The Falcon's Feather

by Trudi Trueit

  “I did not think something like this would happen so soon.” Taryn’s jaw was tight. “I mean, you’ve been on the ship for less than a week and yet”—her eyes narrowed and roamed the room—“everyone is looking so stressed out!”

  It took a few seconds for her words to sink in. Wait a minute…was she saying…?

  As a slow smirk began to replace Taryn’s grim expression, all the explorers, including Cruz, began to breathe normally again. No one was in trouble! Cruz noticed the pink was coming back into Bryndis’s cheeks and the green returning to Emmett’s glasses.

  “From now on,” said their adviser, her calm tone back, “Sunday is officially Funday.”

  Bryndis bent toward Cruz. “What’s a fundy?”

  “Fun day,” enunciated Cruz. “It’s a made-up word.”

  “Já! Learning scientific terms in English is hard enough—now I have to worry about made-up words, too?”

  Cruz realized their studies must be more than a little challenging for those explorers whose first language wasn’t English. He smiled at her. “You’re doing fine.”

  Bryndis shyly returned the grin, a dimple appearing on each cheek.

  “Every Sunday afternoon, we’re going to meet here to do an activity together,” Taryn was explaining. “We may build a miniature robot or a gingerbread Taj Mahal. We may tie-dye socks or learn to tie sailing knots. We’re going to do all kinds of things. Some you may love and some may not be your cup of tea. That’s okay. But you are explorers after all, and that means discovering what lies within as well as beyond.”

  Dugan’s hand shot up. “Do we have to—”

  “Yes.” She cut him off kindly, but quickly.

  “Mandatory merriment,” Emmett joked to Cruz.

  “Our first Funday event is a scavenger hunt,” said Taryn. “Sort of. You’ll see what I mean soon enough.”

  “We’ve got this,” Cruz muttered to Emmett.

  “I almost forgot,” said their adviser. “Each member of the winning team will get a prize.”

  “What kind of prize?” asked Tao Sun.

  “You’ll have to win to find out.” Taryn took some envelopes from her tote bag. Circling the room, she gave one to a member of each team. She handed Team Cousteau’s to Cruz. “Here are your instructions. Do not open them until I give the signal.” Her eyes gleamed. “Remember, the whole point is to have fun.”

  Cruz put his finger under the flap. The room went deadly still.

  “Ready?” Returning to her spot, Taryn held her hand up like she was going to start a marathon. “Set? Go!”

  Cruz ripped open the envelope. He pulled out two pieces of paper and gave one to Sailor. Unfolding hers, Sailor read it aloud:

  Welcome to

  Taryn’s Traveling Teasers:

  A SCAVENGER HUNT WITH A TWIST!

  Your mission: Solve a series of puzzles and collect several objects on your way to your final destination somewhere on Orion!

  Step 1: Solve a puzzle, then proceed to the destination indicated in the solution.

  Step 2: Once you arrive, look for a person wearing a red carnation. He/she will give you an object and a new puzzle to solve. Take your object with you.

  Repeat Steps 1 and 2 until you have three objects. These objects and your last puzzle will guide you to your final destination. The first team to arrive at the final stop with all the correct objects WINS! Your first puzzle is enclosed in this envelope.

  Good luck!

  “I’ve got the puzzle,” said Cruz, holding up his paper. “Let’s solve it somewhere else.” Hurrying from the conference room, they headed to a corner of the lounge. Cruz smoothed the page out on a table, and the rest of the team clustered around.

  “It’s a rebus,” announced Emmett. “We have to figure out the word each picture symbolizes, then put all the words together to form a phrase.”

  Bryndis tipped her head. “Is that first picture dirt or sand?”

  “I’d say sand,” answered Cruz. “It looks like the beach.”

  “Sand twins beat,” cried Dugan. He clapped. “I got the top line. Sandwich meat!”

  Emmett frowned. “I don’t think they’re twins, Dugan. Their hair is different. They look like sisters to me.”

  “I think it’s whisk, not beat,” said Sailor. “The whisk isn’t in motion.”

  Dugan yawned. “Whatever.”

  “The fourth one is a bunch of clothes,” said Bryndis.

  “The pile of coins must be treasure,” offered Sailor.

  Bryndis squinted. “Is that a bear den?”

  “The last one looks like a gate.” Cruz tipped his head. “Or a fence.”

  “No, wait—gold,” muttered Sailor. “Yeah, gold makes more sense.”

  “None of it makes sense, if you ask me,” Dugan grunted. “Who cares what it is? We’re not even getting graded on this. I heard Chef Kristos is making homemade chocolate ice cream. I say we bag this lame game and go see if he’s done—”

  “Probably just a den,” said Bryndis.

  “Most likely friends,” mumbled Emmett.

  “Definitely a gate,” declared Cruz.

  “This is dumb.” Dugan flopped into a chair. “We’re never gonna get it.”

  “I got it!” called Cruz. “Everyone, when I point to you, say the word you think best fits your picture. I’ll start. Sand.” He pointed to Emmett, who said “friends”; then to Sailor, who said “whisk”; Bryndis, who replied “clothes”; back to Sailor for “gold”; Bryndis for “den”; and Cruz finished off with “gate.” Cruz looked at Bryndis. “Now say the whole thing through.”

  “Sand, friends, whisk, clothes, gold, den, gate.” She giggled.

  “Say it again. Faster.”

  “Sandfriends, whiskclothes, golden gate.” She gasped. “San Francisco’s Golden Gate!”

  “It’s the bridge,” cried Sailor. “We did it. We solved it. Sweet as!”

  “Let’s go!” Emmett sprang up.

  Dugan blew a raspberry. “How are we gonna get to the Golden Gate Bridge from here?”

  Sailor slapped a palm to her forehead.

  “Not that bridge, Dugan.” Cruz pointed up. “That one.”

  “Oh.”

  Captain Iskandar met them at the entrance to the bridge, a red carnation tucked into his name tag. As usual, the gold buttons of his pressed white uniform were stretched to capacity over his round stomach. Deep-set eyes crinkled in the shade of a bushy unibrow. “Well done, Team Cousteau!”

  “Are we the first group to show up?” prodded Emmett.

  “Can’t say. Sworn to secrecy. Your object.” He handed Emmett a yellow rubber ball. “And your next clue.” He placed a small cardboard box in Sailor’s hands.

  “Thanks, Captain Iskandar!”

  Sailor was already peering into the box. “It’s a jigsaw puzzle.”

  Racing back to the lounge, they dumped out the pieces on a table and began putting them together. The puzzle had about 50 pieces; most were green and none had corners! With the five of them clustered around, Cruz figured it took twice as long to put the round puzzle together as it would have if only one person had done it. As they clicked the pieces in place, one after the other, Cruz recognized the photo. “It’s Ridley!”

  They took off for the aquatics room. As they scrambled down the starboard side of the grand staircase, Team Earhart was running up the port side.

  “I hope they’re not ahead of us,” said Emmett.

  Halfway down, Cruz stopped. “Where’s Dugan?”

  “He was behind me,” called Bryndis. “But he was still griping about ice cream.”

  “Oh, crikey,” gasped Sailor. “That boy!”

  “Chillax, I’m here.” Dugan was at the top of the stairs. He oozed his way down to them.

  Cruz was starting to get
annoyed at Dugan’s half-hearted effort, and he could see he wasn’t the only one. He started to say something but stopped himself. Taryn had said this was supposed to be a fun activity, and besides, it wouldn’t do any good to start arguing. Cruz led the team down to B deck, past the control room and cargo hold, into aquatics.

  Tripp Scarlatos was waiting next to the DSV, a red carnation tucked behind his ear. He batted his eyelashes like he was in a beauty pageant. “Here ya go, mate.” Tripp handed Emmett a red-and-gray-plaid scarf. “And your clue is coming right up.”

  Tripp turned out the lights, then flipped a switch on his computer, and a holographic message appeared before them. It was just one sentence, the glowing words floating above Cruz’s shoulder: Which building on Earth has the most stories?

  Sailor was the first to speak. “I bet it’s One World Trade Center. It has more than a hundred stories.”

  “The Shanghai Tower is taller,” countered Emmett.

  “Is not.”

  “Is too.”

  “Do you always have to contradict everything I say?”

  “I only contradict you when you’re wrong. Can I help it if you’re wrong a lot?”

  Sailor let out a shriek.

  “One World Trade Center has a hundred and four stories,” cut in Cruz. While the two of them had been bickering, he’d flipped open his tablet to do an online search. “Let’s see…The Shanghai Tower has a hundred and twenty-eight stories.”

  “Told ya,” snapped Emmett.

  “However, the tallest building in the world is”—Cruz gulped hard—“Nebula Tower in London.”

  “So we’re both wrong,” declared Sailor happily. The information sinking in, she put a hand to her mouth.

  “London?” A vertical crease formed between Bryndis’s eyebrows. “There’s no London room on the ship, is there?”

  “No,” shot Emmett. “Cruz, are you sure there’s no other building that’s taller?”

  Cruz was typing as fast as he could. “Checking.”

  “You’re wasting your time,” drawled Dugan. He was leaning against a post behind them.

  “Yeah?” Sailor folded her arms across her. “If you’re so smart, then what’s the answer?”

  “Ignore him, Sailor.” Emmett’s frames morphed into a pair of squares the color of a campfire. “He’s only trying to get under our skin.”

  Dugan whistled. “Okay, if you don’t want to know…”

  “We’re supposed to be a team,” reminded Cruz. “Dugan, if you have something to say that can help solve the puzzle then say it.”

  Straightening, Dugan sauntered toward them. “The building on Earth with the most stories is…drumroll, please…a library.”

  Cruz could have kicked himself! Dugan was right. This was a puzzle, not a quiz in geography class! A proud Dugan trotted out of the room. The rest of Team Cousteau exchanged shocked expressions. Had their laziest member actually solved a riddle?

  Dugan popped his head back in. “You guys coming or not? This is a race, you know.”

  Hurrying down the passage of B deck, Cruz slapped Dugan on the back. “Nice work.”

  He got a contorted smirk in return, which, coming from Dugan, was progress.

  The library was five decks up, behind the bridge. By the time the explorers stumbled through the door, they were out of breath. Cruz saw none of the other teams, so they were either doing extremely well or extremely poorly. Dr. Holland waved them over to the checkout desk. A red carnation was attached to the front of her black sweater. The librarian handed Cruz a piece of paper. “This is your last puzzle.” Glancing at the page, he showed it to his teammates.

  Sailor groaned. “An unmarked map?”

  “All I can tell you is that it’s a country in the Northern Hemisphere.” The librarian held out a basket to Dugan. “Now, for your last object. Pick one, please, then retrieve the item it leads you to. You may take it from the library, but please return it when you’re done with the game.”

  Dugan reached in and pulled out a strip. “It says 823.819 Doyle.”

  “Card catalog system,” Cruz and Emmett said in unison. They’d been down this road before.

  “Bryndis, Sailor, and I will find the book,” directed Dugan. “You guys find the country.”

  Emmett and Cruz raced to one of the two map tables at the back of the library. The table was actually a gigantic computer built into a desk frame, so the horizontal screen faced the ceiling. The touch screen allowed you to easily and quickly scroll to any location on Earth. Cruz placed the unmarked puzzle map over the screen, while Emmett started scrolling. They began scanning the world’s oceans and continents, searching for a match.

  “It’s surrounded by the sea on three sides,” said Cruz.

  “It’s got a lot of islands around it, too,” added Emmett. “It’s a big world. This could take us forever.”

  “Let’s hope the book the guys are looking for will help us.” His eyes darting from the map to the computer, then back to the map again, Cruz got a strange feeling. It felt like he’d seen this map, or one like it, before. But where? He caught something out of the corner of his eye. “Emmett, stop!” As Emmett drew his hand back, Cruz scrolled back from Eastern Europe to the North Atlantic. He slid the puzzle map over the United Kingdom, adjusting the zoom to line up the borders. “Bingo!”

  It was a match. Their map was Scotland. Cruz and Emmett bumped fists!

  “We got it!” Emmett shouted up to their teammates, who were running around the perimeter of the balcony.

  “Same here,” yelled Sailor over the rail. “We’re coming down.”

  Cruz stared at the puzzle map, the light from the computer screen illuminating the craggy border. There was something so familiar about it…

  Cruz let out a moan. How could he have been so blind?

  Emmett heard his revelation. “What’s the matter?”

  “The artifact. I just realized—”

  “You’re thinking about that now?”

  “Emmett, what if it’s not what we thought? What if it’s not a Viking relic?”

  “Then what—”

  Cruz held up the puzzle map.

  Emmett’s jaw, tinged blue from the glow of the Atlantic Ocean, slowly fell. “If that’s true, then all this time, you’ve…I’ve…we’ve…”

  Cruz swallowed hard. “Been looking for the wrong thing.”

  WITH DUGAN, barreling toward them, Cruz and Emmett knew any further discussion about the cipher clue would have to wait. Braking, Dugan thrust out an arm to show Cruz and Emmett the cover of the book. It was The Hound of the Baskervilles by Arthur Conan Doyle. “What did…you guys…find?” huffed Dugan.

  “Scotland,” said Cruz. “The puzzle map is Scotland.”

  “We’re supposed to put these clues together with the objects we’ve collected to reveal our final destination,” huffed Sailor.

  At that moment, Team Magellan stormed into the library. Zane, Yulia Navarro, Ekaterina Pajarin, Tao, Ali, and Matteo Montefiore hurried to Dr. Holland.

  “Let’s get out of sight,” ordered Emmett. “Behind that post…”

  “Flýttu þér!” hissed Bryndis. “Hurry!”

  Before taking refuge with the rest of his team, Cruz scrolled the computer map to Antarctica. In their huddle, Emmett dug into his pockets, bringing out the yellow ball and plaid scarf. Cruz waved his map of Scotland. Dugan held up The Hound of the Baskervilles. It took Cruz only a few seconds to it figure out. A ball, a tartan scarf, Scotland, and a book with a dog in the title could only lead to one conclusion: Hubbard, Taryn’s West Highland white terrier.

  “Sweet as!” cried Sailor. “It’s—”

  Emmett slapped a hand over her mouth. “Don’t say it.”

  “Let’s haul!” cried Dugan, and they charged for the door. Dashing down the passage, they met Team Galileo co
ming from the other way. That left only one team unaccounted for. Where could Team Earhart be?

  “I bet they’re ahead of us.” Dugan led the pack. “Pick up the pace, people.” They zipped down three flights of stairs and took a sharp left into the explorers’ wing. Dugan was going so fast he would have skidded into the wall if Cruz hadn’t grabbed his shirt. Taryn’s room was the first one on the port side. Her door was open! Inside, they found Taryn sitting in a light blue chair, calmly knitting. At her feet, Hubbard was sleeping in his red-and-gray-tartan doggy bed, which matched the scarf Emmett had wrapped around his own neck.

  Pink knitting needles paused. “Do you have some items for me?”

  Emmett unwrapped the scarf and gave it to her, along with the ball. Dugan handed over the book.

  “It’s Hubbard…the answer to all the clues is Hubbard.” Bryndis gasped.

  Taryn took their items and placed them in an empty tub beside her. “Your answer is correct, and you have all of your objects. Excellent work. However”—she gave them a pained look—“unfortunately, I must tell you the game is over…”

  Dang! Team Earhart had gotten there first.

  “…because YOU WON!”

  Cruz was instantly locked in a group hug, bouncing in a victory dance that lasted until Team Magellan showed up a few minutes later. They had done it. At last! After three CAVE training sessions back at the Academy and one game on Orion, Team Cousteau had finally come in first! And with only five members, too. Maybe being at a disadvantage, or believing you are, isn’t such a bad thing, thought Cruz. It certainly had motivated him to work harder.

  Once all the teams arrived and they couldn’t possibly jam one more person into Taryn’s room, their dorm adviser quieted the group. “Terrific job! You were much faster than I expected, too, but then, I should have known. You are the best and the brightest. Did everyone have fun?”

  “Yes,” Cruz eagerly chimed in with everyone else. Even Team Earhart, who’d gotten off track and somehow ended up in sick bay, was nodding and grinning.