“Seventy-five,” Bianca said.
Nina dragged her finger across the screen to enlarge the tiny print on the chart. “Rhenium, abbreviated R-e.”
Bianca continued to the next number in the series. “Seventy-three.”
“Tantalum. T-a,” Nina said, scribbling down the letters.
“Three.”
“Lithium. L-i.”
They continued until Nina had written all seven numbers in the code along with their chemical names and element symbols.
Bianca peered over her shoulder as she took in the jumble of letters.
Re, Ta, Li, F, Md, O, Re.
“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Bianca whispered.
“Probably not.”
“What if this is an anagram?” Bianca practically vibrated with excitement. “You know, a word scramble. I do them to relax after homework sometimes.”
Nina felt an eye roll coming on and barely managed to suppress it. “You do realize that other teenagers doodle obscene drawings in their notebooks to unwind?”
Bianca held out a hand. “Let me see that.” She slid the page in front of her and stared down at it. “There are thousands of possibilities.” She glanced up at Nina. “And that’s just in English. What if he switched to a different language?”
Nina shrugged. “It was a long shot.”
“I’m not giving up yet. Can I borrow your laptop?”
“Help yourself.”
Bianca’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “Holy crap. I just typed those letters into a random word generator, and the algorithm stopped after over ten thousand possible combinations.”
“No wonder the Bureau cryptanalysts haven’t cracked it yet.” She rubbed her forehead. “And those numbers might not have anything to do with the periodic table, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something to this. When I look at the letters we came up with, words keep jumping out at me.”
“Work with it,” Bianca said. “One of my favorite quotes from Einstein is ‘The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.’ He favored intuition over logic, and so do I.” She angled the paper so they could both see it. “What words do you see?”
Nina glanced down. “Trial. Life. Detail. Mole. Free.”
Bianca followed her gaze. They sat in silence for a full minute. Then Bianca’s spine stiffened. Slowly, she turned her eyes to Nina, a slow grin spreading over her face.
Nina caught her excitement. “What?”
“The last word you said was ‘free.’ That gave me an idea. Freedom. After I subtracted the letters for that word, the remaining letters formed the first word you mentioned, ‘trial.’ But if you switch the let—”
“Freedom trail,” Nina said, palm slapping the table. “Does that account for every letter?”
Bianca nodded. “But how do we know that’s the right answer? It’s only one of many possibilities.”
“For one thing, he just left a body at an iconic location in California. The MIT students have been taunting him, so he might want to hit Massachusetts. Where better than one of the most important landmarks in the state?” She glanced back to the computer screen with the image of the Cipher’s puzzle. “But we need more. Maybe he left another clue hidden in the message.”
Bianca tapped the screen, opening another tab. She typed in Freedom Trail and read aloud. “The walking tour, paved with aged red bricks, features sixteen historical sites beginning at Boston Common and concluding at the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor.” She toggled back to the clue screen. “Look at the sentences at the top. Do you see anything that indicates Massachusetts or something else that might refer to the Freedom Trail?”
“That first line,” Nina said. “I always thought it was bizarre. ‘Not understanding will make you sob.’ It’s an odd way to phrase something, and it doesn’t fit the pattern of the second sentence, which sounds normal.”
Bianca nodded. “It’s like he wrote it weird because he needed it to work.”
“Exactly. It starts and ends with a strange word choice. The beginning is a negative, and most people would say cry rather than sob at the end.”
“Starts and ends . . . ,” Bianca repeated. “Not and sob. The beginning and the end.” She turned wide blue eyes to Nina. “Do you see it?”
“Not and sob,” Nina said. Suddenly, it clicked. “Not sob is Boston spelled backward. Boston is where the Freedom Trail is located.” She leaned over to give Bianca a quick hug. “You’re a genius, Bee.”
“I know.” Bianca picked up her mobile phone. “Let me see if I beat the Brew Crew from MIT. That would mean serious bragging rights.” She laughed. “And I can get the reward from Julian Zarran. I just have to . . .” The smile slid from her face as she glanced at Nina. She grew quiet a moment, then looked down. “I can’t post the answer and collect the money, can I?”
Nina reached out to gently lift Bianca’s chin, meeting her eyes. “Bee, this is the first time we’ve been ahead of this guy. This is our chance to catch him. If we can get to Boston quickly enough, we might even save a girl’s life.”
Bianca paled. “Of course. I won’t breathe a word.” She put her phone down. “This sucks.”
“I’ll be your official witness if you want to contact Julian Zarran after the arrest.”
“Actually, now that I think about it, you were the one who figured out the periodic table, which was the hardest part of the clue. You should get the money.”
“I’m a federal agent. I can’t collect reward money.”
“Well, that sucks too.”
“Money never motivated me. I’m about taking predators off the street.”
“You’re in the right profession, then. You’ll never run out of bad guys, and you’ll never get rich.”
Nina slid her cell phone from her pocket, then paused. Should she call Buxton? She could bolster her standing with the boss, prove that she was valuable for more than just her memories.
She’d never been a blue flamer. Getting ahead with overeager striving wasn’t the way to make a career. She might be an outsider at Quantico, might prefer working alone, but she needed to be a team player on this investigation. Coming to a decision, she drew in a long breath and hit her preset speed-dial button.
“What is it, Guerrera?” Wade responded in his characteristic gruff baritone.
“Pack a bag,” she said, echoing his words from the previous day. “We’re heading to Boston.”
Chapter 18
Three hours later, somewhere in the air between Reagan National and Logan International airports, Nina batted away the hand that prodded her. “I’m awake.” She heard the bleariness in her own voice.
“I’m all for team bonding,” Kent said to her. “But you’re drooling on my shoulder.”
Mortified, she sat up to inspect his shirt. “I don’t see anything.” The woven golf shirt embroidered with the FBI seal looked slightly rumpled along the shoulder seam, but dry.
He grinned. “At least you’re up now.”