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.Sue sniffled back a tear.And then Bev stifled a sob.Soon Ricardo was hugging them both and kissing their hair, whileJia tapped her foot and Kevin Kazan rolled his eyes.Cameras circledthem for a minute or two, but finally Iain said, Come on, kids, chillout.Nobody died here.You ll get to keep the damn medals. Sue shot him a disgusted look, but then she obediently steppedforward and dropped her gold-ribboned medallion into the pile.Bevpitched hers forward in an awkward underhanded toss.And Ricardostood with his medallion in his hand one final moment, gazing at itthoughtfully.He kissed it, and dropped it onto the pile.Yes, indeed, John thought.Every man for himself.280 Chapter 28SPECIAL SURPRISE Red Team is gone, Monty told the magicians, and Gold Team isgone, and instead the strongest half of the contestants remain threewomen, and three men, each of you with a very good chance ofmaking it into the Final Four.The former Red Team won the privilegeof deciding your fates& for all of you.But in doing so, they ve not onlydone away with the teams& because, you see, there s a twist. Just when John had assumed things couldn t get any worse.Twomore weeks, he told himself.Hang in there two more weeks. The power to decide whether to play in teams or singles wasn t theonly prize up for grabs in this challenge.There s a second reward atstake. Monty turned to the scoreboard, and immediately, all the letters andnumbers began scrolling and flashing into random characters as theboard rearranged itself.When the cameras had all the footage theyneeded, Iain signaled to a gaffer who pressed a single button, andwhen the lettering unscrambled, the board read as follows:TIGER TRAINER CHALLENGE1.Professor Topaz: 3 3 3 (Total 9)2.Sue Wozniak: 2 3 3 (Total 8)3.Ricardo the Magnificent: 2 3 2 (Total 7)4.Kevin Kazan: 2 1 2 1 (Total 6)5.Jia Lee: 1 2 3 (Total 6)281 6.Math Wizard: 1 2 (Total 3) Since there are no longer teams, the Magicians who will receivethe second prize are the top three scorers: Ricardo, Sue, and theProfessor.Kevin, it looks like your own strategy has served you poorlyyet again. I don t care bout no dumb-assed challenge reward, Kevin saidbelligerently. I m here to take the top prize.Everything else is weak.Think you can distract me with some stupid dinner, some shoppingspree? Nuh-uh.I m better off finishing this competition myself. All right, Magicians, Monty said, you ve worked hard today.Goget some rest.Later this week, the top three will get their specialsurprise& and then you ll all compete in an elimination challenge. John walked back to the mansion numbly, losing himself amongcrew so he didn t need to figure out which contestants he shouldor shouldn t talk to, and what he should or shouldn t say.Though itwas awkward when the stylist who usually did his hair fell into stepbeside him said, You re not seriously sixty-three, are you? I d putyou at fifty.If that. Clean living, he told her.And Casey would have laughed himselfsilly at that, given that they would snort, smoke or swallow whatevertheir friends put in front of them though neither of them wereenamored enough with the party drugs to take their relationship withthem anywhere past a simple flirtation.Ah, Casey.You d have plentyto tease me about over this fine mess.Too easy, babe.It s like shooting fish in a barrel.You give me scadsof ammunition by taking everything so damn seriously. Good genetics, the stylist said. Men inherit their hair from theirmaternal grandfathers. 282 John had never known any of his grandparents, but he wondered ifRose would have been pleased to hear it.You could never tell withher.Although she considered Guam a dirty word, and every referenceto it was taboo, occasionally she seemed as if she regarded herheritage with a certain truculent pride.He veered away from thestylist, planted himself at the bar, and set about helping himself tothe very good scotch, though he supposed he should be careful notto overindulge.He didn t want to roll into his room stinking drunkand give Kevin a chance to erode his confidence even more.Or to let Kevin provoke him into revealing a Truth that couldn t beun-shown. There you are. Marlene parked herself beside John as he swirledthe remains of his first drink around the bottom of his glass and didhis best to talk himself out of a second. Somehow I imagined thatthe guy who crushed the competition and rid himself of team leaderKevin Kazan all in one fell swoop would look a little bit happier.Whatgives? It s just nerves, John said. The stress of the unknown.Nothing Ican t handle. You should be celebrating the fact that you made it this far andnot drowning your sorrows. She considered her next words for amoment, and the plunged ahead. Initially, you were picked for theshow because we had a race quota to fill.You know how it is.Tokenblack.Token Asian.And those Tongan guys on the last few seasonsof Weighty Matters were a big hit among several demographics, so aPacific Islander was a big score for the Mansion. What are you saying& you picked me because I m Chamorro? Not me, personally.The executive producers.Plus you re older, too.And gay Ricardo hadn t signed on yet at that point.They wanted to283 represent a wide range of races and ages and everything else, halfwomen, half men.You, Bev, Jia& quotas
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