Code(62)

“Okay.” Hi placed the surveillance photos next to the iPad. Just thinking of them gave me chills. “So let’s combine what we’ve learned.”

“How?” Shelton gestured at the items on the tabletop. “Where do we even start?”

My gaze flicked to Ben in the corner. “Will you join us?”


After a long pause, he shoved to his feet, slouched over, and dropped into the last empty chair.

“Let’s examine our finds, cache by cache.” I grabbed a notebook and began a list. “First was the Loggerhead box. Inside was a coded letter and the disguised image of Castle Pinckney.”

“Our first direct message from the Gamemaster.” Hi retrieved the pages from our workstation and added them to the collection.

“Weak-ass code.” Shelton brushed imaginary dust from his shoulder. “Cracked it in no time.”

“Don’t forget,” Hi said, “it was all locked in that Japanese puzzle doohickey.”

“Himitsu-Bako,” Shelton corrected. “It’s called Himitsu-Bako.”

“Whatever.” Hi rummaged the desk until he located the box. “We solved it.”

Shelton elbowed me, then mock-whispered, “I solved it.”

He winked. I rolled my eyes.

“The altered coordinates,” Ben added quietly. “That’s what led us to Pinckney.”

“Right.” I wrote “puzzle box” and “Castle Pinckney” on the next two lines. “At Pinckney we found the iPad. The first clue it displayed was the eighteenth-hole pictogram.” I added my copy of the image to the assemblage.

“The Pinckney cache freaking exploded.” Hi shrugged. “Might be relevant, might not.”

“Good.” I recorded the details. “The accelerant used was diesel fuel.”

Ben looked startled. “What?”

“That’s what Dr. Sundberg swabbed from the scorch marks on the container. Marchant said so.”

“You never mentioned anything about diesel.” Ben looked at me oddly.

I realized Ben was right. After Kit and Whitney’s beach blanket ambush, the swab results had slipped my mind. We’d gone straight to Jason’s party instead.

“Sorry. Does it mean anything to you?”

“What? No.” Ben looked annoyed. “Why would it? I just don’t like being left out of the loop.”

“Ben, I’m sorry.”

“No big deal,” Hi interjected smoothly. “Next, we found Saint Benedict.”

Shelton retrieved the statue and positioned him in line. The black-and-white cloth was still draped across his holy shoulders.

“On Kiawah.” Shelton helped Hi get us back on track. “Ocean Course, hole eighteen, guarded by a wicked snare gun. The chemical equation in the pictogram was the key to finding it.”

“Bromomethane.” I scribbled. “The cloth resembled a monk’s robe, and was embroidered with a rising sun. That led us to Mepkin Abbey, the cemetery, and . . . what we found last.”

“The dead body,” Ben spat. “And the pit viper. And the envelope full of threats.”

I nodded. Wrote it all down.

“That’s it?” Hi grabbed my notebook and read out loud. “Castle Pinckney. Diesel fuel. Bromomethane. Kiawah Island. Saint Benedict. Mepkin Abbey. Not exactly hot leads.”

“Worthless.” Ben slumped back, arms across his chest. “Random useless facts.”

I sighed. Was he right?

Coop emerged from the back and padded to his corner. One more set of eyes watching me.

A very long moment passed.

Hi broke the silence. “Anyone think it’s odd that the final deadline is so specific?”

“What do you mean?” Shelton asked. “The timer was pretty specific, too.”

“But that just counted down.” Hi scooped up the Gamemaster’s most recent letter. “This message states a precise day and time—Friday at nine. Why the change in format?”

I wasn’t sure I saw Hi’s point. “We need to examine everything we know about the Gamemaster. Look for patterns, or common threads. Dots that we can connect.”

“No, we need to ID the corpse.” Shelton raised both palms. “That’s why you took the photo, right?”

“Of course.”

Just before bolting the crypt, I’d had an idea. It was a long shot, but a Hail Mary beats no play at all. Reaching into the sarcophagus, I’d turned the dead man and taken a picture of his face.

“We’ll do both,” I said. “Connect the dots, and find out who the victim is.”

“Both?” Hi looked skeptical. “How do we accomplish either?”

Though stumped on the first issue, I had a plan for the second. “There might be a way to figure out who’s in that coffin.”

The boys waited.

“Time for another trip to Loggerhead.”





CHAPTER 33





“Why can’t we just ask permission?” Shelton complained.

“Because there’s no good excuse.” I led the Virals along the trail from the dock to the LIRI compound. “Plus, I think Kit’s suspicious. Last time he sent Sundberg to spy on us. We can’t risk it.”