Page 175 of The Most Dangerous Games

“Sometimes you choose,” Jimmy says, “and sometimes you get chosen. Either way, when the moment hits—you meet it.”

Alek speaks up. “Wyatt. Jimmy. I still have questions.”

“Of course you do,” Wyatt says. “You’re thorough. You want the whole chain of cause and effect.”

“I’m sure we all do.”

“My grandfather always believed in me,” Wyatt says. “So I had allies, helpers. I still do. Most of the guards here were loyal to my grandfather. Now they’re loyal to me. One last game changer.”

Alek finally manages to smile. “Thank God for that. But you haven’t really answered my questions.”

“I will,” Wyatt says. “First I’d like to ask everybody to please follow me.”

“Where are we going now?” Alek asks.

He nods toward the door.

“Boardroom,” Wyatt says.

“I thought this was the boardroom,” Alek says.

Wyatt’s expression hardens.

“There’s another one,” he says. “And the people in it are the reason this competition stopped being a game.”

“This mysterious board?” Jack asks.

Wyatt looks at them—Alek, Jack, Hannah, Zhi—like he’s about to turn a key in a lock.

He nods. “Yes. They’re the ones who benefited every time you suffered,” he says. “The real enemy.”

122.

Wyatt leads them through a small anteroom, then down a long, bright corridor. Finally, he walks them into the real boardroom, giving his father a slight shove in ahead of him.

Alek is trailing behind, ready to watch another strange scene play out.

“Hey,” she hears Ward Hillshire say as he stumbles forward after another shove from Wyatt.

“You’re lucky he doesn’t kick your ass,” Jack says to Ward.

There are four men and two women at the boardroom table. Expensive clothes. Controlled faces. But their eyes flash the same way predators’ eyes do when the door opens on something unexpected. They look angry.

“Ward?” one of the women says. “Would you care to fill us in on what exactly is happening?”

Ward spreads his hands. “There was nothing I could do to stop them.”

“True,” Wyatt says. “And now there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

Ward looks over at his son.

“As it happens, my son did prove something to me, whether that was his motivation or not,” he says. “But as full of himself as he’s feeling, I still think he’s making one more monumental mistake.”

“Trust me,” Wyatt says. “I’ve made bigger. The biggest was trusting you to do the right thing at the start of all this.” He shakes his head. “So much of this didn’t need to happen.”

Wyatt walks to the far end of the room. He motions for Alek, Jack, Hannah, and Zhi to come stand behind him, and for Jimmy to take the seat at the head of the table. Whoever had been in charge before, Alek sees that Wyatt Hillshire is in charge, at least for now.

Wyatt remains standing at the front of the room.