Page 60

“What are you doing?” asked Carter.

“There are thirteen lines, and each one is exactly thirteen letters,” he said, starting in on a second column.

Ok

al

ec

li

nI

ic

be

tc

st

ki

ap

th

ic

“That’s awfully symmetrical,” he went on, “which means we could be looking at a simplified columnar transposition cipher.”

“Yeah, sure,” Beck said. “I totally know what that is.”

Adi ignored him, adding a third line, then a fourth, continuing the painstaking process of writing down each letter, each line, each column, until they were staring at a block of text.

Okayteamslook

aliveSearchth

ecluesspotthe

lieBythecoffi

nIdidfindArel

icthatwasleft

behindAnarres

tcouldnotbeju

stifiedButthe

killerwontesc

apethistimeAt

thefinalejust