March 29, 2013, 1:50 p.m.
The Mole: The Logic Puzzle Game
E - Words: 3,412 - Last Updated: Mar 29, 2013 Story: Complete - Chapters: 17/17 - Created: Dec 11, 2012 - Updated: Mar 29, 2013 372 0 2 0 0
"It seems Robin Goodfellow messed up again as Puck became the mole's fourth victim," Will said, standing in the open plain. "Shakespeare really can write them, can't he? Puck's departure left the game with six remaining players. And now things were starting to dwindle. With the suspect list narrowing down, it was getting harder to answer the question, who is the mole?
"Ten strangers, working together to reach a prize total of one million dollars. But among them is a saboteur, a traitor, a double agent working for us to try and hinder the other players from banking the money. That person is the mole. Their task is simple. To win the money, they must answer one question. Who is the mole?
"Is it Santana Lopez?
"Finn Hudson?
"Quinn Fabray?
"Kurt Hummel?
"Mercedes Jones?
"Or Blaine Anderson?"
Six player profiles now flashed across the camera with Puck's having been removed. The camera panned to the breakfast table where everyone sat digging into Danishes and juice or coffee.
"Last night," Will began, "Before you went to bed, you were asked to remove the number on your journal. I'm betting that you did not know they were removal. I want you all to take out your journals now and place them in the center of the table."
There was a rustling as everyone pulled out their journals and placed them in the center of the table, all bare and not a number showing. Will picked them up and dropped them all into a box.
"Now, they are all mixed in together with no way of knowing which journal belonged to who. Am I correct?" The players nodded. "Guess what? You're all getting a new journal."
"Oh!" a bunch of them cried together. This meant someone was going to get the mole's journal and someone was going to have access to some valuable information. Will placed the box on the table.
"Now, before you select your new journal, which you will place your number on, I must inform you that like with most things, the mole has been prenotified of the journal switch. They have left a red thumbprint in their own journal so whomever gets it and finds that thumbprint on the first blank page, will be neutralized and cannot earn an exemption from tomorrow's execution. At this point, it's completely at random. If you manage to pick up your original journal, than you still keep it. No trading in journals because the point of this is to reissue them anonymously. All right, Mercedes, you first."
The girl reached in the box and pulled out a journal. Will offered the box to Finn next. He selected one. Then Quinn, Blaine, Santana, and finally Kurt. Will nodded and set the box down on the floor.
"Okay, if you'll all renumber your journals and open them to page thirteen." It was quiet as they all placed their number stamps on their new journals and opened to page thirteen. "Santana, what's the page say?"
The Latina looked at him with wide eyes before reading aloud. "Quinn was high on my list but she singlehandedly banked quite a bit of money so she's dropped low, though I think my suspicions are turning more to those under the radar. What about Kurt? He got the easiest question wrong in that game. But than he did tell us he doesn't work well under pressure. It's up in the air and I am so confused." Santana closed the journal. "Gee, I wonder who wrote that," she said sarcastically with a pointed look in Finn's direction. The tall man threw his hands up in surrender.
Will nodded his head to Kurt who looked down at the page and flushed. "Um...do your really want me to read this?" he asked. People exchanged curious looks and Will nodded for him to go ahead. Kurt took a deep breath. "His eyes are so gorgeous. They're like the ocean because I feel like I'm swimming every time I look in them." That little bit caused Blaine to gulp and the curly-haired man stared down at the table. "I can't explain any of this. I was meant to play a game and win money but instead, I'm falling in love." Kurt's eyes got real wide as he read that. "At this point, the only thing I want to win is his heart, even if it does turn out that he's the mole. Smitten or not, Kurt is still my number one suspect."
Silence went around the table. It was like everyone knew. Everyone knew exactly who had written that and Kurt was flushing all the way down his neck. Love? He had confessed love to that journal? Kurt was so glad that he had a separate journal for writing out all his personal feelings. He'd be completely embarrassed if a certain someone were to read them.
"Blaine," Will said, causing the hazel eyed man to jump and dart his gaze up to the host. "Would you like to go next?" He swallowed and took a breath, knowing that Kurt had gotten his journal and now would know all his thoughts and feelings about him. God this was embarrassing. Not to mention, everyone now knew that he'd been lying when he said Kurt was not on his suspect list. But that was part of playing the game right?
"Um..." Blaine swallowed, quickly flipping to the page in question. "So far so good. Everything is going according to plan. Including eliminations. Target success from day one. Now, if this can just keep up, I will finish the game successfully. I still have no idea who suspects me but every time someone gets too close to the truth, I have to knock them off. I have my plans. Just have to mold things the right way." Blaine looked up, frowning. "And there's a random doodle at the bottom of the page."
I got bored so shoot me, the mole thought.
"Blaine, you are aware that is obviously the mole's journal," Will said. Blaine paled slightly and nodded. "This means you have been neutralized and cannot earn an exemption from tomorrow's execution." Blaine nodded again.
This shall be interesting. Last neutralization ended in elimination. Can Blaine save himself? Thought the mole.
"Mercedes, let's hear it," Will said, nodding to the girl. She looked down at the page and opened her mouth to read it when she changed her mind and instead closed the journal, shaking her head.
"I think we should stop reading. It's been proven that we know each other well enough now just to figure out who wrote what by the words they choose. This is supposed to be anonymous and yet, Kurt clearly has Blaine's journal and Santana likely has Finn's not saying that means that we know for sure Blaine and Finn aren't the mole. Those were each one page and now that I think about it, any of us could have written those words to make it sound like we are them." She blinked.
Will looked on knowingly, realizing that she was getting at it revealing who was the mole quite easily. If they could guess everyone else's journal, whoever was left would be the mole.
"You make a valid point. Would everyone please turn to the first blank page in the journals?" Will said. They all did and around the table, six red thumbprints were revealed. "I'm sorry but you have all been neutralized. No exemptions will be offered for this execution." They all groaned. This made it clear that just because they got one non-molish page and Blaine had one mole page, it didn't necessarily mean Blaine had the mole's journal. The mole could write normally to throw them off. Likewise, someone else could write like the mole to throw them off.
The truth of the matter was, only the mole would be completely safe from elimination the next day. Even if technically the mole really had just neutralized themselves.
"Now then, I need you to split into two groups. The smart people and the dumb people." They frowned.
"Who you calling dumb Will?" Santana asked.
"Not really dumb. Okay, let's put it this way, two groups of three, one who are quick thinkers and one who takes more time to think things out." Santana seemed to like that better and they all arranged themselves. "Okay, so who are my quick thinkers?" Kurt, Blaine, and Quinn raised their hands. "So Santana, Mercedes, and Finn are my thinkers who take their time. Kurt, Blaine, Quinn, please wait here. The rest of you follow me."
Will got up and lead them into a hall where a number of logic puzzles were standing in the room. There were fourteen of them total. They looked around at the puzzles. Will brought them to a stop in the middle of the room.
"You will notice some logic problems around the room. You will have one hour to solve as many of the fourteen puzzles as you can. Then it will be the quick thinkers' turn. If you solve more in an hour than they do, I'll give you twenty thousand dollars. However, if they solve more than you, you earn nothing and they prove themselves to be quicker thinkers. Your time starts now."
Finn, Santana, and Mercedes rushed over the nearest puzzle.
"How many triangles are in the figure?" Santana read. Mercedes gave her head a shake.
"I've seen this one before," she said, furrowing her brow. Finn just looked downright confused and like his head was spinning at the idea of solving logic puzzles. Santana and Mercedes went to work counting the triangles and recounting just to be sure. Mercedes looked at Will a few minutes later. "We're going to guess thirty-one," she said.
"That is correct," Will replied. They cheered and the two girls slapped five as the moved on to the next puzzle.
"Looking at the structure and taking in its dimensions and size, how many gallons of paint are needed to completely cover the surface?" Santana read off. It sounded like a math problem and she and Mercedes counted the blocks and started trying to figure out how to best work the problem. Finn just got more confused and he didn't have any clue what they were doing.
"My head hurts," Finn said. Santana threw him a disapproving look.
"Shut up man boobs, you're not even helping!" she snapped. She returned to confer with Mercedes for some more minutes before they both turned to Will. "Four and a half gallons," she said.
"That is incorrect," Will said. Santana groaned and she and Mercedes went back to work trying to rework the problem. More time was used before Mercedes turned to Will.
"Two and three-quarter gallons," she said.
"That is correct," Will replied, clasping his hands behind his back. They cheered again and moved on to the next problem.
"What is the next letter in this sequence?" Santana read off. "O, T, T, F, F, S, _." Santana stroked her chin, thinking about what came next. Finn was staring at the problem with a furrowed brow.
"S!" he shouted suddenly.
"Finn!" Santana spat angrily.
"That is correct," Will said. Santana and Mercedes both looked dumbfounded. How did he get that one?
"It's numbers," Finn said. He pointed to each letter in the sequence. "One, two, three, four, five, six, so the next number would be seven, which gives us S." Santana and Mercedes were impressed that Finn had figured that one out. Maybe he wasn't so useless after all.
"You have half an hour left," Will said and the quickly moved onto the next puzzle.
"What number comes next?" Santana rolled her eyes at another sequence one. "2, 4, 16, 32, 128, 256, _." Okay, how the heck were they supposed to figure this one out? "I'm at a loss," Santana said after a few moments of just staring at the puzzle.
Mercedes pointed to each number. "Let's see, two times two is four. Four times four is sixteen but it can't be each number times itself because sixteen times sixteen is not thirty-two."
"Sixteen times two is thirty-two," Santana confirmed, pointing to the numbers. "So, it's times two, times four, times two. What's thirty-two times four?" She pondered it for a moment.
"One-twenty-eight!" Mercedes cried brightly. "So than one-twenty-eight times two equals two-fifty-six so we need to figure out what is two-fifty-six times four."
Santana rolled her eyes. "I wish we had a calculator or paper and a pencil or something."
Mercedes started drawing on the paper with her finger, creasing her brow in concentration as she tried to figure it out. "Six times four is twenty-four, put the four down and carry the two. Five times four is twenty plus two which makes it twenty-two and you put the two down, carry the other two. Two times four is eight plus two is ten. So that gives you one thousand twenty-four."
Santana nodded her head and turned to look at Will. "We'll guess one thousand twenty-four."
"That is correct!"
"Yes!" they cried, slapping five again. Will glanced at his watch, knowing a large chunk of the time had been taken up by figuring out the answer to that problem. They moved on to the next one.
"You have two coins that add up to thirty-five cents. One of them is not a quarter. What are your two coins?" Santana narrowed her eyes. "Is this some kind of trick question? How the hell can you have two coins that equal thirty-five cents and not have one of them be a quarter?" Mercedes and Finn looked just as confused as she did. They all stood there, trying to figure it out and ultimately drawing a blank.
"Time's up," Will said suddenly and the three of them groaned. "You correctly solved four puzzles in an hour. If the quick thinkers do not solve more than four in the same allotted time, I will add twenty thousand dollars to the pot. Let's go see your friends."
Finn, Mercedes, and Santana followed Will back to the breakfast table where they found Kurt with his head on Blaine's shoulder, eyes shut as though he had fallen asleep and Quinn looking on in amusement. Blaine gently shook Kurt awake, not failing to drop a kiss into the pale man's hair as he sat up.
"Hello guys. Quick thinkers, if you will follow me," Will said. The three of them got up and as they walked, Blaine slid his hand into Kurt's and Kurt threw him a soft smile. Will lead them to the same room as the other three and stopped in the middle. "You will notice up to fourteen logic puzzles in this room. Your friends correctly solved four of them in an hour. Your task is to prove yourselves as quick thinkers. You are to solve more than four in the same amount of time." He purposefully left off that if they succeeded, no money would be added to the pot because if he told them that, it was likely they would attempt to fail on purpose just to get the money. "Your time stars now, good luck."
They moved to the first puzzle. "How many triangles are in the figure?" Blaine read. Quinn nodded her head as Blaine and Kurt started counting.
"Hold up," she said. "I had this one on the train. The answer is thirty-one," she told Will.
"That is correct!"
"Good memory Quinn!" Kurt said enthusiastically as they moved on to the next puzzle.
"Looking at the structure and taking in its dimensions and size, how many gallons of paint are needed to completely cover the surface?" Blaine read off. They were covering the same route as the first team had.
Kurt had his hand out, palm flat and was hastily making calculations on it. Blaine watched him curiously, wondering what he was calculating and what was going on in that beautiful head of his. They were the quick thinkers, they had to do this right. They had to solve more of the puzzles than the others did. Kurt scratched out the imaginary calculations and started over.
A few tense moments later, he turned to Will. "Two and three-quarter gallons," he said shortly.
"That is correct!" Will replied.
Blaine let out a soft squeal and he hugged Kurt tightly. Let him do the math stuff. If he was that good at it. They moved on to the next puzzle.
"What is the next letter in this sequence?" Blaine read off. "O, T, T, F, F, S, _. That's easy. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven! The next letter is S!"
"That is correct!"
Blaine grinned and was hugged on both sides by Kurt and Quinn. They were starting to zip through and it was looking good. Being quick thinkers was starting to look proven to them all. And Quinn had a good memory, seeing as she'd had that problem in the race to Verona game.
"What number comes next?" Blaine read out from the next puzzle. He groaned. These kind he wasn't very good at. "2, 4, 16, 32, 128, 256, _." He looked at Kurt, who was once again calculating something in his hand.
Quinn furrowed her brow. "They're all even numbers. That means there's no odds in operations involved." Blaine inclined his head to one side. That didn't mean much to him. Only that it was an all even number puzzle.
Kurt was working things now the same way Mercedes had earlier. "I think it's all multiplication," he commented and pointed to the numbers. "You see how the size increases dramatically from thirty-two to one-twenty-eight? And two-fifty-six is actually double one-twenty-eight."
Quinn tapped her chin. "Like four is double two and thirty-two is double sixteen. That means every other one is times two."
Kurt nodded. "And sixteen is four times four. So if you divide one-twenty-eight by four, you get thirty-two. So the next number should be two-fifty-six times four."
Blaine's head was spinning. "Too many numbers," he said, clutching the sides of his head. Kurt chuckled and pecked his cheek.
"It's okay honey, I've got this one," he said. He returned to drawing calculations on his palm before he looked over at Will. "One thousand twenty-four," he said finally.
"That is correct!" They cheered and hugged Kurt, happy he was so good at math. "You have fifteen minutes left." They hurried to the next problem.
"You have two coins that add up to thirty-five cents. One of them is not a quarter. What are your two coins?" Blaine read off. Great. More math. He sighed heavily.
"That's a trick question," Quinn stated. Blaine looked up at her, slightly confused.
"She's right," Kurt said. He wanted to help Blaine understand this. "It says only one of the coins is not a quarter." Blaine slapped himself in the forehead.
"Of course!" he said in realization. "The other coin is a quarter! That leaves the two coins to be a quarter and a dime!" he said. There was no other way to have just two coins that add up to thirty-five cents.
"That is correct!"
They again moved on to the next puzzle as they still had time left apparently.
"What can you put in a barrel that is visible to the naked eye and will make the barrel lighter?" Blaine read. Kurt raised an eyebrow.
"How can you put something in a barrel and have it be lighter and not heavier?" he asked. Blaine shrugged.
"Easy," Quinn said. They both looked at her. She looked at Will. "The answer is a hole." Both Blaine and Kurt mentally slapped themselves. Oh right, duh.
"That is correct!" Will replied. "And with that answer, your time is up. The challenge was to solve more than four puzzles within an hour. You solved six." They all cheered and hugged each other. "If you'll wait here for a moment." Will left them and went to retrieve the other time. The three of them looked at each other confused for a moment. What was going on?
A few minutes later, Will returned with Finn, Mercedes, and Santana in tow. "How'd you guys do?" Finn asked.
"Would you like to tell your friends how you made out?" Will asked.
"We got six," Blaine said cheerily. But he was confused when the other three groaned. He furrowed his brow and Quinn and Kurt glanced at each other.
"I forgot to mention on thing to you three," Will said. "The fact that if you failed to solve more puzzles in an hour than Finn, Mercedes, and Santana, twenty thousand dollars would be added to the pot. Since you solved more than they did, you earn nothing a d twenty thousand dollars goes to the mole."
Quinn, Kurt, and Blaine all groaned. "Now he tells us," Kurt muttered.
"That was probably the point," Blaine stated.
"Enjoy your new journals and the rest of your day," Will said. "There will be another opportunity to win money tomorrow.
Game successfully sabotaged! Twenty thousand dollars richer, thought the mole.
Comments
Because I was inspired to look up US version of The Mole ironically I just saw that episode. The "dumb" team only had to pick out the 5 puzzles out of 11 they thought the "smart" team wouldn't be able to do (so they didn't do them themselves, they actually even said they didn't know the answers to any of them) and if they couldn't the "dumb" team would get exemptions. If the "smart" team actually got all of them they would get exemptions and money to the pot :)I like the story, it's a little Klaine-light I have to admit but The Mole-factor of the story gets me to overlook that. I just love that show! The diary thing was confusing for me too, because it would be very easy to figure out who the mole is... and it's not hard to figure out who the mole never mentions in his/her thoughts... but I hope that's all to easy to figure out and not actually blatant clues ;)
Yes, thank you for that. And the "dumb" team lost. I remember that part. Because Dorothy got the answer at the last possible second. I really did think she was the mole for most of that season.Klaine is being built up. At the moment, they have to be careful about showing PDA because technically they're on television camera - I just don't really throw in that part - and I'm pretty sure there's a rule about no romantic involvements with other players. But why should they care? There will be more Klaine. It wouldn't be a Klaine story otherwise. ;)Okay, the thing with the journals, I had to reassess and mix it up somehow because I realized if I had them all read their new journals out loud, everything would be obvious. And really, who's to say the mole wouldn't in information somewhere like a regular player? Or a regular player wouldn't write like they were the mole just in case someone unwanted got their hands on their journal? You really never know. And actually, very few people have speculated the person who is the mole, and mean my readers. :) I had them all get neutralized just so they would rethink things. Only the mole knows they're actually safe. Though I have been thinking about pulling something I think was on one of the Australian or British versions. Though that could make it obvious who the mole is so I don't know.Glad you're enjoying it!