In The Dark Read Online Free PDF Page B

other side of the hill, she could still hear noises but EJ stayed calm. She knew they were just the bush animals and birds calling to each other. The ground had levelled out and then started to go up again. EJ checked her compass. She was still heading north so she must be nearly at the mine. EJ checked her sun charm. It had turned to a dark orange. That was not good, it meant that the SHINE energy supplieswere getting dangerously low. She needed to hurry.



As EJ walked, she shone the giant torch ahead of her, swinging it from side to side and up and down, looking for something that might be a mine entrance. Just as she was starting to think she would never find it, EJ felt her boots hit something. She shone the torch on the ground and saw a metal track, the mine cart track. She must be on the right track! Then EJ’s torch shone on an old sign, nailed to a tree.

    EJ had found an entrance to Black Cave Mine. She took a deep breath, held her torch out straight in front of her, and headed slowly down the track into the mine. EJ took one, small, tentative step at a time, along the rusty, dusty track. Shining her torch around, EJ could see the tunnel’s walls. They were made of deep red rock, with some smooth patches, some rough. EJ ran her hands along the wall and was surprised at how cold they felt.
    EJ saw that the top of the tunnel wasn’t much higher than her head and the tunnel floor was scattered with loose rocks between the cart tracks. She would have to watch her step.
    Gee whizz, lemonfizz, it is dark in here, thought EJ. Dark and cold. Maybe there is another way to find Operation Lights Out...

    Saved by the Ping! It was another message from SHINE. EJ stopped and took out her phone. She looked at her screen.

    SHADOW must have sent another message in Braille, thought EJ. They can’t send that to my phone.
    EJ was right. Because SHADOW had sent the first message in Braille, SHINE had been on the look-out—or should that be feel-out—for a second message using the same alphabet. So, when they intercepted what looked like a blank piece of paper, they checked for the little raised dots. They found them and then simply reproduced them digitally to send on to EJ.

    The message came through.

    They could have then converted it to the normal alphabet, couldn’t they? thought EJ. But then again, that is my job I suppose.
    EJ checked her code app and found the Braille alphabet again. In no time at all, she had convertedthe Braille to normal letters but this time the message made no sense at all.

    â€˜It’s obviously a code within a code,’ murmured EJ. ‘If I were a SHADOW agent hatching evil plans, what code would I use? That’s hard, it’s like the opposite of what I am, the complete opposite. The opposite, thought EJ. Could that be it? SHINE — SHADOW; dark—light; good—bad; back—front ... Hmm, could it be a backwards code?
    EJ loved cracking codes. She loved taking something that looked liked nonsense and working with ituntil it made sense. Now, looking at the letters she had a feeling that she was about to crack this code.
    Let’s test it, thought EJ. A backwards code means A=Z and Z=A, B=Y and Y=B and it goes on like that, all the way through the alphabet. If the same SHADOW agent has signed off with her initials, AX, the last two letters of this code will be ZC. EJ quickly checked. Yes, they are. Backwards code confirmed. EJ flipped to the code app on her phone and found the decoder for the rest of the alphabet.

    It took her no time at all to decode the rest of the message.

    EJ keyed in the decoded message and sent it back to SHINE. Within seconds A1 was on the phone.
    â€˜Good work EJ. Now we know that you have just two hours to stop AX.’
    â€˜Do we know who AX is yet?’ asked EJ.
    â€˜I think we do,’ replied A1. ‘There were thirteen SHADOW agents with the initials AX but we have narrowed it down to two people, Adriana X