Andy had visited the seventh-floor LAPD office many times before. As Frank’s son, he’d always felt like an honorary cop. But as Daniels led him and Dylan across the squad room, his dad’s colleagues either avoided eye contact or gave them solemn looks. Andy didn’t understand what he’d done wrong. Then his stomach felt like it was falling away.
‘Look,’ he hissed to Dylan. ‘Corner office.’
Through the glass windows they saw Frank Freeman at a table, talking to Beard Dude and Bald Guy. What could be going on?
Daniels dropped their phones into his desk drawer. ‘This way,’ he said, leading the boys into a small conference room.
‘What do we do now?’ Andy queried.
The young officer paused awkwardly by the door. ‘Your dad said you’re gonna have to just sweat it out. Sorry.’ With that, he closed the door.
‘Mate, what do you reckon’s happening?’ Dylan asked.
Andy shook his head as he peered through the blinds. ‘Bald Guy and Beard Dude aren’t even in handcuffs.’
What he could see in the corner office looked polite. Frank was nodding and listening when he should’ve been snarling and shouting at those two scumbags.
‘I’m not sure what we stumbled into,’ Andy said, ‘but whatever it is …’
But Dylan no longer heard him. Instead he was staring with a stunned expression out the conference-room window. Los Angeles smoggy atmosphere had put a halo around the morning sun so that it looked like … a fiery dot inside a flaming circle.
Maybe Isabel’s symbol wasn’t an eye!
‘Andy,’ Dylan said, ‘reckon I can ask Daniels a favour?’
Andy shrugged. ‘Can’t hurt to try. What is it?’
‘A hunch,’ Dylan said.
Andy opened the door and called out to Daniels, who loped over from his desk.
‘Can you look something up on the internet for me?’ Dylan asked.
The young cop blinked. ‘Uh, I don’t know.’
‘I’ll make sure KitKat write something really nice to your wife,’ Dylan said smoothly. ‘What’s her name again?’
‘Madison,’ Daniels said, hands up. ‘OK, OK, what do you need?’
‘A dot in a circle,’ Dylan said. ‘What does that symbol mean?’
Daniels frowned. ‘You guys are stuck in here and that’s what you want to know?’
Dylan nodded. ‘Humour me?’
A few minutes later, Daniels slipped a sheet of paper under the door. He’d copied an explanation from a website.
‘I knew it,’ Dylan said as he looked at the print-out. ‘Look!’
He showed Andy the paper.
‘It’s called a circumpunct,’ Dylan said as he read. ‘“At the dawn of human history it was used to symbolise the sun. Later it came to be a symbol for gold, the colour of the sun. And in astrology it means sun-day”.’
‘Sunday,’ Andy said. ‘The day of the attack.’
Dylan nodded. ‘We need to tell everyone else.’
But without their phones, they weren’t telling anyone anything.
At first the boys were sure Andy’s dad would be in any minute. They talked excitedly about the symbols and who might have sent them and how they’d convince Detective Freeman to help. But as minutes piled up into hours and their conversation began to go around in circles, a sense of weariness set in. Despite themselves, the boys snoozed, heads resting on their arms on the conference table.
Dylan woke and rubbed his aching neck. ‘Guess we won’t be hitting up Laguna Beach today,’ he said gloomily.
Andy didn’t reply; he was up and peering through the blinds. ‘Daniels looks like he’s doing an afternoon coffee run,’ he said. ‘I’ll be back in a sec.’
With that, he opened the door and slipped out.
‘Hey!’ Dylan hissed, jumping to his feet. ‘What’re you doing?’
Snapping open the blinds answered his question. Andy was crouched by Daniels’ desk, collecting their phones from his drawer. A moment later, he scurried back into the conference room and collapsed on the carpet, chest heaving but smiling ear-to-ear.
‘Mate,’ Dylan said, ‘are you crazy?’
‘Probably,’ Andy grinned. ‘But we have to know what’s been going on.’
Andy brought up the Games Thinker website.
‘Time’s running out,’ Dylan said, ‘for whatever it’s counting down to.’
‘It’ll be about five in the afternoon in Bogotá,’ Andy calculated. ‘So that means midnight in Athens and Cairo and seven am in Seoul. Not that we should worry about waking people up now.’
Dylan nodded. ‘Call all DARE Award winners,’ he said softly. ‘Link in Andy’s phone.’
Seconds later, they had Isabel, Mila, JJ and Zander on their screens. There were greetings all round—and a lot of concern that they still couldn’t get through to Yasmin.
‘Let me try her again,’ Zander said, eyes flicking to make a call on his SmartGlasses. ‘Yes, it is ringing!’
Yasmin’s face appeared on their shared screens, almost completely in shadow. ‘Guys,’ she whispered. ‘Hi.’
‘Thank goodness you are all right,’ Zander said. ‘We have all been worried.’
‘I’m OK,’ Yasmin said, ‘but the network’s been out.’
‘Where are you?’ Andy asked.
‘You won’t believe me.’
Yasmin tilted her phone so they could see her immediate surroundings—ripe green fruit.
‘Hiding in a donkey cart under watermelons. I’m heading for the railway station,’ she said.
‘What? Why?’ Isabel asked.
Quickly and quietly, Yasmin told them about her Jackal ordeal, how she’d seen the pyramid attacked, the chase through Cairo and how Miss Chen had arranged her escape from Alexandria. ‘But what you really won’t believe is that I think the symbols—’
‘Predicted what happened,’ Zander finished. ‘We think that, too.’
‘We’ve sent you texts about it,’ JJ added.
‘They haven’t come through yet,’ Yasmin said. ‘Quick, tell me before the network drops out again.’
JJ brought Yasmin up to speed on the symbols they’d decoded. Isabel added the information about the pilcrow. Dylan revealed what he’d found out about the circumpunct. Then Yasmin stunned them all with what Sybil had explained about the lituus.
‘That’s it, we’ve got them all now,’ JJ said, holding up his phone screen.
‘This is freaking me out,’ Dylan said.
There were murmurs of agreement.
‘Does anyone have any idea about the little arrows around each symbol?’ Isabel asked.
No-one did.
‘Maybe it’s like, I don’t know, a brand or something?’ Andy said. ‘The way we know they’re all part of the set?’
Zander shook his head as if dismissing what he considered another lame comment. ‘What about this man chasing you?’ he asked Yasmin. ‘Do you think he is involved?’
Yasmin nodded and shrugged at the same time. ‘I don’t know. Him appearing at the same time this all happened is definitely strange. But I think I have lost him now.’
‘Good,’ Zander nodded.
‘What is not good,’ Mila said softly, ‘is the countdown starting again, yes? Will there be another attack when the time runs out?’
No-one wanted to answer that question.
‘Yasmin—and Andy and Dylan,’ Zander said, ‘we wanted to talk to you before deciding whether to tell the authorities about all this. What do you think?’
‘Whoever we tell,’ said Dylan, ‘if they believe us, the first suspect will be Felix.’
‘That was my concern,’ Zander agreed.
‘But him being involved is ridiculous, isn’t it?’ Dylan asked.
Zander shrugged. ‘We seven seem to be the only people who got the symbols.’
Isabel nodded. ‘And Felix does have the resources to pull something like this off.’
‘But why?’ JJ asked. ‘Why would he do this?’
‘We are not saying he did,’ Zander replied. ‘Just saying how it might look. Andy, any brilliant ideas?’
Andy snapped out of his thoughts. ‘Felix could be connected. Or someone could be setting him up. But in any case, we have to tell someone.’
‘But who?’ Isabel asked. ‘Who can we trust?’
‘I don’t trust anyone more than my dad,’ Andy said.
Zander shook his head. ‘Your dad is just a city detective.’
Andy bristled. ‘My father is a veteran cop who used to be in army intelligence. He has contacts in the CIA, NSA and FBI. If anyone can put us in touch with the right people, my dad can.’
Zander held up his hands. ‘All right. All right. Does everyone agree?’
Everyone did.
‘OK,’ Andy said. ‘Me and Dylan will call you back as soon as we’ve told him everything.’