New Secrets

Third Person P.O.V.

'A highee ho ho to you for discovering my secret journal! No doubt you already found my magnetic key that unlocks my needle and the rooms. Keep my secrets safe - especially from the Mounties and those rascally squirrels. Devious varmints!'

"This guy may be a little nuts." Tigress said, and Po let out a small laugh.

Donnie turned the page and the pictures on the next two pages caught his attention.

"Whoa!"

"What is it?"

"Look at this."

He showed everyone the images.

"Is that a map?"

"Judging from the text... They're vaults and this is a map of what they look like. However, we won't be able to fit through them. We need an animal smaller than us."

"Like Isis?"

"Let's not cross that bridge yet. We still need to figure out how to get in."

"The journal has a way. 'The first thing you need to do is crack my cipher below - or just follow the Moose, Wolf, Racoon, and Mary!' Who's Mary?"

"Let me see the cipher."

Donnie handed her the journal and she looked at the rest of the message.

"Odds are, Trapper Dan came up with this code on his own. It's one that nobody knows how to crack."

"Yet."

She looked up at him.

"Nobody knows how to crack 'yet'. With our heads put together, we can crack this code."

"That's gonna be a long code to yet, Donnie."

"I've dealt with tougher. We'll handle it."

"Okay, you two do that. Po and I will figure out what else to do to crack this mystery."

Leo and Po left the bedroom and started going in the other rooms.

"Okay, we have one object: the rag Ollie uses. We need objects that Bill Kessler, Lou Talbot, and Yanni touched so Isis can sort the smells."

"Got it."

"I'll go look in Yanni's room."

Leo went into the room and began looking around for anything that could help Isis. When he checked the moose decoration on the wall, he put his hand on the antler and it moved a tiny bit.

"What the-?"

He pulled on it and a secret compartment opened up. It revealed a hidden radio and a coin.

"This radio must belong to Yanni, but what's he hiding it for?

Leo put the radio back and grabbed the Moose coin. He put in the pocket of his pants and left to go see Yanni. Once he saw Yanni...

"Hey Yanni, I need to ask you something."

"How can I help you?"

"There's a radio hidden in your room. Do you know about that?"

"How did you find out about that?"

"I was cleaning your room earlier, and when I cleaned the moose head, the antlers moved and the secret compartment opened up. Now you answer my question."

"I use that radio to communicate with my coaches. It's a special radio - it scrambles the signal so that my competitors cannot listen in."

"How did you know it was there?"

"The first night I was here, I searched for bugs, something which, due to the cunning of my competitors, I have become very good at. I discovered that by pushing on the moose eye, a compartment opened up. What I don't know is, did you really open that compartment by mistake, or were you up to something else? How do I know you are not working for them?"

"If I was working for the competition, why would I be telling you about the radio right now?"

"Who else have you told about the radio?"

"Nobody."

"I believe you. So if I find out that you're lying? Both of us will be very sorry."

"Got any proof your competitors are spying on you?"

"When one has enemies, it's prudent to assume that they are always close by. They are here, Leo. Make no mistake."

"Thanks for your time."

"Que veitchy naeia."

Leo then left the basement and saw Po coming down the steps.

"Didn't find anything."

"Well, there's one lead we have yet to follow."

"What's that?"

Leo pulled out his T-phone and displayed the picture he took back at the cabin.

"Oh yeah, that number."

Leo went to the counter and dialed the phone. He then put it on speaker.

**Phone ringing**

"You have reached the office of Dr. Nikki Sabatini, professor of geology at the University of Alberta Camrose. At the sound of the beep -"

**Phone gets picked up**

"No, no, disregard all that. I'm here. Who's this?"

"Hi, my name is Leo and I work here at Icicle Creek Lodge. I recently found a device that had your phone number, but it looked damaged."

"Describe the device."

"It has a spike on one end of it and-"

"Well, I'll be darned. Where did you say you found it?"

"Well... Someone's dog used it as a chew toy. She found it outside of a cabin somewhere. You know what it is?"

"It's a geophone. Someone stole a whole crate 'em from me when I was out in Skookum Ridge not too long ago."

"What's a geophone?" Leo asked

"If you stick it into the ground, a geophone'll detect seismic waves and turn 'em into electric signals which are then transmitted to a computer so they can be recorded and eventually interpreted. It lets geologists like me make maps of mineral deposits and such without doing any digging. See, I was preparing to do a subsurface survey of the area using seismology. I set up camp, stored all my equipment in a trailer, went into town for supplies, and when I came back, the trailer had been broken into and all my geophones were gone. I was gonna be the first person to do a full geological survey of the Icicle Creek Lodge drainage and the ridges surrounding it. Got grant money and everything. The person who ripped off my equipment sure screwed that up for me. If I ever get my hands on him? Ooo!"

"You didn't see who stole your equipment?"

"It was snowing, so there were no tracks, so I don't know if he came by car, or snowmobile, or on foot or what. I'm assuming it was a guy, because he only took the geophones, so he must've known what they were and how to use them, and since not that many women are into explosives..."

"Explosives?"

That got Po and Leo's attention, since explosions had been happening.

"The seismic waves the geophones detect are man-made. You detonate something on the surface of the ground, and the concussion creates seismic waves which bounce off different geological features differently, depending on the impedance of the feature. The reflected waves are what the geophones detect and transmit."

"So, in other words, you have to blow things up to use the geophones?"

"Correct."

"Interesting... So if someone were looking for valuable mineral deposits, they might use geophones to do it?"

"If someone had the technical expertise, yes. Although, reflection seismology is more typically employed to locate deposits of hydrocarbons, like oil and gas."

"What types of minerals can be found near the Icicle Creek Lodge drainage?"

"All kinds of deposits - silver, lead, uranium, molybdenum... I love that word. Molybdenum. I think that's why I became a geologist, just so I'd have a reason to say molybdenum. Anyway, if you come across any more of my geophones, or anything that would indicate who stole them, please, please, please, let me know."

"Will do, ma'am."

"Good."

"Do you know anything about dino bones?"

"Precious little, I'm afraid. I know it's possible to find good specimens in Alberta, particularly in your area, but beyond that paleontology's not really my thing. All my paleo pals are currently off digging in the dirt on the other side of the world, so I'm afraid I can't refer you to anyone, either."

"Are the bones good for anything?"

"Other than studying? If you're a scientist, no, but because they're obviously rare, a lot of people collect them. In fact, I understand there's a pretty big black market on them."

"Black market? You mean people pay for dinosaur bones?"

"People pay big money for them."

"Interesting. Well thank you for taking time to answer my questions."

"One more thing. All of my geophones were hard-wired to transmit at 990 kilohertz. So if you find any kind of receiver tuned to that frequency, check it out, because it could very well belong to the thief. Bye!"

**Call is Disconnected**

"Well that certainly explains a lot."

"I may not understand all that geology talk, but I understood the part where they only work if you cause the explosions." Po spoke

"Yeah, all those explosions that have been happening, someone is digging for minerals around the Lodge. Question is who?"

"Whoever it is, they're also the causing accidents around here to cover it up. The sauna, stairs, lake incident, food poisoning."

"Someone's going to extremes. I wrote down the frequency Dr. Sabatini told us, and if she's right, her thief is our culprit."

"Let's tell Donnie and Tigress."

The two ran back upstairs to the room and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?"

"It's us, Po and Leo."

Tigress opened the door and let them in. Once the door closed, Po and Leo filled them in the conversation they had with Sabatini.

"So the explosions is someone mining for mineral deposits."

"Without a doubt. That busted machine is a geophone and the vibrations it detects have to be man-made."

"Like an explosion going off."

"What about the incidents at the Lodge?"

"A cover-up so nobody finds out. Whoever knocked us out at the lake, they're the one causing the chaos."

"How's the decoding coming along?"

"Making progress, but not entirely there yet. This cipher is complex, more complex than we thought."

"As cold as it was earlier, I doubt it'll warm up enough for us to go out. We stay here at the Lodge."

"Right." the others said.

Leo and Po left again, but Leo went to the front desk and called Pinevale Hospital. He asked the answering nurse, Nurse Blake, about Julius McQuade (aka Trapper Dan). She remembered him well, but told Leo he died of Viral Pneumonia less than 24 hours after being admitted on Christmas Eve. They weren't able to locate next of kin since all he had was the clothes on his back.

"Thanks for the information, ma'am."

"Sorry the news couldn't have been better. Goodbye, dear."

"Hey Leo, Got anything? I got squat."

"Yeah, Trapper Dan died of Viral Pneumonia less than 24 hours after being admitted in the hospital."

"So Isis doesn't have a companion?"

"At least until she met us."

"Anything else?"

"When I searched Yanni's room," Leo whispered "I found a radio hidden in the walls of his room. He says it's to communicate with his coaches so his enemies don't know. He was very suspicious of me when I told him I found it cleaning his room."

"Well the guy does have good reason to be skeptical."

"Yeah, well, why hide the radio?"

"Can't we ask him?"

"Not without him getting suspicious of us. For now, let's keep this a secret. We'll fill Donnie and Tigress in later, once they're done decoding the cipher."

"Right." Po then looked at the clock.

"I should get started preparing dinner for everyone. Oh, Leo, can you come with me for a sec?"

"Okay?"

Leo followed Po to the kitchen and when they were inside...

"Get these to Donnie and Tigress, and get their orders."

"Gotcha."

Po gave Leo a couple menus and he hid them in his clothes. He got them to Donnie and Tigress, they gave Leo written notes of their orders, and Leo got them to Po. Po made dinner for everyone and soon everyone was eating. While they were eating, Donnie slipped Leo a note that said: "Almost done decoding. By tomorrow, we should have the cipher decoded." Leo showed Po the note and told him to keep silent about it.

Eventually night came and everyone went to sleep. By tomorrow, the Cluefinders should get some more answers on this case.

Author's Note: Hope you enjoyed the chapter and please review.