“I also remembered him talking about receiving one of these little things in the mail month’s earlier. He was so excited when it arrived. It was simply adorable and of course he had to tell me all about,” Kate continued. “Now look really hard at the side of the cover.”
Joe squinted at the bordering edge. He noticed two rows of symbols circling its perimeter; the first, closest to the face, was a range of numbers and the second was a range of small letters.
“Do you see what those are?” Kate asked as they scanned the watch. “Here take a look at a page from Jason’s journal and it might come to you.”
7- 19.12.9._22,.
7.17.14._3.2.1.18.14.5.5.1.2._2.14.7.6.26.14.19._7.1._13.12.23.3._22.12.7.14._1.26._1.6.2._22.12.5.7._14.8.14.26.21.26.16._25.21.7.17._7.17.14._5.23.12.22.22._13.17.14.5.7..._21._12.5.24.14.19._17.21.23._25.17.9._17.14._17.12.19._19.14.13.21.19.14.19._7.1._18.21.26.12.22.22.9._7.12.24.14._21.7._18.2.1.23._7.17.14._7.1.23.15._12.26.19._17.21.5._1.26.22.9._12.26.5.25.14.2._25.12.5._7.17.12.7._21.7._25.12.5._7.1.1._19.12.26.16.14.2.1.6.5._7.1._22.14.12.8.14._21.26._7.17.14._25.2.1.26.16._17.12.26.19.5..._21.7._5.14.14.23.14.19._7.17.12.7._17.14._6.26.19.14.2.5.7.1.1.19._5.1.23.14.7.17.21.26.16._12.15.1.6.7._1.6.2._22.21.7.7.22.14._19.21.5.13.1.8.14.2.9._7.17.12.7._2.1.16.14.2._12.26.19._21._19.21.19._26.1.7._15.6.7._21._19.21.19._26.1.7._3.6.5.17._7.17.14._21.5.5.6.14...
25.14._17.12.19._3.2.14.5.14.2.8.14.19._7.17.14._5.23.12.22.22._3.21.14.13.14._1.18._23.12.7.14.2.21.12.22._1.26._1.6.2._18.21.2.5.7._8.21.5.21.7._21.26.5.21.19.14._7.17.14._7.1.23.15.;._26.1.25._25.21.7.17._6.5._7.12.24.21.26.16._7.17.14._25.12.11._22.12.9.14.2.14.19._13.17.14.5.7._25.14._25.14.2.14._7.1._22.14.12.8.14._7.17.14._5.21.7.14._12.26._14.23.3.7.9._16.2.12.8.14.,._25.21.7.17._6.5._12.5._21.7.5._1.26.22.9._16.6.12.2.19.21.12.26.5._1.18._21.7.5._5.14.13.2.14.7.5..._7.17.14._15.6.2.19.14.26._1.18._7.17.21.5._2.14.12.22.21.10.12.7.21.1.26._17.12.19._26.14.8.14.2._1.13.13.6.2.2.14.19._7.1._23.14._15.14.18.1.2.14._7.17.21.5._17.1.25.14.8.14.2.,._21.7._21.5._4.6.21.7.14._17.14.12.8.9._1.26._23.9._23.21.26.19._26.1.25..._1.18._13.1.6.2.5.14.,._2.1.16.14.2._21.5._26.1.7._7.1.1._7.17.2.21.22.22.14.19._25.21.7.17._7.17.14._21.19.14.12.,._15.6.7._17.1.26.14.5.7.22.9._25.17.14.26._21.5._17.14._14.8.14.2.?.
25.14._19.14.13.21.19.14.19._7.1._3.12.13.24._7.17.14._13.17.14.5.7._25.21.7.17._7.17.14._1.7.17.14.2._5.23.12.22.22._2.14.22.21.13.5._21.26._25.17.21.13.17._2.1.16.14.2._12.26.19._21._25.14.2.14._7.1._15.14._2.14.5.3.1.26.5.21.15.22.14._18.1.2._7.2.12.26.5.3.1.2.7.21.26.16._15.12.13.24._7.1._7.17.14._5.7.12.7.14.5..._7.17.14._3.2.1.18.14.5.5.1.2._17.12.5._7.12.24.14.26._21.7._6.3.1.26._17.21.23.5.14.22.18._7.1._13.12.2.2.9._12.26.9._25.2.21.7.7.14.26._2.14.13.1.2.19.5._1.2._3.17.1.7.1.16.2.12.3.17.5._1.18._7.17.14._5.21.7.14.,._12.26.19._1.18._13.1.6.2.5.14._7.17.14._5.23.12.22.22._3.21.14.13.14._1.18._23.12.7.14.2.21.12.22._21.7.5.14.22.18..._7.17.14._18.6.26.26.9._3.12.2.7._1.18._7.17.21.5._21.5._7.17.12.7._1.6.2._16.2.14.12.7.14.5.7._18.21.26.19._12.18.7.14.2._12.22.22._7.17.21.5._7.21.23.14._12.26.19._25.1.2.24._23.21.16.17.7._14.26.19._6.3._15.14.21.26.16._12._5.23.12.22.22._7.12.26._3.21.14.13.14._1.18._13.22.1.7.17..._19.14.18.21.26.21.7.14.22.9._26.1.7.17.21.26.16._7.1._25.2.21.7.14._17.1.23.14._12.15.1.6.7...
20.6.5.7._15.14.18.1.2.14._25.14._22.14.18.7._7.17.14._3.2.1.18.14.5.5.1.2._25.1.2.24.14.19._1.8.14.2.26.21.16.17.7._7.1._7.2.12.26.5.22.12.7.14._7.17.14._5.13.1.2.21.26.16.5._25.14._17.12.19._18.1.6.26.19._1.26._7.17.14._22.21.19._1.18._7.17.14._5.23.12.22.22._13.17.14.5.7..._21.7._5.21.23.3.22.9._5.12.21.19.,._"7.17.14._5.3.12.2.7.12.26._13.22.1.12.24.",._21._16.6.14.5.5._7.17.12.7._21.5._25.17.12.7._25.14._25.21.22.22._17.12.8.14._7.1._5.7.12.2.7._13.12.22.22.21.26.16._21.7._25.17.14.26._25.14._16.14.7._15.12.13.24..._25.17.14.26.14.8.14.2._7.17.12.7._21.5. ...-T
Looking down at the typed page, Joe could see some sort of pattern. However, he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. He looked at Kate for an explanation.
“Wait, are you telling us that the Jason kid typed his entire journal?” Patsy asked from behind him, interrupting Joe’s question.
“Of course not Patsy, how could he type each page in this little thing?” Kate said smacking the small journal’s cover. “I’ve had to type out every page that I’ve wanted to decode. It was impossible to decode sitting there and trying to read Jason’s chicken scratch all day long.”
As Kate opened the book, Joe could clearly see what Kate was saying. Written cleanly in pen, Jason’s journal was still very hard to make out, especially in areas that the ink had smudged or where the page had simply weathered down. Joe was amazed Kate had even been able to type out the barely legible page at all.
“Consider us already impressed, but how did you decode this mess of numbers and dots?” Joe said scratching his head still not fitting the pieces together.
“Oh Joe, I would’ve thought you’d figure it out by now,” Kate responded with a small smile. “It all has to do with the little keys Jason put on every page. Look here at the top left of the page.
Kate pointed to the top of the page at the first number separated from the rest of the sequence by a dash.
“Now look at the bottom of the page. See something that doesn’t belong? What’s different here from all the rest?” Kate continued.
Joe saw what Kate was talking about. At the bottom of the page was a capital ‘T’. Being the only letter on the page, it stuck out like a sore thumb.
“Let’s go to the watch with those two parts of the key,” Kate quickly added not allowing for any questions from either of the two. “Remember the markings on the side of the watch? Well the row of numbers on this watch is free to revolve around the face of the watch. So if you take the number row and spin it until the ‘7’ matches up with the ‘T’ underneath it, like so… and presto there is your translation for this page!”
Looking down at the watch it quickly dawned on Joe what Kate had revealed.
“Wait so you’re saying that Jason used this watch code to write out his entire journal page? Using, let’s see, ‘12’ for an ‘A’, ‘15’ for a ‘B’, and so on?” Joe asked looking at the small markings of the watch.
“Exactly,” Kate replied. “Here I wrote out the entire sequence to save my eyes from reading those small letters over and over again.”
Shuffling through her pile of papers, Kate produced a single sheet of typing paper with T7 scribbled on top in bold pen. On the sheet along with other distinctions at the top were 26 letters from A-Z along with matching numerals written in red ink.
“It seems that Jason used a period to mark every single letter or punctuation. A blank space in a sentence is represented by an underscore,” Kate explained pointing to parts of the typed page in Joe’s hand.
“Wow,” Patsy added looking over Joe’s shoulder at the coded page. “Katie, are you telling us that the Jason kid used this code to write out the entire book?”
“Ha, I wish it was that simple!” Kate grimaced at the two. “Here turn the page and you’ll see what I mean.”
Flipping the journal to the next page, the partners noticed the little nuance that Kate was pointing out. On the top and bottom of the page, just as with its preceding page, there was a number and letter that Jason had put as a key. However, this page was marked with an ‘E-22’ key, not the previous ‘T7’ key.
“Wait so Jason used different keys and watch settings in his journal?” Joe asked.
“Not only did he use different watch settings, he used different watch settings on every page! Every page no matter if it’s the same day or even a continuation of a sentence starts with a different code!” Kate answered closing the book firmly.
“But we never found a watch like this on the kid,” Patsy pointed out.
“I doubt he even had it with him, to be able to continually write in code like this I bet Jason must’ve memorized the sequence. Like I said he was a geek but a genius all the same,” Kate replied. “I’ve had to completely write out every 26 possible codes and match them with every one of the 676 possible combinations of keys on the watch. I mean it’s the same code if he uses a ‘K23’ or a ‘W24’ key on separate pages, but I
still had to match those keys correctly.”
“That’s simply amazing work Kate,” Joe replied shaking his head in astonishment at the amount of work Kate put into this. “So what have you found? What’s the story so far?”
A dark cloud crossed Kate’s face again as she recalled her findings from the journal.
“Well that’s the interesting part. I’ll go in order of what I’ve decoded so far. I haven’t had time to decode every page yet, but trust me boys it will get done,” Kate promised firmly ruffling through her papers again, bringing out another single sheet. “I used the date or day of expedition that Jason wrote on the top of each page to decode days that seemed important. I tried to narrow the work to material that might explain anything about Dad’s Greece expedition or what may have happened after. The page that you’re holding right now is Day 22, the day just before they left the site to return to the United States. Here is the ‘T7’ translation. You boys tell me if anything jumps out at you …”
7- DAY 22,
The professor retuned to camp late on our last evening with the small chest. I asked him why he had decided to finally take it from the tomb and his only answer was it was too dangerous to leave in the wrong hands. It seemed he understood something about our little discovery Roger and I didn’t, but I did not push the issue.
We had preserved the small piece of material on our first visit inside the tomb; now with us taking the wax-layered chest, we were to leave the site an empty grave with us as the only guardians of its secrets. The burden of this realization had never occurred to me before this however, it is quite heavy on my mind now. Of course, Roger is not too thrilled with the idea, but honestly when is he ever?
We decided to pack the chest with the other small relics Roger and I were to be responsible for transporting back to the States. The Professor has taken it upon himself to carry any written records or photographs of the site, and of course the small piece of material itself. The funny part of this is that our greatest find after all this time and work might end up being a small tan piece of cloth. Definitely nothing to write home about.
Just before we left the professor worked overnight to translate the scorings we had found on the lid of the small chest. It simply said, “THE SPARTAN CLOAK.” I guess that is what we will have to start calling it when we get back. Whenever that is… -T
“The Spartan Cloak… well at least I know what to call you little buddy,” Joe quietly said to his wrist looking down at the tan cloth tucked inside his watchband. “We had originally thought this must’ve come from one of your dad’s expeditions and now this clinches it. Is there anything else about the cloak in there?”
“So far only one thing, but you might not like it,” Kate answered thoughtfully. “Roger, the other grad student, had been going on about his theory on the reason they found the chest and cloak the way they did. Jason wrote a few small notes on it, but any other records might have been collected and sent back with my dad when they left Greece, and those papers were one of the first things we noticed missing after that night.”
“Well, what’s the theory? Anything no matter how small could be important with this thing,” Joe asked, still excited by the prospect of learning more about the origin of his new abilities.
“Patsy stand behind Joe and get ready to catch him,” Kate said walking over to the room’s dresser.
“What?” the pair replied puzzled by her instructions.
“Just relax Joe, but seriously Patsy get ready to catch him,” Kate said with a smile. Reaching into the dresser draw Kate retrieved a small book of matches and quickly struck one. Using the small flame, she ignited the wick of the decretive candle on the dresser, picked it up, and turned it toward Joe. Looking over at Joe, Kate bit her lip, puzzled by something as she stared at Joe. Taking two quick steps toward him, Kate brought the candle within a few feet of Joe and was both pleased and horrified by the reaction he had to the burning candle.
Just as she brought the candle near Joe, the trio could see a ghostly aura of light being pulled away from Joe’s form, swirling into the burning wick of the candle. As the aura left Joe, he suddenly felt the world fall out from under him. Not only was his leg gone again, his strength and orientation was completely sapped. The room was spinning around him, quickly leaving Joe completely exhausted. The only thing stopping him from crashing hard to the wooden floor was Patsy hooking him under both arms and quickly bracing him up.
“What…what did you do Kate…” Joe mumbled in a very weak voice trying desperately to cling to Patsy for support.
The horrified look in Kate’s eye told them immediately that she hadn’t expected this drastic of a reaction. Kate quickly blew out the candle. As she did they could see the same aura of light explode out from the now dark wick slamming into Joe. As it touched him, his left leg reformed, and he was suddenly able to stand on his own, most of his strength returning as he steadied himself.
Kate looked him over quickly, feeling his face and looking directly into his eyes, worried her experiment had seriously injured him.
“Darling, I’m so sorry. I had no idea the reaction would be severe,” Kate said holding his hand in both of hers. “I thought from Roger’s theory it might do something, and better we know now if it did, but I never guessed that a candle could completely drain you like that.”
“Yeah, it was almost as if whatever that thing is doing to him became trapped in the flame. As soon as you extinguished the wick whatever ‘it’ is sprang back like a spring,” Patsy reasoned rubbing his chin. “How’d you think that works?”
Kate explained how Roger had based his theory from the large amount of candle wax covering the lid of the chest where the Spartan Cloak was found. From the way the student had explained the scene, it seemed that the candles had been lit and simply allowed to melt across the entire box as if the wax or the candles were used to seal whatever was in it. The room itself also had a large amount of wax all along the walls as if the entire room had been lit by only candlelight. Roger had surmised that candles or some form of waxed flame had been part of a ceremony to the cultural origins of the Spartan Cloak.
“Well what’s so big about candles in a cave?” Patsy interrupted.
“Patsy, it was the fact they were used in such large amounts,” Kate explained. “In that day, oil lanterns were much more commonly used. Candles were around, however, the large amount of wax inside that room when there was evidence of oil lanterns in the hallway just outside of it lead to Roger’s conclusion they were there for other reasons than to light the room.”
“What, were they were using them to hold back evil spirits?” Joe asked half joking.
“Well, actually yes they might have been…or at least what they might have seen as one,” Kate replied. “Honey, don’t take it personal, just think of it like this. In a culture like that anything resembling something mystical or magical was looked upon with mistrust. Hey, half of the city in this day and age still doesn’t know what to make of you saving people while walking through walls.”
“So do you think its fire in general that will affect me like that?” Joe asked returning from his thoughts.
“Well, don’t forget that car crash you pulled those mooks out from. There was a nice little inferno going on there, and you were fine and dandy. What was so different here?” Patsy said from behind Joe.
“Yeah, what makes a little candle so special?” Joe asked.
“I don’t know, but hey what makes that little piece of cloth so special? We are learning the rules of the game as we go here,” Kate replied raising her hands with a shrug. “Either way we seemed to have found an Achilles’ heel of yours Joe. So we are going to have to keep you away from any romantic candlelit dinners for the time being.”
“Shucks, but those are my favorite kind,” Joe replied giving a quick wink to his girl.
“Oh Joseph you are incorrigible,” Kate exhaled slightly, grabbing his chin in her hand and lightly shaking his head.
CHAPTER SEVENT
EEN
“If you two are finished, Kate would you mind telling us if there is anything else in that kid’s journal?” Patsy scoffed from behind them. “You made it sound pretty urgent over the phone.”
“Oh nothing much… only who may have killed him…” Kate said flatly turning her back to the two.
“What?” both Joe and Patsy barked, completely caught off guard by the revelation.
“Urgent enough for you Patsy?” Kate said raising an eyebrow at the two.
“Come on Kate spill. What are you talking about?” Joe said starting to get slightly irritated with her repeated dramatic stalling.
“It’s the last few pages of the journal that ended up being the important part. They were Jason’s last cry for help. What do you see different about these last three pages?” Kate said opening the journal to show them.
“Well the pages are really dirty; you can barely make out the numbers in places,” Joe said looking at the journal. “The other pages were so neat and all written in ink. There was almost a flourish to the writing while here its rushed and is that pencil?”
“Exactly. Jason wrote these last pages quickly and with pencil. Do you know why?” Kate asked continuing before either could answer. “He wrote these pages after he was taken by the animals that killed him. While his killers beat that poor boy, he made sure to have the last word, to strike back in the only way he had left, with this journal and this little stub of lead I found in the binding.”
“Katie, start at the top of what Jason scribbled; any little bit could help us figure out who did this to him,” Patsy said trying to calm the anger starting to rebuild behind Kate’s eyes.
The Grey Ghost Page 14