The Smoky Corridor

80

Malik stood in the tunnel, studying the faces of the pocket watches.

He’d been working on the puzzle for quite some time and still hadn’t cracked the code.

He had assumed that it was a number/letter cipher, as in A=1, B=2, and so forth. Or Z=1, Y=2, and backward. But only a few of the watches were set precisely on the hour. So that wouldn’t work.

He focused on what had to be a four-letter word.

“Seven, six-oh-five, six-oh-five, nine.”

The two letters in the middle were definitely the same. Probably “e,” one of the most commonly occurring letters in the English language. Malik figured it was a vowel, because the repeated letter was in the middle of the word. The letters at the front and back of the word were different. “So it might be ‘deer’ but it can’t be ‘peep.’ Though, it could be ‘beep’ … ‘keep’ … ‘deep.’”

Next Malik tried adding the numbers together if the time shown wasn’t a straight-up hour. So 6:05 became six plus one—seven. Or should it be six plus five—eleven?

Malik stopped thinking when he heard somebody coming!

He doused his flashlight, huddled up against the wall between support beams.

“McNulty? Stand down. It’s me!”

It sounded like Azalea, only different. Gruff.

Somebody holding a lantern came marching down the long mine shaft that led from the root cellar to the wall with all the watches.

Malik peeked around a post.

It was Azalea! Only it wasn’t. Something was different.

She passed Malik. He couldn’t see what she was doing. Didn’t dare lean forward again. She was too close.

“Right,” he heard her say. “McNulty? It’s me! Your captain! I’m coming down.”

Malik waited another minute. Then he started breathing again. He stepped forward. Azalea was gone but Malik couldn’t tell which staircase she had chosen when she’d reached the split.

She’d called herself the captain.

Malik shone his flashlight on the wall of watches.

He remembered the final lines from the warning stone: Next stand watch like a sailor should and your prospects shall be very good.

“Stand watch like a sailor should.”

Clever. Even used the word “watch.” The old code was there to help him crack this new one.

It was definitely time to start thinking like a sailor again!