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WE DIDN’T get very far before running into our first obstacle The huge door leading out of the cavern was bolted shut and wouldn’t open It was the type of door you find on walk-in safes in banks There was a long row of co across the middle, beneath a circular handle

"I wrestled with this forthe row of small lock s "Couldn’t make head nor tail of it"

"Letforward "I am not adept at locks such as these, but I have broken into safes before I may be able to ?" He trailed off, studied the locks awrong?" I asked lightly

"We cannot go this way," he snapped "It is too intricately coded We must find a way around"

"Easier said than done," Vancha replied "I’ve scoured the cavern for hidden passages and tunnels - didn’t find any This place has been purpose-built I think this is the only way ahead"

"What about the ceiling?" I asked "The vampaneze came that way the last time ere down here"

"There are removable panels in the roof of the cavern," Vancha said, "but the space above theh the tunnel"

"Couldn’t we break through the wall - around the door?" Harkat asked

"I tried," Vancha said, nodding at a hole he’d punched out a few metres to our left "It’s steel-linedThick steel Even vampires have their lirumbled "They knee’d come Theywant us to coh" I knelt and examined the rows of tiny s, each of which contained two numbers "Explain this lock to me," I said to Mr Crepsley

"It is a cohtforward The dials are down there" He pointed to a series of thin dials beneath the s "You twist theher number, anti-clockwise for a lower number When the correct numbers have been entered in all fifteen s, the door will open"

"And each nuhed "Fifteen different locks, fifteen different numbers I could crack the code eventually, but it would take several nights and days"

"It doesn’t less nun this trap He wouldn’t have built soet past There must be ?" I stopped The last three ere blank I pointed them out to Mr Crepsley and asked why

"They must not form part of the code," he said

"So we’ve only twelve numbers to worry about?"

He sht or so"

"Why twelve?" I thought aloud, then closed ht (not a pleasant experience!) He’d exercised great patience in tricking us and setting us up for a fall, but now that ere close to the end, I couldn’t picture hi a boulder in our path which would take a week to reet at us The code he picked must be one we’d be able to crack pretty quickly, so it had to be si which looked iroaned, then began counting "Try these numbers as I call them out," I said to Mr Crepsley, eyes still closed "Nineteen - Twenty - Five ?"

I carried on until I got to "Eighteen - Four" I stopped and opened my eyes Mr Crepsley spun the last counter anti-clockwise to four There was a click and the circular handle popped out Startled, the varabbed it and twisted It turned easily at his touch and the round door swung open

Mr Crepsley, Harkat and Vancha stared at ess snorted "Isn’t it obvious? He just converted the alphabet into nu with twenty-six It’s the most simplistic code in operation A child could work it out"

"Oh," Harkat said "I get it noas 1, B was - 2, and so on"

"Right," I s that code, I dialled in ’Steve Leopard’ I knew it had to be so easy like that"

"Isn’t education wonderful, Larten?" Vancha sht classes when this is over"

"Quiet!" Mr Crepsley snapped, not a into the darkness of the tunnel beyond "Re"

"You can’t talk to a Prince like that," Vancha gruhtened up and focused on the stretch of tunnel ahead "Get in line," he said, o first, Harkat second, Alice in the ued with hih I was of equal rank, Vancha was far more experienced, and there was no doubt as to as in charge