Chapter 4
Chapter 4: Tuesday - Alderley Edge
The Edge gave an impressive view over the Cheshire Plain and towards Wilmslow. "Phhh" sighed Ellie, "why did he have to put it at the top of the hill?" The clue had been quite descriptive, so they knew exactly where they were going, but it was still a long slog from the centre of the town.
The cave was gloomy and dark inside. "Remember that the clue said to take a Fibonacci sequence of steps", said Ellie. "That means we need to take one step forward, one step right, two steps forward, three steps right, five steps forward and so on until we reach a stone." "Looks like we got here first", said Mike as they found an undisturbed but loose stone. They dug down under the stone for a few inches and unearthed a wooden box engraved with the initials AMT. "That's it", whooped Mike, "we've found the next clue."
The sounds of laboured breathing outside prompted Ellie and Mike to grab the box and dash into the undergrowth surrounding the cave entrance, hearts beating fast. Soon they saw the two men from the monastery stumble up the path and into the cave. After a few moments they were back out again, cursing. "Somebody's been here before us. The boss is not going to be happy about this," they complained to each other as they stamped back down the hill.
Mike and Ellie made their way home very carefully and made sure that they drew the curtains before opening the box. "Oh no", they cried together, "it's a collection of numbers and letters." They racked their brains, but were unable to make any sense of the next message. "I know", said Mike, "let ask the lady at the museum. She was the one who first told us about the treasure after all."
Strangely, the museum was busier on Wednesday morning than it had been on Saturday afternoon, but the lady was nowhere to be found. "Excuse me", asked Ellie at the reception desk, "do you know where the lady who usually looks after the computer exhibit is?" The attendant answered "I think I know who you mean, but she's not employed by the museum. Now, she did leave a card somewhere ... ah, here it is. Her e-mail address is BarbaraAnneDavies@rocketmail.com and I'm sure she'd be happy to get questions about computers."
A short time later, Ellie's phone pinged with a new mail message. "Oh no", she groaned, "it's in another code."
What does the message say? The code word is the 5th word in the message.
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