Luke tried the door again, ramming his shoulder into it. It still didn’t budge. “Shh!” said Quinn. “You’ll wake Schnikey!”

“Ahoy, mates!” came a familiar voice from the other side of the door. “It’s Davy Jones’ locker for ye swabs!”

The Code Busters looked at one another.

“Matt?” they all said at the same time.

“Ho ho ho and a bottle of bilgewater!” came the reply in a bad pirate accent.

“Matthew Jeffreys!” Cody said, “You let us out of here right now, or I’m telling Ms. Stad!”

“Oh yeah?” Matt said. “What’re ya gonna tell her? That you sneaked out of camp and came here in the middle of the night? No problem. She’ll find out soon enough, when I get back and tell her you’ve all run away! Man, you guys are going to be in trouble then!”

Cody shook her head. Luke tried the door again.

“It’s no use,” M.E. moaned. “He must have locked it from the other side. What are we going to do?”

“MATT!” Quinn yelled. “Unlock this door—now!—and let us out!”

Cody winced. Apparently Quinn wasn’t worried about waking Delbert Schnikey anymore.

“Sorry, sea-rats, but my ship is sailing soon,” Matt the Pirate replied. “Gotta shove off. Been nice knowin’ ya!”

The kids heard Matt’s heavy footsteps as he lumbered down the stairs. Surely Schnikey would wake up now.

Suddenly the kids heard a loud crash, followed by a shriek.

“What was that?” M.E. asked, looking terrified.

No one answered.

Cody waited, listening, but there was no other sound. Only dead silence.

Luke shrugged. “Matt’s just trying to scare us.”

“Maybe Mr. Schnikey heard him and will come rescue us,” Mika said.

“Maybe,” Luke said, “but I think we’d better try to figure out a way to escape on our own. Schnikey isn’t the nicest guy on the planet.”

Cody had to admit she didn’t like the thought of the crabby caretaker finding them up here.

The Code Busters searched the room for another exit, but the only other door was nailed shut.

“There has to be a fire escape,” Cody said. “All buildings have fire codes.”

“Not really old ones,” Quinn said. “This place was probably built before they thought of anything like that.”

“What about the window?” Mika said, pointing to a dirty-paned glass window next to an ancient, rusted radiator. The kids ran over to it, and Luke tried to push it open. “Oh great! It’s stuck!”

“Is there a lock that we’re not seeing?” asked M.E.

“Nope.” Cody pointed to the edges of the window. “It’s just been painted so often that the paint has sealed it shut.”

“Luke, what about your keys?” Mika said. “Maybe one of them could loosen the windowsill.”

Luke pulled his keys out of his jeans pocket again. “Good thing my grand-mere makes me keep these. They sure come in handy.”

“Yeah, except for unlocking that door,” Quinn added.

Luke dug at the crevices along the window’s edges, slowly carving away the thick paint. Then he tried lifting the window again. “Ta-da!” he announced as the window inched up a crack. A few more tugs and grunts, and the window opened wide enough for the kids to fit through.

They leaned over and looked out.

It was at least a twelve-foot drop from the second story onto the pavement below.

“No way,” Quinn said. “We can’t jump. The fall will probably kill us.”

Cody had an idea. “Take off your jackets,” she told the others, as she peeled off her own red hoodie.

“Why?” M.E. said. “It’s freezing in here.”

Cody reached for M.E.’s jacket. “We’ll tie the arms together and use the jackets like a rope to climb down. I saw it in a movie once where these prisoners tied their bedsheets together and escaped. We can tie off the last one here.” She pointed to the radiator, which probably hadn’t been used to heat the room in years. She just hoped it would stay anchored to the floor and hold their weight as they shimmied down the side of the building.

“It’s worth a try,” Luke said, tying the sleeve of his athletic jacket to the sleeve of M.E.’s jacket. Quinn and Mika handed their jackets to Luke, and he finished tying all five together, making sure the knots were secure.

“Okay,” he said, “I think they’re strong enough.”

“You think?” M.E. said, crossing her arms over her chest to keep out the cold. She was starting to shiver.

Luke tied the end of Cody’s hoodie sleeve to the radiator and tugged to see if the old heater would stand firm. “So far, so good. So who’s going first?”

“M.E.?” Quinn suggested. “You’re the littlest.”

“Thanks a lot,” M.E. said, frowning. “So if I fall, you’ll know the plan’s not working, right?”

Quinn grinned at her. “Right! So try not to fall.”

M.E. stuck out her tongue at Quinn.

Luke looked out the window again, then pulled his head back in. “Listen, there’s a drainpipe right next to the window,” he said to M.E. “Hold on to it as we let you down.”

“And when you get to the ground, give us a thumbs-up to let us know you’re OK,” added Cody. “Don’t call out, or Schnikey might hear you.”

M.E. nodded as Luke began tying the other end of the jacket-rope around M.E’s small waist. When it was secure, she hoisted one leg over the sill and ducked under the window. Gripping the drainpipe to steady herself, she pulled her other leg over, while Luke and Quinn held the other end of the jackets. Slowly they let the line out, lowering M.E. inch by inch. Cody watched as M.E. half dangled along the side of the building, her face frozen with fear.

Moments later, to Cody’s relief, M.E. was safely on the ground. She looked up at the others with a big smile and gave them a thumbs-up.

Luke pulled the jacket-rope up and repeated the process with Mika, Cody, and then Quinn, carefully lowering them down to the pavement. After Quinn untied himself and gave the thumbs-up, Luke looked out the window at the others and frowned.

“Uh-oh,” Cody whispered. “How’s he going to get down? There’s no one to hold the jackets for him on the other end.”

“Duh!” Quinn said, slapping his forehead. “Why didn’t I think of this before?” He dug his cell phone out of his pocket. “I need your phone,” he said to Cody.

“You’re going to call him?” Cody asked in confusion, handing over her phone. “With two phones?”

“Nope,” he whispered. Clicking on the flashlight apps on his and Cody’s cell phones, he held them at arm’s length and then moved his arms into different positions.

Cody realized Quinn was sending a semaphore to Luke on the second floor. Brilliant! That way, he wouldn’t wake Schnikey by yelling up at Luke. Still, Cody nervously wondered how the guard could have slept through everything that had happened already.

Code Busters Key and Solution found here and here.

Luke flashed a thumbs-up, tossed down the jackets, and stepped away from the window. Quinn took off running toward the front of the building. The others untied their jackets and pulled them on, zipping them up against the cold wind. Moments later, the two boys were back.

“Let’s get out of here,” Quinn whispered.

The kids turned to go—and froze.

A wide-awake Delbert Schnikey stood in front of them, a crooked snarl creasing his mouth.

“Sooooo. The little snoops are back!” Schnikey said, raising the flashlight he held in one hand and shining the beam at their faces. Cody was nearly blinded by the light and tried to shade her eyes.

“Mr. Schnikey,” Cody tried to explain, “I know this must look bad, but we were just trying to find something that belongs to Mika and—”

“Shut up!” Schnikey boomed. “This is my island, and everything on it belongs to me. I’m not about to have you brats ruining my business.”

Cody frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr. Schnikey. Like I said, we were just trying to—”

“Enough!” Schnikey yelled at them. He pointed to the golf cart parked nearby. “Get in the cart, all of you! I’m taking you back to your camp and telling your teachers you’re a bunch of vandals destroying state property. You’ll end up in juvie by the time I’m done with you.”

Cody knew all about juvie from her mother, who was a police officer. That was the last place she’d ever want to go.

“Come on!” Schnikey yelled even louder.

Cody didn’t move. Instead, she held her finger up to her lips. “Did you hear that?” she said, staring back at the immigration station.

Nobody moved.

The sound came again.

Code Busters Key and Solution found here and here.

Tap-tap-tap. Then three more taps, this time slower. Then three quick taps again.

The kids instantly recognized the Morse code distress signal and looked at one another.

The faint signal came again.

Then again. And again.

“Someone’s in trouble!” Cody said.

“I think it’s coming from inside the building,” Luke added.

Before Schnikey could stop them, the five kids ran back inside the immigration station.