The rest of the wall space, though, was covered with strange hieroglyphs relating to Cirque du Soleil. Aria and Graham were here because the final Eco Scavenger Hunt clue, which they’d found in a compost pail in the ship’s kitchen, required them to decipher the hieroglyphs. But to Aria, the characters just looked like nonsensical squiggles.
“Any ideas?” Aria stepped aside as one of the acrobats, who had a single ostrich plume sprouting from her head, strutted through the theater door. That morning, when he and Aria had reported to Gretchen, she’d told them they were in the lead. “If we figure out this clue, those Apple Store gift cards are ours.” Even though Aria hadn’t been into the idea in the beginning, she’d mentally browsed through the Apple Store, contemplating whether to buy a white iPad with tons of memory or a MacBook Air.
“That’s probably why they made it so impossible.” Graham’s forehead wrinkled as he studied the wall. “That one looks like a cloud.” He pointed to a puffy-looking image. “And that one looks like a falling girl.”
Aria flinched. If she turned her head a certain way, it did look like a body descending through space. The photo of Tabitha’s tumbling form appeared in Aria’s mind, followed by A’s latest note. Will Aria’s boyfriend visit her in jail?
The door to the theater swung open, and another acrobat strutted out. She glanced at them and smiled. “Want a clue?”
Aria and Graham nodded eagerly.
The acrobat edged closer. “See that picture there, the one that sort of looks like a dinner fork? It stands for an E. And the image that looks like a carrot stands for the letter S.”
Aria looked at the wall again. “So it’s like a cryptogram?”
“Precisely,” the acrobat said, then pirouetted away.
Aria peered at the symbols. She and her father, Byron, used to do the cryptogram puzzle in the Philadelphia Sentinel every morning. The puzzle always featured a scrambled quote. The trick was to figure out the cipher so it made sense.
When she reached into her purse for a pencil, her fingers brushed against a golf tee from the mini golf course she and Graham had visited the other day. She smacked her forehead. “Graham, I’m so rude! How did it go with Tori last night?” Graham had sent her a text the afternoon before saying that he and Tori had made dinner plans. She’d written him back with a list of things to talk about, adding that he should pull out Tori’s chair when she sat down and never, ever order for her. She couldn’t believe she’d forgotten to ask.
Graham pushed a lock of hair off his forehead. “It was fine.” Then he pointed at a three-letter word with a dinner fork icon in it. “If that stands for E, then that word is the. And so are those two.”
“Oh. Right.” Aria wrote it in, then filled in the Ts and Hs elsewhere in the puzzle, too. She cleared her throat. “So it was just fine? Not amazing?”
“And maybe that’s to.” Graham pointed to a two-letter word starting with T. It was like he didn’t hear her.
“Yep,” Aria said, writing it in. Her stomach sank. Had the date been a disaster? Maybe Graham had talked nonstop about SCA or his dead ex-girlfriend. Maybe Tori had left after the appetizers.
She was dying to ask, but all of a sudden the hall felt too quiet and exposed. They stared at the puzzle for a few minutes longer, writing in more words. Within a few minutes, they had the whole message: Protect the seas. Save the planet. Live life to the fullest.
“Okaaaay.” Graham twisted his mouth. “What are we supposed to do with that?”
“I’ve seen that phrase somewhere,” Aria murmured, shutting her eyes. Then the answer popped into her mind: the banner in the casino, from that first day. She’d noticed it because she’d sworn she’d seen something—or someone—moving in the shadows beneath it.
“Come on,” she said, grabbing Graham’s hand.
The casino was dark and empty, the slot machines buzzing atonally. The banner still hung over the tables. Aria walked beneath it and placed her palms on the table’s surface. When she ran her hand along the underside, her fingers touched cardboard. She squatted down; two cards had been taped right where the tabletop met the legs. She pulled off the tape and held the cards to the light. Congratulations! they both read.
Aria opened one. It was, indeed, a $1,000 gift card to the Apple Store. She waved it at Graham. “We did it!”
Graham threw his fist in the air. Then he scooped Aria up and swung her around. She giggled, but didn’t squeeze him too hard, not wanting to give him the wrong idea. When Graham pulled back, his cheeks were a delighted pink.
“We should celebrate, don’t you think?” he asked. “How about lunch at that restaurant on the upper deck?”
“Well …” Aria’s mouth wobbled. She wanted to tell him that he should do something with Tori instead. She also wanted to see Noel. But Graham seemed so happy. And they had just won.