CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE CROWD AT THE GATE
By two forty-five, families lined the path outside the Lantern Maze.
Children carried paper lanterns and argued cheerfully about which clues they would solve first.
A local reporter prepared to interview the mayor beneath a banner bearing Halcyon Adventures’ logo.
Daniel reached the service gate and found it locked.
Iris answered his call from inside the park.
“Voss had security replace the latch,” she said.
“The committee is meeting beside the fountain.”
“Are you safe?”
“Yes, but they’re trying to remove me from the event.”
Daniel and Carol hurried toward the fountain.
A semicircle of committee members stood around Voss, who was displaying the red folder.
Iris argued that the updated route remained unfinished.
A committee chair insisted a partial opening would be a reasonable compromise.
“Keep the central platform stationary,” the chair proposed.
“Then the secret passage becomes a simple attraction.”
“No,” Iris said.
“The only open route from that room runs back through a narrow ramp.”
Voss spotted Daniel and Carol.
“This isn’t a public hearing.”
“Good,” Daniel replied.
“Then you won’t mind taking five minutes to check the equipment.”
He opened the brass case and showed the missing strip.
The committee chair leaned closer.
“What is that?”
Daniel explained the selector and the original route limits.
Voss dismissed it as an obsolete component.
Carol raised her voice so the nearby volunteers could hear.
“Victor built this maze for children who should be able to find their way out even when the clues are difficult.”
“Nobody disputes his intentions,” Voss said.
“Your version removed the one part that made that possible.
”
The reporter lowered her microphone toward them.
Voss immediately objected to turning a technical disagreement into a public spectacle.
Daniel ignored the microphone.
“We can settle this by walking the route with the committee.”
The chair hesitated.
“The ribbon cutting starts in ten minutes.”
“Then cancel the ribbon cutting,” Iris said.
A murmur passed through the crowd.
The mayor stepped forward.
“Show me the corridor.”
Voss appeared ready to object again.
The mayor did not give him the chance.
“If it’s safe, we can open later,” she said.
“If it isn’t, we can’t open at all.”
Daniel followed the group through the service gate.
Carol remained near the entrance, where volunteers began explaining the delay to waiting families.
She knew she would not be able to walk the ramp quickly enough to keep up with the inspection.
But as she watched the adults disappear into the maze, she noticed two boys climbing under a gap in the side fence.
Their paper lanterns bobbed above the grass.
Carol called after them.
Neither turned.
She handed her bag to a volunteer and went after them.
