Part 46 (2/2)
They'd made excellent time from Zanzibar, traveling halfway down the east coast of Africa on the surface of the ocean in Wickham's dieselelectric Kilocla.s.s submarine, rechristened by him theIndian Raider.
The reason they could travel in this way was because of the sh.e.l.l Wickham had recently created to cover his 242footlong Russian submarine.
The upper half of an ageing South African fis.h.i.+ng trawler-gutted of its engine and heavy machinery-had been mounted on top of the submarine. With the advent of wakespotting satellites, Wickham had recently decided that he needed an extra level of visual protection, and had hit upon the idea of a ”sh.e.l.l” to mount on his sub.
Then a few months back, when a crew of drunken South African fishermen, in port on a break from a sixweek cruise, had beaten one of the sweeter prost.i.tutes in town, the Sea Ranger and his men had decided to teach them some manners.
The South African fishermen were dealt with and while they lay unconscious in a back alley, Wickham stole their boat and brought it back to his cave.
There it was stripped and gutted and hoisted on chains, ready for a mission just like this.
As the sub cruised toward Cape Town, Jack told Wickham about his epic quest so far-of negotiating a b.o.o.bytrapped cavern in China decoding Stonehenge finding the incredible First Vertex near Abu Simbel and then engaging in a busvs747 car chase in the desert.
He also told him about the Six Ramesean Stones, the Six Pillars, and the Six Vertices of the Machine, and how all six Pillars had to be set in place before the arrival of the Dark Star.
At the same time, the twins were getting along famously with Wickham's crew of Tanzanian sailors, showing them some computer tricks, including guiding them to the cow level on Diablo II, an act which made the sailors gasp in wonder and which finally earned the twins their nicknames:the Cowboys.
Individually, Lachlan becameQuickdraw, while Julius wasGunslinger. Theyloved their call signs.
At regular intervals on the journey, Jack checked theLord of the Rings notice board for messages from Wizard, Zoe, or Lily.
For three days, no messages appeared.
But then, at the beginning of the fourth and last day, as Jack forlornly signed on, he found a single message waiting for him, from the user ID: ”GANDALF101.”
Jack almost leapt out of his chair.
The message had been posted only an hour previously: a cascade of numbers a coded message that could only have come from Wizard, Lily, or Zoe.
They were alive!
He turned and quickly grabbed the collection of books he had bought at Nairobi Airport, six paperbacks and one hardback novel.
The entire Harry Potter collection.
Jack's code with the others was a ”book code.”
Most book codes used three digits to find words in a single book: the code ”1/23/3”
means ”page 1, line 23, word 3.”
For Jack this wasn't secure enough. He'd added an extra digit at the start, denoting which Harry Potter book the code was coming from.
Therefore ”2/1/23/3” meant ”Book 2(Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) , page 1, line 23, word 3.”
Jack set about decoding the message on the chatroom screen.
When he was done flipping pages in the novels, he was left with: MISSION TO JUNGLE A DISASTER.
WOLF CAUGHT UP WITH US AND NOW HAS BOTH PILLARS, PHILOSOPHER'S STONE AND FIRESTONE. RON TAKEN PRISONER. KINGSLEY SHACKLEBOLT.
DEAD.
REST OF US SAFE ON THE HIPPOGRIFF NOW, BUT SOUTH AFRICA CLOSED.
TO ALL AIR TRAFFIC.
OUT OF OPTIONS AND JUST HOPING YOU'RE ALIVE.
PLEASE REPLY.
Jack reeled at the message.
His worst fears had come true.
Wolf had the Second Pillar. That Wolf might lay the Pillar at the Vertex was disturbing but not disastrous: Jack only wanted to save the world from destruction, and so long a.s.someone set the Second Pillar in place today, the world would be OK for another three months until the next set of four vertices required attending.
But as Jack now knew, Wolf had the suicidal Switchblade in his team.
”Oh, this is bad,” Jack said aloud. ”This is very, very bad.”
He stared at the line KINGSLEY SHACKLEBOLT DEAD and sighed. Kingsley Shacklebolt was a tall black wizard from the fifth Harry Potter book and hence their code name for Solomon Kol.
So Solomon had been killed.d.a.m.n.
But worse still was the previous line: RON TAKEN PRISONER. Of course ”Ron” was code for Alby-for just as Ron was Harry Potter's best friend, so Alby was Lily's.
Wolf had Alby.
Jack rarely swore wholeheartedly but he did so now. ”f.u.c.k.”
Consulting hisHarry Potter books, he quickly typed out a reply, then clicked ”POST.”
His message was: STILL IN THE GAME.
ON WAY TO CAPE TOWN WITH FRED AND GEORGE AND SIRIUS BLACK.
CAN'T RISK CALLING YOU YET. WILL CALL WHEN I CAN.
SO GLAD YOU'RE SAFE. WILL GET RON BACK OR DIE TRYING.
Hidden beneath its false sh.e.l.l, theIndian Raider powered toward Cape Town.
As it happened, it would be the very last boat in a line of about a dozen South African fis.h.i.+ng trawlers to be allowed back into South African waters that afternoon.
Then the sealanes were closed.
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