by Lauren Child
‘Francesco Fornetti?’ asked Ruby.
He smiled just barely – he looked all out of energy. ‘Buon giorno Ruby Redfort.’
She looked at him hard. ‘It was you down there!’ she said.
He nodded.
‘I read that book of yours,’ she continued. ‘It was interesting. I thought it was going to be pretty bad, you know, what with the professional ridicule and all, but I was actually impressed.’
‘You speak the truth,’ laughed Fornetti.
‘It must have been hard knowing you were right about something when everyone else thought you were a looney tune,’ said Ruby. ‘A madman, a complete ding—’
Clancy clamped a hand over her mouth.
‘Sorry Mr Fornetti, she’s drunk a little too much ink and doesn’t know how to keep her mouth shut. But thanks for saving her life.’
‘Ah, no problem,’ said the diver. ‘It was my pleasure.’
‘Yeah, that’s right,’ said Ruby, freeing herself from Clancy’s grip. ‘I owe you one.’
Francesco Fornetti raised his thumb and forefinger. ‘Two,’ he croaked.
‘How dya mean two?’ said Ruby.
‘You owe me two. I saved your life twice, once before many, many years ago,’ he said.
‘That was you?’ said Ruby. ‘You’re the one who rescues me in my dream, my dream that’s not a dream?’
He nodded again. ‘I was sitting on deck with your parents. You fell into the ocean, on purpose I think; the sea called to you. Your mother had a broken arm, and your father had dislocated his shoulder, but he went to save you anyway, and got caught somehow in the anchor chain. So I dived in and there I saw this incredible cephalopod, this octopus bigger than any octopus I had seen in all my long days, what they call the Sea Whisperer. It had grabbed you – I fought it and to my amazement it let you go, why, I don’t know. It was a magnificent creature, and one I never expected to see a second time let alone a third.’
‘But why did my mom and dad never tell me?’ Ruby found it hard to believe that anyone could keep such a story from her.
‘I never told your parents about the Sea Whisperer. It was enough, for them, the terror of their daughter so close to drowning in their beloved ocean. I didn’t want to mention a sea monster on top of that.’ He shrugged. ‘So I never breathed a word.’
All those dreams, thought Ruby. Not dreams at all.
Clancy looked at them both – he was excited, his whole face bright. ‘But this is great,’ he said to Francesco Fornetti, his arms flapping. ‘The octopus is real and you can prove it! You can tell everyone. Now they’ll see that you’re not a nutcase after all, I mean, not a complete crazy.’
‘No, no,’ said Francesco, holding up a weathered hand. ‘That must remain a secret barely even whispered among friends. A creature from the ancient deep deserves to be left in peace. It’s enough I saw her again.’ He looked at Ruby. ‘That you saw her again.’ He clearly meant what he said and there was no point arguing. The Sea Whisperer was a secret that should be held tightly.
And so Ruby just nodded.
Chapter 50.
Hard to explain
WHILE HITCH RETURNED KEKOA to her hospital bed, and Francesco Fornetti went back to his boat to rest and dream, Clancy and Ruby returned to Cedarwood Drive; it was around midday by now and they were hoping to sneak back into the house unnoticed so they could scrub the blue from Ruby’s skin and hide out until the truth serum wore off. Clancy thought this might be a good idea or things could get very complicated; this was not the time for straight answers.
Regrettably though this is not what happened. They were halfway up the eucalyptus when they heard a voice shout, ‘Ruby, Clancy, what are you doing out of school?’
Clancy and Ruby looked down at the three faces looking up. The Redforts were standing there, drinks in hand, and behind them Mrs Digby was holding a tray of exotic-looking nibbles. Sabina was shielding her eyes from the sun.
‘Get down here right now,’ she ordered.
Reluctantly, they climbed back down.
Sabina had her hands on her hips and was launching into what would have been a rather long rant.
‘Look at your wetsuit, it’s in absolute tatters. Can’t you take care of anything? Is that the one your father and I… why are you wearing a wetsuit? Why are…’ She stopped mid-sentence for she had noticed something very strange: Ruby was not looking the right colour.
Brant spilled his drink down his shirt front and Mrs Digby said a word considered unsuitable for polite company.
Clancy was right: it was going to be tricky to explain the blue to Ruby’s folks. Her face was indigo-coloured and so were her hands, her arms and her legs.
‘Heavens child!’ scolded Mrs Digby. ‘What in tarnation have you been doing? You look like a giant blueberry.’
‘It’s octopus ink,’ said Ruby.
‘What?’ said her father.
Clancy kicked her hard on the shin.
‘I got pulled under by this giant cephalopod,’ said Ruby. ‘It nearly strangled me to death, but then I got rescued by Francesco Fornetti and Clance and me climbed into a barrel and…’
‘Rube!’ said Clancy firmly. ‘I’m sorry Mr Redfort, I think the sun got to her.’
‘Call Dr Makeland,’ said Sabina.
‘But what were you doing?’ asked her father.
‘Looking for the Fairbank rubies,’ said Ruby merrily. ‘The Count tried to kill me with jellyfish, but you know what? I found them anyway and then he tried to kill me with an octopus.’
‘The child’s raving,’ said Mrs Digby.
‘No, better call Dr Grenveld,’ said Sabina, ‘she’s good with heads.’
Ruby reached into the small dive bag that was attached to her dive belt and pulled out the most exquisite rubies that Sabina or indeed anyone there had ever seen.
‘The child has robbed Keller’s jeweller’s!’ squealed Mrs Digby.
‘Well, I’ll be darned,’ said Brant.
‘Oh my!’ said Sabina. ‘However did you come by those?’
Clancy held his breath.
‘Like I said,’ replied Ruby, ‘I found them!’
A real emergency
It was Wednesday and Ruby was looking forward to an evening watching Crazy Cops and stuffing popcorn into her mouth. Her folks were going out to a cocktail party and Mrs Digby was joining her fellow poker players in East Twinford; Hitch, who had come up with a plausible explanation for the recent wild events, was in his apartment listening to music. Dr Grenveld had ordered that Ruby be kept at home for a few days just to make sure that the sunstroke had not caused any lasting damage and so here she was home alone on a Wednesday night.
She scratched the husky behind the ears. ‘I guess it’s just you and me Bug old friend.’ Just what she needed, a bit of down time.
As soon as everyone had left the house, Ruby padded over to the refrigerator and poured herself a glass of banana milk, piled a plate high with cookies and set the popcorn popper popping. The telephone in the kitchen rang.
‘Twinford lost property department, how may we assist you?’
‘What?’ came the reply. Ruby recognised Mrs Lemon’s panicky voice. Mrs Lemon was a very panicky sort of person.
‘Oh, hi Elaine, it’s Ruby.’
‘Is your mother in?’ she asked.
‘Uh uh,’ said Ruby.
‘Your father then?’ Elaine Lemon’s voice rose slightly.
‘Uh uh,’ said Ruby.
‘Mrs Digby, she must be there?’ Elaine was sounding like she had swallowed helium.
‘Gone to poker,’ said Ruby, munching on a cookie.
‘But you’re there?’ said Elaine.
‘I guess I am,’ said Ruby.
Ruby failed to recognise the relief in Mrs Lemon’s voice and didn’t register what was coming.
‘Is your skin OK these days?’ Mrs Lemon asked.
‘Fine Elaine, thanks for enquiring.’ Ruby had forgotten about her earlier lie and in d
oing so had forgotten one of her rules: RULE 32: TELL ONE LIE AND GET READY TO TELL A WHOLE LOT MORE.
‘Thank goodness,’ said Mrs Lemon. ‘I need you to take care of Archie. I’ve got this emergency thing.’
‘Ah, the thing is Elaine, I mean I’m not so great with babies. I’m not really qualified, you know, not for the whole baby thing.’
‘Oh, you don’t need to be! You babysit other kids, right?’
‘Yeah, but not actual babies. I mean I don’t really get them and they don’t get me.’ Ruby was floundering.
‘Oh, you’ll love Archie, he’s a dear, no trouble at all, and it is an emergency.’
‘An emergency? A real emergency?’ asked Ruby.
‘Oh yes, it’s an emergency all right.’
‘Darn it!’ hissed Ruby under her breath. What could she do? ‘OK, I guess, if it’s an emergency.’
Elaine Lemon was standing on the front doorstep approximately two and a half minutes later.
‘So what’s the deal?’ said Ruby, as Archie was bundled towards her.
‘Bethany Mule is having a swimwear sale and I didn’t want to miss it.’
‘That’s it?’ said Ruby. ‘That’s the whole big emergency?’
But before there was a chance for Ruby to deposit Archie back in his mother’s arms, Elaine Lemon was running down the steps, jumping into her car and backing out of the drive.
‘Oh brother!’ cursed Ruby.
She called Clancy, but he said he couldn’t make it; his dad was expecting his family to be all present and correct at some ambassadorial party. Del was at a basketball game, Mouse was with her cousins, Red had twisted her ankle and couldn’t even hobble and Elliot was not answering the phone. She called down to Hitch, but his reply came back, ‘You’re on your own kid.’
Oh well, how hard can babysitting a baby be? thought Ruby.
She switched on the TV and Archie smiled – he waved his arms as the theme tune to Crazy Cops played. No sweat, thought Ruby.
Detective Despo walked into the frame and Archie started to howl.
Ruby ignored him.
Detective Despo was running down an alley pursuing a suspect.
Archie howled like he was fit to burst.
Detective Despo froze, the muzzle of a gun pressed to the back of his head.
Archie puked.
Turned out babysitting a baby was hard.
The green light on the rescue watch flashed and bleeped. Archie howled louder.
Ruby pressed the receive button on the watch.
‘Redfort?’ came a gravelly voice.
It was LB.
LB: ‘What are you doing, strangling a cat?’
RUBY: ‘Babysitting.’
LB: ‘I didn’t peg you as the mushy type.’
RUBY: ‘I’m not, believe me.’
LB: ‘So we need you to come in for a debriefing.’
RUBY: ‘I know but I’m a little tied up with this babysitting deal right now.’
LB: ‘What, now you’re suddenly a Girl Scout?’
RUBY: ‘What do you suggest I do, dump the baby?’
LB: ‘Improvise, isn’t that what Girl Scouts are good at?’
RUBY: ‘I wouldn’t know, I never joined.’
LB: ‘Shame, so what exactly do you know?’
RUBY: ‘The Count is working for someone else – he wasn’t only after the rubies, he was there for something else.’
LB: ‘How do you know?’
RUBY: ‘The Count said, “Tell LB the truth is safe with me.”’
LB: ‘He said that to you?’
Ruby paused: she was going to have to tell a lie, a white lie, because of course the Count had told Clancy, not her, and this was not a time for telling the truth.
‘Yes,’ she said.
LB was quiet for a moment and then she seemed to register Archie’s howling and said, ‘Redfort, put that baby on the phone.’
Ruby held the receiver to Archie’s ear and in a matter of seconds the baby stopped howling and peace was restored to the Redfort home.
Ruby took the phone. ‘What did you say to him?’
‘Something I learned in Girl Scouts,’ said LB. ‘Too bad you never joined.’
Things I know:
...................
That the Count took a phial of the truth serum.
That he is working for someone bigger than him.
Things I don’t know:
...........................
Who he is working for.
What he is planning to do with the serum.
What LB said to that baby.
Ruby Redfort
RUBY:
-.-. .-.. .- -. -.-. -.-- --..-- /
-.-. .... .. .-.. .-.. / --- ..- - /
-- .- -. --..-- / -.-- --- ..- / .-.. --- --- -.- /
.-.. .. -.- . / -.-- --- ..- .----. .-. . /
.- -... --- ..- - / - --- / -.. .. .
Clancy, chill out man, you look like you’re about to die
CLANCY:
- .... .- - .----. ... / -.-. --- ... /
.. / .- -- / .- -... --- ..- - /
- --- / -.. .. . --..-- / - .... .. ... /
... .- - ..- .-. -.. .- -.-- /
-- --- .-. -. .. -. --.
That’s cos I’m about to die, this Saturday morning
RUBY:
- .... . .-. . / .- .-. . / -. --- /
... .... .- .-. -.- ... / .. -. /
- .-- .. -. ..-. --- .-. -.. / -... .- -.--
there are no sharks in twinford bay
CLANCY:
.--. .-. --- ...- . / .. -
prove it
RUBY:
--. . . --.. --..-- / - .... . -.-- /
-.-. .- .-.. .-.. /
- .... .. ... / -- ..- ... .. -.-. ..--..
geez, they call this music?
A note on the Chime Melody music code,
with help from Dr Thomas Gardner,
Music Consultant to Ruby Redfort.
This is how Ruby cracks the code:
She first decides to ignore the synthetic music in the background, which she assumes is designed as a distraction, and to concentrate on the melodic fragments laid over it.
She starts from the principle that each note in the strange music must represent a letter.
But the question is – what notation was used to create the music? Even though Ruby thinks it’s unlikely, she starts by trying the Northern European note naming convention of A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H (where H is actually B and B is actually B flat). But this doesn’t get her anywhere – and nor does the twelve-tone system, or any of the other scale systems, such as Japanese, Indian or Arabic (though since the Chime Melody music is very definitely in equal temperament she realises this is a long shot).
Once those more esoteric options are ruled out, Ruby tries the English and American system of seven notes – A, B, C, D, E, F, G – and finally starts to get somewhere.
The first thing she realises is that there are no flats or sharps used in the melody: there are only the seven plain notes: A, B, C, D, E, F and G. This means that the person setting the code had to come up with a way to use only seven notes to represent all twenty-six letters of the alphabet.
Eventually she realises that the way they have done this is to apply effects to the notes that tell the decoder to shift the letters forward. She notes down all sorts of details that she notices – crescendos, articulations, speed changes – but works out that these are all red herrings. What DOES turn out to be important is the glissando that she can hear.
She quickly discovers that if a note is played with an upwards glissando, it shifts the corresponding letter forward by seven places. Thus the musical note A, played with an upward glissando, becomes the letter H instead of A, and the musical note G, with an upward glissando, becomes the letter N.
Similarly, a downward glissando shifts the corresponding letter forward by fourteen places. The musical note A, played with a downward glissando, becomes the letter O.
/> Finally, the letters V to Z are represented by the notes A to D, played with a tremolo (though these letters don’t appear in the example code).
The best way to understand this is to look at this table:
A note on Count von Viscount's static code
by Marcus du Sautoy,
Super-Geek Consultant to Ruby Redfort.
One of the most common codes used across the planet is binary or digital code. It is not a secret code but is a powerful way to store and communicate information. Pictures, music, movies, the sound of a voice, in fact everything that is sent across the internet is changed into a stream of 0s and 1s.
Take a black and white picture. To see how to change the picture into 0s and 1s, first you need to pixelate the picture. You draw a square grid over the picture, then you colour a square black if the majority of the image in the square is black, and colour the square white if it’s mostly white. Each coloured square is called a pixel. The combination of the pixels produces a rough version of the picture. The finer the square grid, the better the representation of the picture. The pixelated picture can then be changed into code. The black squares are represented by 0s and the white squares by 1s. Then 001110101000… is code for: colour the first two pixels in the grid black, the next three white, then black, and so on.
More complicated versions of this process can change a colour picture, a movie, music or even a voice into 0s and 1s.
Now, if you want to make a picture or a message secret, there is a clever way to hide the message if it is made up of 0s and 1s. You can take a pixelated black and white picture and pull it apart into two separate black and white pictures in such a way that the two separate images look like a random mess – but when you print them on transparent sheets and put one on top of the other, as if by magic the original picture appears.
To change the picture into the two random images: first, take the square grid for the original picture and divide each square into four smaller squares. In the encrypted pictures these 2x2 squares have two squares coloured white and two squares coloured black. If you check, there are six different ways you can colour a 2x2 grid where half the squares are white and the other half are black.
