Helping the Wolves (Madison Joshi and the Wolves series- Book 2)

|16| Madison

"The only clue we have gotten so far from the matefinder is to play jumbled words," Maddy thought out aloud.

Xander snorted. "Jumbled words?"

Maddy realized that she still hadn't told them about how the matefinder had quickly and absurdly switched topics to play a game of jumbled words. She quickly filled them in what had happened. "She was so intent on playing the game that it has to be some sort of clue or indication. It's the only lead we have so I think we should just play a game of jumbled words and see what happens."

The four of them sat on Xander's bed. Jeremy got up to get a paper and pen. Once they all were ready, the game started. Everybody took a chance one by one to give a jumbled word while the others tried to guess what the word was. As they kept on playing, the game started getting more and more intense. Alexa was leading, with Maddy, Xander and Jeremy only a few steps behind.

"Paws! That's the answer," Alexa shouted and started jumping up and down and pumping her fists before Xander could even finish writing the jumbled word. She was proving to be extremely good at this game.

Xander shook his head. Maddy frowned and stared at the letters. The word given was pswa. It was clearly the word paws.

"It's swap," Maddy said excitedly.

Once again, Xander shook his head. That left everyone bamboozled.

"What else can be made?" Jeremy asked out loud. "Waps? Spaw? Awps?"

Finally, Xander grinned. "The word is 'wasp'. I win this round!"

Immediately Alexa and Maddy started arguing with Xander.

"It spells swap too. I should get a point."

"Hell no. I was the one who told paws first. I get the point."

"Guys," Jeremy said with a grin. When no on listened to him, he shouted louder. "Guys!"

Immediately the three of them shut up and turned to Jeremy.

"I think I figured it out," Jeremy said excitedly. "Just the way wasp, paws and swap have the same letters, maybe there is some sort of secret message in a similar way.

Think about it. If the word pswa was written on a piece of paper or something we would think that it is a code and try to figure it out. But if the word swap is written on the paper, we wouldn't think twice about it because it is an actual English word when in reality it might have a code word for paws or wasp. Similarly, some word must be written somewhere which is a code word for another word."

"So, we might be already having a clue with us but we didn't know that it a clue. If we can figure out which word is the code, then we might have an actual lead," Xander says.

"I'll go bring my bag," Maddy said, her voice was filled with excitement. "The code could be engraved on my dagger or on the books that I got from the safehouse."

Maddy rushed to her room. She had been procrastinating unpacking her bag even though she had very few things so she still had everything in her bag. She grabbed the bag and went over to Xander's room.

She quickly sat on the bed and unzipped her bag. Maddy had never been an organized packer, so it was no surprise that the interior of her bag was a complete mess. There was no way she would find anything in there. Maddy turned the bag upside down on the bed and all the items in her bag fell on the bed.

Her clothes were in another zip, so Maddy wasn't worried about Xander and Jeremy catching an eyeful of her underwear and bra. However, there were a lot of stuff in her bag that she didn't remember packing. All the things that she had gotten from the safehouse including the rubber bands, the business card and paper clips were also in the bag. Maddy distinctly remembered deciding to not bring them along but in her absentmindedness, she must have put them in.

Maddy grabbed the dagger and started inspecting the dagger while Jeremy, Xander and Alexa looked though the various books.

"Maddy?" Alexa called out suddenly. "Where did you get this?" Alexa was holding the business card of the Dekart Mark company.

Maddy frowned. "I got it from the storage room in the safehouse when I was being kept there. Why?"

"That's it!" Alexa shouted so loudly that Xander nearly dropped the book that he was holding. "Can't you see? Dekart Mark rearranged literally spells Dark Market when you rearrange the letters. That too it's a shipping company. They must have used this company to ship Leia to India."

Maddy grabbed the card and inspected it herself. Dekart Mark did spell Dark Market when the letters were rearranged. It was so simple! How could she have not noticed it?

"There is a number given. We should call them. They can give us the information we need."

The entire room was buzzing with energy. They were so close. All they needed to do was call up the number, manipulate them into thinking that they were working with the rogues and then they could get the exact location of where Leia was being kept. "I'll call now."

Xander frowned. "I'll be the one to speak not you."

Maddy glared at Xander. Now was not the time to play the 'I am the Alpha' card. "Tooth-necklace lady was the leader of the rogues over there. If anyone would be communicating with the company, it would be her. We need a female to speak. Alexa hasn't heard Tooth-necklace lady so she won't be able to imitate her voice. I am the best person to do this."

On seeing that Xander still wasn't convinced, Maddy decided to negotiate. "Don't worry, I'll put the phone on speaker so you will be able to hear everything."

Reluctantly, Xander agreed. With trembling fingers, Maddy entered the number on her new phone. The phone rang thrice before someone picked it up from the other end.

"Hello?" the voice said.