The House of the Twelve Keys

Part 9. The Fearful Foyer

The wave washed over them and then flew down the hallway. It turned right at a doorway and whooshed in. The door slammed shut.

Pat and Raj stood up. “We’re totally dry again,” Pat said.

“This house is so weird,” Raj said. “Hey, what’s that noise?”

They turned around slowly. A marble pedestal stood where the stairs had been. On the pedestal was a wooden box. Something inside was beeping.

Raj walked over and lifted up the box. Inside was an ancient-looking computer. The screen blipped to life.

“What does it say?” Pat asked.

“Uh. It’s just a bunch of numbers,” Raj said. He read them out. “1, 1, 2, 3, and then there are three spaces. I guess we need to type in something for the spaces.”

“Why is it beeping?” Pat asked.

Raj pointed to a clock on the upper right hand of the screen. “Maybe it’s linked to that?”

The clock said…

2:00

1:59

1:58

“That’s a countdown!” Pat said.

“A countdown to what?”

“Nothing good. We need to figure out this sequence, fast!”

“It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3,” Raj said. He typed in “4, 5, 6” then hit ENTER.

The clock started counting down faster.

“But that has to be the answer!” Raj said panicking.

“It clearly is NOT,” Pat said.

“Well, do something then! You’re the one who likes math.”

“We both like math!” Pat yelled. But she needed to concentrate. What else could fit that pattern?

“1, 1, 2, 3…1, 1, 2, 3….Why two number ones?”

“1 plus 1 equals 2,” Raj said.

“And 1 plus 2 equals 3,” Pat said. “This even sounds familiar….”

“Fibonacci!” Raj yelled suddenly.

“What?”

“That book on math we read. Fibonacci was this mathematician a thousand years ago who described this exact sequence!”

“Yeah, yeah! So what’s next?” Pat said. There were just ten seconds left.

Raj racked his brain. “5!” he said. “3 plus 2!”

“And the next one is 8!” Pat said. “3 plus 5, so 8!”

Raj typed that in. There were only five seconds left.

“I got the next one,” Raj smiled, and began typing. He finished just as the countdown hit 0:00.

Can you help Raj figure out what number comes next in this sequence? 1,1,2,3,5,8, ___