Chapter Twenty: A Key to Communication

Tia's POV

Within a matter of weeks, the team was gathered together. They were informed of the journey ahead and the first of the three cases that we were looking to solve. We'd get into the second one after we figured out what was going on with the Kraken sightings. Everything was set up for us to embark in the morning, or at least I thought it had been.

"So, why'd you wait this long to tell me Peter finally reached out?" I asked Mole, crossing my arms and leaning against the desk in the study. The four of us, Mole, Vinny, Audrey, and I were holding an impromptu meeting about the events that had occurred while I was away.

"The situation was handled, I didn't see a reason to bother you about it." Mole responded, "He's with Will now and he's pretty adamant about staying."

I took a deep breath and told him, "Alright, as soon as we return from Atlantis, write to Cassandra, Wesley, and Declan; we'll need them if Peter is going to stay."

"You're going to train him…" Mole surmised.

"There isn't anyone who lives in that house, other than Olivia, who isn't part of the society." I replied. Mole opened his mouth to retort, but I spoke up before he could say anything, "He's thirteen, he's not too young to start. Plus, he has to finish his education, he won't be doing anything remotely dangerous until then. We also have to figure out where his skills lie so that we know what types of missions to send him on." I then looked at Vinny and Audrey, so I could address their topic, "Did you bring the papers and journal with you so that I can see them? I might be able to at least figure out what type of cipher we're dealing with."

Vinny opened his satchel, taking out the papers, and handing them to me. Looking through the notes, it seemed that there was only cipher that seemed to make sense for the encryption of this text.

"It's an Ottendorf Cipher." I told them plainly, handing back the papers and journal.

"And that is?" Audrey asked.

"Can I get one of the papers back?" I asked Vinny, who nodded and handed me one of the papers, I held up the paper and started to explain, "Each one of the three numbers corresponds to a word and a key in a book, newspaper article, letter, and so on. The first number is the page number in the key text, the second number is line on the page, and the third number is the letter in the line." I explained, handing Vinny back the paper, "Find any books or anything in the lab? Without the key, these are pretty useless."

"No." Vinny shook his head.

"You don't remember-"

"I was eight when they died." I cut her off, "No, I'm not going to remember things like books he read. We'll figure it out when we get back, we have to keep focused on the mission ahead. Get some sleep, everyone, tomorrow will be a long day."

Audrey nodded and then she and Mole left. Vinny stayed behind, moving next to me, leaning against the desk. After a few awkward moments of silence, Vinny spoke up, "It's a book; the key to the cipher is a book. We found the passage through the lab, one of the books was a latch and it opened secret door hidden in the fireplace. We gave up trying to get through the other entrance and started looking for alternate ways inside. I had a feeling if your father had been anything like you, he'd put an entrance in the library."

"Out of all of the clichés…" I shook my head, "What was the book?"

"A hollowed out copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales."

I looked at him with a slight smirk, "I'm betting if can get a copy of the anthology, we can decode those papers and the journal now."

"Then what are we waiting for?" He stepped away from the desk.

"You remember what the copy of book looked like?"

Vinny nodded.

"Then let's see if we can find it." I smiled and we headed to the library.

Vinny's POV

We searched the library for the next four hours top to bottom to no avail. While Professor Whitmore had Grimm's Fairy Tales, he didn't have the specific copy we had been searching for.

"Why don't we call it a night?" I suggested, "We can always look for the book later. It'll be easier now that we know what it looks like."

"You know, you don't have to help find the book." She replied, "I believe Mole had you and Audrey help get into the laboratory."

"He asked us to work with the inventions too and I'll need the decoded notes to do that." I countered, "So it doesn't look like you'll be getting rid of me that easily, especially when I have more reasons than an invitation from Mole to stick around."

"Well, you won't hear any complaints from me."

"I probably will and I'm okay with that." I replied, "As long as you're okay with me staying."

"I think I'd be alright with that."