“Yes,” said Will.
“We think he built all of this,” Ajay said. “That it’s like one of his games.”
“It’s more than a game.” Elise leaned closer to the screen. “This was how he saw the world: a maze of interlocking mysteries. If you solve this puzzle, you unlock the next one and eventually reach the heart of things.”
“Where he hid what he wanted to tell you,” said Will.
“Maybe,” said Elise, studying the passage in the yearbook.
“So this is his version of an extremely elaborate password,” said Brooke.
“I keep telling you,” said Nick, biting a nail. “Type in Shangri-la.”
“Your contribution has been duly noted,” said Ajay.
Elise looked up sharply. “Tell them to hug those two figures on the porch.”
“That’s limp,” said Nick.
“Do you want my help or not?” said Elise.
Ajay and Will looked at each other, shrugged, then both said, “Hug them.”
Their syn-apps looked at each other, shrugged, then walked toward the figures at the door with their arms outstretched. The figures in white looked at each other, then stepped forward and allowed themselves to be hugged by the syn-apps.
The doors behind the doctors immediately swung open. The figures in white stepped back, bowed, and faded away.
“Embrace the ‘pair-o-docs,’ ” said Will.
“Now you’re starting to get it,” said Elise.
“ROTFLMAO,” said Nick, his jaw hanging open.
“You are not rolling on the floor laughing your ass off,” said Ajay.
“I am on the inside.”
“Tell them to go in,” said Elise.
They did and their doubles walked into the building. The walls faded away and the small figures entered a vast empty gray space. Near them, a sharp circle of blinding white light snapped on from high overhead. More circular beams appeared, polka-dotting the space with a rainbow of colors as far as they could see.
The syn-apps stepped into the first white circle. Without warning, all of the floor untouched by light dropped away. Only the colored circles remained. The circles were now the tops of tall round columns that rose out of a bottomless void.
“Uh,” said Will, unnerved. “What happens if our syn-apps die?”
“My guess is that if we die, we’ll lose access to the program,” said Ajay.
“Ronnie probably rigged it to self-destruct,” said Elise. “To protect whatever he hid in here. We have one shot at this.”
“What did he write next?” said Brooke, picking up the yearbook.
“Hope it wasn’t ‘Plunge to a meaningless death,’ ” said Nick.
“ ‘Look for patterns,’ ” read Brooke.
“What patterns?” asked Nick.
The circles began blinking on and off, one color at a time. Each of the seven colors corresponded to a single loud tone that repeated with each blink, until the whole space filled with cacophonous music. The syn-apps covered their ears.
“How does this work?” asked Ajay. “What should we do?”
Elise closed her eyes and listened closely. “It’s a Phrygian scale. The fifth mode of the harmonic minor scale.”
“How do you know that?” asked Nick.
“Because I told him about it,” said Elise, scowling. “You need to jump to the color that corresponds to the next note in the scale.” Elise struggled to concentrate; the music was nearly deafening.
“Blue,” she said.
The two syn-apps hopped from their column to the closest blue circle. As they landed, every other blue column crumbled and fell out of sight. The “blue” notes disappeared with them, slightly simplifying the music.
“What’s next?” asked Ajay.
Elise concentrated, then said, “Purple.”
The syn-apps jumped to a purple circle, and the rest of the purple columns collapsed. Then all the columns, including the one they were standing on, began rising up and down like titanic pistons, making further leaps infinitely more dangerous.
“Now red,” said Elise.
The syn-apps waited until the nearest red column rumbled up out of the darkness, timing their jump to land on it as it rocketed past them. The rest of the red columns disintegrated.
In addition to rising and falling, the columns began moving horizontally, sweeping rapidly from side to side. The syn-apps struggled to stay on top, clinging to each other as their red column whipped around.
“It’s like some kind of insane carousel,” said Brooke.
“What’s next?” asked Will.
Three colors remained: orange, yellow, and green. “Orange,” said Elise. “Will” and “Ajay” had to wait longer for an orange column to pass, and then made the leap together. Will landed cleanly, but Ajay stubbed a foot on the edge and nearly fell backward. Will grabbed his belt and hauled him to safety as the pillar whirled around.
“Why didn’t we bring Nick the Human Goat-Boy along for this?” said Ajay.
“Dude, I offered,” said Nick.
“Yellow,” said Elise. A yellow column whipped by, and they made the leap. Now only green columns remained. The columns picked up speed. The syn-apps threw themselves on top of a green one as it sailed past. The green column gradually slowed, then ground to a halt with an alarming shudder.
A single white column appeared ahead of them. The syn-apps were stranded ten yards away from it, too far to jump.
“What now?” asked Ajay.
“Think it through,” said Will. “There’s no rush.”
A message appeared on-screen: YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS. The message was replaced by the number 30, which changed to 29, then to 28. With each passing second, the syn-apps’ green column slowly crumbled. The syn-apps moved to the center, looking out at them for help.
“You were saying?” asked Brooke.
“Damn it, Ronnie,” said Elise.
“Jump, dudes!” said Nick.
“Use your ropes,” said Ajay to the screen.
The syn-apps huddled for a moment and agreed on something. “Will” opened his backpack and took out what looked like a flare gun. “Ajay” attached a spike to the end of his rope and dropped it into the barrel of Will’s gun, and Will fired it down at the white circle. The spike embedded in its surface near the edge. Ajay secured their end of the rope to the center of their shrinking pillar with a piton.
“Zip lines,” said Will.
As the countdown hit 10, they attached clips from their belts to the rope, then launched off the column. They soared over the void and tumbled onto the white column just as what was left of the green column collapsed into the bottomless dark. Slipping off their climbing gear, they just escaped being dragged over the edge. Everyone, including the syn-apps, stopped to catch their breath.
“Now what?” said Brooke.
The light slowly brightened and the white circle of light became part of a ledge at the bottom of a tall smooth cliff.
“Keep going,” said Elise. “You’re getting close.”
The syn-apps moved along the ledge until they reached an open doorway in the cliff. As they moved through it, the space transformed into a large chamber containing antique furniture, a blazing fireplace, and geometric parquet flooring. Tall hunting tapestries hung on the walls.
An ornate grand piano sat in the center of the room. A man sat on the bench with his back to them. He wore a high-collared white shirt and neckerchief, breeches, buckle shoes, and a long tailcoat. The man was leaning forward, with one arm on the piano, resting his chin on his hand. A feathered quill and bottle of ink sat beside him on a small wooden stand. Two blank pages of musical composition paper rested on the piano’s rack.
The doubles walked around the piano until the point of view shifted and Will could see the man. He looked about forty, stocky and powerful. A wild shock of thick gray hair swirled around his head. His face was heavy and grave, lined with care, almost tormented. He didn’t seem to notice them, his intense, steely blue eyes staring into the distance.