The other contestants were already asleep in their cabins. Some had stayed awake trying to figure out what to build. A couple of them were so confident that they didn’t give it a second thought and rolled right over. Eventually, the night’s drinking and the gentle rocking got all of them.

The next morning started with fog and fancy breakfast. The table conversation had to do with the contest of course. No one else was willing to claim a specific Wonder. It seemed that everyone was waiting until they’d gotten legal advice.

It was suggested that Casey create a grand expedition to find his sense of humor. He responded that he’d found it years ago and had it killed. Rex was told he should change his answer and found a great university that would finally grant him that degree that always eluded him. The jokes continued and they all remembered why they kept this tradition alive.

As the yacht neared the port, they talked about next year’s get together. It was Roger’s turn to host and they were all looking forward to his Rocky Mountain hospitality. He was still doubtful that he’d be able to compete. James told him that he still hoped he would but if that took too much time for him, maybe he’d agree to mediate any disagreements. That seemed a good idea to everyone.

The ship reached the shore. All of the luggage was unloaded and they departed back to the real world. Their cars were waiting for them at the marina. Rex had ruled that no cell phones or other form of outside communication was allowed on the yacht. By nature each of them were plugged in people and in varying degrees they found this difficult. A few were able to relax and just enjoy being out of touch. These happy few reached for their equipment with dread, knowing that they were putting their chains back on. The others were happy in the knowledge that they would soon get another hit of sweet communication.

Six cars made their way back to the airport. The seventh, carrying Rex made it’s way to his office. On the way he called his legal department and the head of a well known construction company. He wanted to secure the best outfit before everyone else had made their decisions. His willingness to go all in on a gamble was a major part of how he’d made his money.

After a second thought he also called his accountant. For all of his bluster, the money wasn’t as good now as he’d like it to be. He needed to know how much money he could really put into this before it hurt. Not that many answers would change his mind right now. He really did like the odds of winning that 30 million. Well, maybe 25 mil if Roger didn’t play. Still, one less player would only help his shot at winning.

After this was done he called his wife for a quick check in. They traded pleasantries nicely enough. All of the blood had gone out of their marriage years ago. All that was left was habit and the threat of her pre-nup if he ever strayed. He toyed with the idea of telling her about the contest but decided against it. No need to give her a reason to lecture him on anything. He’d get some answers together and see if he could get moving fast. Once things were underway, he’d present the whole thing to her.

With all of the items ticked off of his mental checklist, he finally got to thinking about what he wanted to build. His memory of the labyrinth story were sketchy at best but that didn’t matter. The important thing was the maze itself. You only ran up against the things on paper where you had a birds eye view. The only risk was that your pencil would get trapped.

What would make a full size maze interesting? Why did people go to hedge mazes or ones made out of corn? For that slight thrill of getting lost, that’s what. How could he best create that?

Well, it would have to be big. That was for certain. Would a square mile be big enough? He could buy some farmland and convert it or something. Maybe that wasn’t big enough. Let’s see, two miles by two miles would four square miles. Three by three would be nine and that was close enough to ten to make it worthwhile.

But maybe that was too big. How far would the average tourist be willing to walk inside something like that? The far reaches would never be visited. Not so good. What about multiple entrances? He smiled at that.

Of course with modern technology it would be easy enough for someone to get an overhead satellite view and crack the maze. If you give the mouse too easy a time, the cheese loses it’s taste. Even if they didn’t use that method, after a few times they would know the routes and it would lose all of it’s special power.

But…what if the maze changed from time to time. Could you really make something look large and everlasting yet…changeable? He didn’t know how but he bet his new construction boss would. Rex’s smile became an open grin. This was going to be lots of fun.