Read Hot & Cold for Free Online Page B

farting—and EJ knew better than to stand too close. She moved back and as she waited, she again noticed the large skua circling above her. Odd. She then heard a large belch from her snowmobile and turned back to see that it had not decomposed completely but transformed. There was now a purple snowboard lying on the ice. Cool, thought EJ, as she picked it up and slung it over her shoulder. That may be useful later...
    EJ moved closer to the hut and as she did, she noticed something odd. Attached to the very old,broken-down hut was a very modern, not-broken-down steel door. And on the door was a keypad and small sign.

    What language is that? Not one that EJ recognised (and, having completed the SHINE intensive language course, she could, besides other things, ask for a hot chocolate in fifteen different languages). So if it wasn’t a language, EJ decided that it must be a code.
    But what sort of code? EJ looked and looked but nothing jumped out at her. She wrinkled her nose and kept looking, waiting for a pattern to appear. You never really know what you are looking at with codes, thought EJ. Does one letter stand for another, does a number really mean a letter, is something missing or is something added? Hmmm ... She had no idea but she had to hurry—there were just five minutes left to make the payment.



EJ looked at the first word:

    The word sort of looked normal, except for the H. It was the same with the second word:

    In fact, it was only the first letter of each word that looked out of place. EJ wondered what would happen if she took all the first letters out. She used her finger to draw a line through the first letter of each word on the frosty surface of the sign.

    Hmmm, not as helpful as I thought, said EJ to herself. It still looks weird but maybe slightly less weird than before. I wonder what would happen if I put different letters back. Worth a try, but which ones? EJ studied the words for a while and then suddenly she saw it.

    Invited guests? Guests, party guests—I must be in the right place. EJ then looked at the keypad next to the sign. It was just like a mini automatic teller machine at the bank. Swipe card. A1’s guess had been right. Emperor Penguin Point was where EJ had to make the payment. But had she got there first? There was only one way to find out.
    Quickly and with only seconds to spare, EJ took out her Invisi-Pay card and swiped. She confirmed the pin and pressed ‘OK’ for the payment to proceed.
    The screen flashed and the words ‘Confirm amount’ appeared.
    EJ keyed in ‘$20,000,000’, taking a deep breath at the thought of such a huge sum of money and for a moment she was distracted by wondering how much chocolate that would buy. Then she pressed ‘OK’ and almost immediately, a silver envelope emerged from a slot under the keypad. The invitation? It certainly looks like one and, for that amount of money, it better be some party.
    EJ ripped open the envelope and pulled out a silver card with black writing. A small silver whistle fell out and landed on the ice. As she picked it up, her hand brushed the ice and for a moment, her skin felt warm. Strange, she thought, but forgot about it as she slipped the whistle into her pocket and began to read the card inside.

    Volpol. That was the first word of the code but what could it mean?
    EJ turned the handle of the door, pushed it open and gasped. It certainly wasn’t what she expectedfrom the outside. Inside, there were no more old pieces of wood, there was only stainless steel—stainless steel walls, a stainless steel table and then another door, a stainless steel door with the words DANGER VOLPOL PIPE ACCESS POINT on it.
    On the table was a bottle of water. EJ picked up the bottle and read the label:

    Water. This was about water? But how? There was nothing else in the room to give her any clues so EJ walked over to the second door and tried to open it, but it was locked. She took her