The 39 Clues: Lost Clue

Chapter 4: Decrypting

"I'm happy to say that our B-2s managed to intercept and decommission the Ekat planes without harming the pilots," said Clare Trine just as we walked in.

Clare was a senior Madrigal agent who had faithfully served the Madrigals in the spycatcher/molecatcher department since her late teens. Now, 83 years of age, she was still an active clue hunter and peacekeeper and held a high rank in the Madrigal leadership.

"Anyway, how did you get this place set up in just three months?" I asked.

"Let's just say that we have contacts in Russia," she said. "That made this job five times easier."

We were in the brightly lit main office. There were a couple of desks with laptops and documents in the middle of the room. There were also several doors lining the walls on our sides marked "offices", "security room", "lab", "meeting room" and "lavatory".

"Wow, but I don't see any security measures," said Amelia. "Except the fingerprint scanner on the door outside.

"There's more than meets the eye," said Clare. "The phone duct taped to the entrance is rigged to emit disruptive radio waves to foil any Cahill sensors. However, a drawback is that we can't use Bluetooth. And there's more."

Clare smirked as she pressed a tiny button under one desk. Heavy metal bars came sliding down. Ceiling boards slid open to reveal traps. A floorboard flipped open to reveal the entrance to a secret underground bunker. I suddenly noticed a desktop monitor showing the feed from 20 CCTV cameras inside and outside the shop house/Madrigal stronghold.

"Wow. This. Is. Cool," I said.

Clare pressed the button again and all the metal bars retracted. The ceiling boards slid back and the floorboard flipped shut.

"We'd better get down to why we're here," she said, lowering her voice. "As you know, a vital lost clue is sealed up somewhere in Volgograd. The Tomas themselves are not even sure where it is. The only clue they have is a postcard from 1970s in mint condition. The owner was the last person alive who knew of the lost Clue. It is a myth that the person buried a Clue in the wording of the postcard."

"Wait, I took a picture of the postcard. The Holts were analysing it on the plane," I explained.

I took out the Multipurpose Cluehunter Device. I hooked it up to the laptop sitting on Clare's desk. I clicked on File Explorer and clicked USB Drive: G. I then clicked on the folder labelled as "images" and clicked on IMG4. The image of the postcard filled the screen of the Dell laptop.

The trip to Paris will cost $400, AT MOST. I'm currently at Vichy and will depart for Paris Tomorrow. My friend Mr. CLOVE will bring me to the airport. The INN I stayed in in Vichy was nice. I hope my dog EDOG is doing well under your care. The porch must have STANK when you cleaned it.

To:

56 Penstreet Lot 241C

63450 Reykjavík

Iceland

"Wow, that's really bad grammar. Must have STANK?" said Amelia.

"And does Penstreet even exist? What kind of postcard is this?" I said.

"Do you have any shots of the back?" asked Clare.

I minimised the image of the postcard and clicked on IMG5. A picture of the Eiffel Tower showed up but the top of the tower was not in the picture. There was a message. "P.S. Subtract one TONES from the pile if it's too heavy." The word "subtract" was circled.

"I get that whoever wrote this has really bad English," said Amelia who pride herself on having impeccable English. "What pile is this person talking about and it should be TON, not TONNES which isn't even spelt correctly!"