Six (25 page)

Michael, thought Parker, seemed to be growing braver by the hour since this whole thing had started.

“Good,” said Solomon. “She'll be having a coffee at one of the tables by the carousel. Parker and Emma can tell you what she looks like. She'll be there at six o'clock. She'll wait if you're late.”

“We won't be,” said Parker.

“Call me when you've got it.”

“We will,” said Parker. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” said Solomon.

*  *  *  *  *  *

Though it made sense that Michael would meet Lina, there was no way that Parker was going to be kept in the dark about what was going on at every step of the way. In that sense, it seemed he and Michael were much the same.

“Make sure it's working,” said Parker as he handed Michael the spare cell phone that Michael had found in his house. They were sitting in the mall parking lot—having easily convinced Brendan to skip out on sitting at home in favor of escorting them on the next part of the adventure.

Michael took out the set of in-ear headphones from his pocket and connected them to the handset. He fitted the side with the microphone attached into his ear and called the phone Parker was holding in his hand. Parker answered on speakerphone.

“Testing, testing, one, two, three,” said Michael into the microphone. His voice boomed out of the other cell phone, making Parker jump.

“Definitely working,” he said, turning down the volume. “Make sure you don't hang up.”

“I won't,” said Michael. He opened the passenger door and climbed out. “Back in a moment,” he said. His voice came out as an echo from Parker's hand.

Parker smiled. “Good luck. And, Michael?”

Michael stopped halfway through closing the door. “Yes?”

“Thank you.”

Michael shrugged. “You're welcome,” he said, and slammed the door closed.

Brendan turned to Parker from the front seat. “I'm going to follow him. Just in case,” he said.

Michael heard Brendan through his headphones. “I don't need you to check on me.”

“You won't even know I'm there,” called out Brendan. He opened his door and turned back to Parker. “Don't go anywhere. I'll lock the doors.”

Parker nodded. As soon as the door closed, he unmuted Effie and turned to look at the cell phone as Michael began a running commentary.

“I'm walking. . . . I'm walking up to the entrance . . . Still walking. I'm at the doors. I'm walking through the doors. . . .”

“You don't have to tell me everything,” whispered Parker, then realized he didn't have to whisper. “Just make sure I can hear when you meet Lina.”

“Oh . . . okay,” whispered Michael. He went silent, and the sound of his voice was replaced by the sounds of the busy mall. Parker and Emma waited. Then waited some more. Parker was regretting asking Michael to stop his commentary but decided not to say anything—he would hear when Michael met Lina; he just had to be patient.

And then the phone went silent. Michael had hung up.

Parker's eyes widened as he stared at the phone.

“What happened?”
signed Emma.

Panicked, Parker looked down at the phone and wondered whether ringing Michael might bring attention to the hidden cell phone at the wrong time. He decided to count to sixty and then try him. He got to twenty-five seconds before he lost patience.

“I'm calling him back,” said Parker.

He pressed redial and waited as the phone began to ring. Michael didn't answer. Parker tried again and waited.

Still no answer.

He was about to press redial once more when the phone began to ring.

“What happened?” asked Parker.

“I was going to the bathroom,” whispered Michael. “I was desperate.”

“Why didn't you tell me?”

“You said you didn't want me to tell you everything.”

Parker sighed. “Fine. Tell me everything.”

“I'm walking back out into the mall. . . . The carousel is in front of me. . . . There are about . . . hmmm . . . eight children on the carousel. There are approximately . . . fifty tables. I can't see her yet. . . . I'm almost there. . . . I'm looking. . . .”

Michael went silent.

“I see her.”

Parker looked at Emma and gave her a thumbs-up, then realized she was already listening to his thoughts. He didn't normally forget Emma was on Effie, but she had been unusually quiet. She must be listening to him with it muted, he thought.

“I am,”
signed Emma.

“Are you Lina?” asked Michael in a hushed voice. Parker snapped his attention back to the phone.

“Hi,” said Lina's voice. “Michael?”

“Yes.”

“It looks more suspicious if you stand with your back to me and whisper,” said Lina. “Come and sit down.”

Parker listened as the sound of a chair being scraped across the floor filled the car.

“How are Parker and Emma?” asked Lina.

“They're okay,” said Michael.

“I've been so worried about them. . . .” Parker heard her gulp and realized that she was crying. “I didn't know what to do.”

“Are you okay?” asked Michael. Parker could hear the awkwardness in his voice.

Lina sniffed. “Yes . . . I'm sorry. It's just been such a relief to hear that they're okay. I couldn't find out anything.”

“They're fine,” said Michael. “They're staying at my house.”

Lina sniffed again. “I'm so glad. . . . I thought they were on their own.”

Parker had no idea she cared about them that much.

“How much did Solomon tell you?” asked Lina. She was whispering now, and Parker leaned in to hear.

“Everything,” replied Michael.

“Everything?” asked Lina.

“Yes. The teleporting thing and that his dad is on another planet. Is it true?”

“Yes,” said Lina. “Did he say anything else—about SIX? About who's on SIX?”

Michael paused.

“The people who are working there,” said Parker. “Is that what she means?”

Michael repeated the question to Lina.

Lina paused.

“Yes . . . yes, that's what I mean. He's not on his own. Tell them that.”

“They know already,” said Michael.

“Good. Here . . . the carrier bag is by your feet now. Solomon asked me to add some info on SIX for you too. I got the only thing I could find that wouldn't go noticed if it went missing.”

“Thanks,” said Michael.

“Tell Parker and Emma that it's all going to be okay.”

Even at a distance Parker could hear the uncertainty in her voice.

“You should go now,” said Lina. She sounded as if she were crying again.

“Okay,” said Michael. “Bye.”

*  *  *  *  *  *

Michael had already looked in the bag before he got in. He climbed inside, followed soon after by Brendan, and pulled out a plastic box.

“What's this?” Michael asked.

“You're joking, Michael, right?” said Brendan, peering through the divide between the front and back of the car. “Please tell me you're joking.”

Michael shrugged.

“It's a video,” said Parker. Brendan sighed in relief. “They used them in the olden times . . . instead of DVDs.”

“Olden times!” said Brendan. “Watch your language!”

“Sorry,” said Parker. “They used them a long time ago.”

“That's better,” muttered Brendan.

“How are we supposed to watch it?”

Emma smiled as Michael turned to Brendan.

“Brendan? Can you play this?”

Brendan shook his head. “Haven't seen a VCR in years . . .” He looked at Parker with narrowed eyes. “Not since I was a young man . . . back in the
olden
times.”

Emma nudged Parker.

“It's fine,” said Parker. “I've got one at home.”

“You do?” asked Michael.

“Yeah, I collect old machines and stuff.”

“You're not going back there,” said Brendan. “I'll go.”

“Really?”

“Who else? It sounds like I'm the only other person apart from you who knows what a VCR is.”

Parker gave small smile in apology. “Sorry.”

“Ah, it's all right, son. I was only joking. I'll drop you off back at the house and you can give me your key.”

“Thanks,” said Parker. He turned to Michael. “What else is in there?”

Michael reached into the bag and pulled out a memory stick. It looked much like the one Anteater had given them—except this one had a picture of a diamond with a smiley face drawn in its center in Wite-Out.

Michael shook the bag. “That's all there is,” he said.

“I'll call Solomon,” said Parker as Brendan started the engine.

*  *  *  *  *  *

While Brendan drove to Parker's house to get the VCR, Parker, Michael, and Emma took the memory stick up to Michael's room. Parker called Solomon again. He answered on the first ring. Parker turned on the speakerphone and laid it on the desk.

“Are you at a computer now?” said Solomon.

“Yes,” said Parker. “Michael's just putting the memory stick in.”

“Done,” said Michael. He sat down in his chair and clicked on the icon that appeared—a nondescript white square.

Parker watched the window open, and a long list of numbered files appeared.

“There are hundreds of files,” said Parker.

“There will be,” replied Solomon. “Each one is the data for every person and object avected since the last report. Each of the files should be labeled with a very long number—is that right?”

“Yes,” said Parker.

“Good. Look for a file that ends in the number 1983.”

Michael scrolled down the list. He and Parker spotted it at the same time.

“Found it!” said Parker. His heart, he realized, was racing.

“Found it?” asked Solomon. He sounded almost as surprised as Parker. “Open it up!”

Michael was already a step ahead of him.

“More numbers,” said Parker. “Pages of them,” he added as Michael kept scrolling down, looking for the end.

“The numbers are broken up into sections—like paragraphs. Yes?” asked Solomon.

“Yes,” said Parker.

“Find the paragraph that starts with a comma. There should be commas separating all the numbers, but there should be only one paragraph that begins with a comma. It'll be there somewhere.”

“How do you know this?” said Parker as they all leaned in and checked each paragraph.

“Encryption course I used to teach. Thought it might be useful for the kind of work many of my students went into—turns out I was right. This is one I devised—Gladstone Code—I used it to set the assignments to give my students practice. Any one of my students would know how to—”

“Got it! It starts comma, fourteen, twelve—”

“Stop—it can't be done over the phone. Print it off,” said Solomon. “Each number corresponds to a letter. Write this down . . .”

Parker grabbed a pen and a piece of paper that Michael handed him.

“Write down the alphabet at the top of the page.”

Parker did as he was told.

“The letters in Gladstone are the first letters of the alphabet—so put the number one under the letter
G
, two under
L
, three under
A
, and so on. Are you writing this down?”

“Yes,” said Parker.

“Then go back to the beginning of the alphabet and continue from there. Put the numbers in sequence under each letter, from ten up to twenty-six. Skip the letters of my name, obviously. So
B
equals ten,
C
equals eleven, skip
D
and
E
,
F
equals twelve, and
Z
will be twenty-six.”

Parker scribbled the numbers onto the page. “I've done it.”

There was a pause. “Now you just have to work it out. If you see a zero on its own, ignore it. Double zero stands for a full stop. That's it.”

“I'll call you back when I've worked it out,” said Parker.

“Actually,” said Solomon, “if you don't mind, I'll wait. There's not much going on here and I want to hear what he says.”

“Okay,” said Parker.

“Take your time,” said Solomon. “There's no rush.”

Michael walked over to the printer and brought back the sheet filled with numbers. Parker took it from Michael and placed it next to the code. He set to work.