Ahmad was too busy looking at the front of the tea shop. It was too dark. “Winnie, I think something’s wrong. Come on, quick!”

Before they could reach the front door, though, a shadow fell over them. Winnie gasped and grabbed Ahmad’s arm.

“It can’t be night already, can it?” she whispered.

Ahmad swallowed hard and braced himself for that awful pressure.

But instead, a screen scrolled outward, blotting out part of the artificial sky. It was a small black square that seemed as though it was painted on. Ahmad and Winnie stared at it.

“What—” Ahmad started.

And then, a figure slowly emerged from the black. An unseen camera zoomed outward from her small smirk and leopard-print bucket hat, and then outward to her camouflage vest and high pink boots. By the time it had panned out for a full-body shot, she was stepping out of the screen and down a set of unfolding stairs.

“The MasterMind,” Winnie hissed. “What is she doing here?”

Ahmad couldn’t answer her. Together, they waited as the girl approached them.

What could possibly go wrong now?

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

WELL, YOU SEEM TO be having a good time,” the MasterMind purred. “Out for a little joy ride?”

“It’s not like we had anything else to do,” Winnie spat back. “What was the big idea, not giving us a proper announcement for a challenge?”

“A challenge?” The MasterMind put on a look of surprise. On anyone else, it might have been believable. On her it would have been comical—if Ahmad and Winnie hadn’t nearly died completing the challenge. They glared at her.

“Give it up,” Ahmad growled. “We figured it out already. You wanted us to waste time. I don’t know why you and the Architect don’t think you can win this without dirty tricks, but we—”

He stopped short with a gasp as a snake dropped from the air, out of nowhere, and snapped its mouth at his nose before falling downward into nothingness.

“The only one wasting time right now,” the MasterMind said with that fake sweet tone, “is you. Both yours and mine. There was no challenge to complete, Ahmad Mirza. I simply don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Ahmad’s and Winnie’s gazes followed her finger up to the sky. Winnie gasped in dismay.

There was a new timer—a different timer from the one that had hovered over the marble maze they’d scrambled through—and it was at forty-five minutes. And counting.

“I had given you a full hour. But I’ve taken fifteen minutes away, since you insist on being so contentious about every little thing,” the MasterMind continued. “In any case, it seems you guys need to pay more attention.”

“But what about this?” Ahmad insisted, fumbling in his pocket. “This has to prove that . . .”