Chapter Fifty-Two: Tread Lightly

That was all Eleven said. She said the girl was screaming, and Billy saw her, and then we didn't talk about it anymore. We all went to bed, and I was up early to go into work the next morning.

When I got there, Steve was nowhere to be found, and only Robin was there with a Walkman and the Russian-English Dictionary.

"Any updates?" I asked, sitting on top of the back counter. She simply shook her head, not really hearing me. I heard the bell ding and looked up to see Erica Sinclair and her little friends standing at the counter. I tapped Robin's shoulder and she looked up, her face morphing into one of annoyance as she slipped her headphones off.

"I'd like to try the Peanut butter Chocolate swirl, please." She said.

"No. No more samples today." Robin told her.

"Why not?" 

"Because you're abusing our company policy." 

"Where's the sailor man?" She questioned.

"Actually, that is a good question." I said, turning to Robin.

"Sorry, he can't help you. He's busy."

"Busy with what?" Erica inquired. I raised my eyebrows, wondering the same thing. Robin looked between us both.

"Spycraft."

~~~Steve~~~

I popped up from behind the plant in the food court, peering through the binoculars that I had around my neck.

"See anything?" Dustin asked from beside me.

"I guess I don't totally know what I'm looking for."

"Evil Russians."

"Yeah, exactly. I don't know what an Evil Russian looks like."

"Tall, blond, not smiling. Look for dufflebags, earpieces, camo, that kind of thing." He suggested.

"Mm-hmm?"

"You know, minus the tall part, that basically describes your girlfriend right now."

"Tell me about it." I said, handing him the binoculars.

"Weren't you gonna talk to her yesterday?" He questioned, taking them and looking through them.

"I tried, out in the parking lot before we went home, but she wouldn't talk to me. She said 'She knew what I was gonna say and she wasn't ready to hear it'."

"Well yeah, because she probably thinks you're about to break up with her." He pointed out.

"Which is crazy, I don't know where she got that idea."

"Oh I don't know Steve, maybe because you couldn't tell her you loved her, you were flirting with other girls in front of her and behind her back, and when she asked if you were going to tell her why you thought moving into gather was a bad idea, all you had to say was 'No?'." He said. I sighed. "Its like with me and Suzie, actions speak louder than words, you gotta think about what you're doing and how that might come across to her."

"Oh, Suzie. Yeah, you mean, 'Hotter than Phoebe Cates'. Yeah, that Suzie. And uh, let's think about it, how exactly did you score that beautiful girlfriend? Oh yeah. With my advice. Because that's how this works, Henderson. I give you the advice, you follow through. Not the other way around, alright Pea brain?"

"Yes, and that's working so well for you, isn't it?" He asked. "Not to mention, I seem to recall Riley saying your relationship advice was stupid and not something that would work on her, and you're still over here playing the 'Pretend like you don't care' card."

"Wait, what?" I asked, causing him to look at me. "I'm not pretending like I don't care."

"Really? Because that's what it looks like, to Riley especially."

"Did she talk to you?" I asked.

"No, I'm just perceptive," He said, "Look Steve...do you love Riley?"

"Well..." I paused, thinking about this for a moment. Hundreds of images filled my head at that moment, images of her laughing, crying, fighting by my side with an ax in her hand looking like some kind of gorgeous warrior princess and that's when it hit me. "Yeah...yeah, I think I do."

"Then you might want to tell her that genius." He said. "Target acquired."

"Where?"

"Ten o'clock. Sam Goody's."

"Give me that." I took the binoculars, looking in the direction he told me to spot a tall, blonde, muscular guy walking across the mall. He was dressed in all black, wearing sunglasses and not smiling with a duffle bag draped over his shoulder. "Dufflebag." I looked away, turning to look at Dustin.

"Evil Russian." We said together.

We walked after him, running up the escalator and beginning to weave through the crowd after him.

"Slow down." Dustin said quietly.

"We're losing him."

"You're getting too close." I accidently ran into a guy, not paying attention to anyone else.

"Hey, watch it dipwad!' They guy paused, going to turn around and we booked it to the wall, where Dustin picked up the payphone and I ducked behind a plant.

"Hello. Yes, I am fine. How are you." We waited until he turned around and kept walking to jump back out and chase after him. We hid behind the mall directory, watching as he walked into the Jazzercise studio.

"Alright everyone, listen up!" He yelled, walking towards the front of the class. he put his dufflebag down, unzipping it. "I just have one question for you." He took his glasses off. "Who...is ready to sweat?" He took a boom box out of the dufflebag and the women cheered in excitement. "That's right, ok. Let's start it nice and easy now." He took his windbreaker off revealing a purple muscle shirt.  Dustin and I shared a confused look.

~~~Riley~~~

Robin and I sat on the counter by the window. I had the notepad in my had and I was reading off the whole code, with the two new sentences we'd just managed to translate.

"The week is long. The silver cat feeds when blue meets yellow in the west. A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly." I said.

" 'tread lightly'." Robin repeated, flipping through the dictionary. We paused as we heard a knock on the service door in the back. I opened the window, jumping through it into the break room and walking to the backdoor, opening it to see the delivery guy.

"Delivery for you." He sid.

"Thanks." I Grabbed the clipboard, signing for it and handing it back to him, my eyes landing on the word on his hat. It said 'Lynx' in big red block letters, and then on his shirt, it said 'Lynx Transportation', only the word 'Transportation' was written...in silver. Lynx is a cat. I gave him the clipboard back.

"Have a nice day."

"Yeah, you too." I waited until he walked away and then stepped out into the hallway, looking at the back of his uniform. It had a silver cat logo on it. "Silver cat." I repeated to myself. My eyes widened and I ran back in, running out the door just as Steve and Dustin came walking up to us.

"Hey guys, you're not gonna believe who Dustin thought was an Evil Russian." Steve said.

"You did too."

"No, I did not." I ignored them, grabbing the notepad from Robin and running out of the store and into the main courtyard, jumping up onto the side of a planter.

"A trip to China sounds nice," I repeated, scanning the stores until my eyes came to land on the Chinese restaurant 'Imperial Panda'. "A trip to China sounds nice if you tread lightly." I looked up at 'Kauffman Shoes' on the level above it. "When blue meets yellow in the west." My mind travelled to where I had seen those colors before, and I quickly remembered, looking at the giant clock over my head with the blue and yellow hands.

"Riley." I looked up to see Steve, Dustin, and Robin standing in front of me. "What are you doing?"

"I cracked it." I told them.

"Cracked what?" Steve questioned. I jumped down, standing in front of them.

"I cracked the code." I said. "The code wasn't just recorded in the mall, its about the mall. The Silver cat is the the logo on the back of the delivery service uniforms that brings the packages to all of the stores. A trip to China sounds nice," I pointed to the restaurant, causing them to look at it, "If you tread lightly," I gestured to Kauffman shoes, "And when Blue meets yellow in the west." I gestured to the clock above our heads. "Whatever they're trying to elude to, its here. The message is about Starcourt, however, since the code started with the Silver cat? I think the loading dock is probably a good place to start." I smiled, looking at Dustin. "Think you can head to the roof and take a look?"

"On it." He ran off and I smiled, leading the way back to Scoops Ahoy.

"That was brilliant," Steve said, falling into step beside me, "How did you do that?"

"Well I couldn't have without Robin's amazing translation," I said, causing her to smile, "But all it really took was seeing the Delivery guy's uniform and then it all just clicked."

"You're a genius." He said. I glanced at him, triggering a pang in my heart as I remembered that he was probably going to break up with me at the next possible moment.

"You don't have to sound so surprised." I said, my smile falling as we got back to the shop, and I went to walk back around the counter. He grabbed my arm, stopping me from doing so.

"I'm always surprised by you," He said honestly, "Just when I think you can't get anymore incredible, you go and do something like this and prove me wrong. You're amazing." I shrugged.

"Well...I guess you'd better stick around then." I said. He furrowed his eyebrows and I walked towards the back room, smiling to myself.