I rub my temples.We can’t continue on like this.And neither can Aliah.
I check a few things on my phone, sigh again.
“Daryl,” I speak up at last.“I may have a plan, but I don’t think you’ll like it.”
“Try me.”
I walk him through it.I’m right, he doesn’t like it.
But he also agrees we don’t have any other choice.
THE COMPOUND ISablaze with cheery lights when we finally pull through the gate.The outdoor torches light up the trunks of thesoaring palms while bathing the barrel cacti and giant aloes in an amber glow.
I start taking inventory of everything I haven’t paid attention to before—the number of decorative walkways around the giant mansion, the chest-high wrought-iron fence that extends out from the main house and wraps around the three freestanding bungalows as well as the pool.The sheer number of sliding glass doors and low-access windows…
A security fortress it is not, but maybe we can use that to our advantage.
We find Roberta, Genni, and Zahra gathered in the kitchen.Zahra is helping Genni frost animal-shaped cookies, while Roberta sits at the kitchen table amid a sea of graph paper.For a moment, she looks so reminiscent of the last time I saw Aliah, my heart catches in my chest.Please let us not be too late.
Roberta glances up excitedly at our entrance.
“I think I got it!”She holds up the grid sheet covered in scribbled numbers.“The moment Daryl mentioned Sabera’s claim to know the location of hidden treasure, it got me thinking in term of coordinates.Check it out!”
She taps her notes.“Zahra drew three magic squares.”
At the mention of her name, Zahra glances up.She flashes a shy smile at Daryl and me, then returns to studiously decorating the cookie in front of her.Which I now realize is shaped like an iguana.But of course.
Speaking of which, Petunia is staring at me pointedly from her perch in front of the glass sliders.I hastily cross to the refrigerator to grab her dinner.
“The top magic square,” Roberta is explaining, “has the largest numbers.I didn’t notice that before—the two bottom squares all involve numbers smaller than twenty, while the top one goeshigher.Made me wonder, why the difference?Factor in the repeated digits that make the square trivial, and those particular numbers written out in a row…”
Roberta beams.“Latitude and longitude.I’m certain of it.Afghanistan’s latitude falls between thirty and thirty-eight degrees.Longitude sixty to nearly seventy-four.Separate the repeated digits in the top square and line them up in two rows of four units and ta-da—it’s a GPS coordinate just outside of Kabul.I’m a genius!”
Color me impressed.I set Petunia’s salad bowl down next to the sliders, as I don’t want to miss the rest of the conversation.Petunia seems a little confused by this change in routine, but with a swish of her tail decides she can adapt.
From the kitchen island, Zahra giggles.She’s clearly enraptured by the iguana, adding more blue and green candies to her heavily frosted cookie.
“Now, as for the lower two squares.Only four numbers repeat in each.I line them up and I get two thirty-something digits.Latitudes that fall within Afghan borders.”
“But only latitude?”Daryl asks with a frown.In the next instant, he answers his own question.“Two halves of one whole.Ahh, got it.”
Roberta nods emphatically.“I’m guessing the two bottom squares come from Sabera’s mother.She taught Sabera the grids that provide the latitude of the two mineral sites she discovered.She gave Sabera’s brother the grids—or some kind of other puzzle—that provides longtitude.”
“But the top magic square provides both…” Like Daryl, it comes to me.“Because that’s the code Sabera herself created, with the location of where she hid the looted gold.Okay, I get whySabera would use a magic square as an encryption tool, but why would her mother, a fashion designer, utilize a math riddle?”
“For her daughter.”Genni speaks up from the counter.“She needed her daughter to understand, and Sabera likes math, yes?She wanted to make sure Sabera got the message.Does the son like math, too?”
“No idea.”I glance at Daryl and Roberta, realizing for the first time how little we know about Farshid, Sabera’s brother and possibly Aliah’s abductor.Which is a glaring oversight, given we’re hoping to lure him through these front doors.
“Let’s talk decoys,” I begin.
Roberta’s hand immediately thrusts into the air.“Dibs.”
“Wait a minute,” Daryl blusters, but Roberta’s already dismissing his objection with a shake of her head.
“Gotta be me.One, Frankie is way too white to pass for…” Roberta cuts herself off, given Zahra’s listening ears.“Whereas do you know how many times I’ve had people come up and chatter at me in some language I don’t know?Just like I’m sure most Afghan refugees get addressed in Spanish.For some folks brown is brown.”
“Can’t be me,” Genni concedes.“I’m a bit too… tall.While you”—she eyes Daryl’s hulking form—“are entirely too male.Which leaves us with—”
