vegas | robin buckley

6. um, exactly, relaxed

***

"The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west," Dustin, Robin, Steve, and Jackie all read out loud off of the dry erase board.

"Can we do it again with Russian accents?"

The mall is mostly closed now, totally deserted, and the four decide to close up the store and leave as well, with kinda deterred spirits.

"It just can't be right," Steve states as he locks up the entrance.

"It's right," Robin says as she leads them towards the exit of the mall as Jackie tosses an arm around her shoulders, putting a bit of her weight on Robin with how it feels like her feet are going to fall off from how little support her hundred year old Converse give her.

"Honestly, I think it's great news," Dustin adds.

"Oh, this is great news," Steve repeats sarcastically with his usual dramatic flair. "I mean, so much for American heroes. It's total nonsense."

"It's not nonsense, you've never solved a riddle before?" Jackie stares, feeling kinda bad for being so caught up in her school stuff and making Robin and Steve fall in love to actually offer help, hoping to make up for it now. "It's too specific to be anything other than a code."

"A code?" Steve repeats.

"A code," Jackie assures.

"What do you mean a code?"

"Like a super secret spy code," Dustin offers.

"That's a bit of a stretch."

"Is it?" Robin asks, her shoulders still under Jackie's arm. "I mean, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission, what are they gonna say, 'fire the warhead at noon'?"

"Exactly," Dustin agrees.

"The translation is correct," Jackie assures for Robin. "So why would anyone say shit like 'the silver cat feeds'?"

"Unless they're trying to mask their true message," Robin finishes for Jackie.

"Exactly," Dustin nods again.

"And why would anyone want to mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive," Jackie picks up where Robin left off.

"Exactly."

"So, I guess that confirms the suspicion," Robin acknowledges.

"Evil Russians." Jackie states.

"Exactly."

"So, how do we crack it?" Jackie looks to the next step.

"Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges," Robin provides, and Jackie notices Steve being uncharacteristically quiet.

"Maybe silver cat is a meeting place?" Jackie tries.

"Or a person," Robin adds on.

"Or a weapon," Dustin states.

"It's probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, but-" Robin starts.

"Where's Steve?" Jackie drops her arm from Robin's shoulders as they all turn around to see Steve going through his pockets for something in front of the horse thing in the mall.

"Hey, dingus," Robin calls. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, quarter," Steve goes through the handful he just picked out of his pocket. "I need- do you have a quarter?"

"You sure you're tall enough to ride that?" Robin jokes as they walk up to him, Jackie still confused.

"Quarter!"