Decoded
Mark, Courtney, and Bobby all huddled around the chip-like board, puzzled at the unusual letter. "The first word has an apostrophe," Mark observed. "It looks like it starts with an I. After all, what other letter can fit before the apostrophe?"
The rest murmured in acknowledgement. "So let's replace all the J's with I's. Let me get a piece of paper or something to edit this code," Courtney said.
As she turned her back to find a sheet of paper, she heard Bobby gasp in surprise. "Courtney, don't get that paper just yet," he commanded. "I don't think we'd be needing it." As Courtney took a look at the board, she realized that as Bobby rubbed his finger over the J, the letter completely rubbed off. They also noted a small pointy tool, like the pen of a palm pilot. When Bobby took the pen and scratched it on the board, a mark appeared wherever the pen touched.
"How convenient," Courtney muttered. So through this method, they replaced all the J's with I's. As he completed each I, the characters seemed to glow a light blue. Now the code looked like this:
I'MM CF XBIUIOH BU DSZQUP
- TBIOU EBOF
"Oh, now we know exactly what the code means," Courtney said in a sarcastic tone. "We're getting nowhere."
"Wait up, guys. See this double m? What other letter follows an I'?" Bobby asked.
"L is the only letter I can come up with," Courtney finally spoke after she ran through the alphabet in her head.
"Exactly! So we got the first word."
"'I'll'," Courtney read. "I'll what?
"Hey! I get it!" Mark suddenly exclaimed so loudly that Bobby almost jumped out of his seat. "Look at this," he started. "See, first we changed the J to an I. Then we changed the M to an L. See the pattern between these two sets of numbers?" Bobby raised his eyebrow, wondering what his best friend was getting at. After a moment of awkward silence, Mark finally shouted, "You bimbos! Use your brains! In the alphabet, what's the letter before J? And what's the letter before M? There's a pattern!"
"Ah hah! I see the light!" Courtney responded.
"Nice thinking, Mark. Then we can finish this code in no time." In a few minutes, after changing each letter as they glowed bright blue, they read their decoded message:
I'LL BE WAITING AT CRYPTO
- SAINT DANE
"I'll be waiting at Crypto," Bobby read aloud. His hand trembled as he held the board tightly in his hands. His eyebrows furrowed, and his eyes narrowed. "Saint Dane," he finished just as the board cracked.