Magic Mansion by Jordan Price (best fiction books to read .txt) 📕

competition. After all, one didn’t pull every last silk out of one’s sleeve the moment the footlights came up. Instead, he simply said, “Fabian?”

“This fool thinks he can outsmart the show.”

“Yo, yo, yo,” Kevin said, strutting up to John as if he was delighted to see him—as if John would naturally side with him, whatever the current disagreement might be, because John would surely see he was so terribly clever. “Check dis out, Prof. They say we gotta build us a Zig-Zag Lady, right? But they didn’t say we’ll be the ones to use it.”

“That’s a crazy leap,” Fabian said, “and you know it. We build the cabinet the best we can—”

“Tell me there ain’t some ‘twist’ every time we turn around,” Kevin demanded.

“Yeah,” Fabian said, “there’s a twist. But we don’t know what that twist is going to be. We can’t count on—”

“Hold on,” Jia said, and turned to Kevin. “What exactly is this bomb you’re expecting the producers to drop?”

“The way I see it, here’s how it’s gonna go down: we build us the cabinet. We meet in the ballroom like we’re all ready to do a show. Then Monty comes out…and he tells us to switch boxes.”

The room fell silent. John had to admit, now that Kevin laid it all out, he could see events unfolding in that very way.

“And so if our cabinet don’t slide apart like it’s supposed to,” Kevin said, “Gold Team can’t use it to get ahead on all our hard work.”

Fabian snorted in disgust. “And if you’re wrong, there we are, stuck with a useless cabinet. Losing another group challenge. Two in a row. All because you’re overthinking this whole thing and trying to make yourself out to be some kind of strategic genius.”

Kevin gave a thin smile. “Opportunities multiply as they are seized.”

Jia said, “Don’t quote Sun Tzu at me. Just don’t even…go there. The only reason we lost the Metamorphosis challenge was ’cos you picked Ricardo to play instead of Bev. What the hell was up with your precious strategy then?”

“I saw a chance,” Kevin said unapologetically, “and I took it. It didn’t pan out. But if it did, you’d all be crowing over the way I knocked his magic ass outta here.”

While the idea of Kevin gunning to eliminate Ricardo made John’s stomach clench, he also couldn’t shake the comment Jia had made in the yard, the one where she accused John of not even trying to win. Might they be told to switch cabinets? It certainly seemed in keeping with the other “twists.” Then again, it was entirely possible that if Red Team sabotaged their own cabinet, they’d be stuck with it themselves.

And then John realized exactly what they’d have to do.

It was tempting to hold his tongue—to allow the rest of the team to hash it out, and perhaps even shoot themselves in the foot. But when it was all said and done, John wasn’t sure he could live with himself if he didn’t at least take a good shot at winning the challenge.

“What we should build into the cabinet,” John finally suggested, “is a malfunction we can secretly turn on and off.”

Kevin, Fabian and Jia all frowned in thought. And finally Kevin said, “See? That’s what I’m talkin’ about. Using our heads.” He clapped John on the shoulder. “They don’t call this man ‘The Professor’ for nothing.”

Chapter 19

ZIG ZAG CABINET

Ricardo filed into the ballroom behind Sue, eager to see the Gold Team’s cabinet unveiled. Though their carpenter had been discouraged from chatting with the contestants, once the cabinet’s construction was done and the handhelds were switched off for the night, he’d actually offered Bev a job after the show was done shooting. She’d demurred, telling him her true calling was to dazzle children with the magic of mathematics. But Ricardo could tell she was flattered by his gruff approval.

Sue’s high school set design experience hadn’t gone to waste, either. The team had been responsible for painting the cabinet themselves, and it came out pretty spiffy, if Ricardo did say so himself. They’d even had enough time to rehearse the routine, with each of them taking a turn as the zig-zag lady. Even Ricardo.

The two cabinets, which had been constructed in great secrecy all week on opposite sides of the building, now stood side by side before the grand fireplace. Each cabinet was draped in a cloth, one red and one gold. A round area rug, also red or gold, had been placed beside each box, and as Ricardo stepped onto the rug to await his cabinet’s unveiling, he watched the Red Team gather on their side, and he noticed there was something strange about them. It took him a moment to pinpoint exactly what was different, until John locked eyes with Ricardo from across the room, and John’s expression sobered. It came to Ricardo then, exactly what was so out of place.

The Red Team was smiling.

“What the hell are they so giddy about?” Muriel said.

Faye tipped her chin up, tossed her auburn hair, and said, “Who cares? Just wait ’til they get a load of our kick-ass cabinet. That’ll wipe those grins off their faces.”

Monty Shaw greeted the contestants and then found his mark, trailed by an assistant director who was whispering a few last-minute instructions. Then the lights came up, the cameras swooped, and Monty’s face shifted into its on-camera expression as he said, “Well, magicians, I see you’ve been quite busy. What was once a pile of lumber has now been transformed…into this.”

A pair of grips whisked away the red and gold cloths, and cabinets were revealed.

They were so different, it hardly seemed as if they went with the same trick.

Both of them were trimmed in black, since the black frame was an integral part of the illusion. But that was where the paint jobs diverged. Gold Team’s cabinet showed the silhouette (non gender-specific, in case Ricardo got zig-zagged) of a person painted on the front, which would fool the viewer’s eye into