Chapter 7

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Andrea ran out of Starcourt Mall to catch up with her friends and tell them about what Steve had asked. She found the other five girls waiting just outside the door, eating their ice cream cones.
"What did Steve want?" Charlize asked.
"Dustin needs help with something. Cracking some Russian code. I said I'd help because Dustin is a tech genius, not a language genius." Andrea explained. The girls nodded. 
"Think I can help too?" Charlize asked, hopeful.
"Definitely." Andrea answered.
"Split it with what?" Came a familiar voice suddenly from behind them "Does that even make sense?" Mike Wheeler continued.
"Isn't this a nice surprise." Ember said, walking over to her twin brother, Will Byers, and Lucas Sinclair.
"What are you doing here?" Mike asked, shocked.
"Shopping." El answered.
"These are our new styles." Mahi said. "What do you think?"
"What's wrong with you? You know El's not allowed to be her!" Mike yelled.
"Please. El and I have superpowers, remember? We can handle anything." Andrea said.
"Why do you treat me like garbage?" Mahi asked, jumping straight to the point.
"What?" Mike asked, confused.
"You said nana was sick." Mahi said.
"She is! She is sick." Mike said, glaring at Ember. "Yeah, sick. She's sick. She's sick. She's super sick. That's why we're here actually. Yeah, we're shopping. Not for us but for her. For nana. Also, we're here to get a gift for you."  Mike reached into his bag and pulled out a little teddy bear. "Just, we couldn't find anything that suited you. And I only have, like, three dollars and fifty cents so it's hard."
"Super hard." Lucas piped up. "It's...it's expensive."
"You're lying." Mahi said. "Why are you lying?"
Just then the bus pulled up. El, Max, Mahi, and Ember had to get on and Andrea and Charlize had to go see what was up with Dustin. Mahi took one last look at Mike before she got on the bus and said:
"I dump your ass." And with that she and the other three climbed on the bus and Andrea and Charlize walked back into the mall.
"Can we play D&D?" Andrea heard Will ask as they walked back into the mall.
"No!" Mike snapped.

"The week is long. The silver cat feeds where blue meets yellow in the west." Robin, Steve, and Dustin said, reading what they had deciphered by then.
"Are we interrupting something?" Charlize asked walking up behind them in the mall.
"Oh! Hey Charlize! Hey Andrea! What are you doing here?" Dustin asked.
"I asked Andrea to come." Steve admitted.
"And when I told everyone about what I was doing, Charlize asked if she could help." Andrea added.
"Who are these people?" Robin asked, nodding at Andrea and Charlize.
"I'm Andrea, Dustin's twin sister." Andrea said.
"And I'm Charlize. Dustin's girlfriend." Charlize added.
"You have a girlfriend?" Robin asked Dustin.
"Don't act so surprised." Dustin snapped.
"Iay asway uprisedsay ootay." Andrea said to Robin.
"What?" Dustin, Steve, and Charlize asked at the same time.
"Pig latin Knuckleheads." Robin said.
"Now, back to the code." Dustin said, turning back to the code.
"It just can't be right." Steve said, staring at it.
"It's right." Robin assured him.
"Honestly I think it's great news." Steve continued.
"How is it good news?" Dustin asked.
Steve laughed. "I mean, so much for being American heroes! It's total nonsense!"
"It's not nonsense." Andrea said. "It's too specific. It's obviously a code!"
"What do you mean code? Like a super secret spy code? That's a total stretch." Steve said.
"I don't know. Is it?" Robin asked.
"You're buying into this?" Steve asked shocked.
"Listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret russian russian transmission. What'd you think they'd say, "fire the warhead at noon?" Robin asked. Steve shook his head. "Exactly. And my translation is correct. I know that for sure so... "the silver cat feeds." Why would anyone talk like that unless they're trying to mask the meaning of their message?" Steve shook his head again. "Exactly. Why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?" Steve shook his head again. "Exactly. So I guess that confirms your suspension. Evil russians. I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child but, yeah, totally evil russians."
"So how do we crack it?" Charlize asked.
"Well, I guess we translate the resy and hopefully a pattern emerges." Robin replied.
"A pattern. Right, like maybe "silver cat" is a meeting place?" Dustin suggested.
"Or a person." Andrea added.
"Or a weapon." Charlize said.
"It's probably gonna take a super genius to crack it but..." Robin trailed off.
"Where's Steve?" Andrea asked worried. Last time one of her friends had gone missing he was trapped in the upside down and got possessed by the mind flayer.
They all turned around to see Steve standing by an electronic rocking horse.
"Hey Steve!" Robin called as Steve stared at the coins in his hand. "What are you doing?"
"Uh, it's a quarter. I need... Do you have a quarter?" Steve asked. 
Robin laughed. "Sure you're tall enough for that ride?"
"Quarter!" Steve called. Charlize went over and put a quarter in his hand. He put it in the coin slot. The ride started, playing a familiar tune.
"You need help getting on that ride, little Stevie?" Robin asked
"Shh!" Steve snapped at them. Dustin chuckled.
"Will you two just shut up and listen?" Andrea asked. She and Charlize realized what Steve was getting at. The tune continued.
"Holy s**t." Dustin said, suddenly realizing what his sister and girlfriend had realized two minutes ago. "The music. The music!" Robin switched on the tape recorder and the russian overlapped the music perfectly.
"I don't understand." Dustin said. "It's the exact same song on the recording."
"Maybe they have horses like this in Russia?" Charlize suggested, trying to avoid the obvious.
"Indiana flyer? I don't... I don't think so." Robin said.
"This code, it didn't come from Russia." Dustin said, looking at friends and sister.
Andrea looked at everyone grimly. "It came from here."

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