Read Online The Golden Vendetta by Tony Abbott - Free Book Online Page B

Nice was indeed large.
    Besides taking up most of the top floor of the building, which gave it window views on three sides, it had a narrow balcony overlooking the bustling square. The place below was a short walk to the seaside promenade and a major boulevard, but far enough from both to be out of the crush of tourist throngs.
    Madame Cousteau told them that the quartier also boasted restaurants and cafés on nearly every corner.
    â€œI can’t wait to try them,” said Sara.
    â€œBut for you, only one.”
    â€œOne?” said Roald. “But the food in Nice—”
    The housekeeper shook her head. “Ground floor. Secure. No exceptions.”
    Wade shared a look with the others. “Well, food is food, right?”
    â€œNot really,” said Becca.
    â€œI found my room,” Lily said. She had walked into a small windowless room that resembled a well-stocked computer store. It was obviously Terence’s office when he was there. There were lots of computers of all different sizes networked to a black box that could have been a steel-plated safe designed to withstand a direct bomb blast. It was a server.
    â€œWe can bring in a bed for you,” Sara said with a laugh.
    â€œYou got that right,” she said.
    â€œNo bed,” said Madame Cousteau, wagging her finger at them. “Is Mr. Terence’s office.”
    Knowing that the bookseller had been arrested and was in jail nearby, and after their jet lag and the impossible-to-sleep-in sleeper compartments on the train, not to mention a huge lunch prepared by Madame Cousteau, everyone eventually sank into their beds to take naps. Wade’s turned into a deep, overnight sleep.
    It was the next afternoon when he and everyone else finally felt alert enough to get to work.
    While his father and stepmother were busy on several phones with Terence and Paul Ferrere, Wade spent two hours spread out at the dining room table with Becca, scouring the Leonardo parts of the diary.
    Together, they found something new.
    Facing the first “silver” page was one that appeared black, but seemed to have marks on the other side of it that were different from any writing on the previous page. “Becca,” he said, “could this be another one of those double pages, like the cipher we discovered in San Francisco? A hidden page folds out and . . .”
    Becca slid her fingernail in the gutter of the book as before, and an unseen page became visible. Drawn on it was a triangular grid of symbols. “Whoa!”

    â€œThose aren’t letters,” said Wade. “At least not all of them are.”
    It reminded him a little of the Holbein puzzle they’d discovered in London. That code had been made of symbols describing alchemical processes.
    â€œThe column running down the left side looks kind of like letters,” Becca said. “Under the sun there’s a G, then a U with two dots—an umlaut—over it. The other characters could be some language I don’t know.”
    â€œLet’s take out the letters we can recognize,” said Wade. Following the letters down the left-hand column, he wrote them down in his notebook.
    Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â  G Ü M Ü Ş K O L
    Becca frowned. “The umlauts could mean it’s German, but the accent on the S isn’t. Either way, I don’t know what it means.”
    â€œLily?” said Wade, looking around. But she was still in her room. “We could use a translator. Maybe Terence’s office.”
    They found a laptop and started it up. After finding a translator site, Becca entered the letters. “Huh. The Detect Language button on the program says it’s Turkish.”
    Darrell walked in, biting the end off a croissant.“Turkish? From Turkey? Did Copernicus know Turkish?” He stuffed the rest of the croissant in his mouth.
    â€œIn Turkish it’s two words,” Wade said. “ GÜMÜŞ