After my outing to the pool, I went straight to Dustin's house to greet him and take him to see Steve. I pulled up to his house and honked the horn. He came barreling out excitedly and I got out of the car to hug him.
"Hey Dustin, how was camp?" I asked still hugging him.
"Hey Frankie, it was great. I got to do science, met a lot of cool people, and even got a girlfriend." He said firing off about his summer camp.
"You have a girlfriend? What's her name? What's she like?" I asked curiously.
"Her name is Suzie, and she's fantastic. Smart, funny, and really pretty." He said looking into the distance in bliss.
"She sounds great. So do you want to go see Steve?" I asked gesturing to my car.
"Is that even a question?" He asked rhetorically getting into the car. I drove to the mall and Dustin grabbed my hand and started dragging me through the mall until we entered Scoops Ahoy.
"Hi." Dustin greeted Robin as he walked to the front counter.
"Hi." She greeted back.
"I'm Dustin." Dustin introduced himself.
"I'm Robin." She answered a little confused.
"Pleasure to meet you. Uh, is... is he here?" Dustin asked trying to locate the guy with the great hair.
"Is who here?" She asked for clarification. Just as he was about to answer, Steve walked out very excited.
"Henderson. Henderson! He's back! He's back!" He exclaimed for everyone to hear as Robbin looked on confused.
"I'm back!" Dustin repeated. "You got the job!" He added proud of Steve.
"I got the job!" Steve proclaimed doing a celebratory trumped sound. They did their nerdy handshake happily and I laughed at how excited they were to see each other.
"How many children are you friends with?" Robin asked us confused with a judgmental tone. Steve got all of us free ice cream as we all sat in a booth and caught up. Dustin was telling Steve about Suzie.
"No, no. No way. Hotter than Phoebe Cates? No." Steve said not believing Dustin at all.
"Mm-hmm. Brilliant, too. And she doesn't even care that my real pearls are still coming in. She says kissing is better without teeth." Dustin said giving us way too much information.
"That's great buddy." I said slapping his shoulder supportively.
"Proud of you, man. That's ro... That's kinda romantic. That's like... Wow." Steve said still trying to wrap his head around the idea.
"So do you really just get to eat as much of this as you want?" Dustin asked continuing to eat his sundae.
"Yeah. I mean, sure. It's not really a good idea for me, though. I gotta keep in shape for the ladies." Steve said in a cocky tone.
"Yeah, and how's that working out for you?" Robin asked rhetorically.
"Ignore her." Steve said and I laughed.
"She beat me by like a second." I said still chuckling.
"She seems cool." Dustin shrugged still eating his sundae.
"She's not." Steve denied.
"No, she totally is." I said and Steve looked at me betrayed, but I shrugged eating my ice cream.
"So, where are the other knuckleheads?" Steve asked confused on why they weren't together.
"They ditched me yesterday." Dustin said frustrated and hurt in his voice.
"No." Steve said confused.
"My first day back. Can you believe that shit?" Dustin asked in a betrayed voice.
"You told me you got back today." I said kind of frustrated myself and he ignored me.
"Whoa. Seriously?" Steve asked still trying to sympathize with Dustin.
"I swear to God. Mm. They're gonna regret it, though, big time, when they don't get to share in my glory." Dustin said confidently.
"Glory? What glory?" Steve and I asked at the same time.
"So, last night, we're trying to get in contact with Suzie... And, uh..." Dustin paused looking around suspiciously. He mumbled something, but we couldn't hear it.
"What?" We both asked.
"Uh..." He mumbled again, but we couldn't hear yet again.
"Just speak louder." Steve said trying to get his message.
"I intercepted a secret Russian communication!" Dustin screamed and everyone stopped and looked at us and I was embarrassed. I never liked to be the center of attention.
"Jeez, shh. Yeah, okay, that's what I thought you said." Steve said as everyone stopped looking at us.
"What... What does that mean?" I asked confused.
"It means, Steve, Frankie, we could be heroes. True American heroes." Dustin said with wonder in his eyes, but I was a little skeptical. "American heroes. Just think, you could have all the ladies you want and more." Dustin said trying to appeal to Steve.
"More?" Steve asked sounding interested.
"More." Dustin confirmed.
"I like more." Steve said thinking about it.
"And Frankie, you could get into any school you want anywhere in the country." He said sweetening the pot for me and I shrugged in interest.
"I'm listening." I replied giving him my undivided attention.
"What's the catch?" Steve asked for the both of us.
"No catch, I just need your help." Dustin informed us.
"With what?" Steve asked.
"Translation." Dustin replied taking out a Russian to English book and I nodded. Steve, Dustin, and I then went into the back to begin our translation of the Russian tape. Dustin played the tape as Steve paced eating a banana and I sat next to Dustin and listened for anything I thought it could be.
"It sounded familiar." Steve said with his mouth full.
"What?" Dustin asked hopeful.
"The music. The music right there at the end." Steve answered it sounding familiar to him.
"Why are you listening to the music, Steve? Listen to the Russian!" Dustin yelled frustrated.
"Calm down, it's not like any of us are fluent in Russian. Give us a break." I said not liking his tone.
"We're translating Russian!" Dustin reiterated.
"I'm trying to listen to the Russian, but there's music..." Steve said trying to defend himself as Robin walked in and interrupted.
"All right, babysitting time is over. You need to get in there. Hey, my board. That was important data, shitbirds." Robin yelled not too happy with Dustin's take over of her board.
"Don't worry, I have the score memorized." I said tapping the side of my head and winking at Robin. She smiled at me.
"I guarantee you, what we're doing is way more important than your data." Dustin said brushing her off.
"Yeah? And how do you know these Russians are up to no good anyways?" Robin challenged Dustin.
"How does she know about the Russians?" Dustin asked confused.
"I don't know." Steve said just as confused.
"You told her about..." Dustin accused, but Steve defended himself.
"It wasn't me." Steve said.
"Robin is right there, and she's pretty smart, so it doesn't take a genius to figure out how she found out." I said pointing to Robin.
"Hello, I can hear you. Actually, I can hear everything. You all are extremely loud. You think you have evil Russians plotting against our country, on tape, and you're trying to translate, but haven't figured out a word because you didn't realize Russians use an entirely different alphabet. Sound about right?" Robin explained perfectly and we all nodded. Robin then reached for the tape to start playing it.
"Whoa! What do you think you're doing?" Steve asked as he snatched the tape out of her reach.
"I wanna hear it." She shrugged.
"Why?" Dustin asked skeptical of her intentions.
"'Cause maybe I can help. I'm fluent in four languages, you know." Robin bragged and I shrugged.
"Russian?" Dustin asked hopeful.
"Ou-yay are-yay umb-day." Robin said in Pig Latin and I laughed as the boys cheered thinking it was Russian. "That was Pig Latin, dingus." She revealed.
"I trust her to translate. Plus, it'd be nice to hang out with another girl for once." I shrugged telling the boys my opinion.
"I can speak Spanish and French and Italian, and I've been in band for 12 years. My ears are little geniuses, trust me." She said and the boys were unsure. "Come on, it's your turn to sling ice cream, my turn to translate. I don't even want credit. I'm just bored." Robin said offering the ice cream scoop in exchange for the tape. Steve weighed his options and then eventually gave in taking the scoop and handing her the tape.
"Thank God, I was losing brain cells listening to them bicker all day." I said rolling my eyes dramatically and Robin chuckled as we began listening to the tape once more.
"Wait, that last part, just one more time." Robin ordered as Dustin obliged rewinding the tape and playing it again. "Okay, that word. Um... It's pronounced... "dly-nna-ya." "Dly-nna-ya..." Which is spelled... D... " Robin said having a break through.
"D, D, D... The... The chair. The chair-looking thingy." Dustin called out.
"Chair thingy, got it." I said writing it down to try to find the translation.
"We've got our first sentence." Robin informed Steve by opening the window.
"Oh, seriously?" He asked in surprise.
"Yeah. "The week is long."" She said in a fake Russian accent.
"Well, that's thrilling." Steve said unenthusiastically.
"I know. But, progress." Robin said closing the window and continuing to translate. It was getting late and we finally translated about three sentences.
""The week is long," the silver cat feeds, "when blue meets yellow in the west."" We all read trying to determine what it meant.
"I mean, it just... it just can't be right." Steve said adamantly as he closed the gate to Scoops Ahoy.
"It's right." Robin said completely sure of our translations.
"Honestly, I think it's great news." Dustin shrugged being optimistic.
"How is this great news?" Steve asked confused. "I mean, so much for being American heroes. It's total nonsense." He added.
"It's not nonsense. It's too specific. It's obviously a code." Dustin said thinking out loud.
"What do you mean, a code?" Steve asked for clarification as we walked towards the mall exit.
"Like a super secret spy code." Dustin clarified.
"Awesome. I've always wanted to be a spy." I added and they all looked at me weirdly. "What? I watched old episodes of Get Smart with my dad and it's spectacular. Do we get code names?" I asked excitedly. They all ignored my question and continued with the topic at hand.
"Spy codes? That's a total stretch." Steve said not believing it.
"I don't know, is it?" Robin asked.
"You're buying into this?" Steve asked completely caught off guard.
"Listen, just for kicks, let's entertain the possibility that it is a secret Russian transmission. What'd you think they were gonna say, "Fire the warhead at noon"?" Robin asked rhetorically.
"Exactly." Dustin agreed.
"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?" Robin asked again rhetorically.
"Exactly." Dustin agreed again.
"Why would anyone mask the true meaning of their message unless the message was somehow sensitive?" Robin continued asking questions.
"Exactly." Dustin again agreed.
"So I guess that confirms your suspicion." Robin concluded.
"Evil Russians." Dustin said with a giddy tone.
"I can't believe I'm about to agree with this strange child, but, yeah, totally evil Russians." Robin chuckled at the idea.
"Why do they always have to be evil? They could be nice Russians." I said trying to be optimistic.
"When are Russians ever not evil?" Dustin asked looking at me like I was crazy.
"Listen, I'm just trying to be optimistic because the last thing I want to do is get on the KGB's bad side and end up in a Russian jail tortured for the rest of my life." I said completely having a melt down.
"Don't worry. They will never find out it was us that intercepted it." Robin said trying to comfort me. "Hopefully." She added the last part and I rolled my eyes.
"So how do we crack it?" Dustin asked, but Steve stopped and I stopped with him as he began checking his pockets to find something.
"What are you looking for, Steve?" I asked confused. He ignored me and continued searching.
"Well, I guess we translate the rest and hopefully a pattern emerges." Robin and Dustin continued talking.
"A pattern. Right, like maybe "silver cat" is a meeting place?" Dustin fired off.
"Or a person." Robin backfired.
"Or a weapon." Dustin said another possibility.
"It's probably gonna take a super genius to crack it, but... Where's Steve? Hey, Steve. What are you doing?" Robin asked halting their conversation.
"Uh, it's a quarter. I need... Do you have a quarter?" He asked dropping change all over the floor.
"Sure you're tall enough for that ride?" Robin mocked as she and Dustin joined us and I laughed.
"Quarter!" He demanded. Robin gave him a quarter and he frantically put it in the horse ride.
"You need help getting up, little Stevie?" Robin mocked again as the music began playing and I raised my eyebrows in surprise.
"Shh! Would you two just shut up and listen?" He asked frustrated.
"Holy shit. The music." I said and everyone's eyes got wide.
"The music!" Dustin added as he began playing the recorded message.
"I don't understand." Robin said still trying to catch up.
"It's the exact same song on the recording." Dustin said as we listened to the two together.
"Maybe they have horses like this in Russia." Robin said trying to find a logical explanation.
""Indiana Flyer"? I don't... I don't think so." Steve denied as we all listened more.
"This code, it... didn't come from Russia. It came from here." Steve concluded.
"Great, now were really going to be tortured." I said stressing out about our predicament.