by D. B. Magee
William pulled his head from between the steps. “Ok, but aren’t you curious as to why there’s a doorway here?”
Ryan didn’t answer straightaway. He waited for William to get re-situated, taking the time to retrieve his flashlight and illuminate the patch of ground below. At the bottom, about twelve steps below him and opposite the ladder, he could see what looked like an opening of some sort.
“I’m more interested in what’s at the end of this thing,” he said, finally. “You ready, Willy?”
“Ready,” William said.
Ryan continued carefully down the creaking ladder. A moment later, he reached the bottom and stepped away to give William room to exit. To his surprise, a floor drain glinted directly below his feet. Why in tarnation would someone go to all the trouble to put that in? he wondered.
Turning around, Ryan inspected the opening he’d noticed from the ladder. “Whoa!” he blurted out, tilting his hat up for an unobstructed view. “What’ve we got here?” Before him was a short tunnel, an entryway into a small, subterranean cavern. Above the entrance was a wooden sign. Ryan wiped away its dust with his bare hand. The sign read: Tree Root Cavern. Appropriate, he thought, chortling to himself.
As he began to step into the ebony void, he remembered the locking mechanism on the interior side of the hatch above. Not knowing its purpose or who might still be using the cavern, he decided to play it safe by slinking in as quietly and carefully as he could manage. Though his light might give him away, he wasn’t about to turn it off. His eyes strained in the dusky cave as his flashlight beam streaked across the root entangled ceiling. Tilting his wrist, he brought the light beam down the far wall toward the floor. Suddenly, he jumped back, and with the speed and agility of a Jaguar he one handedly pulled and opened his knife.
“The girls were afraid to come,” William said, lowering himself down the last few steps of the ladder. On the last rung he peeked over his shoulder so as to make sure not to bump into Ryan, and stepped onto the floor. “Find anything?” he asked, turning around.
Ryan stood silent, just inside the cavern, his eyes fixed on the end of his flashlight’s beam.
Stepping up beside his friend, William peered into the cave. Instantly, he went rigid.
Lisa hollered down through the opening, “Hey, you guys ok? What’s down there?”
No reply.
Peeved at the lack of response, Lisa grabbed a flashlight and angrily shook it back and forth, causing a dancing light show below. “Hellooo! Ryan! William!”
Still, there was no response.
“Fine,” she grumbled. “Don’t answer!”
“Do you think they’re all right?” Stacy asked, shifting uneasily. “Maybe I should get your mom.”
“They’re probably just playing some kind of prank,” said Lisa, shaking the flashlight once more. “We should close the hatch on them.”
“Or better yet,” Stacy said. “We can leave and pull the gangway up. That’ll teach them.”
The girls finally gave up and lay back on the deck, talking and laughing.
William slowly stepped back behind Ryan and stared fearfully at the large, fuzzed mound sitting before them in the dark, dank space. “Do you think it’s alive?” he whispered.
Ryan, knife at the ready, said daringly, “Let’s find out!”
William swallowed hard and followed his friend forward.
Slowly, the boys moved into the bedroom size cavern. Their light beams crisscrossed each other, cutting holes in the blackness before them. Eerie shadows from the free hanging roots danced around the walls.
Suddenly, pain shot through William’s shoulder. “Ahh!” he cried, jerking free of his assailant and ripping his shirt in the process. He jumped back, putting distance between him and his assailant. “Who is that?” he screamed. “What do you want?” The beam from his headlamp streaked wildly across the cavern’s pitted and pocked earthen walls as he searched in vain for his attacker.
Ryan quickly joined in the search, swinging his flashlight beam in William’s direction. His light suddenly shone on the culprit. A piece of William’s shirt hung from his assailer’s grip. Ryan laughed heartily. Glaring back at him was an external electrical wall outlet, complete with light switch, to which a shred of William’s shirt was snagged.
William took a deep breath, trying to lower his heart rate. “Shoot!” he complained. “That was a good shirt.” He snapped the switch up. A wall light flickered momentarily and crackled on. The boys squinted as their eyes adjusted to the illumination. They now spun and turned their attention to the beast in the middle of the room.
Directly before them heavily covered in dust and grit sat a large enshrouded object. Ryan wiped some of the filth from the covering and presented it to William with a smirk.
William shrugged. “Well, it looked like fur to me.”
To the right of the object, just beyond the light switch, and carved into the wall was a small settee. Two recessed shelves were cut into the wall on either side of the settee. The shelves as well as the settee itself were fitted with slabs of wood. The rest of the room was barren.
Ryan moved in on the object.
William plopped down on the settee’s wood slab, his gaze frozen on the crumpled mound. Two small dust clouds billowed out from beneath his backside.
Cautiously, his muscles tight, Ryan grabbed the edge of the tarp and shot William a look. “Here we go!” He gave a hard yank. Dust filled the small chamber as the tarpaulin flew overhead and crumpled against the far wall.
The boys coughed and hacked while waving to clear a view through the dense, swirling dust.
The uncovered object came into view and Ryan’s beaming face looked like someone who’d just scratched off a winning lottery ticket.
“Well, that’s certainly not something I expected to see in a cave,” William said, using his two index fingers like windshield wipers to clear the dust from his glasses.
High atop the tree-trimming platform, the girls once again peered down into the dark void in an attempt to see Ryan and William. Their light beams cut through the blackness and skimmed dimly along the section of dirt floor at the bottom of the tree’s hollow.
“You guys better answer, or I’m going to get Dad!” Lisa yelled down.
Suddenly, a cowboy hat floated into view and tilted back, revealing a set of shiny white teeth. Ryan squinted as the beams of light danced across his face. “You gals oughta get down here!” he called up the long, vertical tunnel. “I reckon you’re going to want to see this!” And without another word, he moved sideways, disappearing once again from sight.
“Ryan, wait!” Lisa called.
No answer.
Her face now aglow with excitement, Lisa turned to Stacy, who was staring uneasily back at her. “Well, I guess they found more than dirt!” She swung her legs around and planted her feet on the first rung. “Come on,” she urged. “Let’s see what they’ve discovered.”
Stacy leaned back. “That didn’t sound very tempting to me. I think I’ll stay here.”
“Come on, how bad can it be? William’s still down there, and we know how much of a scaredy-cat he is.”
Stacy giggled. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.” She hopped up, dusted herself off, and prepared to mount the ladder.
Lisa began her descent, staying tight against the rungs. With only her balance and her one good arm to keep herself from falling, she proceeded slowly.
Moments later, Stacy stood next to Lisa at the entrance to the cavern. Both girls appeared mesmerized as they stared at a large, glistening, circular chamber encircled by six rings, each one numbered from zero to nine around its periphery. At the top of the chamber was a lid, and at its bottom a baseplate, each having four rounded lugs jutting out from them, equidistant, and connected to (top to bottom) by four large, telescopic cylinders.
“It looks like something from outer space,” Stacy breathed.
Ryan was on his knees in front of the chamber, eagerly spinning the four mov
able rings, (The top and bottom rings were stationary and did not rotate), while William seemed perplexed as he walked around, searching the object, apparently looking for something specific.
The girls hurried up next to Ryan.
“Wow!” Lisa said, running her hand gently across the shiny, smooth top. “What is this thing?”
“A safe,” was William's muffled reply from somewhere behind the metal monster.
“Really?” Lisa squeaked. “What do you think is in it? And—why would someone put a safe way down here?”
Ryan once again spun the rings. “I have no idea why someone would put a safe inside the bottom of a tree trunk. As far as what’s inside,” he said, with a twinkle in his eye, “I reckon it’s got to be pretty valuable, to need something this secluded and sophisticated.”
“Ooh!” Lisa squealed. “Maybe there’s cash and jewelry in it.”
Ryan shook his head. “Nah, I’m thinking more like gold bars.”
Overhearing Ryan’s comment, William said, “Well then, there must be a lot of them, based on the size of this thing.”
Stacy stepped past Ryan, to the far side of the safe, to look closely at a control box that was mounted to a pole in the ground. Protruding from its face was a smaller button box with two pushbuttons on its face. The top button was labeled UP, and the other button, in the center position, was labeled DOWN. Below this button was an empty space where a third button could possibly have fit. “I don’t know, you guys; maybe it’s not a safe,” she said. “I’ve never seen one like this, before.”
William stood up and looked over the top of safe to Stacy. “Yes, you have, Sis. Remember that movie we saw, where a secret message was hidden inside a Cryptex?”
“Are you telling me this is a large version of that?”
William moved out from behind the safe. “Yes, it’s the same concept. See,” he said, pointing out the various features. “A hollow cylinder surrounded by a combination lock, which will slide open to reveal the contents inside. The only difference is that this one requires power to open it.” He patted the control box.
“Stacy,” Ryan said. “Press that button for me, would ya?”
Stacy looked at the control box and, figuring he meant the UP button, placed her finger on it. “Ready?”
Ryan crossed his fingers. “Go ahead.”
Stacy pushed the button, but the only thing to be heard was a click from the switch. The Cryptex safe remained closed.
“Shucks!” Ryan said, slapping the ground.
Stacy laughed. “Did you really expect that to work?”
Ryan shrugged. “It was worth a shot.”
After another quick look around the top of the Cryptex, William returned sullenly to the settee.
Ryan stood up and wiped his hands on his jeans. “Did you find it?”
William shook his head.
“What about these?” Ryan said, indicating the two stationary rings.
William shook his head again. “No, I still haven’t figured out why those don’t move.”
“Find what?” Stacy asked, sitting down next to her brother.
“An index mark,” William replied.
“Oh!” Stacy said, fully understanding the meaning of this. “Well that’s one way to keep people from getting into it.”
“What are you guys talking about?” Lisa said. “What’s an index mark?”
“You know,” William said, “an indicator for lining up the numbers.” As William talked, his shoulder rubbed on the edge of the wooden shelf he was leaning against, causing it to wiggle and rattle.
Ryan, now sitting atop the Cryptex and listening to the conversation, became somewhat annoyed by the noise. “Willy,” he said, “what’s with all the racket?”
William indicated the shelf. “It’s just this board,” he said, “it’s loose.”
“Well, it’s irritating. See if you can wedge something underneath it.”
“Better yet,” William said, standing up. “I’ll just remove it. It doesn’t need to be there, anyway.” William attempted to slide the shelf from the grooves in the walls. All that happened was that the shelf rattled even more. Bending down, he tried to peer between the wood slab and the earth shelf that it sat on. “Hey, I think there’s a latch here,” he said, shaking the shelf again. “Yeah, there is. I can see it.” He straightened up and began searching the walls. “There’s got to be a release here, somewhere.”
Ryan slid off the safe and came to investigate the shelf, too.
The only protrusion William could find in the vicinity of this shelf was the electrical box and light switch. He began futzing with it. First he pushed, and then he pulled. Next he attempted to slide the box along the wall in every direction, without luck. Finally, he twisted it.
CLUNK! The latch released.
“Ryan, check the shelf now,” William directed.
Ryan pulled the shelf free, revealing a hollowed-out area underneath. He gazed into the man-made recess.
“What’s in there?” Lisa asked, crowding closer.
Ryan rummaged through a small cache of screwdrivers and wrenches. “Just some old tools,” he said, feeling thwarted. Then, in the midst of replacing the shelf, something tucked in a corner caught his attention. He fetched what looked like a pair of metal dog tags. The difference, though, was that they were shaped like the top of the Cryptex safe, and not at all like traditional dog tags.
William saw Ryan remove the tags. “What are those?” he asked, stepping closer for a better look.
“I think they’re machine ID tags,” he said, holding them out in front of him by the small chain binding them together. “There’s another one just like these, mounted on top of the safe. I saw it when I was sitting up there.”
William put his hand out. “Let me have a look.”
Ryan dropped the tags in William’s hand.
William’s first observation was that the two tags were of different colors; one was a silver tone and the other, a gold color. “I don’t think these are ID tags,” he said, after examining them. “The markings don’t look like serial numbers.”
Stacy stood up. “Let me see.”
Lisa stepped over to have a look also.
William spread the tags out in his hand for everyone to see. At the top of the gold tag were the words: Code Key. And below that: CK=7. The silver tag read, Code Resolution: 1CK, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, _G6_, _G7_…
Lisa scrunched up her face. “What does all that mean?”
“It looks like a secret code,” Stacy said.
“Yee haw!” Ryan hollered, slapping his leg. “I bet it leads to the combination.”
William shook his head. “A lot of good that will do without an index mark,” he uttered.
“Oh yeah,” Ryan said, suddenly forlorn. “I plum forgot about that.”
Stacy continued staring at the gold tag. If this is only the key, she thought, then where is the actual cipher, itself? “Ryan,” she said aloud. “Check the other shelf. See if there’s anything under that one.”
Examining the other shelf, Ryan found that it wasn’t fitted into grooves like the first one. It just sat free on top of the earthen shelf. Nor did it have a hollowed-out area beneath it.
Stacy was about to give up on the idea for the moment, when she remembered something that Ryan had said. She looked at him. “Ryan, didn’t you say there was another tag like these?”
“Yeah,” Ryan replied, “in the center of the lid.” He cupped his hands together. “Ya want a boost up so you can see it?”
“No,” Stacy said. “Can you just read it to me?” She knelt down and smoothed out a section of dirt before her with her hand.
Ryan hopped atop the safe once again, in order to see the tag. “All it says is Finch Engineering, and after that, CK – G5.”
Stacy scribbled this information into the dirt with her finger.
Ryan slipped back to the ground. “So, what do ya think?”
“I think we just found the last piece of the p
uzzle,” she said with a triumphant smile. “Now all we have to do is solve it. Hand me those tags.” Without wasting another second, she took the chained tags and began scribbling all of the clues of the Finch cipher into the dirt in front of her.
Ryan and the others looked on, clueless, at Stacy’s scribbles. “Well,” he said, scratching his chin, “while y’all try and figure out the code, I reckon I’ll look around some more to see what else I can dig up.”
Ryan turned his attention back to the settee. His eyes fell on its wooden seat, and he realized that he hadn’t yet tried looking under it. Hoping it was another secret hiding place—and expecting it to be locked—he grabbed hold and gave a little tug, only to find the bench give way and lift free. Peering inside, he found the whole recess filled with pumps, motors and hoses. Momentarily disappointed, he ultimately decided it wasn’t a total loss, shrugged it off and proceeded to probe the equipment for a thorough understanding of the safe’s operation.
Behind Ryan, Stacy continued scribbling various number patterns in the dust and dirt, in an attempt to comprehend and solve the secret code.
Puzzled, Lisa peered down at the clues: CK – G5, CK=7 and 1CK, 11, 21, 1211, 111221, _G6_, _G7_…. “I still don’t get it,” she said to Stacy. “Can you explain it to me again?”
Stacy paused and took a deep breath. “Okay, look,” she said. “The value of seven is being assigned to the variable CK. So, this clue,” she indicates the clue written in the dirt (CK – G5) can be rewritten like this: 7 – G5, or 7 to G5.” Stacy wrote the new designation in the loose dirt.
Lisa’s forehead wrinkles and her brows knit tightly together in concentration. “But that still doesn’t make any sense,” she said.
“The G5 portion of it does,” Stacy replied. “It represents a position.” She pointed to the set of numbers in front of G6. “The only two things I haven’t figured out yet is the pattern to the series of numbers, and how CK relates to the first number in the series. But I’ll get it,” she assured Lisa. “It’s just a matter of time.”
“Oh! Gosh!” Lisa said, checking her watch. “I can’t believe how long we’ve been down here. It’s almost time for dinner. Mom will be looking for us. We’d better go.”