Page 174 of The Most Dangerous Games

“While I was there,” he says, “Jimmy called me. He told me that he was in Dubai and had managed to sneak his way to a phone. He’d been transported there after he was caught by The Host’s men in London, even got beaten up along the way.”

Jimmy jumps in. “And on that call, Wyatt dropped two nukes on me. One: Who he really is. Two: He wasn’t alone.”

Wyatt continues. “Jimmy said that my father was moving the endgame here. And that if we didn’t act, the last stage would chew up whoever was left and spit them out.”

Jack’s voice is flat. “So you came to stop it.”

Wyatt hesitates. “I came to take control of it. There’s a difference.”

At that moment, the conference room doors swing open. Another unexpected surprise. Two guards escort Ward Hillshire into the room. Not looking anything like a Host.

Alek takes a step forward. “And Tipton?”

Wyatt’s expression hardens.

“My father built those chambers to break people,” Wyatt says. “Tipton broke.”

Alek feels it in her ribs. “He said the word.”

Jack’s jaw clenches. “Then why was he still locked inside?”

Wyatt’s eyes flick toward Ward—like the answer makes him sick. Ward says it instead.

“Because I don’t believe in letting go,” Ward mutters. “I believe in making an example.”

Jimmy’s voice drops, dangerous now. “That part ends today.”

Hannah, quietly, chimes in, “It ends without us becoming them.”

“So here we are,” Wyatt says to his father, “where your winner gets crowned. And where we decide what kind of people we are going forward.”

Wyatt looks around at the view from up here.

“High time for it, don’t you think?” Wyatt says.

121.

Alek had one question:

How did I win?

Ward Hillshire looks like a man who just watched his own life get repossessed.

“There was one area where I told the truth, as it turns out,” he says. “That part about everything being explained. I just assumed I’d be the one doing the explaining.”

Alek stares at him. He does look diminished, reduced to being a bit player in the final scene playing out all around him.

“Sadly,” Ward Hillshire adds, “I appear to have lost that privilege.”

“You lost it a long time ago,” Wyatt says. He doesn’t raise his voice. He doesn’t need to. “And by the way, I was never a part of this to prove anything to you. I was proving something to myself. And to my grandfather’s memory.”

Ward’s mouth twitches, like he wants to laugh it off. He can’t.

Wyatt stares scornfully at his father.

“I always suspected I would have to take you down,” he says. “I just didn’t know when. Or how.”

Jimmy steps in, calmer now.