Book Five, Chapter 31: Theme Puzzle
When I first saw the enemy tropes for this story, I thought it was an escape room, a genre of horror film in which a character pits their wits against obstacles to try and escape to freedom.
It was safe to say I was right.
First, it was essential to understand how NPCs worked. We watched and studied them as best we could. The surrogates were not normal NPCs who would follow the script and could be persuaded, convinced, or intimidated. These surrogates followed our suggestions... but Andrew, Michael, and Lila embodied the saying, "You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink."
I wanted to jump through the screen and strangle them. Isaac convinced Michael to bang up a sleeping chamber easily because that was something Michael was already inclined to do. Getting them to act against their preset personalities was beyond difficult.
"He acts just like the real Andrew," Cassie said. "Isaac, look. He cleans his glasses the same way. He's just like him."
On the IBECS, Andrew breathed onto his glasses to form condensation and then wiped them clear."I'm pretty sure all people with glasses do that," Isaac said. "If he starts talking about Greenday or rollercoasters or teacup pigs, then maybe I'll be convinced."
The Hughes siblings were on duty watching the surrogates. Not that they needed watching. They weren't going anywhere without our help.
I was examining the design of the IBECS, which we had access to through one of the large 3D cubes like the one I had played with near the launch pad. Finding it was not easy (it was in a storage closet with a sci-fi door that only appeared when Rudy, the captain, walked by), but once we had it, we had to learn how to use it. We could only see as much of the ship as the surrogates had unlocked. That was a limitation placed by Carousel because I couldn't see an in-story reason for it.