YOU BELONG WITH ME, steve harrington.

042.

JUNE 30TH, 1985
📍scoops ahoy
20:49 PM

"i mean.. it just.. it just can't be right," steve stated as he pulled the stutters down and closed scoops.

they'd stayed late finishing the translation of the russian code, eventually getting the message 'the week is long, the silver car feeds, when blue meets yellow in the east.' it was only half of the recording, but it was all they had time to translate today.

"it's right," robin told him.

"honestly, i think it's great news," dustin said as the group began to walk through the empty mall.

"how is this great news?" steve chuckled. "i mean, so much for being american heroes. it's total nonsense."

"sad you don't get all the ladies you want and more, steve?" josie teased, making the boy roll his eyes.

"it's not nonsense," dustin replied. "it's too specific. it's obviously a code."

"what do you mean, a code?" steve asked.

"like a super secret spy code," he answered.

"that's a total stretch," he stated.

"is it? with the things we've seen?" josie said in response. "secret russian spies are hard for you to grasp?"

"listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret russian transmission," robin commented. "what's you think they were gonna say, 'fire the warhead at noon'? and my translation is correct. i know that for sure, so... 'the silver cat feeds', why would anyone talk like that unless they're trying to mask the true meaning of their message?"

"exactly," dustin nodded.

"and why would anyone wanna mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?"

"exactly."

"so i guess that confirms your suspicion."

"evil russians," dustin shrugged.

robin laughed lightly. "i can't believe i'm about to agree with this strange child, but, yeah, totally evil russians."

"so, how do we crack it?"

"get josie and robin to do it. clearly they're the smart ones seeing as we just sat there useless for hours," steve remarked.

"hey! i'm smart," dustin defended.

"i guess josie and i translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges," robin shrugged.

"a pattern. right, like maybe 'silver cat' is a meeting place?"

"or a person," josie suggested.

"or a weapon," dustin finished.

"despite mine and josie's excellent brains, it's probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, but.. where's steve?" robin asked. they turned around and saw the boy a few meters behind them, stood in front of a toy horse.

"steve, what are you doing?" josie called to him.

"uh, it's a quarter. i need— do you have a quarter, jos?"

the girl dug in her pockets as she approached him, before pulling out a quarter and throwing it to him.

"you sure you're tall enough for that ride?" robin teased.

ignoring her, steve put the coin into the machine and an eery song began to echo through the mall.

"you need help getting up, little stevie?" she asked.