Clue by Clue

by Catherine Hapka

  “Okay, I guess that’s true,” Tigress said grudgingly. She glared at Mime Bomb. “But what about him?”

  Mime Bomb grinned and sashayed forward, waving his arms around in a way that seemed to mean something, though Tigress didn’t have the fuzziest idea what he was trying to say—as usual.

  Coach Brunt chuckled. “Mime Bomb, figuring out what you’re tryin’ to tell us is about as easy as puttin’ socks on a rooster,” she said. “Heck of a code breaker, though.”

  Mime Bomb swept into an elaborate bow toward both professors, then snapped to attention and saluted Tigress.

  “Yes, Mime Bomb has a real talent for symbology and cryptanalysis,” Maelstrom said. “And as you may have noticed, Tigress, there is a line of code at the top of the map.”

  “You mean those weird little drawings of boats and anchors and stuff?” She pulled out the map and waved it at Mime Bomb. “Okay, Code Boy, so what does it mean? I spent the whole flight here trying to figure it out, and nothing!”

  “That’s because you were missing a vital element, my dear.” Countess Cleo nodded toward Mime Bomb. “Show her the treasure you found on your previous heist—the one that will lead us to this treasure.” She clinked her jeweled bracelets for emphasis.

  Mime Bomb reached into one pocket, then another, turning them inside out and coming up empty. Tigress crossed her arms and watched him, tapping one foot impatiently.

  “Seriously?” she growled. “This is a waste of time!”

  “So is trying to decipher a treasure code without the decoder,” Shadowsan said in his usual gruff voice.

  “Decoder?” Tigress echoed.

  Mime Bomb grinned and raised one finger in an “aha!” gesture. He lifted his hat, then reached up and plucked something off his head—a small, round metal object, worn with age.

  “The decoder,” Maelstrom said. “Mime Bomb discovered this on a recent heist and knew it must be the key to something grand. He will be in charge of using it to decipher the symbols on the map, which should lead you to that legendary treasure.”

  “Indeed,” Cleo said, rubbing her hands together so hard that her rings clinked.

  “Indubitably.” Dr. Bellum looked up from her screen and grinned.

  “Sure as shootin’!” Coach Brunt added with a whoop.

  Tigress let out a soft growl. She was still annoyed at being stuck with a bunch of other operatives for this important mission. But it was clear that the entire faculty agreed with Maelstrom’s stupid pirate crew plan—which meant there wasn’t much point in arguing.

  “Fine, whatever.” She glared at the other operatives. “But I’m in charge of the mission, okay? Now, come on—Carmen Sandiego is out there somewhere, you know. So let’s stop wasting time here.” She tossed the map at Mime Bomb. “You can decode this on the way.”

  Chapter 7

  London, England—On the Road Again

  “That’s what this whole heist was for?” Ivy said in disbelief. “Some dusty old book?”

  Carmen was back in the cab, where she’d just shown Zack and Ivy her prize. “Uh-huh,” she told them. “Now let’s see if it has any clues for us.”

  She flipped open the soft, well-worn leather cover. Inside were words written in a faded, old-fashioned handwriting:

  Diary of Cal Cutlass, Pirate

  “What’s it say?” Zack asked from behind the wheel. Horns honked as he cut across several lanes of traffic. “Oops,” he added. “I keep forgetting they drive on the wrong side of the road over here.”

  “So what?” Ivy said with a laugh. “You drive on both sides of the road back home, and it never bothered you before!”

  Carmen ignored them, carefully flipping the delicate pages. “Okay, looks like this is just what it sounds like,” she said, scanning the words written there. “Cal Cutlass just joined the crew of a notorious pirate named Captain Goldtooth—”

  “Cool name, right?” Zack put in, spinning the wheel to avoid a double-decker bus. “I always thought my pirate name should be Zackbeard. Get it? Zackbeard the pirate?”

  Ivy rolled her eyes. “More like Zackweird!”

  “Hang on, we’re there.” Zack turned the car down an alley.

  “We’re where?” Ivy asked, glancing around at several storefronts with signs in Chinese.

  Zack grinned. “Dinner!” he said. “Namely, the best noodles in London. I called ahead.”

  Carmen’s stomach rumbled, and she realized none of them had eaten for hours. “Okay, but get it to go,” she said. “I want to read more of this diary, and we can’t do that where anyone might see. VILE has eyes everywhere.”

  A few minutes later, the three of them were perched on a rooftop overlooking Trafalgar Square. The streets of London were nearly deserted as the hour grew later, and a light breeze ruffled the diary pages as Carmen flipped through them between bites of stir-fry.

  Zack licked hot-and-sour sauce off his fingers. “So what’s this pirate guy have to say, Carm?” he asked.

  “Not a whole lot so far.” Carmen went on. “Cal is pretty excited at being allowed to join even though he’s only fifteen. Basically, he’s psyched to be a pirate, and this diary is where he’ll record all his adventures on the high seas . . .”

  Ivy dumped the rest of the noodles onto her plate, then peered at the diary over Carmen’s shoulder. “Great. I’ll wait for the movie,” she commented.

  Carmen chuckled. “Not sure this one will make it into theaters,” she said, flipping another page. “The first few pages look like they’re mostly just bragging about how tough Cal is and how cool it is to be a pirate.” She flipped a few more pages. “I hope there’s something more—hey, look!”

  Several of the wrinkled old pages had stuck together, causing the diary to fall open to the very last page. Scribbled there were two long columns—one the letters of the alphabet, and the other a series of symbols like jewels, skulls, and scimitars. Both columns were faded and a little smudged, but a few of the symbols looked familiar . . .

  “Check it out!” Ivy was peering over Carmen’s shoulder again, pointing with her chopsticks. “Is that, like, a code or something?”

  “Looks like it.” Carmen pulled out her compact and scanned the page. “Hey, Player, I’m sending you something—do these symbols match up with the ones on the parchment Tigress stole?”

  “Wait, what’s that sketch in the corner?” Ivy was still leaning over Carmen’s shoulder. “Looks like plans for some kinda gadget!”

  “A decoder!” Carmen said. “Did that part come through on the scan, Player?” She tapped a button on her phone so all three of them could hear his response.

  “Yep, I see it,” Player said. “And I think you’re right, Red. The symbols on the list are the same as the ones on the map. It looks like a basic one-for-one replacement code—each symbol represents a letter of the alphabet. Anyone with that decoder could just spin the wheel to match them up.”

  “I wonder if Cal Cutlass made a decoder based on this drawing,” Carmen said, thinking aloud. “If so, I bet VILE got their mitts on it somehow, which explains why they decided to steal the map—and why they didn’t need this diary.”

  “Yeah.” Zack’s eyes widened. “Tigress could already be on the way to finding that pirate booty! Shiver me timbers!”

  Ivy snorted. “Lame, bro.”

  “Arrrrr. Talking like a pirate is fun, matey.” Zack flicked a grain of rice in her direction.

  Meanwhile Carmen was staring at the symbols in the diary, drawn hundreds of years ago by a ruthless young pirate. Could they really be the key to a vast treasure? If so, she was going to do her best to make sure the equally ruthless VILE didn’t get their greedy paws on it . . .

  “Hey, let me get a look at those plans,” Ivy said. She was all about gadgets and was always tinkering with something. Carmen handed the diary over.

  “Think you can make one?” she asked.

  “Sure, just give me a sec . . .” Ivy pulled a utility knife out of her pocket, then grab
bed one of the empty Chinese takeout containers.

  A few minutes later, Ivy held up a double circle of cardboard with a joint in the middle formed out of the wire handle from the takeout box.

  Carmen smiled. “Hey, Player,” she said. “You should see this decoder that Ivy just built.”

  “Whoa.” Zack looked up from his food, eyes wide. “You built that just now, sis? Out of Chinese takeout cartons?”

  “Dude, I can build anything,” Ivy said. “Anytime, anywhere, out of any kind of takeout carton.”

  “How’s it look?” Player asked.

  “Looks like a little round doodad full of letters and pictures.” Zack sounded dubious. “How does it work?”

  “Like this.” Ivy held up the decoder. “You pick a symbol from our map, okay? How’s about . . .” She leaned over to see the scanned image of the treasure map on Carmen’s phone. “Okay, take this little skull and crossbones,” she went on. “You spin the dial until it shows up in this here little window on the top . . .”

  She demonstrated. Carmen leaned closer. “And then you look at the letter that shows up in the opening on the other side,” Carmen said. “In this case, R.”

  “Very high-tech,” Player said dryly.

  “It’s old-school-tech, dude,” Ivy said with a grin. “Wicked cool, right?”

  “For sure,” Carmen agreed. “Let’s give it a whirl.”

  She zoomed in on the map and examined the line of symbols:

  “Okay, first symbol is a curved knife—a scimitar, maybe?” Carmen said.

  “Let me try.” Zack grabbed the decoder out of his sister’s hand and twirled the dial. “Curved sword thingy? That’s a letter S.”

  “Next comes an anchor . . .” One by one, Carmen read out the symbols. As the siblings called out the corresponding letters, she wrote them down.

  When they finished, Carmen picked up the paper and studied the message:

  SEEK MORGAN’S

  STONE IN LOST

  HAVEN WITH WATER

  ALL AROUND

  “What the heck does that mean?” Ivy wondered, picking at the last few noodles on her plate.

  “I’m not sure yet,” Carmen said.

  “Aw, man—another puzzle?” Zack complained. “Where’s the decoder to help us figure this one out?”

  Carmen was already keyboarding the message into her laptop. “What do you think, Player?” she said.

  “Already researching pirate history for ideas,” Player replied. “Morgan probably refers to Sir Henry Morgan, the famous privateer—that’s basically another name for pirate.”

  “Maybe Captain Goldtooth stole some jewels from this Morgan guy,” Ivy guessed. “Jewels . . . stones—get it? It could just be telling us we’re after the treasure.”

  “What about the lost haven?” Zack said, sitting up and looking interested. “I’ve heard there were pirate havens all around the Caribbean back then, where honest men would never dare to set foot for fear of being robbed and stuff.” At his sister’s surprised look, he shrugged. “What? I saw a pirate special on TV once.”

  “First hit on pirate havens is Tortuga, a small island off the coast of Haiti,” Player said.

  “An island? That’s gotta be it!” Zack said. “Water all around—get it?”

  “Cool—let’s go to Tortuga!” Ivy exclaimed. “Book us a flight, Player!”

  “Wait.” Carmen frowned, staring thoughtfully out over the city. “What about the ‘lost’ part? That’s got to mean something, right? And I have a feeling the ‘water all around’ part means something more specific than just an island, too . . . Keep looking.”

  “Yeah—water all around?” Ivy rolled her eyes at her brother. “Duh—that’s every island, bro! Nantucket, Aruba, Manhattan, Australia . . .”

  “Whatever, sis.” Zack shrugged. “I never said I was a puzzle expert, okay?”

  “Hang on—I think I found it,” Player announced. “You’re right, Red—there is a lost pirate haven out there! It’s Port Royal, Jamaica—a former pirate town ruled by none other than Henry Morgan. It sank into the sea after an earthquake in 1692!”

  “So this Port Royal place is underwater?” Ivy exclaimed. “Water all around, right?”

  “Right. Guess I’d better bring my diving gear.” Carmen smiled, though she couldn’t help feeling a little uneasy. They were on their way, but Tigress had a pretty good head start. And if she had the original decoder, it probably hadn’t taken her long to work out the clue—not with the evil masterminds of VILE helping her. Were Carmen and her crew already too late? Only one way to find out . . . “Book us a flight to Jamaica, Player,” she added. “We’ve got to find that lost haven—and that treasure—before VILE does!”

  Chapter 8

  A Chartered Plane over the Atlantic Ocean

  As soon as the plane took off, Carmen pulled out the diary. Finding that code had been a lucky break. Could there be other clues hidden in the dusty old pages?

  “Next stop, Jamaica,” Player said over the comm-link. “That’s the fourth largest island country in the Caribbean Sea by population. There are almost three million people living there, but lots more come to visit—tourism is one of the island’s biggest industries. People go there for its tropical weather, its beautiful beaches and waterfalls, and its reggae music.”

  “That last part sounds like Vile Island, minus the reggae,” Carmen commented, flipping another page in the diary. “Professor Maelstrom is more of a grand opera kind of guy.”

  Zack helped himself to a handful of peanuts. “Opera? No wonder you left that place, Carm.”

  Carmen grimaced. Maelstrom’s taste in music was the least of the reasons she’d left. As soon as she’d figured out that the criminal activity for which VILE was training her wasn’t a game—that the group’s heists actually hurt real people, innocent people—she’d known she had to get out. And to do whatever she could to stop them.

  “Jamaica was settled by people from South America thousands of years ago,” Player went on, “but Christopher Columbus claimed it for Spain in 1494. It was later taken over by British forces led by William Penn—that’s the guy the state of Pennsylvania is named after. But the Spanish kept trying to get the place back, which is why the English governor eventually invited some buccaneers to settle in Port Royal. Buccaneer is just another word for pirate. He figured the pirates would help defend the island against Spanish attacks . . .”

  After Player finished his briefing on their destination, Carmen forced herself to close her eyes and rest. It had been a long day and night, and she would need all her wits about her if she had to face Tigress again on the way to that treasure.

  When she woke up, Zack and Ivy were snoring away in their own seats, and nothing was visible outside the plane’s window but open sea beneath a cloudless blue sky. Carmen checked her phone for the time—they’d been in the air for nearly eight hours, which meant they should be getting close. Luckily the time zones were working in their favor—while it was already getting on toward midafternoon back in London, they would be arriving in Kingston, Jamaica, at around 9:30 a.m. local time.

  She picked up the diary and flipped it open to where she’d left off reading earlier. The next few entries were similar to the part she’d read before. Cal Cutlass talked about how great the other pirates were, how tough Captain Goldtooth was, how many doubloons they’d raided from a passing ship. She skimmed the next few entries, which mostly talked about Cal’s daily life as a pirate, doing stuff like patching the sail, playing cards with his shipmates, and fishing for dinner.

  A loud yawn came from across the aisle. “Where am I?” Zack mumbled. “Oh, hey, Carm. Are we there yet?”

  “Quiet—I’m sleeping over here,” Ivy complained with a groan.

  “You guys should be landing in Jamaica pretty soon.” Player’s voice spoke out of Carmen’s phone. “Better wake up and get ready to rumble. Tigress has a head start, remember?”

  Carmen didn’t need the reminder. Player was right—t
hey were going to have to hit the ground running. “Check it out,” she said as she turned another page of the diary and a name near the top caught her eye. “Cal writes here about how he and the rest of Captain Goldtooth’s crew just docked in Port Royal.”

  “Hey, that’s where we’re going!” Zack said, stifling another yawn.

  “Yeah. Maybe this entry will tell us something useful.”

  “Read it to us, Red,” Player said.

  “Okay.” Carmen cleared her throat and read aloud. “‘On our way to Port Royal earlier this day, we encountered a merchant ship, which made various desperate attempts to evade our advances. However, Captain Goldtooth’s bold and skilled crew soon drew alongside; “Prepare to be boarded!” rang out from various throats, mine included, and we swarmed the deck with our sabers held aloft. We must have been a fearsome sight, for the merchant crew surrendered immediately, offering no protest as we absconded with their goods and monies—and the captain’s solid gold wedding ring for good measure! With such riches in hand, we were the toast of Port Royal this evening! I have never felt such camaraderie, joy, and freedom as I did then, singing, dancing, and feasting with my mates—even though I know that if they were ever to discover my true identity, I would be the one to face their wrath and most likely walk the plank! But luckily no one suspects a thing, and I have no plans to tell and give up the best adventure of my life. Who might have guessed that a farm girl from Yorkshire would become a terror of the high seas?’”

  “Wait.” Ivy sat up straight, suddenly looking wide-awake. “Did you say farm . . . girl?”

  Carmen was already skimming back, wondering if she’d misread the faded, old-fashioned handwriting. But no . . .

  “That’s what it says,” she said slowly as she skimmed ahead. “Whoa. Cal Cutlass . . . was a girl! She even goes on to say that Captain Goldtooth would allow no woman to set foot on his ship for fear of bad luck . . .”