The Academy (Part 2 of the Syndicate Series)

Chapter 10- The Childhood Code

"But a code might be obvious if Hugo found it in the bag."

"Maybe a decoy note? We write one and put it where my father will find it, because we know he'll go through it, and we hide a second one in a better place so that he'll stop looking after the first one."

Blaise nodded, "What about both? I'm so paranoid that we're going to get caught and make things worse for her.... Or anyone back here."

I looked at him with raised eyebrows, "We both know my father isn't the brightest bulb, I think the two of us can pull this off against him. But we can play it safe and do both."

"What about that one we developed when we had that awful au pair?"

I knew what he was talking about. It wasn't much of a code in the traditional sense- it wasn't so much as the message hidden among the letters as it was the details hidden on the letters. Penmanship changed everything- it required a normal message, and every letter had to be carefully crafted. The letters you needed to note were the ones that were broken.

It could be an 'A' where the points didn't meet, a 'T' that isn't crossed all of the way, an 'O' that doesn't close all of the way. The hardest were the letters without points. Something like a 'C' could be indicated by a flick on the tail, but you had to look more closely. Once you identified all of the broken letters, they would make their own message. For someone that didn't know your handwriting, it wasn't something you focused on. Sometimes the simple methods worked the best.

Finding out what we actually wanted to say, and how to fit those letters in best, took us a couple of drafts and revisions before we got it right. By the end, we had both written small paragraphs that hid similar messages: we were both alright, but we couldn't do anything to break her out of that school unless she could tell us where she was. I threw in a short piece as well, one that told her to stay on the lookout for the possible Russians, since I knew they were working with my father.

We wanted to hide it somewhere that she would notice, but nothing my father would notice. I briefly considered ripping out the bottom panel, sliding in the note, and then sewing it back up, but Blaise made the good point that she might not find it if she didn't already know we were going to send a second note. Instead, I folded it until it was a small piece that could be forced into her shoe. I placed it between the fabric on the tongue and then pulled the laces tight, using the edges of the fabric to cover the paper. Anyone looking at the shoes or shaking it wouldn't notice, but she would feel it the moment she pushed her foot into it.

We added our decoy as well, placing it on the very top and her shoes snugly on the bottom. The letter on top was much more optimistic, probably what my father expected seeing as we weren't supposed to know everything he had done to Rosine. It was mostly well wishes, saying that we hoped she was making new friends and learning a lot.

I finally zipped it up, taking a step back. Blaise rubbed his hand across my shoulders before pulling me a step closer, so that my back was pressed to his chest as he reassured me, "This is going to work."

"That was our most common code when we were kids, she should understand it. My biggest concern is how she plans to contact us in return. Without her phone, who knows what she might have access to."

"Your sister is smart," He tried his best to sooth my mind, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. "Rosine will find a way."

Across the house, I heard the breakfast bell ring. We walked down together, deciding not to bring up the bag now, to just eat and not convince my father to do things. By now most of the house probably noticed that we didn't really go anywhere without each other, but I doubt all of them realized it was a precautionary measure because we were scared of what could happen while we were separated.