Page 49 of Hide and Seek

“Yup.” He taps on one of the keys and spins around to face us again. “You were right about the file.” He shoots me a quick look. “I won’t go into the specifics?—”

“Thanks for that,” Xave interrupts. “I already feel like a dumbass around you guys on a good day. Your computer-speak makes me feel like I have the brain power of a paperclip.”

“Like I was saying.” Jace chucks a pen at Xave, who deflects it so it skitters across the floor. “You were right.” Jace flicks his gaze to me. “It was him, and it wasn’t just tracked. It’s got layers of encryption on it.”

“Can you unseal it?”

“I have a program running right now.” He uses his foot to swing his chair in a slow arc. “It’sreallyhard to say this, but the kid is brilliant. He didn’t just encrypt it. He incorporated a code into it.”

“Code? Like computer code?” Xave asks.

“No, like a cipher. I have to solve the code and find the key before I can even start decrypting it.”

I sit up straighter. “What kind of code?”

“That’s the thing. It’s not like any code I’ve ever seen.” He rocks back and forth in his chair. “It looks like an affine cipher, but on crack.”

“So it’s not just a simple substitution?” I ask.

He shakes his head. “I’m not looking for a single key. I need an equation to unlock the key, then it should be a simple substitution to get the real key so I can plug that into the encryption and unlock it.”

“Describe it to me.”

“Numerical code in blocks of number clusters.”

“Are the blocks ascending in value?” I ask.

“Looks like it.”

“How many number clusters?” I ask, picturing the different puzzles and items in Myles’s room.

He spins around and types on his keyboard. “Three hundred.”

“Is the first cluster a single digit?”

“Yup.”

“How many singles in a row?” I ask.

“Seven. Then it goes into doubles for five and triples for five.” He shoots me a look over his shoulder. “Do you need more than that?”

I shake my head and mull over that information for a few beats. “How many digits is the last cluster?”

He taps on his keyboard a few times. “Sixty-three.” He shoots me another look. “What are you thinking, bro?”

“Try plugging in Binet’s formula.”

“Son of a bitch.” Jace spins around and starts typing. “I can’t believe I didn’t see it.” A few beats of silence pass, then he lets out a delighted cackle.

“I take it that worked?” I ask dryly.

“Fuck yeah, it did.” His fingers fly over the keys. “Now I just need to isolate the key, which should be easy peasy.” He falls silent for a few seconds. “Ha!” he shouts at his screen. “How do you like dem apples?”

“I have no idea what the fuck just happened.” Xave looks between us. “Did you figure out the code?”

I nod.

“How.” He blinks at me. “You asked like, four questions, and you knew exactly what formula to use by name.” He shakes his head. “How the fuck did you manage that?”