Page 178 of The Most Dangerous Games

“Security!” Wyatt calls.

Five uniformed guards enter the room.

Wyatt looks at Waldrip. “Sit.”

Waldrip bristles. “You can’t talk to me that way.”

Wyatt’s smile returns—small, dangerous.

“Just did.”

“Are you people really going to sit out a fight like this?” Jimmy asks. “Are you so deep into your own pockets that you’re not going to do anything to keep us all from going right over a cliff?”

“We were trying to save the world,” says Li Chang.

“It takes people like us to do that. People who are willing to do what needs to be done, despite the costs,” Jeanne Starr adds.

“You’re children. You’re being naïve. Idealistic. You want the world to be a place that we can fix with rainbows and unicorns,” Helen Trengove mocks.

“We were trying to get you to see that,” Ward finally speaks up again. “We were trying to show you how dark the world is.”

Wyatt points a finger at his father.

“You know, Dad,” he says. “You really should have had me killed when you had the chance.”

“You all ignored something important, really important. We got this far without compromising our values,” says Alek.

Thomas Waldrip, still standing, barks out a harsh, mirthless laugh.

“You people actually think you’re going to save the world?” Waldrip says. “That’s adorable.”

“Enough,” Alek raises her voice, which is unusual for her. “More than enough! There’s still things I don’t understand. Why would Gavin Hillshire let Wyatt anywhere near this competition in the first place?”

“Mr. Hillshire told me that he had to find out once and for all who should be his real heir,” Jimmy says. “To carry on his work, his vision of the future. He wanted to see who Wyatt really was—by the games.”

Wyatt turns back to his father.

“You couldn’t have that, could you?” Wyatt says.

Wyatt gives his father the same disdainful look Jimmy had just trained on Thomas Waldrip.

Alek takes a step forward. “I still need one answer. Why am I The One?”

Wyatt doesn’t hesitate.

“Because my grandfather’s rules were written in steel,” he says. “Not feelings. Not fairness. Not ‘almost.’”

He looks at Alek.

“You never said the word.”

Alek can’t believe it’s that simple.

Wyatt continues, “Zhi said it and left his chamber, that’s why his door was unlocked. Jack said it. Tipton said it. Quietly. But the system recorded it.”

Jack nods once. “So she actually won.”

“She did,” Wyatt says. “By the only rule the system recognizes.”