Chapter Three: Team A and B:

Team A

“What is the point of this?” Brooke asked.

“You know how he is,” Margaret said. The American girl rolled her eyes.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said. “It’s still dumb, though.”

“I still want to see what this is about,” Soot said.

“I kind of do too,” Margaret said. Brooke rolled her eyes.

“Whatever,” she muttered. Margaret pulled out the little map that came in the envelope.

“Let’s see,” she said. “I think we should go north.” Soot cocked his head.

“You sure?” he asked. The woman shrugged.

“Do you have any better ideas?” she asked. Soot didn’t say a word. Margaret turned to Brooke.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“I don’t care,” Brooke said.

“North it is then!” Margaret said. “Let’s get going!” The assumed leader turned and marched down the path. Soot and Brooke looked at each other. What choice did they have? They had to play along.

“Hey! Are you coming or not?” Margaret asked.

“Coming!” Soot shouted. He ran after her. Brooke rolled her eyes with her arms behind her head. She trailed behind her team.

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Team B

“Why does he want some flower?” Louise asked.

“I don’t know,” Patricia said.

“Does it matter?” Mandy asked. The ladies headed south. The intern held out her map and frowned.

“This map doesn’t make any sense,” she said.

“What do you mean?” Patricia asked.

“Let me see,” Louise said. She took the map out of the girl’s hand and looked at it. She too looked so confused.

“Who the hell drew this?” Louise asked. “A child?”

“Now what?” Mandy asked. Patricia shrugged.

“We have to keep going,” she said. The other two women looked at each other. The Russian woman shrugged.

“What else can we do?” she asked. “He’s going to push us to keep playing.” Louise and Mandy said nothing. Patricia shook her head.

“You know how he is,” the Russian woman said. Her team didn’t say anything. Running out of things to say, Patricia started walking. Mandy and Louise followed behind.

“It still doesn’t make any sense to me,” Louise muttered under her breath. The other two ladies didn’t have any objections to that.

Only thirty minutes have passed in the hunt for the Butter Flower.