the passage Doesn’t this place make you feel like you’re seeing double She had a point Most everything in the cozy whitewashed maple stateroom was in pairs two twin beds two identical navy-and-white pinstriped comforters with shams two maple nightstands side-by-side dressers a pair of navy stuffed chairs each with a penguin pillow and two small writing desks and chairs Cruz loved his desk Made of polished blue lapis granite the deep sapphire blue stone with golden flecks and soft white splatters reminded Cruz of photographs of the Milky Way Standing like a miniature tent on each starry desk was a note from Explorer Academy president Dr Regina Hightower She’d written Cruz and his roommate Emmett Lu nearly identical messages wishing them an exciting educational and life-changing journey However Cruz noticed his note contained one line that Emmett’s did not Under her signature Dr Hightower had included her private cell phone number In case you need anything she’d scrawled beside it then Please be careful The school’s president was one of the few people who knew about Cruz’s personal mission He was looking for a formula developed by his mother before her death Petra Coronado had discovered a serum that had the power to regenerate human cells a breakthrough that could have led to curing hundreds of diseases A founding scientist with the Synthesis the top secret scientific branch of the Society she had hit upon the formula while working on a pain medication for Nebula Pharmaceuticals Once Nebula learned she’d created something that went far beyond their parameters they’d ordered her to destroy the serum and formula As his mother had explained in her digital holo-video journal The last thing a pharmaceutical company making billions of dollars selling drugs wants is for humanity to never need those drugs Cruz’s mother had been pressured into agreeing to Nebula’s demands but not before engraving the formula into black marble splitting the stone into eight pieces and hiding the fragments of the 8
cipher around the world Fearing for her life she made a holo-journal for Cruz with clues on how to find the pieces Soon after she died in a mysterious lab fire that had been ruled accidental Cruz only recently discovered his mother’s death had been no accident And worse Nebula was to blame Following the first clue in her journal Cruz had deduced the first piece of the cipher was hidden in the base of his holo-projector back home in Hawaii His best friend Lani Kealoha had removed the bottom plate of the dome and sure enough found the stone inside Laser-etched with partial numbers and symbols the black marble now hung on a lanyard around Cruz’s neck It was pie-shaped and less than an inch across at the curved edge The segment looked like a piece to a miniature round puzzle With two knobs on the right side and a curved indentation on the left it was obvious the fragment was meant to interlock with two others Finding it had been an amazing feat but Cruz knew he had a long way to go to complete the cipher circle Then there was Nebula They were still out there still determined to make sure he didn’t succeed To help keep him safe Dr Hightower had increased the security on board Orion and among the students only Emmett and Sailor knew of Cruz’s mission Sailor peered around cabin 202 dark eyes roving past the door that opened to the attached balcony over to the closet then finally to the closed bathroom door Is Emmett She stuck out her tongue and pointed at her mouth making what Cruz was sure was the international international sign for hurling Heaving chunks Nope So far so good He went up to the fourth 9
deck to check out the science tech lab Between you and me I think he needs help with Lumagine Still working on that mind-control fabric huh Hasn’t he tried like twenty times Twenty-six actually That’s nothing for Emmett It took him fifty seven attempts to invent his emoto-glasses That’s what my mom would call super stick-to-itiveness Cruz noticed how Sailor kept a hand against the wall as if worried that any minute a giant wave would capsize the boat He brought a bunch of extra seasick bands I’m sure he wouldn’t mind if you wanted to borrow one I’m fine she said though she didn’t let go of the wall It takes a few days to get your sea legs he assured her Living in Hawaii for the past seven almost eight years Cruz had spent most of his life in or on the water He knew the swaying motion of a 364-foot ship like Orion could take some getting used to but he was sure everyone everyone on his team would adjust They’d already had some practice back at the Academy’s Computer Animated Virtual Experience simulator the CAVE Taryn says there are snacks in the galley said Sailor We have a few minutes before our meeting You want to grab something on the way Cruz was a little hungry Sure One sec He snapped his suitcase shut and went to put it in the closet What’s this Sailor had picked up a postcard off Cruz’s desk It’s from my aunt She frowned How can you tell She didn’t sign it It says Begin with the birth year of Peary’s first man and then there’s a bunch of numbers It’s a game we play Aunt Marisol sends me coded messages on postcards I decode them using books art or music or whatever the clues lead to Sweet as So what does it say 10
POSTCARD Begin with the birth year of Peary’s first man 1-12-9-29-43-19-12 2-14-43-2-17-13 Cruz Coronado Explorer Academy Orion Not sure yet You can help me decode it if you want She rolled her eyes If I knew where to begin Cruz crossed the room to lock the veranda door Rule one Always start with the picture Sailor flipped the card The photo was of a round sea creature its mottled brown-and-white head and creamy-colored tentacles cradled in a circular shell with wavy brown and white stripes I know this animal animal she cried It’s a mollusk but I can’t think of the name Not a hermit crab Nautilus She snapped her fingers That’s it Cruz grinned And what book or song do you know that has a naut Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Nautilus is the name of Captain Nemo’s submarine He laughed I told Aunt Marisol she needs to make these harder 11
