but you know what I’m saying, man, you know this has to be connected.’
‘As it happens I agree with you. What I have a problem with is your methods.’ He paused a beat. ‘So, did you find what you were looking for?’
‘Yes.’ She pulled the card from her sweatshirt pocket and laid it on the table. There was a bite mark in one corner, impressions of tiny teeth.
‘Nileston, had it?’ said Hitch, taking the card.
‘It would be more accurate to say, Mr Potatohead had it. The kid must have picked it up before the cops arrived, it was in among all his baby junk. I guess his parents were too freaked by what had happened to even notice.’
‘OK,’ said Hitch, ‘I’ll take it in to Blacker, see what he makes of it, but his department is pretty busy right now due to another security breach.’
‘At Spectrum?’ asked Ruby.
‘No,’ replied Hitch, ‘but a piece of Spectrum hardware has gone missing and as a result all security codes need to be reconfigured.’
He started to leave.
‘Oh. . . if someone has time, they might want to take a look at this,’ said Ruby. She tore the back page out of the novel she was reading. On it were written four sets of numbers.
| 3 | 14 | 1 | 10 | 14 | 8 | |
| 15 | 14 | 13 | 17 | 14 | 15 |
‘What are these?’ asked Hitch.
‘It’s the code from the cards, from the bumps and indents – turns out they aren’t words after all.’
‘You cracked it?’
‘Yep.’
‘When?’ asked Hitch.
‘Oh,’ said Ruby, ‘I had a spare moment at 3 am, when the pain from my smooshed face was keeping me awake.’
‘How?’ said Hitch.
‘Turn the page,’ said Ruby.
‘So what do the numbers mean?’ asked Hitch.
‘Beats me,’ said Ruby, turning back to her bowl of Cheerios. ‘That’s the big “don’t know” – I’ve figured out that the code breaks down into those numbers. But I haven’t a clue what the numbers stand for.’
‘So. . . give them to Blacker?’
Ruby nodded. ‘Might as well, my head’s too sore to think about them. Tell him it’s a ternary numbering system. He’ll understand.’*
Hitch turned to go, then looked at his watch. He frowned.
‘What’s up?’ said Ruby.
‘A message,’ he said.
‘Who from?’
‘Well, you, actually.’
‘Me?’ said Ruby.
‘Yes,’ said Hitch. ‘Tell me. . . on your little adventure, did you happen to lose the Escape Watch?’
Ruby checked her wrist. ‘Um. . . yeah.’
Hitch sighed. ‘Well then I guess someone got a hold of it.’
‘Someone like who?’ asked Ruby.
‘No idea,’ replied Hitch.
‘So what do they want?’ asked Ruby.
‘How would I know?’ replied Hitch, ‘the message happens to be in code.’
Ruby looked at him. ‘You think it might be the skywalker?’
‘The thought is crossing my mind,’ said Hitch.
‘So what are you going to do?’ asked Ruby – she was beginning to feel the smallest flicker of panic.
‘Sit tight,’ he replied, ‘it’s one of those Spectrum rules. Bide your time, until things begin to make sense – same goes for you by the way.’
And with that, he was gone.
Mrs Digby wouldn’t hear of Ruby going to school. Ruby had mild concussion and as Mrs Digby so wisely said, ‘You don’t want to play fast and loose with concussion.’
Ruby’s donut phone rang.
‘Hey, it’s me,’ said Clancy. ‘You wanna meet at the diner this morning?’ He was trying to sound brighter than he felt; he needed to see her.
‘I can’t today,’ said Ruby. ‘I had a bit of an accident last night, my whole face is smooshed and I took a knock to the head so Mrs D says I gotta lie low.’
‘Are you OK?’ asked Clancy. He sounded alarmed, Ruby could hear his arms flapping.
‘Relax would you Clance, I’m totally fine, OK. I don’t look so good but I’m all there.’
‘You sure you’re sure, Rube?’
‘Yeah,’ she said, ‘I’ll call you if I start dying.’
‘OK, promise you will.’
‘I promise, Clance.’
Ruby’s eye was turning a nice shade of purple and she had a fat lip. The graze to her arm was looking OK but her knee looked gruesome. Ruby looked a long way from picture perfect. Too bad her mother had booked that Ada Borland portrait – today was really not the day for it.
‘You know, I’m going to cancel,’ announced Sabina, sweeping into the room.
‘Why?’ said Ruby.
‘Take a look in the mirror Ruby, have you caught sight of yourself lately?’
Ruby peered at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. ‘I don’t have a problem with getting my picture taken.’
‘But
