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Ever since their freshman year of college, Jesper would drag his roommate to the local dive bar once a month for half-price well shots. While Kaz sat, stiff-backed, at the booth, Jesper would knock back cheap liquor until the world went fuzzy. The following morning, Jesper would inevitably vow to never drink again. Kaz always rolled his eyes before tossing him the bottle of ibuprofen from the bathroom cupboard, the pills rattling in the plastic bottle.
Over the years, others had slowly joined them. Inej was the first. Even after several drinks, she bested every challenger at the dartboard, hitting the bullseye every time. Next, Inej introduced her roommate, Nina Zenik, who quickly discovered that the line cook would send over extra waffle fries when she wore low-cut tops. Matthias Helvar arrived shortly thereafter, following Nina like a lost puppy. Wylan Van Eck was the last to join them. Kaz still remembered the shock of stepping out of his bedroom to find Wylan standing barefoot in their kitchen, his copper curls decidedly bed-tousled. Jesper merely winked when Kaz asked him about it later.
Thankfully, Jesper had out grown cheap liquor. Nevertheless, once a month Kaz Brekker found himself crowded uncomfortably into one of the booths, the sticky tabletop laden with greasy bar food. Since graduating, this was the one ritual they had been able to maintain—cheap bar food before a group outing—outings that had started to feel suspiciously like triple dates sometime during their junior year.
Each month, they would take turns picking the activity—bowling alleys and movie theaters, beer gardens and restaurants, corn mazes and ice skating rinks. Though Kaz would never admit it, he found most of the choices surprisingly tolerable.
But this month, it was Helvar’s turn to pick.
“An escape room?” Kaz asked. “You thought an escape room sounded fun?”
“The website says they’re great for team-building,” Matthias supplied helpfully.
“Brekker, you don’t have any room to complain,” Nina scoffed. “Last month you roped everyone into a game of Monopoly.”
Jesper shuddered at the memory.
“Never again,” he said solemnly, dipping a waffle fry into a ramekin of sriracha sauce.
Kaz’s eyes narrowed. “I fail to see the problem with Monopoly night.”
“Kaz, you robbed the bank blind,” Inej reminded him gently.
Kaz sniffed. “It’s hardly my fault you elected an incompetent banker.”
Wylan made a strangled noise.
Jesper snorted. “It was funny when Wylan flipped the game board.”
“Speak for yourself, Llewellyn,” Wylan groused, shooting his boyfriend a savage look.
Jesper recoiled in mock horror, one palm flat against his chest.
“Oh, the bitter sting of betrayal.” Nina smirked, plucking the last waffle fry from the paper tray at the center of the table. She popped it into her mouth, licking the salt from her fingers. After she swallowed, she leaned forward, a wicked gleam in her eyes. “Thank goodness team-building is already on the schedule for the evening.”
When Matthias planted a fond kiss against the crown of her head, Nina positively beamed.
* * *
Ketterdam Escape Games was tucked at the back of a dying strip mall, wedged between a run-down pawn shop and an abandoned adult video store. Kaz suspected the latter doubled as a Spirit Halloween several months of the year. Stepping out of his car into the dimly lit parking lot, he arched a brow, gesturing at the cheap vinyl banner draped over the entrance with the head of his cane.
“And you’re sure this isn’t the front for a money laundering scheme?” Kaz asked.
“If it were, you would know,” Wylan grumbled.
“Give him some credit,” Jesper laughed. “Kaz hasn’t been on the wrong side of the law in years.”
“That you know of,” Wylan muttered.
As they stepped into Ketterdam Escape Games, the bell over the door jingled. There was a young man sitting behind the counter, thumbing through a tattered copy of Popular Science. The name “Kuwei” was scrawled in sharpie across the cheap plastic name tag pinned to his shirt. He glanced up, flipping his jet-black hair out of his eyes. When he saw them, he set aside his magazine with a heavy sigh, pulling out an ancient iPad.
“Reservation name?” Kuwei asked, already bored.
“Matthias Helvar,” Matthias said.
Without glancing up, Kuwei tapped at the iPad screen.
“Six players for the Ice Court Heist?” Kuwei confirmed. “All beginners?”
When Matthias nodded, Kuwei hummed under his breath.
“The Ice Court Heist is the most challenging room,” Kuwei said. “Nine out of ten keys. Are you sure you don’t want an easier room? The Hell Show is only seven out of ten keys.”
Kaz bristled. “We’ll take the Ice Court Heist.”
Inej shot him a knowing look, a small smile pulling at the corners of her lips.
“Suit yourself.” Kuwei shrugged, pointing towards a wall lined with lockers. “Phones aren’t allowed in the room, but you can store them there.”
Once they had locked up their items, Kuwei led them down a narrow hallway lined with nondescript doors, stopping outside the final room. He turned back to face them, his gaze lingering on Jesper for the first time. Looking him up and down, his vivid gold-rimmed eyes widened appreciatively. Wylan edged closer to Jesper, looping their arms together possessively. Kuwei merely grinned in response, seemingly delighted by the challenge.
“So,” Kuwei said. “You’ll have sixty-minutes to solve the puzzles in order to escape the room. Some ground rules. Don’t throw or damage any items in the room. And don’t force any locks open. All of the lockboxes should open easily with the right combination. Finally, you can assume anything above eye level is not a clue—there’s no need to climb through the ceiling tiles.”
“Has that happened before?” Inej asked, casting a contemplative glance up at the ceiling.
“You’d be surprised,” Kuwei said. “I’ll be your gamemaster for the duration of your game.”
He tapped the iPad once more.
“I can see everything you do through our CCTV system,” Kuwei continued. “If you get stuck, you will get three free clues. All you need to do is press the button near the door. Then the Elderclock will chime, and a clue will appear on the television screen near the door.”
“We won’t be needing any additional clues,” Kaz insisted.
Nina elbowed Matthias in the ribs. “Told you.”
“Told him what, Zenik?” Kaz snapped.
Nina smiled innocently. “Just that you would enjoy yourself once you were here.”
Kaz responded with a shark-like stare, his dark eyes glittering dangerously. Nina’s grin widened.
“I still haven’t read the backstory,” Kuwei said, clearing his throat nervously. He held up a small notecard, glancing back and forth between them.
“Go on,” Matthias said, giving him a small nod of encouragement.
Seemingly assured that they were paying attention once more, Kuwei started reading from the notecard: “Dr. Bo Yul-Bayur is a high-ranking chemical warfare specialist for the government in Shu-Han, part of a secret weapons development department that has been working on engineering a lethal strain of jurda parem. Foreign powers have recently managed to capture the scientist, imprisoning him in the infamous Ice Court. Your extraction team has been hired to kidnap the scientist before the recipe for jurda parem can fall into enemy hands.”
Pausing dramatically, Kuwei twisted the door handle, giving it a gentle push. The hinges creaked as the door swung inward.
“Sixty minutes are on the clock,” Kuwei declared. “If you fail to rescue Yul-Bayur in time, Black Protocol will sound and you’ll lose the game.”
He gestured for them to enter the room.
“Your time begins once the door closes behind you,” Kuwei said.
One-by-one, they filed through the threshold. Then the door closed with a delicate click. Behind them, the lone television screen flickered to life, displaying an old-fashioned clock tower. The second hand was already ticking ominously.
Kaz turned to survey the room. The interior was decorated like an old-fashioned prison cell. Three of the walls were lined with low, wooden benches, each covered with an assortment of seemingly random items: buckets, blankets, and metal dinner trays. The fourth wall had been constructed from PVC pipes, which were spray-painted to resemble iron prison bars. The make-shift wall could swing forward on a hinge, but it was held in place by a heavy padlock. Through the gaps in the plastic pipes, he could see a shadowy hallway leading to a second room. His brow furrowed.
“According to the website, the first step is to start looking for anything that could be a clue—puzzle pieces, keys, numerical codes,” Matthias said. “Then, communication is key, and make sure to stay—”
“Found something!” Jesper proclaimed cheerfully. He had flung one of the frayed blankets to the ground to reveal a cipher burned into the wood of the bench. In his enthusiasm, one of the buckets on the bench went flying across the room. Inej ducked gracefully out of the way.
“—stay organized,” Matthias finished weakly.
There was a flurry of movement as they started searching the benches. After a moment, Wylan bent down to pick up the bucket Jesper had flung to the ground. His nose scrunched up as he stared at the bottom.
“There are three dots painted on the bottom of this bucket,” he said, tilting his head to one side.
Jesper plucked the bucket from his hands. “Maybe part of a code?”
“Or something to do with that cipher?” Wylan suggested.
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re even cuter when you’re smart?” Jesper asked.
Wylan’s cheeks went pink at the compliment. “You may have mentioned it a time or two.”
“Here are two more buckets,” Nina announced, placing them side-by-side on the bench.
Inej crossed the room. Head tilted, she eyed the top of the prison bars. “There’s a gap at the top,” she observed. “I could climb them.”
There was a sudden buzz. Then Kuwei’s voice spoke over the hidden intercom system. “Please do not climb over the bars.”
Unashamed, Inej shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
“I found something else,” Jesper declared, holding a metal lockbox proudly in the air. “It has a combination lock. Looks like there are four numbers.”
“Give it here,” Kaz commanded, suddenly attentive.
“But we haven’t figured out the cipher for the combination yet,” Jesper protested.
Kaz held out his hand. He repeated, “Give it here.”
On the other side of the room, Wylan upended another bucket.
“This one has seven dots on the bottom,” he said.
He handed it to Matthias, who placed it bottom-up alongside the other three buckets.
“There are four digits,” Matthias murmured, “but we have to put them in the correct order.”
“Maybe it has something to do with the dinner trays?” Nina suggested, holding one up to the light.
There was a faint click as the lockbox popped open. Everyone turned to look at Kaz. He was already fishing an old-fashioned skeleton key from the interior of the box. Standing, he crossed the room to the heavy padlock, inserting the key. The padlock fell open. Discarding the lock in the ground, he pushed open the door to the cell with a flourish.
“Coming?” he asked, lifting a brow.
“How on earth did you figure out the correct order without the cipher?” Wylan asked, dumbfounded. “There are what—over nine-thousand possible combinations with a four-digit lock?”
“I didn’t need some convoluted clue,” Kaz scoffed, flexing his fingers around his cane.
Nina groaned. “Don’t tell me you cracked the lock, Brekker.”
“With enough training, even you could learn to crack something as simple as a four-digit lock,” Kaz said, his expression smug. “Do you want to escape in under an hour or not, Zenik?”
With a tap of his cane, he turned on his heels, disappearing into the second room.
* * *
They completed the entire escape room in just under twenty-seven minutes, though—technically speaking—they bypassed over half of the official puzzles. Near the end of the game, Kaz didn’t even make an attempt to hide the silver flash of his lockpicks when he helped Inej secure the fake diamond needed for a laser light puzzle. But Kaz wasn’t the only one who bent the rules. The team ended up solving the other half of the puzzles by sheer dumb luck.
“What if we just chose to blow up the lab instead?” Nina had mused, rearranging a series of color-coded test tubes in the laboratory room.
The intercom buzzed overhead. “You can’t just… blow up the lab,” Kuwei said, weariness creeping into his voice.
Frowning, Nina had grumbled under her breath, “Watch me.”
When Jesper finally turned the plastic key in the ignition of the replica metal tank in the last room, the fake engine roared to life. Wylan let out a cheerful whoop as the exterior door swung open. Kuwei stood on the other side, shaking his head in disbelief. He tapped the iPad screen several times.
“Under normal circumstances, I would add your team to the leaderboard,” he said, “but I don’t even understand how you managed to preemptively activate Black Protocol.”
Matthias frowned. “Unconventional problem-solving isn’t against the rules.”
“When you add our team to the leaderboard,” Kaz said, “do remember that Dregs is spelled d-r-e-g-s.”
Kuwei looked incredibly relieved when he was finally able to usher them into the parking lot.
* * *
“Admit it, Kaz,” Inej said on the car ride home. “You had fun tonight.”
“I still enjoyed Monopoly more,” Kaz retorted.
His gloved fingers tapped the steering wheel.
But he gifted her with the barest smile.
And sometimes that was enough.