Chapter Ten

After sending for the packages from the London storage unit, Tanya booted up her laptop and shot an email off to Ben, asking for a copy of the page in question. Minutes later, she recieved a message which read, "Encryption courtesy of Riley." She couldn't help but smirk, and then she opened the attachment. After several pop-ups that either asked about options or loaded x, y, or z, the image popped up.

Carefully, she enchanced the image, making sure the symbols were as clear as possible. Her eyes were fixed on a solitary symbol, a stylized version of the Three Legs, above the first section of text. When nothing more could be done to improve the image quality, she zoomed in.

Tanya picked a notebook and pen off the coffee table, opened it to the first clean page, and copied down the symbol text on the screen, double-checking each and every one. Mistranslations and mis-copies led to dead ends, in her experience. Every symbol had to be copied exactly.

She stared at the stylized Three Legs she had copied onto the notebook paper. It led to a symbol key and translated to a symbol on that key that would lead to another key. There was definitely more than one layer of code. But the key this symbol led to... She rubbed her brow, trying to remember exactly where she'd seen that symbol before. She'd gone over the keys in the journals for her hobby, that the President had found through some techie working for him-she had no idea how she felt about that-but she found nothing that was marked like this. Was this a top-secret key only Damien and Amelia, or some other Howe, used? If so, it would have to be written somewhere, at the very least as a reference, but then it would've been burned, unless it was needed again.

So many what-ifs, no way to investigate them or even begin to, until her boxes arrived, somewhere around the first part of the next month. She closed her computer and pulled the cord out of its plug. Best to leave as little trace as possible. Whatever she didn't save would be deleted in a few minutes. As for the paper copy, she ripped it out and tossed it into a corner of the closet in case anyone showed up. She returned to the sofa and sent Riley a text message: 'have anything?'

'nada,' he replied. 'you?'

'I know what key to use, but I can't remember where it is.'

'that sucks.'

'maybe ian will know.'

'you think?'

'yeah.'

Riley fell silent on the other end of the phone line, so she settled onto the couch dialled a number.

NTNT

Ian closed the folder and set it on Sadusky's desk, looking at the man in question, who had leaned forward and laced his fingers in front of him. "That accurate?"

"You're missing the bit about how particulary he is about which car he uses to go where," Ian replied. "The Bentley for his hobby, the Mercedes for his official employment, the Honda for his second job, the Hummer is lent to his employees, and the Lamborghini for business trips. He's so particular, in fact, that once, his Mercedes had to be repaired. He refused to go anywhere near his office, or even leave the house except for certain matters, until the car was returned to him." Ian smirked and shook his head softly.

"Alright," Sadusky said with a nod. "I'll be sure to note it."

Ian nodded. "Anything else?"

"Picture this: You're new to the country, your intentions are criminal, possibly homicidal, and you need a place to stay that's close to your prey. Where is it?"

"Within a block or two radius of the prey's residence, where I won't be strip-searched and checked over every time I enter and exit the building, a place where people don't ask questions, and where no one would be willing to talk to police."

"Alright."

"Around Tanya's apartment, that would be a warehouse on Fifth Street." Sadusky raised his eyebrows. "It's part of the identity she chose for herself, a whole area full of apartment complexes." He nodded in understanding.

"Well, we'll check it out."

Ian nodded. "Anything else?"

"Nope, not yet." Ian nodded again, and he stood to leave.

Sadusky's phone rang. "Hello? Uh-huh." He held the phone out to Ian. "It's for you."

Ian took the phone and said, "Howe."

"Ian, I've got a question for you," Tanya said. "Do you recognize the stylized Three Legs symbol?"

"Three Legs? Where did you see that?"

"On our latest project."

"Is it a swirl-ish-looking thing where the legs are hardly distinguishable?"

"Yes," she said slowly. "You know it?"

"Nathaniel has the symbol key."

Tanya muttered a few swear words, blending them together in an obvious effort to find the right word for her feelings. "If he gets his hands on the page, he could decode it, and he'll get to the end of this before we've even gotten off the ground," she finally managed. "Ian, you know what this means."

"Very well. Very, very well. I'll start as soon as I can."

"Alright. What's your directive for me?"

"Get an airline ticket and some addresses to Powell. As long as Nathaniel's here, he won't be influencing the help to hide anything from one of us."

"Alright."

"Good luck and be careful. Oh, and keep calm and carry on."

"You, too, Ian. You, too."

He nodded, hung up, and handed the phone back to Sadusky. "Any chance I can come with you when you raid that warehouse? There's something I want to find."

NTNT

Tanya called Powell soon after Ian hung up. He answered after two rings. "Just got word from Ian," she said. "He wants you to fly to London and search both the Howe home and...and Fifteen-Seventy Broad River Road."

"You're out of your bloody mind," Powell replied.

"Not my orders, Ian's. I'm just acting as the messenger, so if you want to shoot me, you have Ian to deal with, and you're not really supposed to kill a messenger anyway. I'm digressing. I'll get your flight worked out. I just need to know how much time you think you'd need."

"You're serious about this."

"He has a symbol key that we need, and we all know asking him for it is out of the question."

"So if I do go through with this, I'm looking for a bunch of papers I can't read?"

"Something like that, yes. Actually a page marked by a stylized Three Legs."

Powell sighed. "Since it's Ian asking, and since he's the beneficiary on my life insurance policy, I'll need about a week."

"Alright, you'll have the ticket as soon as I can get it to you."

"Thank you."

"Good luck."

"I'll have something."

"Right," she said softly before she hung up. Then she returned to the computer, booted it up again, and began searching for flights.