‘It must be awesomely cool, having movie stars for parents,’ Andy said from his bed in the dark.
Dylan sighed in his sleeping bag on the inflatable mattress. ‘Depends on your definition of “awesomely cool”,’ he said.
‘What do you mean?’ Andy asked.
‘I know I’m lucky,’ Dylan said. ‘They rescued me from a Haiti orphanage. I owe them everything, but …’
‘But?’ Andy prompted.
‘I spent more time with nannies, minders and tutors than I ever did with them. Whenever we’d go anywhere, it was with a whole entourage of their “people”. I felt, I dunno, like a member of their staff. We’d come in on a private plane, take limos to a trendy hotel, have to spend all our time on movie sets or at parties or at the mansions of whoever they were friends with that week.’
Andy chuckled. ‘Sounds like hell.’
Dylan smiled wryly. ‘I know, I know, I sound like a spoiled brat,’ he said. ‘But starting boarding school in Sydney was the happiest day of my life.’
‘For real?’
‘Mate, it was the first time I made actual friends. I got to go on beach camp—that’s how I learned to scuba dive and how I decided to be a marine biologist. I mean, I still see KitKat every few months, and they’re good people, but I’m glad I don’t have to live with them all the time.’
Andy whistled. ‘Dude, that is way harsh. I guess I’m glad I don’t know how that feels.’ He was quiet for a moment. ‘I’d give anything for more time with …’
‘Your mum?’ Dylan prompted.
‘Yeah.’
‘What happened to her?’
Andy shifted in his bed. ‘She was on assignment in Pakistan when that big earthquake hit two years ago. The building she was in collapsed.’
Dylan remembered the news reports about the disaster. ‘Mate, I’m sorry.’
‘Thanks. I guess I set up Scoop as a tribute. You know, carrying on her legacy or whatever. I wanted it to be something she would’ve been proud of.’
‘Well,’ said Dylan, ‘I’m sure she would be. Especially after today.’
‘Thanks, man,’ Andy said, and then promptly fell out of bed as the room’s sound system let out a sound like a trumpet blast. A video tile with the words ‘Yasmin—Accept Call?’ appeared in the HoloSpace.
‘Accept,’ Andy said, standing and turning on the light.
Yasmin materialised in crisp 3D from her bedroom in Cairo. ‘Sorry to call so late,’ she said. ‘I just had to make sure you were all right after watching your Scoop story!’
The boys told her they were fine—and not to worry about the time.
Another trumpet sounded and Isabel and Mila’s smiling faces appeared from Bogotá. They were sitting in a bedroom where a clock on the wall displayed the local time in Colombia as 3:30 am.
‘You guys are up late,’ Andy said.
‘Yes—or, rather, early,’ Isabel corrected, her hair flaring like a pink halo in the glow of her bedroom lamp. ‘We’re doing an all-nighter. I’m going to show Mila the best dawn view of Bogotá. But we just watched your story on Scoop. Wild stuff. You’re real action men!’
Beside her, Mila nodded shyly.
‘Hey,’ Andy said, brushing imaginary lint off his shoulder, ‘ain’t no thing.’
‘Mila,’ Dylan said, ‘as our future astronaut, how’d you like the SpaceSkimmer flight to Colombia?’
The colour rose in her pale cheeks. ‘Oh, yes. Very good.’
‘Very good?’ Andy said. ‘Dylan rated it as “fully sick”—apparently that means, like, awesome times radical.’
Mila’s emerald eyes flickered. ‘I give it, er, one hundred points out of ten, yes?’
The Chilean girl smiled when her joke brought laughter from the others.
‘It sounds incredible,’ Isabel said.
Two more trumpet blasts announced JJ and Zander. Both boys joined the call on their SmartGlasses.
‘That Scoop video was impressive,’ Zander said, sitting in a bedroom stuffed with tech gear and exercise equipment. ‘Have they caught those two men yet?’
‘Not yet,’ Andy said. ‘But my dad’s on the case.’
JJ chuckled in his Seoul bedroom, the window behind him showing distant skyscrapers towering against an autumn afternoon. ‘Bad guys and online scammers,’ he said. ‘Dylan, you’re going to be safer when you get to my place in Seoul—and I live fifty kilometres from the world’s most dangerous border!’
They all laughed.
‘Actually, I’m glad everyone’s on this call,’ Isabel said, ‘because Mila and I have been talking and are wondering—can anyone help us figure out these strange text messages?’
Isabel flicked her and Mila’s symbols into the HoloSpace.
Andy and Dylan exchanged a glance and Yasmin gasped.
‘We got symbols and numbers just like that,’ Andy said.
‘Here’s mine.’
‘And mine,’ Dylan said.
Then Yasmin shared hers.
‘We do not know who sends them,’ Mila said. ‘They are coming from an—’
‘Unknown number,’ Dylan finished for her. ‘We thought we’d see what we—’
‘What you could find out on the internet,’ Isabel interjected, ‘only for it to lead you here?’
She swiped the Games Thinker website into the HoloSpace.
‘That’s right!’ Andy said.
‘I thought mine could be like an artistic kind of eye,’ mused Isabel. ‘You know, with the pupil, iris and eyelashes around it? But I’ve got no idea what the number means.’
‘My turn to show and tell,’ JJ said, pinging his message into the HoloSpace.
‘Mine’s just letters,’ he said, slicking his hair into place across his forehead. ‘And, yup, all I get is the Games Thinker as well.’
‘ANE,’ Dylan mused.
‘Maybe it’s an acronym,’ proposed Zander. ‘Like DARE means “Dream, Act, Realise Everything”.’
‘Maybe it stands for “Antarctic Natural Environment”?’ Mila said quietly.
‘Or … Ancient Near East,’ Yasmin said. They all looked at her. ‘It’s what my area of the world used to be called.’
‘Advanced Neurological Engineering?’ JJ offered with a shrug, tapping the metal and plastic leg mecha he was resting casually on his desk. ‘It’s a robotics term.’
The HoloSpace was filled with frowning faces. None of the guesses had shed any light.
‘Zander,’ Yasmin said softly, ‘did you get a symbol?’
The Greek boy nodded and shared his in the HoloSpace.
‘Maybe thunderbolts, you know, lightning,’ Zander said. He knew as soon as he mentioned Zeus he’d get wisecracks from Andy. ‘Actually, my grandfa—’
‘How is that lightning?’ Andy interjected, frowning at the symbol. ‘Looks more like a plane to me.’
‘Yup, sure does,’ JJ agreed. ‘And what’s with the ninety-two?’
‘Does anyone know what any of the numbers mean?’ Isabel asked.
No-one did.
Still scowling at being cut off, Zander’s eyes flicked rapidly behind his SmartGlasses, turning movements into computer commands.
‘Hey, Z-man,’ Andy said to him. ‘You’re pretty good with computers, why don’t you see if you can trace the Games Thinker web address back to an owner?’
‘What do you think I’m doing, shopping online for your Christmas present?’ Zander shot back, getting laughs from the others. ‘I am a step ahead of you.’
Andy grinned. Zander had gotten the better of him.
‘I think mine is hieroglyphics,’ Yasmin said. ‘Not exact, but a representation. We sell souvenirs with a similar symbol in our shop. It is the name of Khufu. He was the pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid at Giza just near where I live. And perhaps these—’ she pointed to the little arrows around her symbol, ‘—make a pyramid?’
JJ nodded. ‘Yup, I see it.’
‘But all of our symbols have those arrows,’ Isabel said.
Yasmin agreed, a little deflated.
‘Did everyone get theirs at the same time?’ Dylan asked.
A quick check confirmed all the symbols had been received eight and a half hours ago.
‘We are the only ones to get these symbols, yes?’ Mila piped up.
‘Good point,’ Isabel said, nodding beside her. ‘Everyone get on social media and ask around.’
For the next few minutes, the group posted the question on their various profiles. Responses started flooding in.
‘Here’s what my crew say,’ JJ laughed. ‘And I quote—”Huh?”, “You cray-cray!”, “Say what?”. You get the idea.’
‘My squad, too,’ said Isabel.
No-one else’s friends knew anything about the mysterious text symbols, either.
‘Then it is just the seven of us who got them?’ Yasmin asked.
‘Seems that way,’ Isabel agreed.
‘Then they are from him, yes?’
All eyes turned to Mila. She blushed at being the centre of attention.
‘Go on,’ Isabel encouraged. ‘Him who?’
‘Felix,’ Mila said softly. ‘We seven have him in common only. So, he sets for us a test, we are to figure these out, yes?’
Dylan nodded. ‘That actually makes sense.’
‘Games Thinker would fit, too,’ Zander said. ‘Felix’s initial success came from thinking up new computer games.’
‘Seven symbols,’ mused Isabel. ‘One for each of the seven of us from seven continents.’
‘Fits with his thing for seven,’ JJ said, clicking his fingers.
Andy shrugged. ‘Dudes, maybe we should just, like, call up Miss Chen and ask to speak to Felix about it?’
Dylan punched his friend on the shoulder playfully. ‘Mate, if this is from him, don’t ya reckon we should try to solve it first?’
‘If you insist,’ Andy said with a smile.
‘Maybe this will be a treasure hunt,’ Mila suggested.
Andy rubbed his hands together. ‘Now I dig that idea! Zander, has the web address turned up a pot of gold?’
Zander shook his head. ‘The transfer protocols are being rerouted through anonymous third-party servers in—’
‘Dude, how about plain English for those of us who don’t speak geek?’ Andy asked.
Zander dipped his SmartGlasses to stare at Andy through the HoloSpace. ‘OK then, An-dee,’ he said, speaking so slowly he made the others start laughing. ‘What I am saying is that the website cannot be traced.’
Zander smiled smugly but all he got from Andy was a good-natured laugh. ‘Glad there’s a sense of humour to go along with that brooding Greek god thing you’ve got going on!’
Zander went to fire back but Isabel shut him down with a pointed look.
‘Boys,’ she said loudly. ‘Focus, OK? So, we agree this might be Felix?’
Everyone nodded.
‘And this countdown,’ she continued, ‘might be how long we’ve got to decode the symbols and numbers and work out what “events for you as mind peace” means?’
Again they agreed.
‘Maybe the numbers are for the lottery?’ Andy blurted, getting a few laughs—and a headshake from Zander. ‘I might play them just in case. I’ll cut you all in if I win big—well, maybe not you, Z-Man.’
Zander didn’t smile. ‘Does everything need to be a joke?’
‘Dude, lighten up,’ Andy said. ‘You’re really—’
‘No, you—’
‘So,’ Isabel said impatiently over the top of them, ‘we’ve got an eye and a plane. Does anyone else recognise any of the other symbols?’
‘It’s not a plane,’ Zander said. ‘It’s Zeus’s thunderbolt.’
‘What?’ Andy laughed.
‘My symbol.’
‘Zeus? Are you for real? That’s too funny.’
‘Did you send it?’ Zander asked accusingly.
Now all eyes turned to Andy. His eyes bulged with amusement. But he shook his head and raised his hand. ‘Scout’s honour, it wasn’t me.’
‘How do you know this is Zeus’s symbol?’ Isabel asked Zander.
He sighed. ‘My grandfather told me. It represents the thunderbolt Zeus used to defeat his enemies.’
They digested the information but couldn’t see any meaning behind it.
‘OK,’ Isabel said. ‘So that’s another one. Anyone else?’
Mila cleared her throat. ‘Dylan, your symbol, it is Castor and Pollux, yes?
They are the dual stars—Gemini, the twins, if you believe in astrology.’
Now the others saw it.
‘Well done, Mila,’ Isabel commended.
‘Hate to disappoint you, but I’m an Aries,’ Dylan said.
Mila gave a little smile.
‘Anyone else?’ Isabel asked.
There were headshakes all around. They seemed to have reached a dead end.
‘Maybe we were just supposed to find the Games Thinker website,’ JJ offered. ‘Maybe when the timer runs out the website will tell us more?’
‘You are saying we give up already?’ Yasmin said.
‘Nope,’ JJ said with a sigh. ‘But the big problem is we don’t even know what order these symbols go in.’
With a few eye swipes, he sent two rows of symbols from his SmartGlasses into the HoloSpace.
‘There are hundreds more combinations like these.’
‘Actually, it is five thousand and forty,’ Mila said softly. This time she didn’t blush. ‘I am good at maths.’
They laughed and she smiled shyly.
‘So,’ Dylan said, running his fingers through his dreadlocks, ‘if I’m hearing this right, there’s no way we can break this code in the time left?’
‘Yup,’ JJ said. ‘Unless …’
‘Unless?’ Isabel asked.
‘We can find some sort of key,’ JJ said.
‘I’ll let you know if I stumble on one in my bed,’ Andy said with a yawn. ‘I’m gonna have to bail on this mystery for now.’
Glasses off, Dylan rubbed his eyes. ‘It’s been a big day.’
‘Yes, we must be going soon,’ said Isabel. ‘If we are to see the sunrise.’
Mila nodded.
JJ laughed. ‘I’ve got somewhere to be, too.’ He patted his trendy hair and brushed at his cool shirt. ‘But trust me, if anyone’s going to crack this puzzle, it’s probably going to be a devastatingly handsome dude from Seoul.’
The others laughed.
The DARE winners traded goodnights and good mornings before ending their HoloSpace hook-up.
‘All right, let’s get some sleep.’ Andy yawned. ‘We’ll hit Laguna Beach tomorrow and see your fishies.’
‘OK. Silent.’
‘What? Me?’
‘No—my phone,’ Dylan said. ‘I don’t want to get woken up because JJ figures out ANE stands for “Audible Nasal Emission”.’
Andy guffawed in the darkness.