A muscle twitched in Sierra’s jaw, and she gave a short nod. Carter recognized it for what it was. A vote of confidence. In Adi. In Team Helsing.
Carter climbed off the bed to search through her bag. After she produced the scissors and Sierra snapped a photo, Adi made quick work of Alicia’s letter—cutting it into pieces so that each line of text became an individual strip.
Only once he’d completely destroyed the best lead they had did he hesitate. “Crap.”
Beck raised an eyebrow. “That’s not what we want to hear.”
“We need a rod or a cylinder,” said Adi.
“I have ChapStick?” said Carter.
He shook his head. “It will only work if we have one that’s the exact dimensions of whatever Alicia used to create the cipher. What would she have . . .” With a groan, he slumped against the wall. “The light from the number-four villa. She must have used a lamp base or something.”
“Okay,” said Sierra. “We need to get back into the villas and figure out which light she was talking about. Do we know anyone on the inside who would be willing to help? Can we trust Lisa?”
“No need,” said Beck, crossing his ankles and leaning back into the pillows. “She was probably referring to the flashlight. The one that came with the welcome kit.” He reached into the book bag he’d brought in from his own room and produced the flashlight, twirling it between his fingers.
“Nice work, Beck!” Sierra squeezed onto the bed, forcing Beck to be squashed between her and Carter. She took the flashlight and opened her palm to Adi. “Give me those strips.”
“This was my idea,” he said. “Shouldn’t I be the one to do it?”
Sierra shot him a look.
Adi made a face, then gathered up the strips of paper from the letter and handed them to Sierra. She took the first one and, holding one end at the top of the flashlight, wrapped it around so that it spiraled down the cylinder.
She rotated it, scanning the new columns that had been formed from the letters, but Beck spotted it first. He pointed. “Here!”
“W-I-L-L,” Sierra read. “G-O-T-O. . .”
“Go to where?” Beck said eagerly.
Sierra grabbed the next strip of paper and repeated the process, revealing the next words. “M-E-D-I-A. . .”
“About the affair?” said Carter. “She was going to go public?”
Sierra already had the third strip of paper wrapped around the flashlight. It only took a minute to go through the entire letter, spelling out Alicia’s final message.
Willgoto
Media_
About
Affair
black_
mailing
Rani.
offer4
silence
Iloveyou
“I love you,” Sierra whispered as they stared at the final line. The last thing her sister would ever say to her.
