17
We both leap up from the bench and rush over to the bookshop. Adam hurriedly unlocks the door.
‘I can’t believe you’ve figured this out, Eve,’ he says excitedly as we go inside.
‘Let’s wait and see if these new numbers work first,’ I reply, trying to remain calm as Adam locks the door behind us and we head over towards the metal door. ‘We might have got a bit carried away.’
‘We’ll try both.’
Adam agonisingly turns the dial on the combination lock using both our dates of birth. His first, and then mine. But as I hold my breath in anticipation of the door opening, each time it’s a sigh of disappointment rather than jubilation that I have to let out when the combination fails.
He then tries the year first followed by the day and month, but again it doesn’t work.
‘Worth a try,’ he says, turning back to me. ‘Maybe we’re overthinking this. Maybe whatever is going on isn’t quite as complicated as we think it is.’
I turn away from the door and look around the shop. My eyes rest on some vintage children’s annuals that Adam has displayed face-out on the shelf and I cry out as I suddenly realise what we’ve forgotten.
‘We forgot the comic connection!’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Archie, your great-grandfather, used to sell comics here, didn’t he? Ben told us all about it. And George, your grandfather, used to collect superhero stuff too – he had it in his house. And then Barney discovered that doodle – the circles with the star.’
‘Captain America’s shield …’
‘And he said he thought the word Earth written in the middle represented three numbers … Can you remember what they were?’
Adam shakes his head.
‘Argh!’ Frustrated, I bury my head in my hands. ‘What did he say they were?’
We both think.
‘He said it was something to do with Marvel comics, didn’t he?’ Adam says, his forehead furrowed as he tries to remember.
‘Yes!’ I pull my phone from my bag and quickly google the words Marvel , Number and Earth . ‘616!’ I tell Adam, almost dropping my phone in excitement. ‘Try 616 with 292. Both ways round.’
Adam tries 616292 first, but infuriatingly the door stays locked.
Then he tries 292616. ‘If this doesn’t work, we really are back at square one again,’ he says as he’s about to turn the last digit.
Slowly he turns the dial to the final six, and we both hear a very clear and a very satisfying clicking sound.
Adam turns back to me. ‘It only bloody worked!’ he says, his eyes wide with excitement. ‘I think we’re in!’
‘Now to find out what’s on the other side of this door …’ I say in barely a whisper. ‘It had better be worth it after all this time.’