Chapter 5
Breaking the Code
“I’m glad we now agree that we need to get inside,” said Regan. “Now all we have to do is find a way to, um . . . get inside.”
Ryan ignored her attempted humor. His expression was one of total concentration. “I’ll bet the numeric password we heard Mom and Dad talk about will do the trick.”
“You may be right. But we never actually heard what it was.”
“No, but we should be able to figure it out from Dad’s clue.”
Regan considered. Her brother was right. Their dad loved riddles and brainteasers and word puzzles, and since they were old enough to talk he was always challenging them to solve a wide variety of them. “Dad said the number is in alphabetical order,” she offered.
“Right. So what does that mean?”
Regan shrugged. “0-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9?” she said.
Ryan shook his head. “Can’t be. Mom wouldn’t have needed Dad’s help to make sense of a number that obvious. Besides, that’s in numerical order. He said alphabetical.”
“True. But the keypad only has numbers on it, not letters. How can you put numbers in alphabetical order?”
Ryan scratched his head. Good question. “What if you spelled out each of the numbers zero through nine,” he said, thinking aloud. Could it really be that easy?
“Regan,” he said excitedly. “Recite the alphabet for me very slowly.”
Regan didn’t hesitate. Maybe Ryan was on to something. “A,” she began.
Ryan mumbled the numbers zero through nine to himself, deep in concentration. He nodded for her to continue. “B,” she said. Regan made it to the letter E before her brother stopped her.
“Okay,” he said. “Now we’re getting somewhere. None of the numbers zero through nine begin with A,B,C or D. But Eight starts with an E. I’m betting this is the first digit. The problem is we can’t make even a single mistake. What do you think?”
Regan was pleased that he had asked for her opinion. “I think we should risk it.”
Ryan nodded. “Here goes nothing.”
Mentally bracing himself for the earsplitting sound of an alarm, which would be followed quickly by heavily armed guards, he reached out and pushed the 8 button on the key-pad. Regan cringed beside him as she waited to see—or hear—the outcome.
Nothing happened. No sirens, no blaring alarms.
“Fantastic!” said Regan. “You did it. Let’s keep going. F,” she recited excitedly.
Her brother mumbled to himself again as he counted. When he reached Four he nodded and reached out for the keypad. His finger found the number 4 and pushed . . .
“Stop!” shouted Regan beside him.
He had been an instant away from pressing the button and was just able to jerk his hand away in time. “What?” he snapped. “What is it?”
Regan raised her eyebrows. “Five,” she said simply.
“Five?” he repeated, and then her meaning began to register. His eyes went wide. Whoops. She was right! He had nearly been too hasty and blown it. F-O-U-R and F-I-V-E both began with F, but Five came before Four alphabetically.
Ryan made sure there were no other F numbers in the digits zero through nine and then pressed the 5 button followed by the 4. Again, they heard nothing but the welcome sound of silence. “Nice work, Regs,” he said appreciatively. She had saved them.
Regan beamed and continued reciting the alphabet. After a short time they had entered 8-5-4-9-1-7-6-3 and 2. Nine digits. The number 0 would complete the password, the first digit numerically and the last alphabetically.
Ryan took a deep breath and reached toward the keypad one last time. He pushed the 0 key and quickly stepped back. What would happen?
An electric motor whirred as the giant door separated in the middle and the two sections slid smoothly apart.
They were in!
Ryan inched his way toward the opening in the door and cautiously peered inside the building. Other than a shiny, all steel structure at its center, it was completely empty. No rooms. No people. No equipment. And thankfully, no containers of radioactive waste.
They entered the building and inspected it carefully. It soon became clear that the rectangular steel structure Ryan had seen was an elevator, about the size of a large, three-car garage, but with a ceiling three times as high. It was by far the largest elevator they had ever seen. Was the entire purpose of the building to house and protect this elevator?
As they approached to within a foot of the elevator its massive doors slid open with barely a sound. They traded a quick glance and then carefully stepped inside. The doors slid shut behind them.
The elevator was empty except for a computer monitor that was set inside one of its walls and a metal keyboard that was attached to the wall underneath it. There were only two elevator buttons, labeled up and down, next to the keyboard.
Regan reached out toward the down button and looked back at her brother questioningly. He nodded. She took a deep breath and pushed. Where would the elevator lead?
A loud thunk came from the elevator doors, startling them. It sounded like a bank vault closing. “Warning,” said a computer voice from a speaker in the ceiling. “You have attempted to activate the elevator without first keying in your twelve-letter password. The elevator doors have now been sealed. You have two minutes to enter a correct password or security will be alerted.
“Repeat. You have two minutes to enter a correct password or security will be alerted.”