“Fine!” Jackie snapped back. “Please go away and leave me alone!” Valerie slid the door open.

“If you are having a problem, you know I can’t do that. Besides, you’re my friend and I’m worried about you.” Valerie could see Jackie had not yet changed into her sleeping togs. The cup was lying on the floor, trailing liquid across the compartment. Jackie righted the stool and as she straightened, tears filled her eyes. “What is it? Valerie pleaded. Let me help you.”

For a moment, Jackie stood there mutely and didn’t know what to say or do. Then, she suddenly stepped forward, hugged Valerie tightly, and with ragged breath choked out, “That.” and nodded toward the monitor. The screen was close enough for Valerie to read without shifting position.

“I don’t understand why you’re so upset. Mike sounds OK to me.”

Jackie released Valerie and moved away. “Mike is being held hostage. In the sign off, ‘All for you’… the number four, it’s a code. If you read the first word of the first sentence, second of the second, third of the third, fourth of the fourth, then start over, it translates ‘Don’t try anything funny. We won’t take no for an answer.” Valerie stared intently at the screen for a moment, as she counted off the words.

“Are you getting space-happy? You’re looking for hidden messages that aren’t really there.”

Jackie sobbed uncontrollably, the tears streaming down her face. “No, it’s true,” she went over to the computer and used the mouse to scroll up to Chen Kaiying’s first message. She explained, “When I was growing up in China, Kaiying was a close friend and teammate in the Olympics. When we were young, we used to pass notes back and forth to each other in class. To keep anyone from reading our messages and getting us in trouble, we came up with this code. See the strange looking marks at the bottom of her first message? Those marks are the Chinese symbol for the number eight. So take a look at the first word of the first sentence, and so on through the eighth, then start again.” Jackie sat slumped on the bed as Valerie sat on the little stool and deciphered the first message and then went through the rest of the emails.

“I’m so glad you showed me this.” Valerie pronounced firmly.

Puzzled, Jackie stared at her, her red eyes widening, and blurted out, “Why? Are you going to help me sabotage the mission?”

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