The Bonding Ritual (Girls Wearing Black: Book Four) (31 page)

“Fifty million dollars,” Daciana said, reading the amount on the check. “I am putting it in the safe.”

She placed the check from the Fleming family on top of the stack of gold, then went back to the front of the stage, held up the envelope, and pulled out another check.

“Our next donation comes from the Minister of Economy in Rome, who is eager to forge a relationship with the clan,” Daciana said. “In years past, the Italian government has been no friend of ours, but they are ready for a fresh start.”

They are begging for forgiveness after being beholden to Falkon all these years
, Kim thought.

“Twenty million dollars,” Daciana said. “A lovely donation from the government of Italy. May their gesture of goodwill be the start of a long-lasting friendship and more international opportunities for the students of Thorndike
Academy.  I’m putting this check in the safe.”

This time, as Daciana slid the paper on top of the gold, the students applauded.
Thirty million in precious metal and seventy million in cash by Kim’s count. There was already enough money in that safe to overcome Samantha’s lead.

Daciana reached into the envelope and pulled out another check.

“Our third and final donation comes from the Ventigen Corporation,” she said, holding up the check for everyone to see. This one was on a large piece of mint-colored paper with a blue watermark. “The board at Ventigen was unaware of it, but a faction in that once prestigious company had developed a relationship with my enemies. They have assured me they will take necessary action to clean house so we may once again consider them our friends. To show their commitment to a new start, Ventigen has donated one hundred million dollars to Thorndike, a donation I am now putting into the safe.”

Kim joined the other students in cheering and applause which, for her, was entirely genuine. Never before had Kim felt so much admiration for anyone.
Daciana’s enemies were dead or on the run, and the people they left behind had paid a fortune to Daciana out of fear for their own lives. Her strength was unmatched, not only in America, but throughout the world.

Kim wanted nothing more than to be like her.

Could that be what this was all about? Could it be that Daciana understood that the wrong girl was on track to win Coronation, and was taking steps to remedy it?

Daciana closed the door of the safe and spun the wheel.

“Here is the game,” she said. “Tonight I will call eight of you up to this stage. I won’t call you by name, but you will know when it is your turn. When you come to the stage, you will try and guess the combination to this safe. If you guess correctly, the money is yours to donate to one of the girls wearing black.”

Guess the combination? Kim looked at the four number dials on the safe. Each went from one to ninety-nine. How on earth was someone supposed to guess the combination?

“If none of the eight students called tonight are able to open the safe, we will put it away for a week,” Daciana said, “and the game will continue throughout the school year. Once a week, eight students will get a chance to guess the combination. If no one gets the safe open by the end of the semester, I will keep the money.”

Kim nodded her head.
Okay
, she thought.
This isn’t a guessing game. We’re going to have all semester to do this. Daciana wants us to figure out the combination.

But how?

Kim scanned the room, her eyes coming to a stop on Jill Wentworth.

There’s my competition
, she thought.
If I’m going to become immortal, I have to figure out the secret to this game before Jill.

*****

To Nicky, Daciana’s safe was only the second most interesting prop on the stage. While the students gazed at the enormous sum of money now locked inside the steel box, Nicky looked to the back of the stage, where a large plastic globe stood on a wooden cabinet. Inside the globe, a collection of what looked like Ping-Pong balls danced around like leaves in the wind.

To the rest of the students, the globe was just another part of casino night. They had seen one just like it at the keno table.
A random number generator. White balls dancing around inside, each with a number on its surface, easy for the dealer to remove at random.

A hundred numbers that could be randomly assigned to a hundred students.
The rest of them didn’t know what Nicky knew. They hadn’t seen the vampires roaming the floor, whispering numbers in everyone’s ears. When Daciana walked to the back of the stage and pulled open the hatch atop the globe, where a single plastic ball was waiting, Nicky knew how this game was going to work.

Daciana had promised to call eight students up to the stage to guess the combination of the safe. How fitting on casino night that she was going to do it by random number.

“Seventeen!” Daciana announced, reading the number on the ball she had just removed. “One of you, and only one of you, feels a special affinity for number seventeen. If that number speaks to you in a way that no other number does, if you feel like seventeen is your number, come join me on the stage.”

A few seconds of silence passed, then Brian Kingsbury left the crowd and approached the stairs.

When he reached the stage, Daciana gave Brian the plastic ball. He took it from her as if it were a magical artifact, holding it carefully in his fingertips as he inspected the black number printed on its face.

“That ball is yours to keep now,” Daciana said. “May it always be a reminder to you of your lucky
number. Now, Mr. Seventeen, walk up to the safe and turn the dials.”

Brian, who at some point during the night had removed his jacket and rolled up his sleeves, looked lost on the stage next to Daciana.

“I don’t know the combination,” he said, meekly.

“You must take a guess,” Daciana said.

Brian approached the safe and began spinning the first number dial, the one with the diamond set into the tip. When he stopped, Daciana announced the number he had selected.

“One!”

He went to the next dial, with the ruby.

“Seven!” Daciana announced after he turned it.

He chose seventeen on the third dial, and twenty-seven on the fourth. Then he stepped away from the safe.

“Go ahead,” Daciana said. “
Grab the handle and try to open it.”

Brian grabbed the
handle on the door and pulled. The door made a thunking sound in response, and remained shut.

“Too bad for you, Seventeen,” Daciana said.

As Brian left the stage, Daciana went back to the globe to grab another Ping-Pong ball.

*****

Jill was just as puzzled as everyone else. How were they supposed to guess the combination to a safe?

With four dials, each one going from one to ninety-nine, the odds against a correct guess were astronomical. There had to be some game to it. Some trick for them to figure out.

But what was it?

After Brian failed to guess the combination, Daciana selected number ten from her hopper, which brought Isabel to the stage. Like Brian, she tried to use some mash-up of her lucky number to get the safe open. Like Brian, she failed.

Fourteen was the next number, and Wesley Johnson went onstage. He tried using his lucky number for all four dials. He failed.

Jill tapped twice on her left earring.

“We’re here,” Alvin said.

“I need to speak to Nicky,” Jill whispered. “Can you ask her if she has any ideas about how this game works? Tell me what she says.”

*****

Nicky had already figured it out by the time Alvin’s voice rang in her ear. She walked to the edge of the foyer and faced the wall when she relayed the message to Alvin.

“Tell Jill to look at the posters hanging from the ceiling,” she said. “The colors match the gemstones on the safe.”

*****

Torrie Dunwald had just failed on her guess when Alvin delivered the message to Jill.

The instant he mentioned the posters of the girls wearing black Jill understood. The posters were the one piece of décor that was out of place in the spectacular foyer. They were the one and only clue to solving this game.

She resisted the urge to look up. Everyone else had their eyes glued to the stage. If someone saw Jill gazing at the ceiling, they might figure out the game just as she had.

Everyone at the party had been given a number. There were four girls wearing black and four dials on the safe. This wasn’t a guessing game. This game was about getting the girls wearing black to talk.

And the best time to make that happen was right now, before any of them understood how the game worked.

“Excuse me,” Jill whispered to Ryan, then stepped away from him, moving diagonally through the crowd until she reached Samantha.

“What’s your number?” she whispered.

Samantha turned to her. “I’m sorry. What’s that?”

“Your lucky number. The one that would call you to the stage.”

Samantha looked uncomfortable to be whispering at a time when the rest of the hall was so quiet. Jill leaned in closer.

“I might be able to win this game for you if you tell me your number,” she whispered into Samantha’s ear.

Samantha nodded her head once, then hunched close to Jill.

“Ninety-eight,” she whispered.

“Thanks,” said Jill.

Samantha’s poster had a white border around it. She was the diamond. The first dial on the safe. Ninety-eight.

Nicky’s poster had a red border. She was the ruby. Jill tapped her earring twice to call Alvin again. He would tell her Nicky’s number and they’d have the first two dials on the safe figured out.

“Fifty-two,” Daciana called out.

Jill was listening for Alvin to speak, and barely heard Daciana call the number. She kept walking towards Ryan.

“Fifty-two?” Daciana said. “Are you out there?”

Jill stopped walking. She remembered the way Sergio looked at her when he caught her in the hallway. She could see his lips saying the
number, the number she had promised him she would commit to memory.

She turned around. “I’m fifty-two,” she said. Then she approached the stage.

*****

Now that Nicky understood the game, she understood that it was terrible luck that Jill got called up so early.

Jill was on Nicky’s team, and at root, that’s what this game was about. Who is on your team? How many people in the class will give the money to you if they get the safe open? The more people who want you to win, the better the odds that the person who does get the safe open gives the money to you.

That was the strategic part of the game. But there was also a heavy element of luck. Daciana was choosing numbers at random. Eight students would get a guess tonight.  Eight more next week and every week thereafter until the safe was open, or everyone had guessed and all had failed.

Nicky was thinking through the semester ahead. There were twelve weeks between tonight and prom. Twelve times eight…ninety-six guesses, but there were more than ninety-six students. Were some people not going to guess?

The girls wearing black.
Yes, that had to be part of the game too. The math made sense when you removed the four girls wearing black from the equation.
Our numbers open the safe, everyone else’s numbers give them a guess at opening it.

And with every student called to the stage, there was one fewer number from the available pool. They needed to keep track. Whose numbers had been called already tonight? Brian was first. His number was 17. Then Isabel. She was 10. Wesley. What was his number again? She didn’t remember, but it didn’t matter. The microphones in her earrings were recording everything that was happening here tonight. They would make a list. They would use process of elimination to narrow down the numbers in the combination. Every time Daciana called someone to the stage, they would know another number that wasn’t part of the combination.

We can’t just wait for the numbers to be called
, she realized.
We need to ask the others what their numbers are.
Jill had probably figured that out already. Yes, Nicky had seen her moving about, whispering to people.

People like Samantha.

What horrible luck that Jill got called to the stage before she had time to figure out more numbers in the room! Now it would be up to Ryan.

Ryan and anyone else they could recruit to give the money to Nicky.

She watched as Jill went onto the stage. There was nothing Jill could do but guess.

*****

Jill knew the first dial on the safe should be turned to Samantha’s number. Ninety-eight. She also knew she had no chance of guessing the other three numbers.