In case you don't live forever

Chapter 4: Indiana Flyer

Peter's Pov:

Robin paced back and forth as the three of us sat in the backroom trying to translate the Russian. "Wait, that last part, just one more time," Robin told Dustin and he rewound the tape back a few seconds. "Okay, that word. Um... It's pronounced "dly-nna-ya"" Robin explained and Dustin repeated after her. "Which is spelled...D...D,D,D..." Robin sat down and Dustin stood up, running towards the whiteboard. "The... the chair. The chair-looking thingy" He told her and she wrote it down. We managed to translate the rest of the sentence and Robin ran up to the window that opened to the main area of the store and I stood beside her. "We've got our first sentence" She told him and he turned around, holding two ice cream cones in his hands. "oh, seriously?" He seemed kinda surprised. "Yeah "The week is long"" She told him in a Russian accent and he looked at us in slight disappointment. "Well that's thrilling" He told us in a monotone voice. "I know. But, progress" I told him then looked behind him to see Max and El standing there "Oh, hey El and Max" I waved at them then they waved back. Robin then closed the window and we returned back to the table. Once I sat down, I realized that El really shouldn't have been at the mall. I stood up and went to where Steve was to still see Max and El. "Are you even allowed to be here?" Steve and I happened to ask in sync. El just laughed and ran off with Max. Steve looked at me and I just shrugged my shoulders then returned to the back room.

"The week is long, the silver cat feeds, when blue meets yellow in the west" We all read off the whiteboard in sync. After, we grabbed our things and left Scoops Ahoy. "I mean, it just... just can't be right" Steve said, closing the gate that locks Scoops ahoy. "It's right" Robin said, starting to walk away from the store. "Honestly, I think it's great news" Dustin said walking beside Robin and I nodded.  "How is it great news? I mean, so much for being American heroes. It's total nonsense" Steve exclaimed, locking up Scoops then following behind the rest of us. "It's not nonsense. It's too specific. It's obviously a code" Dustin told him. "What do you mean a code?" Steve asked. "Like a super secret spy code" Dustin replied. "That's a total stretch" Steve groaned. "I don't know, is it?" Robin asked. Steve looked at Robin, "You're buying into this?" "Listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission. What did you think they were doing to say, fire the warhead at noon?" Robin told Steve as we continued down the mall hallway.

"Exactly" Dustin chimed in. "And my translation is correct, I know that for sure so "the silver cat feeds"? Why would anyone talk like that unless they were trying to mask the true meaning of their message?" Robin continued. "Exactly" Dustin once again chimed in. "And why would anyone want to mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive" Robin finished. "Exactly" Dustin repeated with the same smart ass tone as before. "So I guess that confirms your suspicion" Robin looks at Dustin. "Evil Russians" He said confidently. Robin chuckled a little, "I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child but, yeah, totally, evil russians." "So how do we crack it?" Dustin and Robin continued but Steve had tapped my shoulder and pulled me away to a coin operated horse ride.

He dug around in his pockets. "It's quarters, do you have any quarters?" He asked me. "No" I responded in confusion after quickly checking my pockets, dropping change. "Hey,  Steve, Peter what are you doing?" Robin yelled at us when she realized we had separated from the group. "It's a quarter- I need- Do you have a quarter?" He asked and ushered them over. "You sure you're tall enough for that ride?" Robin teased Steve and they made their way over. "Quarter!" Steve yelled at them with a panicked tone. Robin threw him one and he caught it, spinning around and putting it in the change slot of the horse ride. It started and played music. Robin, Dustin and I watched Steve intently listen to the music. "Need help getting up little Stevie?" Robin teased and he sushed her. "Would you guys just shut up and listen?" He told us and we all did. It was a familiar sounding song, daisy bell I think. "Holy shit... the music- the music!" Dustin said after a couple of seconds and took off his backpack and started to dig through it. He pulled out the tape with the russian on it and played it. "I don't understand" Robin looked down at him confused. "It's the exact same song on the recording... I guess it's a popular song but it's the same tone and everything..." I realized. "Maybe they have horses like this in Russia" Robin suggested. "Indiana Flyer... I don't- I don't think so" Steve said. "This code... it didn't come from Russia... it came from here" He continued and we all stared at the horse and at each other in somewhat disbelief.

Word count: 901