Code(44)

Wire. Perhaps fishing line. Rising from the ground into the shrubs.

Clank.

My trowel struck something solid. The mental connection broke.

The wolfdog yipped as my full consciousness recoiled into my own skull. The dual perception shattered. My head spun, and my stomach nearly emptied.

The episode had lasted mere seconds. The boys hadn’t noticed, their attention riveted on my trowel.

“That sounded like metal,” Shelton squeaked. “Pull it out.”

“Hold on a sec.” Ben reached into the hole. “Whatever’s down here won’t come free. Like it’s tethered somehow.”

I tried to recapture the image from Coop’s brain. We’d seen something important. But what? What was the significance?

My mind felt like mud. I couldn’t shake my paralysis.

“Let me help.” Hi moved beside Ben, his back to the hedge.

That seemed wrong.

“Okay.” Ben cracked his knuckles. “Lift on three.”

Wait. No. Stop.

“Ready?”

Hi nodded.

“Okay. One. Two. Thr—”

My brain finally rebooted.

I threw myself forward into Hi’s chest. We toppled in a heap of elbows and knees. The move startled Ben, who slipped and fell backward.

CRACK! CRACK!

Smoke filled the air. I prayed I hadn’t been too late.

Shelton was in a battle crouch. Ben was flat on his back. I lay atop Hi, panting like a sled dog.

“What the hell?” Hi wheezed. “Why did you jump me?”

“Trap. Wires.” My scrambled wits could barely manage speech. “Anyone hurt?”

“Not me.” Shelton said. “What happened?”

“A crazed female linebacker pummeled my chest,” Hi grumbled. “She’s still pinning me to the ground. And she isn’t as light as she might think.”

I rolled off Hi and got to my feet. “Ben?”

“I’m . . . I’m okay.” He sounded shaken.

“Oh my God.” Shelton pointed.

Coop was dragging a long black object from the bushes. Metal. Smoke spiraled upward from one end.

Ben raced to the wolfdog’s side. “Gun!” He gingerly lifted the weapon. “I’ve never seen anything like this. Two barrels, both single shot, with two triggers.”

A gray filament was tied to each trigger. Ben traced one with his fingers to where it disappeared into the bushes. “Wow.”

My heart spiked. “Where’s the cache?”

“I had it, but something knocked it from my grip.” Ben swallowed. “A bullet, I think.”

A plastic box lay beside the hole, a dime-sized gash in one side. The box was sealed with duct tape. Two lines ran from its base into the ground.

Shelton grabbed an ear. “Holy crap.”

I slipped off my backpack and located my Swiss Army knife. Then, ever so cautiously, I snipped both lines. “We’re taking the gun, too.”

“Uh, Tory.” Hi dropped to his knees by my side.

“Yes?”

Wordlessly, he lifted my pack and pointed to a small tear. The edges were seared, the fibers curled and black.

My stomach did a somersault.

Close. Inches.

Don’t think about it. “Hi, check our time.” Don’t think about the bullet. “Ben, make sure that gun’s empty.” Don’t think about hot metal punching through your back. “Shelton, grab Cooper. He’s agitated. I don’t want him barking.”

“You guys aren’t going to believe this.” Hi had dug out the iPad. A smooth, round hole punctured its center.

Shelton’s jaw dropped.

“Does it still work?” Ben asked.

“The timer does. We’ve got twenty minutes.”

“We need to open the cache right now.” I sliced the duct-tape seal. “Here goes nothing.”

The contents were hardly what I’d expected. No drawing, image, or note. Only a heavy bronze figurine—a bearded man in a flowing robe, left arm outstretched as though reaching for the horizon. Chipped and scarred, the peculiar little statue was wrapped in black–and-white cloth.

Deformed metal fragments lay to one side.

Hi whistled. “How about that? Micro-man took the slug dead-on.”

The iPad suddenly beeped. Hi nearly dropped it in fright.

The pictogram disappeared, leaving only the timer. Then a large purple circle appeared.

Text above it read: Task complete? Enter code and press the button.

“Code?” Ben growled. “What code?”

“Here!” Hi pointed to numbers printed on the cache’s lid: 654321.

I hadn’t noticed. “Good eye, Hiram.”

“Don’t press anything!” Shelton yelped. “We fell for that once already.”

“We have to,” I said. “A bomb might explode at zero.”

But something troubled me. Why had the button appeared? How did the iPad know we’d found the cache?

Something cold crawled up my spine. Inside Castle Pinckney, a hidden camera had monitored the Gamemaster’s cache. Were we being watched here as well?

“Tory’s right,” Ben said. “Press it.”

Hi nodded. Shelton moaned, but waved me on.