Page 69 of If Something Happens to Me

“How do you know?”

“Because I know Ali,” he says. “She made me one of these codes for her prom-posal.”

Poppy hated that phase in high school—everyone trying to one-up classmates on creative ways to ask dates to prom. That didn’t seem like Ali Lane’s style. Though Ali asking Ryan to prom rather than the other way around seems on brand.

“What’s the key, Ryan?”

“Send me the note…”

The standoff continues.

Ultimately, Poppy relents. She hopes she won’t regret this. She swipes her phone, finds the photo of the printout of the note found in Ali’s car on her reel. Her thumb hovers above the send triangle. She hesitates, then decides she’s already in this deep. She’ll have to trust him.

She hears a ping on his phone, then one on hers. Ryan has sent her the crypto key. It’s a photo of a plaque on a wall somewhere. The plaque’s inscription is in a foreign language.

The screen is dark now, but Ryan’s still on the line. Poppy thinks he’s trying to crack the code.

“Ryan,” Poppy says.

“It’s a plaque at the Louvre Museum. Ali’s great-great-great-grandfather helped save the Louvre from being burned down during the French Revolution. There’s a plaque at the museum paying tribute to him. She used it as the key for the prom proposal.”

Poppy shakes her head. This is some weird Da Vinci Code shit.

“How’s it work? I thought you needed the pages of a book for the code numbers.”

“No. The first number is the line, the second the word, the third the letter. Ali said her dad taught her the code. He was in the military.”

Poppy examines the plaque:

EN MAI 1871

HENRI BARBET DE JOUY

CONSERVATEUR AU MUSÉE DU LOUVRE

ANTOINE HÉRON DE VILLEFOSSE

ATTACHÉ AU DEPARTEMENT DES ANTIQUES

LEON MORAND

CHEF DU BUREAU ADMINISTRATIF DES MUSÉES

PAR LEUR COURAGE ET LEUR DECISION

ONT ASSURE LA DEFENSE INTERIEURE

DU LOUVRE

ET CONSERVE A LA FRANCE

SES COLLECTIONS NATIONALES

The first number is 11, so she goes to the eleventh line on the plaque. The second number is 5, so the word is “France.” The third number is 1. The first letter of the fifth word is F.

The second sequence of numbers is 4–4–2. Fourth line, fourth word, second letter: I.

So far: F-I.

Source: www.kdbookonline.com