Chapter 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.
“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.”