Mysterious Map

You join us as the serene silence of a subdued Sunday at Super Secret HQ is about to be soundly smashed.

“RRRIIIINNG-JIIIINNGLE-IIING!”

“Quick, Super Secret!” yelled Zachery the Kosmic Kid. “To the jingle phone!” 

Super Secret Jack Spinner the Specialized Sleuth was no stranger to this sound and every time it set his heart racing like a greyhound on a treadmill. The jingling of his direct line to Santa had been the start of many a wild adventure with his Mighty Sidekick Zac and hopefully this would be no different.

He grabbed the phone. A voice boomed through the speaker:

“Who’s speaking?” it asked.

“You are!” replied Jack. 

“Yes, I suppose I am! Santa here. Glad I got hold of you, Jack. Got a new case for you…”

“A new case!” exclaimed Jack gleefully. “That’s great because my old one’s got a hole in the bottom and I’m going on a long vacation as soon as…”

“Not that sort of case!” corrected Santa. “I’ve found a mysterious map with unusual writing on it and I need your investigational skills, such as they are… Can you help me work out what it…”

“Ooh!” interrupted Jack. “I know exactly what it is! Never fear, Santa dear - we’re on our way! Quick, Kosmic! To the Sleuth-Sleigh!”

It wasn’t long before our intrepid heroes were face to face with Santa who was brandishing an envelope. He opened it and pulled out a hand-drawn map. The word ‘map’ is used pretty loosely here - it consisted of a blob with a badly-drawn tree next to it. And next to the tree, someone had written the message “Tree by the ODNH RI XQIURCHQ ZDWHUV.  PS A=X”

“Aha! Just as I thought!” cried Jack. “Complete gibberish! It can only be the work of one person…”

“I know!” smiled the Kosmic Kid. “I recognised the handwriting too… I haven’t seen him since h…”

“The letter’s complete gobbledygook… Mumbo jumbo… Claptrap…” interrupted Jack. “And that can only mean that it’s been written to throw us off the scent…”

His sleuthing sidekick looked at him quizzically.

“Scent?”

“My sleuthing nose can smell a villain a mile away,” continued Jack. “This was written by a scheming scoundrel clearly out to sabotage Christmas! Of all the viperous villains I have ever come across, never have I seen such tremendous treachery! There just aren’t enough words in the English language to describe such dastardly doings…”

“You seem to have done a good job… But, don’t worry…” attempted Zac. “It’s not who you…”

Jack roundly ignored his sidekick and continued sleuthing in that specialized way only he was capable of.

“We’ve a double agent in our midst!” he ranted. “Stop toy production immediately! Round up the elves! Interrogate them! Sound the alarms! Man the lifeboats! ”

“Which - don’t get me wrong - all seem like really interesting ideas, but possibly before we do all that, why don’t we grab the Super Secret Decoder Wheel?” suggested Zac. “We could use it to try and crack the…”

“How did you know what I was thinking?!” interrupted Jack. “That’s exactly what my next step was going to be! Watch and learn, Kosmic… Remember: if you want to be a truly super sleuth, you won’t go wrong if you watch and learn…”

“My only advice is just try and be inconspicuous,” sighed Santa. “The last thing we want you drawing attention to yourselves…”

“To the Decoder Wheel!! Alllleeeeee-oooop!!” shrieked Jack, hurling himself out of the window and landing headfirst into a snowdrift with a hearty THUMP!

“I’m not entirely sure he knows what ‘inconspicuous’ means,” muttered Zac under his breath as he watched a pair of familiar legs waggling in the air from the middle of the snowdrift.

“Mm-hmm… mhmph!!” came a muffled voice from within the pile of snow. “Hmph… Mmph hmm…!!”

“Looks like the Decoder might come in useful in more ways than one!” laughed Zac.

Can you help the Mighty Duo decipher the Super Secret Code? 

Will our plucky pair get to the bottom of this peculiarly perplexing puzzle? 

Will Super Secret Jack Spinner make it out of the snowdrift in time for next week’s enthralling episode?

Stop back next week to find out. 

Same Super Secret Time. Same Super Secret Place!