigging.” Persey pictured Arlo’s face, drained of color, her eyes darting around in a paranoid frenzy. “Everyone else had to enter their SAT scores to get out, but not her. Arlo started yelling at the countdown clock, threatening to sue Escape-Capades because she thought they’d hacked into her computer and stolen her password. She yelled, ‘You can’t prove I run it!’ and I think she was referring to DaringDebunker.”
Wes groaned. “She didn’t say, ‘Oh Em Gee, Leah, you totes guessed I run DaringDebunker.’ You’re just making that part up to fit your theory.”
Persey suppressed a smile. All day she’d been waiting for an opportunity to score at Wes’s expense, knocking his smugness down a peg. And the time had finally arrived.
“Except you’re forgetting her conversation with Neela in the Collectibles room.”
Neela cocked her head. “What did I say?”
“What didn’t you say,” Mackenzie grumbled.
“Remember when you showed Arlo that non-prize thingy?” Persey said, trying to remember the conversation verbatim. “She said you must have followed her blog and you admitted you did, then shared your screen name.”
“That’s right!” Neela said with a gasp. “TaraMehta91.”
“And is that the same screen name you use on DaringDebunker?”
Neela flushed a deep shade of raspberry. “Um…yeah.” She paused, eyes downcast and shaded by her thickly mascaraed lashes. “You knew?”
“I guessed. Between what you told me about the Prison Break fiasco and your confession in the Cavethedral, I just put the pieces together.”
“Knew what?” Riot asked.
“Whatever it is, I don’t see how it relates to me.” Wes’s obstinacy was probably (actually) a reflection of his own fear.
“DaringDebunker was where the solution to the final Prison Break puzzle was posted after someone figured it out,” Neela said. Tears streamed down her face. “Only, I didn’t know. I swear I didn’t. I just thought it was another puzzle challenge from the person who ran the site.”
Mackenzie’s jaw slackened. “You’re the one who broke the code?”
Neela’s childlike sob ceased abruptly as she turned toward Mackenzie. “How did you know about the code?”
“But she didn’t break the code!” Riot said almost simultaneously, at which point Kevin, whose head had been swiveling back and forth like he was watching a tennis match, held up his hands to form a T and eased away from the group.
“Hold it, time-out, back the truck up. What the fuck is everyone talking about?”
“The scandal around Prison Break,” Riot sighed. “Try to keep up.”
Kevin leaned against the wall beside the locked door and folded his arms over his chest. “I’m going to need CliffsNotes or something.”
Persey didn’t have time to deal with him; she was focused on what Riot had just said. “How do you know that Neela didn’t break the code?”
He hesitated an instant, trying to decide whether or not he should tell the truth, then judging by the way the lines around his mouth suddenly smoothed out, he appeared to make up his mind. “Because Shaun did.”
Wes turned sharply at the name. “Shaun got ahold of that code?”
“Yes.”
“And you know this because…”
Riot coolly met Wes’s gaze. “Because I’m the one who gave it to him.”
THERE WAS A MOMENT OF PRETERNATURAL CALM WHILE Riot’s words hung in the air, his face hard-set as he stared at Wes, daring him to respond. Wes, on the other hand, showed the full range of human emotions in the blink of an eye, all cycling through his face like an acting audition reel in fast forward: confusion, disbelief, realization, acceptance, and, finally, an anger that turned to rage so quickly that Persey barely had time to move out of the way before Wes launched himself at the librarian.
“You dick!” he cried as he rushed forward, hands aiming for Riot’s neck. “I’ll fucking kill you, you goddamn thief!”
Riot had seen or at least sensed the attack coming and was able to get his arms up in front of his face to defend himself. He grabbed one of Wes’s hands and wrenched it behind his back. “Really, hypocrite? You’re calling me a thief?”
“I didn’t steal anything!” Wes roared. He managed to free his pinned hand from Riot’s grasp and clutched at the Mohawk, trying to grab a fistful of gelled hair.
“Kinda sounds like you did, dude,” Kevin said, making no attempt to break up the fight.
“Then how did you get your hands on it, huh?” Riot punched at Wes’s side, aiming for his kidneys. “Escape-Capades just handed you a heavily encoded blueprint for the final challenge