Legend of the Book Keeper (11 page)

“Are you sure?” Cody could not believe his ears; he had abandoned hope of ever unearthing the mysterious message behind the riddle. Jade nodded adamantly, “Yes, yes. It’s actually very straight forward; we just were going about it wrong from the beginning.” She paused, being pulled into thought again. Cody clenched his fists. “Well . . . where is it?” he demanded, pulsating with anticipation. Jade grabbed the letter off the desk and pointed to the first line. “You see, we’ve been doing the math wrong the entire time.” Cody felt offended. He recognized his academic prowess wasn’t equal to that of his friend, but even
he
was able to handle a simple mathematical equation such as fifty-three minus four. Jade noticed the dejected look on her friend’s face and smiled.

“Don’t worry, buddy, I missed
it, too. You see, we were so caught up on the simplicity of the question that we jumped right over the word
until
. Do you get it now?” Cody nodded his head in affirmation, although in truth he had no idea where she was going.

Jade continued, “The subtraction is only the first half of the problem. It says
until the rite does write
. Forty-nine isn’t the
answer
—it’s the way to
find
the answer. Like a formula! It tells us that there are forty-nine
more
times, until a particular event takes place. The number we need is how many occurrences have
already taken place
. All we have to do is determine how many
total
occurrences there will be in the end, when that event takes place, and then simply subtract forty-nine from it.
That’s
how we get the answer we need.”

Cody’s head strained to wrap itself around his friend’s explanation. Math had never been his strong suit, but he was beginning to understand. “Well, that’s great. But we don’t know what the numbers are adding up to, so the number is still useless.”

Jade pointed back to the riddle. “That’s where this next part comes in.
Until the rite does write
. What do we know about Wesley?” Cody was confused by the random question. He knew a few things about Wesley: he had apparently lived a creepily long time, he was completely crazy, he had been brutally murdered, and he had apparently missed the memo that medieval swords were no longer fashionable. But none of these seemed to be of any relevance to the problem.

“Um, I don’t know. He was tall?”

Jade grabbed her forehead in frustration. “No, you thickhead, he was
British!
” She let the statement hang in the air a moment, as though it alone solved the mystery. Cody, however, was still lost and, now, incredibly frustrated. “Well, good for him, God bless the queen and all that rubbish . . .”

Jade shook her finger toward him, “Exactly!”

Cody frowned. He had meant the comment sarcastically, ”What do you mean?”

“The queen. She’s the key,” Jade iterated excitedly. “What does every British citizen receive from the queen on a certain day as a ceremonial act, or rite?” Like math, Cody also was weak in social studies. Luckily for him, Jade continued without waiting for an answer, “A birthday card.” Cody was fascinated; he had not known that. “So, every birthday you get a card from the queen if you’re British? That’s a pretty sweet deal.”

“No, not
every
birthday, just one special one. They get a signed card from the queen on their one hundredth birthday.” Now, it all was making sense to Cody.

“So the numbers in the message refer to years? Fortynine more years until one hundred makes our number . . .” Cody paused to think, “. . . our number is fifty-one.”

Jade stood up and began pacing back and forth. “Our train gate number was fifty-one and there was that British flag over Wesley’s bed. You see the answers have been in front of us the whole time.” Cody was not ready to celebrate yet. “Well, okay, so the number is fifty-one; what about all this other mumbo-jumbo about wars and iron?”

Jade returned to her bed. “Have you not figured it out yet?
New war
, it does not mean what we thought it did.”

For the first time in a while, Cody felt relieved. “Then what
does
it mean?” he asked, his attention now completely glued to his friend.

“It’s not talking about a physical war about to happen, at least not in the sense we were thinking it did.
New war,
what else could that mean?” Finally, something Cody could understand, the many hours spent playing video games coming in handy. “Could it mean new warfare
style
? Like weaponry? You know, atomic and chemical warheads and such?”

“Exactly! And where are we right now? Can you not think of anything that comes to mind in Nevada where new war technology is being done in a secretive, iron setting?” Suddenly Cody shoulders sunk, all the pieces finally had reached each other in his mind, “This isn’t good. Are you absolutely sure?”

“I’m positive” Jade responded confidently. Cody gulped,

“So the hidden passageway . . . is at
Area 51
.”

The Dwarf

A
rea 51. Although it lined up perfectly with the clues, Cody struggled to wrap his head around the fact that it was now their destination. Like most boys his age, Cody was wholly familiar with the mysterious U.S. army base and the overabundance of secrets supposedly held there. From the most cutting edge in technological warfare to the Roswell UFO conspiracy, it all existed within the secretive walls of the restricted facility. Whatever momentary relief there was in solving Wesley’s riddle was stiffly suffocated by the dense sensation of gloom—they were now going to have to break into the most secure location in the entire United States.

A loud knock interrupted his thoughts. Cody tensed up and dropped to his knees. “Do you think it could be Dunstan?”

Jade crouched down low beside him. “I don’t know. It could just be the maid.” Another burst of knocking, even louder than before, rattled the door. “Okay, so it’s definitely not the maid. What do we do?” They heard the creaking sound of the doorknob twisting back and forth. Cody froze, “Did you hear that?” Jade had just made the same observation, “The doorknob didn’t budge. The knocking isn’t coming from the front door!” Pivoting around, they stared at the side door connecting their room to the adjoining room. Someone was jerking that doorkn
ob.

“Should we try to escape through the front door?” Jade suggested in a hushed whisper. The moment the words left her mouth she got an answer: a loud banging pounded on the front door. They were surrounded.

They began slowly backing up until they bumped against the pane of the window. Enclosed, and fifteen floors up, they could do nothing but simply wait for the inevitable. Above the banging a muffled voice barked from beyond the side door, “For heaven’s sake, Cody, open this blasted door!” At the same time the front door handle began to rattle with increased ferocity. It shook with the impact of a body colliding with it from the hallway.

Jade grabbed his hand. “They know your name?!” Giving her hand a quick squeeze, Cody pushed himself off the wall and grabbed the doorknob to the adjourning room. “Cody, what do you think you’re doing! Don’t . . .” She was too late; he had already unfastened the lock and opened the door. Framed in the archway stood a stubby man they had never seen before. In a blur of motion, the man’s arms shot out and clutched onto Cody’s collar. With a violent yank Cody was dragged into the room.

The stench of beef protruded from the assailant’s mouth as he slammed Cody onto the floor, his face settling inches away. Hazy eyed, Cody released a grunt as he lost his wind. Swinging up his fist, he jabbed the man square across the cheek. Dazed, the man loosened his grip. Squirming wildly, Cody struggled free of the man’s grasp and bolted back toward the door, but the man’s coarse hands latched onto his ankles sending Cody toppling back to the floor.

Jade emerged through the door and dive-tackled the man, his spine crunching under the pressure of her knees. “Let him go!” Jade commanded.

Reaching up to the nightstand, Jade yanked the alarm clock out of the wall and swung it with all her strength. It collided directly into the back of the man’s head. He let out a loud
umph
as his body went limp. “Come on, Cody, let’s get out of here. Follow me!” They ran to the room’s front door, leaving the man wheezing on the floor. Gasping for breath, the man called out, attempting to push himself up with his arms, “Stop, if you leave this room . . . you will . . . die . . . you must . . . trust . . . me. . . . Trying . . . help. . . .” Jade hesitated, her hand already grasping the doorknob.

Heavy pounding was still ringing out from the other room’s front door. Whoever was in the hallway was now ramming the door fiercely with their body. Jade knew they would soon break through. Time was no longer a luxury. Whatever she decided, she had to decide quickly. She let go of the door, “Speak quickly, man. What do we do? And don’t even think about standing up.” The man, still battling for breath, pointed to the door connecting the two rooms.

“Close . . . quickly . . . lock . . . ,” he wheezed. His words had been enough. Cody reached the door and slammed it shut, flicking the lock in the same motion. Corresponding with his action was a loud crash. The door in the other room had been breached.

“Shhhh,” whispered the man. Jade killed the lights and dropped to the floor. She could feel her pulse pounding against her temple as she locked the breath in her lungs. Voices were muttering to each other in the other room, but it was impossible to make out what they were saying. Cody quietly stepped over and pressed his ear against the wall. The men on the other side did not sound pleased.

“I swear, Sir, I’m telling the truth!” said a rough, husky voice. “I saw them go in, and I never saw them go out,” he pleaded apologetically. A loud thump of something banged against the wall close to Cody’s position, sending dust soaring around his head. His nose crinkled. Cody bit his upper lip, sweat running down his brow, as he fought the uncontrollable need to sneeze. Jade shot him a death glance, informing him that it was not a battle he could afford to lose.

“It was a simple job,” said a second voice that scolded in a cold, authoritative manner. Cody con
cluded that it commanded its respect out of fear rather than love.

“I apologize, Sir, it won’t happen again,” the first piped in.

“Oh, shut up you whimpering rat. We hired you for one reason, to handle this matter, and you couldn’t do it. Perhaps you’d be better off making biscuits and tea for the rest of the boys when they return from actually doing their jobs. Or maybe . . .” His tone became chillingly serious, “you would like to explain this mishap to the master?”

The first man inhaled, “No, please, Sir. They can’t have gone too far. We still have time. I’ll find them.” The second man remained quiet for a moment, then replied frigidly, “Rendezvous with the others, have them stake out a watch around the hotel. Something tells me they are still here somewhere. They have yet to uncover the meaning behind the Book. They will be vulnerable. If they attempt to escape . . . shoot them.”

“Yes, Sir,” the first man marched toward the door.

“Don’t let me down again.”

The three stowaways in the nei
ghboring room kept a panicked silence for several minutes longer, even after the sound of the two men’s footsteps had faded away down the hall. Jade was the first to exhale and end the nervous quiet.
AH-CHOO!
Cody’s head was cranked back by the force of his sneeze, “I thought I was going to implode!”

Jade was in no mood for joking. She knelt her knee onto the stranger’s neck and applied firm pressure. “We don’t have much time, man, so you better start explaining yourself and quick.”

During the frantic wrestling match neither Cody nor Jade had gotten a good view of the stranger. Now that the dust had settled, their eyes fixed upon him with fascination. He was at least an inch shorter than Cody, although his face revealed him to be at least a middle-aged man. Like a newly constructed bird’s nest, his hair was a dark gray, messy tuft on the top of his head. A sparse, unkempt beard formed around his thick chapped lips. Something was unusual about the short man, but they couldn’t determine what it was.