by Penny Warner
“Why would someone draw the Eye of Horus?” Luke asked. “We’re done studying ancient Egypt.”
Quinn shrugged. “The next one is a clock.”
“Yes, a clock,” Cody said, then added, “or maybe a watch.”
“Sure,” Quinn agreed. “And then there’s a sheep. So, we have the Eye of Horus, plus a watch, plus a sheep. And then a welcome sign. But I have no idea what it all means.”
Cody took back the paper. “Okay, the Eye of Horus could just mean eye.” She pointed to her eye.
“Or I,” added M.E., pointing to herself.
Quinn nodded. “And the watch could mean time.”
“Or watch,” Cody said, pointing two fingers out from his eyes, the ASL sign for “watch.”
“Okay, we’ve got ‘I watch . . . ,’” Quinn said, “but what does sheep mean?”
“Maybe it’s a ewe,” M.E. said. “A female sheep.”
Cody’s eyes lit up. “Or ewe for the word you! That means it reads, ‘I watch you.’”
“Like ‘I’m watching you,’” Luke said.
“What does the last picture mean?” Luke asked.
“‘Welcome’?” M.E. said. She shrugged. “That makes no sense.”
“Well, at least we figured out most of it,” Quinn said. “Let’s work on the rest when we get to the clubhouse.”
Cody read over the message once more before folding it up and putting it in her backpack. Why had someone put that note in her backpack? Was someone trying to scare her? Spy on her? But why? And who could it be?
She only had one clue to go on—whoever drew those pictures was a good artist.
And whoever it was had gotten close enough to her to stuff that paper in her backpack without her noticing.
Too close.
Chapter 2
The gang soon arrived at their homemade structure hidden among the Eucalyptus trees. After their original secret meeting place had burned down, they’d rebuilt it in the same spot. They’d nailed the walls together using old billboard panels, sealed the corners with duct tape, and covered the top with a camouflage parachute they’d bought at the Army-Navy Surplus Store.
The makeshift door was padlocked on the outside and only the Code Busters had keys. But if one of the members got to the clubhouse first, he or she could unlock the door and then bolt it from the inside. When the others arrived, they’d have to give the secret knock—their initials in Morse code—and the password—the day of the week said backward, like “yadseut.” There had been a couple of times when intruders had tried to break in, so the locks and bolts and knocks and passwords were definitely necessary.
After the kids removed their backpacks and settled onto the carpet-covered metal floor, they took out their homework assignments. The girls shared their newly learned Japanese numbers with the boys, who copied them into their secret Code Busters notebooks. Then the boys let Cody and M.E. copy the Washington code Mr. Pike had given them.
When they were finished, Quinn pulled out his mini tablet from his backpack and said, “I want to show you guys some cool stuff I found on the Spy Museum webpage.” He typed in the words “International Spy Museum.” When the home page came up, he showed it to the others. “There are hundreds of spy gadgets to check out when we get there. And you even become a spy when you enter the museum.”
“I know!” Cody said, her face brightening. “I’ve been reading all about the place.”
M.E. frowned. “You mean you get to be a real spy?”
Quinn shook his head. “No, it’s just a game. But you get a code name and a dossier to fill out. You create your fake background—where you were born and how old you are. Then you have to memorize your ‘cover.’ That’s your new identity. When you go through the museum, fake spies ask you questions about your secret identity.”
“Awesome!” Luke said, pulling the collar of his jacket up with both hands to mimic an undercover agent. “I’ve always wanted to be a spy like
double-oh-seven.”
Quinn continued reading down the page. “Hey, there’s even a code name for the president.”
“What is it?” M.E. asked.
“POTUS,” Quinn said. “It’s an acronym. It stands for President of the United States. The motorcade that he rides in is called Bamboo.”
“Bamboo?” M.E. laughed at the funny name. “Where did they get that code name?”
Quinn shrugged. “Listen to this: the vice president’s office is called the Cobweb!”
The kids giggled at the weird name.
“We’re going to be visiting the White House,” Cody said. “What’s it called?”
“The Castle,” Quinn answered. “The Capital is called the Punch Bowl and the Pentagon is called Calico.”
“Awesome,” Luke said. “Maybe we should give our clubhouse a code name.”
Quinn read on. “There’s also something in the museum called Operation Spy where you get to solve puzzles and read video messages and listen to sound effects—stuff like that. And you can play an interactive game called ‘Spy in the City.’”
“Sounds fun. How do you play?” M.E. asked.
“The museum lends you a GPS device and you have to find clues at landmarks around the area,” Quinn answered. “Your mission is to discover a password for a secret cache.”
“I wonder if we’ll get to play.” Cody said.
“Mr. Pike said we’re going on some kind of Spy Scavenger Hunt and we’ll look for coded clues,” Luke said.
Quinn put away the small tablet. “I think our homework has something to do with our trip. If you guys want to help Luke and me crack the Washington code that Mr. Pike gave us, we’ll help you with the one Ms. Stad gave you.”
The girls nodded. Everyone got out pencils. Quinn placed his paper on the floor in front of him so everyone could see it. “Let’s race to see who can crack it first.”
On the word “Go!” the kids got to work. Cody glanced back and forth between the homework paper and the Washington code she’d copied in her notebook and began translating the message.
Code Busters’ Key and Solution found on pp. 149, 154.
Cody was the first one to finish deciphering the coded message, but she waited until the others were done before saying the answer out loud. She didn’t want to ruin the fun for them.
“That was easy,” M.E. said “And since we belong to the Code Busters Club, we already have code names.”
The kids had chosen their own secret identities when they formed the club, and they used their code names when they sent secret messages back and forth. M.E. had used the phonetic spelling of her two initials to create a code name that was also a palindrome. She wrote it down in Washington code:
Meanwhile, Luke scrambled up the letters of his first name to make it an anagram, then added a rhyming word. He wrote down the coded message. With two repeated letters, he knew it wouldn’t be too hard to decipher.
Since Quinn’s last name rhymed with a spy-type word, he added another word that went with it, which he used for his code name. In Washington Code, it looked like:
Finally, Cody used part of her name plus her hair color to create her secret identity. She knew this would be easy to crack but it was fun to create.
Code Busters’ Solutions found on pp. 154.
“Let’s write some messages using Washington Code,” Quinn suggested. Everyone got out a sheet of notebook paper and began to encode secret messages using the new code. Cody wrote about something she wanted to get at the Spy Museum:
Luke thought about why he loved codes so much, then wrote in code the reason:
M.E. couldn’t think if anything special to say, so she decided to ask a question:
And Quinn decided to make a suggestion for their visit to the Spy Museum and wrote:
The Code Busters were having so much fun encoding and decoding messages, they lost track of the time. When Cody’s cell phone pinged, she read the text from her mother, reminding her to get home.
“Whoa, it’s fou
r o’clock. I have to be home in half an hour and we haven’t cracked the message Ms. Stad gave us for homework. We better hurry.”
Cody set out the homework assignment for the others to see, along with the key to the Japanese code that represented the numbers from zero to nine. The kids hurried to crack the series of numbers that Ms. Stad had written in Japanese.
Code Busters’ Key and Solution found on pp. 149, 154.
When they were done, M.E. said, “It looks like a bunch of math problems in Japanese. That’s not as fun as the Washington Code the boys got.”
Was it true? Cody wondered. Had Ms. Stad just given them math problems to do for homework using Japanese characters? She scanned the page, then turned it over and noticed a note in small print at the bottom.
“Look,” she said, then read the message to the others: “Students, when you finish decoding the Japanese numbers, use your Alphanumeric Decoder Card to read the secret message.”
“Awesome!” M.E. said. “It’s actually a coded message, too.”
“Dude, maybe it’s something about the Spy Museum,” Luke offered.
“There’s only one way to find out,” Quinn said.
The kids got out the alphanumeric decoder cards that Ms. Stad had given them a few months ago and quickly went to work figuring out the message:
Code Busters’ Key and Solution found on pp. 149, 154.
“This trip keeps getting better and better,” M.E. said, after everyone had finished deciphering Ms. Stad’s message. “I can’t wait to check out the School for Spies and get a Spy vs. Spy T-shirt at the museum! Plus I want to see the National Museum of American History. They’ve got a collection of old fashions people used to wear.”
“I want to see the Apollo 11 Command Module at the Air and Space Museum,” Quinn said.
“I’m going to check out the stegosaurus and triceratops fossils at the National Museum of Natural History,” Luke added.
“Besides the Spy Museum, I think the Cherry Blossom Festival parade will be—” Cody stopped suddenly. She pressed her finger to her lips, her eyes wide. “Shhh!”
She sat stiff as a board while the others stared at her. She touched her ear, then shook her hands in front of her—the signs for “hear” and “noise”—then pointed outside. She was certain she’d heard the crack of a twig close by. Someone—or something—was near the clubhouse.
M.E. raised her eyebrows and combed back her hair with her fingers, making the sign for “lion.” Cody remembered that hikers had spotted a mountain lion in the area last year, but she and the others had never seen any sign of the wild animal.
Cody cocked her head and listened, waiting to hear the sound again.
After a few seconds, Luke signed the word, “Nothing,” by shaping an “O” with his hand.
Cody nodded and started to relax. Luke was probably right. It was nothing.
Anyway, it was time to get home, or she’d get in trouble for being late.
But just as she was gathering up her homework, she heard the sound again—like the crack of a branch underfoot. She could tell from the tense looks on her friends’ faces that they had heard the noise this time, too.
There really was someone or something right outside their clubhouse door. And if it was an intruder—or a mountain lion—the Code Busters were trapped.
Chapter 3
“Hello?” Quinn called through the door.
M.E. rolled her eyes and whispered, “Quinn! If it’s a mountain lion, it’s not going to answer you.”
“I know,” Quinn snapped. “I was just trying to scare it off.”
“By saying hello?”
Quinn frowned at her. “Got a better idea?”
“Dudes, chill!” Luke said. “I’ll go see who—or what—is out there.”
Cody admired how Luke always stepped up when there was danger. He seemed to be fearless. “But what if it really is a mountain lion?” Cody asked. While she was glad he wasn’t afraid, she didn’t want him to get hurt.
Luke looked around for something to fend off a possible attack. He pulled up the carpet and opened the secret compartment hidden under the metal floor. It was the perfect place to stash code-busting supplies. So far, they’d collected magnifying glasses, binoculars, flashlights, code books, and a bunch of other cool gear. Luke grabbed the large, heavy-duty flashlight with the long handle and hoisted it up.
“Wait!” Cody said. “I have an idea.” She got out her cell phone and opened the sound effects app, then pointed to the air horn icon. “Turn up the volume, then tap this when you get outside. It’s really loud. That should scare it away.”
Luke kept the flashlight in one hand and took the cell phone in the other, his thumb ready to touch the app.
Quinn unbolted the door and opened it slowly.
Luke stuck his head out.
“See anything?” Quinn asked.
Luke shook his head. He took a step outside, the heavy flashlight raised to swing at an attacker, the cell phone ready to blast. The three other Code Busters peered out behind him, each one holding an object for protection. Quinn had grabbed the plank that blocked the door, M.E. held a pair of scissors that had been hidden in the secret compartment, and Cody was ready to launch a couple of large rocks.
“Shhh!” Cody whispered. She’d heard rustling in the bushes a few yards away. “Over there!” She pointed in the direction of the sound.
Luke tapped the phone app. A loud blast filled the air. He pressed it again and again.
The bushes shook.
Suddenly, a dark shape darted from the back of the bush and sprinted down the hill, through the Eucalyptus Forest.
Luke stopped blasting the air horn and strained to see the running figure. After a moment, he turned to the others behind him. “That was no mountain lion.”
“How do you know?” asked M.E., her eyes wide with fear.
“Because mountain lions don’t wear extra-large hoodies and saggy jeans.” Luke knelt down and picked up something from the ground. When he stood again, he was holding a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it. The page was filled with illustrations. Familiar-looking illustrations, Cody thought.
“And mountain lions don’t leave cartoon drawings behind,” Luke added.
Cody knew instantly who had been spying on them inside the clubhouse. And who had drawn that picture message that read, “Eye watch ewe.”
That wasn’t a welcome sign at the bottom of the other note. It was a welcome mat.
As in Matt the Brat.
* * * * *
The Code Busters didn’t have time to figure out what the new cartoons meant, so Cody offered to take the paper home, scan it, and email it to the others so they could all work on decoding it later.
With no sign of Matt outside the clubhouse—and no sign of a mountain lion—they jetted down the hill to their homes. Cody, M.E. and Quinn said goodbye to Luke at his condo where he lived with his grand-mére (grandmother). Then the girls dropped Quinn at his house across the street from Cody. And finally, M.E. waved goodbye to Cody and continued on to the next block.
“I was beginning to worry,” Mrs. Jones said when she saw Cody come in the door. She signed and said the words so that Cody’s deaf younger sister, Tana, could be a part of the conversation.
“Sorry,” Cody said and signed, circling her chest with a fist. She told her mom and sister about her day, leaving out the threatening notes from Matt the Brat. There was no need to worry her mother any more than she already had.
After a dinner of chicken, green beans, rice, and salad—Cody’s favorite meal—Cody helped Tana get ready for bed and read her a story in sign language. Then, Cody brushed her teeth, got into her cat-decorated pajamas, and went to her room to finish her homework. By the time she sat down at her desk, she’d almost forgotten that the second note from Matt the Brat that was still in her backpack.
She pulled it out and quickly scanned it, then emailed the message to the other Code Busters. When she was done, she took a moment to
study the drawings. In the middle of the note was a kid in a super hero costume. On each side of him were two kids—two boys and two girls—lying on the ground as if they’d been knocked out. In the background was the logo from the International Spy Museum.
Cody thought the cartoons were really good and wondered why she’d never noticed what a talented artist Matt was. Most of his drawings in class were of monsters, and dragons, and ugly beasts, so Cody never really paid much attention to them. But if he had drawn these cartoons, well, he really had talent. They were amazing—except for the message behind them. It was clear to Cody that Matt the Brat thought he was some kind of super spy. Did he plan to “knock out” the Code Busters at the Spy Museum?
We’ll just see about that, Cody thought.
* * * * *
The rest of the week couldn’t go fast enough for Cody and the other Code Busters. Each day at school their teachers talked about what they’d see and do in Washington, D.C. Mrs. Stad taught Cody’s class Washington Code, plus some more Japanese. But Cody had trouble concentrating. She couldn’t get her mind off the Spy Museum. There were so many cool exhibits there she was dying to see.
Finally, departure day came. By the time the students boarded the plane at the San Francisco airport, they were all buzzing about what was planned once they reached the nation’s capital.
Cody spent the five-hour flight reading a mystery on the mini tablet her mother had let her borrow. Quinn wrote secret messages for the others to solve using the Washington Code key. M.E. watched a movie. Luke mostly slept. Cody checked on Matt the Brat a few times to see if he was up to no good—he was sitting a few rows behind her—but he seemed to be listening to his iPod and drawing pictures. Cody wondered if the Code Busters would be getting more threatening cartoon notes from him during the trip. But if he bothered the Code Busters again, she’d tell Ms. Stad. Her teacher didn’t tolerate bullying of any kind.
