Race for the Escape - Hardcover

Edge, Christopher

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593486013 ISBN 13: 9780593486016

Verlag: Delacorte Pr, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

Five kids. One ultimate escape room. Can they solve it--or will they die trying? From the award-winning author of The Many World of Albie Bright comes a brand-new adventure that will having you racing to finish. 

When Ami Oswald arrives at The Escape--a new, supposedly impossible-to-beat escape room--all she wants it an evening of adventure for her birthday. She deserves it, after all her hard work. But as soon as the game starts, Ami and her four teammates realize they may have gotten more than they bargained for. 
 
Now, the only way Ami and her friends can get out is by solving the mysterious riddle the Escape's Host has given them: Find the Answer, save the world. But the Answer could be anywhere, and in this game, a single mistake could be deadly. Because, as Ami quickly finds out, the danger in these rooms is very, very real. 
 
Join Ami and the rest of the Five Mind as they face ancient Mayan warriors, a sinister library, and even prehistoric beasts in their quest to find the Answer and save the world, before it's too late. Can you escape the Escape? The world is betting on your success...

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Christopher Edge is an award-winning children’s author whose books have been translated into more than twenty languages. His novel The Infinite Lives of Maisie Day won the STEAM Children’s Book Prize and his last four novels were all nominated for the prestigious CILIP Carnegie Medal. Before becoming a writer, he worked as an English teacher, editor and publisher – any job that let him keep a book close to hand – and he now lives in Gloucestershire with his wife and family, close to his local library. Visit Christopher online at christopheredge.co.uk and on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.

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1

This is The Escape.

It looks just how I imagined it would look: a neon blade of a building rising above the dark windowless warehouses that surround it. LED lights shimmer across its mirrored surfaces as I approach, catching my reflection in a kaleidoscope of color.

I’m buzzing with excitement. This is my reward for working so hard: an evening of adventure at The Escape.

That’s if I can find my way in.

I’m not sure at first if this is part of the game. I skirt the edges of the building, searching for the entrance, but all I can see is an endless wall of glass. It’s as though whoever designed this building forgot to put in a front door, which is a bit of a problem if you want to pay them a visit. Maybe that’s why they called it The Escape--because it’s so hard to find the way out.

Then I spot it. Halfway along the wall, what I thought was a reflection is actually a revolving door, the sleek panels that are wrapped around the rest of the building bulging gently outward in a smooth curve of glass. I come to a halt in front of this door, my mirror image reflected in stereo. Stepping forward, I push against the right-hand panel, eager to get the game started at last.

It doesn’t move. The door’s locked.

Looking up, I see the black ball of a camera lens staring down from the ceiling, a red dot at its center. Someone’s watching me.

I give a friendly wave to the camera.

“It’s me--Ami Oswald,” I say with a hopeful smile. “I’m here to play.”

There’s a moment of silence as I wait for an answer. Then the revolving door clicks as the lock is released. This first test passed, I push against the panel again, and as the door swings, I step inside The Escape.

The air feels instantly cooler, the low humming sound of the traffic outside replaced by a hushed silence as the revolving door closes behind me. I’m in some kind of lobby, a large circular space that looks like the bridge of a spaceship. The curved walls ripple with the same soothing patterns of color that shimmered across the outside, while the lobby is lit by concentric circles of lights that shine down from the ceiling. There’s a round reception desk in the middle of this space, its surface gleaming with the same bright whiteness that covers the floor. It looks like you could fit a thousand people in here, but as I look around, there’s only me.

I step toward the reception desk, hearing the sharp rap of my footsteps echoing back across the empty lobby. I thought there’d be somebody here to greet me, but as I reach the desk, the only thing I can see is a name badge left waiting for me.

AMI

Picking it up, I pin the badge to my top. At least they’ve spelled my name right--Ami with an “i,” not a “y.”

When he made the booking, Dad said that this place was home to the ultimate escape room. People call them escape games or locked-room adventures, but the way they work is always the same: a team of players is locked in a room together to solve the clues and puzzles they find before time runs out. I like solving puzzles, so Dad figured a trip here would be the perfect gift for me. But it looks like I’ll be playing alone.

“Hello.”

The greeting makes me jump halfway out of my skin.

I turn to see a girl standing right beside me. Her eyes are hidden behind shocking-pink sunglasses, but the smile on her face beams brightly. Dark braids fall loosely around her shoulders, and a handful of freckles dot her dark brown skin. She’s wearing a cap-sleeved T-shirt with a vintage gaming console on the front, black-and-white checked pants, and neon-green sneakers. This girl looks seriously cool.

“Do you work here?” I ask.

Removing her sunglasses, the girl shakes her head and points to the name badge on her T-shirt.

“I’m Adjoa,” she says. “I’m here to play the game--just like you.”

I smile back at Adjoa; her enthusiasm is infectious. I feel the same surge of excitement that I felt when I first laid eyes on The Escape. Maybe this is going to be fun after all.

“So where are the others?” Adjoa asks, raising a quizzical eyebrow. “I thought we were supposed to be a team.”

As if in reply, we hear the whirr of the revolving door and turn to see two boys entering the lobby. They look about the same age as me--the same age as Adjoa too, now that she’s taken off her sunglasses and I can see how old she is--but apart from that I can’t help noticing how different they seem.

The first boy moves quickly, his short blond hair turning ash-white beneath the lights as he strides purposefully toward us. His restless eyes dart from side to side.

“So this is the place?” he asks, his voice echoing across the cavernous space. “Doesn’t look like much to me.”

With his black hoodie and joggers, he looks like he’s heading for the gym, although this is probably a wise choice of outfit. Escape rooms can make you sweat a bit, with physical as well as mental challenges to beat. You might find yourself dodging tripwire traps or crawling through a laser maze. It all depends on the theme of the game you play.

Across the lobby, the second boy is still standing just inside the door, looking around in wide-eyed wonder. With his baggy gray sweater and khaki cords, he doesn’t look ready for any kind of physical challenge. Not unless we’re going to be escaping from the fashion police. But my eyes are drawn to the Rubik’s cube that he’s holding, his long fingers absentmindedly twisting its squares. Intrigued, I watch as the colorful patterns flickering across the faces of the cube mirror those still shimmering across the walls.

The first boy swaggers to a halt at the desk.

“Hi,” I say, but the boy just ignores me, reaching across the desk to pick up two more badges that I didn’t notice before. Pinning the one that says OSCAR to his hoodie, he looks over his shoulder.

“Hey!” he calls to the boy still dawdling at the door. “Are you Ibrahim?”

At Oscar’s shout, the second boy nods. His dark scraggly hair is swept back from his face and his angular features shift into a pensive frown. “That’s me.”

Ibrahim hurries to join us, the cube still click-clacking in his hands. Oscar holds out the badge with IBRAHIM printed across the front.

“Thanks,” Ibrahim says as he sets his Rubik’s cube on the reception desk, the puzzle now solved, with each face showing a single color. Taking his name badge, he smiles shyly at the rest of us. “Are you all here for the game too?”

“Welcome to the team!” Adjoa says brightly, turning the full beam of her smile in Ibrahim’s direction. “Do you think we should call ourselves the Awesome Foursome, or maybe the Fantastic Four? We need to pick a name that’ll look good on top of the leaderboard.”

“We don’t need a stupid team name to win this game,” Oscar sneers, but then a new voice chimes in with a suggestion.

“How about the Five Mind?”

Turning around in surprise, I see a girl standing on the other side of the reception desk. She doesn’t look much older than me--twelve or thirteen maybe. Her straight black hair is cut in a sharp bob, dark eyes shining from beneath her bangs. It takes me a moment to work out what her name is, as her badge is lost among all the others covering her denim jacket. Then I spot it, nestled next to the smiley faces, superhero symbols, and CND signs.

MIN

“I mean, if this game really is as tough as...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Delacorte Pr
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2022
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593486013
• ISBN 13: 9780593486016
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 163
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar