Tick let it all out, then slid to the ground and leaned back against the garbage can. “Ah, that feels much better.” He opened his eyes fully and got his first good look at where they’d arrived.
The station looked much like the one they’d left earlier—maybe a little dirtier, less well-kept. Just as many people milled about, though, some leaving portals, some entering them.
“What happened?” he asked.
“You passed out,” Sofia said. “I think I might have, too, just for a few seconds. When we finally stopped, Paul and I slid down onto the bench, but you crashed straight to the floor.”
“Yeah, man,” Paul said. “You were out like a light.”
“How long were we in that thing?” Tick asked.
Sofia looked at her watch. “Only a half-hour or so.”
“Worst half-hour of my life,” Paul said.
Tick rubbed his face with both hands, then stood up, wobbling for a second before he felt his legs strengthen and solidify beneath him. “We have to go back. Now.”
“Go back?” Paul asked. “Are you crazy?”
“We need to look around,” Sofia said. “Figure out what Chu wants us to do.”
Tick shook his head, which sent another wave of nausea through his gut. “No, we got it wrong. We weren’t supposed to come here. The trains have nothing to do with the riddle.”
“How do you know?” Paul asked. “Fourth City—it’s the closest we’ve gotten to anything that makes sense.”
Tick started walking toward the ticket counter. Paul and Sofia followed, but they didn’t look happy. “Our tickets are round trip—does that mean we just get back on Portal Number Seven?”
“Whoa, man,” Paul said, grabbing Tick by the arm. “Tell us what you’re thinking. If we’re getting back in that death machine, we need to at least let our brains unscramble for a minute.”
Tick nodded, anxious to leave but knowing Paul was right. He found a bench and they sat down, Tick in the middle.
“All right,” he said. “Think about everything. The town Chu sent us to is a perfect circle. We counted twelve main roads that are basically spokes in the huge wheel of how the place is organized. Even the hotel he set us up in—it’s called The Stroke of Midnight Inn. You gettin’ it yet?”
“Holy toothpick on a hand grenade,” Paul whispered.
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt as stupid as I feel right now,” Sofia said.
“It never had anything to do with an actual time,” Tick continued. “It was such an easy riddle because he wanted to throw us off track. We were so sure something had to happen at five o’clock today, we never considered that he might be describing a place.”
Paul finished for him. “If we look at the town from a bird’s-eye view, it’s a big clock. Our hotel is midnight—twelve o’clock. We need to go to the road that represents five o’clock.”
“But we already looked there,” Sofia said. “We scoured that whole town.”
Tick stretched his arms, feeling better already. “Yeah, but we had so much area to cover, we didn’t really have time to study anything in detail. I bet we find something where the five o’clock road hits the outer circle.”
“Ah, man, what if we’re too late?” Paul asked. “If you’re right, maybe we didn’t have to wait a week. Maybe we should’ve gone to the place a lot sooner.”
Sofia stood up. “Maybe it’s a double riddle.”
“You’re right,” Tick said. “I bet we have to be at the five o’clock road by five o’clock today.”
“Well, then,” Paul said, “we have plenty of time. Let’s go get something to eat.”
“No way,” Tick said. “You really think it’s going to be that easy? Something will try to stop us, I guarantee it.”
“Well, we have to eat,” Paul insisted.
“Yeah, but we should get back to Circle City first,” Sofia said. “The sooner the better.”
All of them slowly turned their heads to look at the spinning nightmare train from which they’d just exited. Tick couldn’t think of anything he’d rather not do than get back on that thing.
“We have to do it,” Sofia said, as if reading Tick’s thoughts.
“I know,” Tick replied.
“Yeah, eating right now would be really stupid,” Paul said. “I don’t want Tick’s bacon and eggs on my lap when we get there.”
“Come on,” Sofia said. “Let’s figure out how to get back.”
~
They had to wait only twenty minutes for Portal Number Seven to open up for the return trip to Circle City. Tick had never felt so nervous about a trip before; butterflies swarmed in his chest like it was mating season. He remembered his mom lecturing him at the amusement park: “Now, Atticus, you know what the Spinning Dragon does to your poor tummy.”
“One minute to departure,” the nice electronic lady said.
Tick squeezed his eyes shut, pressed his back against the soft padding. Thirty-minute trip, he told himself. It’s only thirty minutes.