“How do you know they’re not random?” I asked, and Brent huffed next to me, as if he thought that asking James anything about this was preposterous.

“Because my father used something similar. Actually, it might be the same thing.” He leaned on the doorway.

“Sure,” Brent muttered. “Are you also going to offer to decode it and lead us into a trap?”

“Brent, just shut up for a moment, will you?” I said. “James, do you know what they’re talking about?”

“Right now no, but if I listened to it a few times, and you gave me a pen and paper, I might be able to decipher it.”

“You’re not actually going to let him do that,” Brent said. “We can’t trust him. He has no reason to help us, only to see us fall.”

James still lounged in the doorway, pretending to be busy inspecting his fingers. It looked as if it didn’t matter to him what Brent or anyone else thought about him.

I turned to Meg. “Do you think you might be able to figure out what that’s all about?”

“Yeah, I think so.” She shrugged.

“When? Today? Tomorrow?”

“Um.” She bit down on her lip. “It might not be so simple. This is unlike anything we’ve ever seen and...”

“If Desmond used this code, then how come we don’t know about it?” Brent’s gaze flickered from James to Meg, Felipe, and me, then settled back on James.

“Because my father used different codes for different purposes.” James gave Brent a disdainful look. “If you never caught this one, then you might not be as good at this as you think.”

“You son of...” Brent was about to go for James, and I again had to hold him back. This was getting ridiculous.

“Oh, we’re very good at this. I think this code hasn’t been used around the city but for more private situations.” Meg narrowed her eyes at James. “That’s why we haven’t seen it before, and that’s why you might know more about it.”

“What?” Brent said. “Are we really going to believe the Ezzatis spoke in code at home?”

“That’s not it,” I said, my eyes meeting James’. “Your father used it when he invited his secret partners over, didn’t he? So that not even his guards and members of the household could understand it and betray him.” There was a little twitch of James’ lip that told me I was on to something. “Did your father show those codes to you or were you spying on him?”

“What I did or didn’t do doesn’t matter. I might be able to decipher that code,” James said. “It’s up to you whether you’ll let me do it or not.”

A smile spread across my lips and I laughed.