bitchin'

Chapter 33

"The week is long, the silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west," Dustin, Steve, Robin, and Lindsay read in the break room of Scoops Ahoy!

"What does that mean?" Lindsay asks.

"I have no idea," Dustin admits.

"Maybe it's wrong," Steve suggests.

"I don't think so," Robin argues, "come on, we gotta lock up."

The two younger teens follow the older ones out of the break room.

"I mean, it just, it just can't be right," the older boy says pulling the gate down and locking it. He turns and begins to walk towards the escalator, turned off now though. They will just get to climb it as a staircase.

"It's right," she states.

"Honestly, I think it's great news," Dustin adds

"How is this great news?" Steve exclaims, "I mean, so much for being American heroes."

"You're my hero, Steve," Lindsay comments quietly.

"It's total nonsense," he comments, not hearing his younger sister behind him.

"It's not nonsense," Dustin claims, "it's too specific. It's obviously a code."

"What do you mean, a code?" he questions.

"Like a super secret spy code," the younger boy answers.

"That's a total stretch," he shrugs.

"I don't know, is it?" Robin joins in.

"You're buying into this?" he asks sarcastically.

"Listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission," she explains, "what'd you think they were gonna say, 'Fire the warhead at noon'?"

"Exactly," Dustin agrees.

"She has a point," Lindsay chuckles.

"And my translation is correct. I know that for sure, so... 'the silver cat feeds', why would anyone talk like that unless they're trying to mask the meaning of their message?" she points out.

"Exactly."

"Why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?" she continues.

"Exactly."

"So I guess that confirms your suspicion," Lindsay concludes.

"Evil Russians," Dustin says.

"I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child, but, yeah, totally, evil Russians," Robin agrees.

"So how do we crack it?" she asks.

"Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges," the older girl suggests.

"A pattern. Right, like maybe 'silver cat' is a meeting place?" Dustin theorizes.

"Or a person," Robin counters.

"Or a weapon," Lindsay shrugs.

"It's probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, do we know anyone else that's good at riddles?" she asks.

"Suzie's a genius, but she didn't answer Cerebro," Dustin suggests.

"Cere-what?" the older girl asks.

"The big radio that caught the Russian transmission," he says as if it's obvious.

"We could try calling her again, we haven't been up there since the night you got back," Lindsay suggests.

"I mean, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try," he agrees, "we'll have to do it tomorrow though. It would be too late for her to answer now anyways."

"Hey, Where's Steve?" Robin asks, turning around. Lindsay looks up from the mall floor to notice her older brother missing, "Steve?"

The three turn around completely, retracing their steps. They spot him a couple of yards around a corner, standing in front of a coin-horse ride, "Hey, Steve, what are you doing?"

"Uh, it's a quarter. I need—— Do you have a quarter?" the boy stutters. Lindsay giggles.

"Sure you're tall enough for that ride?" his sister jokes.

"Quarter!" he demands. Robin throws one to him and he inserts it into the ride.

Daisy Bell comes on as the ride rocks back and forth. The other three watch with confusion as Steve stares at the metal horse.

"You need help getting up, little Stevie?" Robin jokes. Lindsay high-fives her as they laugh.

"Shh!" he shouts at them as Dustin begins laughing as well, "Would you just shut up and listen?"

The three stop laughing and stare at the horse as the song continues.

"Holy shit," Dustin exclaims, "the music."

The curly-haired boy takes off his backpack, Lindsay and Robin still confused.

"The music!" he exclaims. He takes out the tape recorder and clicks it. The Russian code plays over, Daisy Bell playing faintly in the background.

"I don't understand," Robin says.

"It's the exact same song on the recording," he explains.

"Maybe they have horses like this in Russia," Lindsay suggests.

"'Indiana Flyer'? I don't... I don't think so," Steve says, "This code, it... it didn't come from Russia. It came from here."