The Sneakies in Las Vegas: A Coby Jay Adventure

By Sue Jacoby

Twelve year Coby Jay Evans; nickname Shorty should have been ready. It shouldnt have been a complete surprise. His Grandpa died of cancer. He promised to take care of Grandma. So, every night he called her. As a diversion from their grieving process he and Grandma; code name, the Sneakies planned to follow mom and dad; code name the Friendlies to Las Vegas. Grandma sounded happy when they talked about the trip. The status of the vacation changed from a fun idea to a secret mission.

While in Vegas Sneakies are watched by the Secret Service as persons of interest in a possible plot to harm the president who is in town. The Sneakies were luckier and had more fun than the Friendlies until Coby single handedly compromised their mission. How could he be so stupid? Maybe he deserved the knick-name he hated so much. A message from Grandpa gives him the courage to complete the mission.

At the end of each chapter the reader will have an opportunity to decipher additional story Intel. The story begins and ends in small town Nebraska, features football analogies, flashbacks to Grandpas buffalo ranch, and a connection to the Middle Ages through a six inch tall silver
knight.

Coby Jay misses his grandfather, hates his knick name, feels belittled by his family, learns family secrets, and has the adventure of a lifetime

• Language: English
• Publisher: Trafford Publishing
• Release date: Nov 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781466966710

Sue Jacoby

Sue Jacoby teaches gifted and talented students for the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her dream is to become a published author so she can tell my students, “This is what I did,” not “This is how you do it.” Her husband is in Law Enforcement and has worked undercover. She has two sons and three granddaughters.

Book preview

The Sneakies in

Las Vegas

A Coby Jay Adventure

Sue Jacoby

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© Copyright 2012 Sue Jacoby.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

Printed in the United States of America.

isbn: 978-1-4669-6670-3 (sc)

isbn: 978-1-4669-6672-7 (hc)

isbn: 978-1-4669-6671-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012920538

Trafford rev. 11/28/2012

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Contents

Chapter 1 I’m all in.

Chapter 2 I will, Grandpa. I will.

Chapter 3 Ears only. Eyes only!

Chapter 4 It will be risky.

Chapter 5 You are kidding, aren’t you?

Chapter 6 Again? Really?

Chapter 7 Stupid stupid stupid!

Chapter 8 The Cage

Chapter 9 Holy moly, what a town!

Chapter 10 Are you ready for some spying?

Chapter 11 Touchdown!

Chapter 12 Waaay too close.

Chapter 13 She saw me.

Chapter 14 Silly Dad!

Chapter 15 Lady on stage

Chapter 16 Coffee now?

Chapter 17 She looks so sad.

Chapter 18 Huzzah!

Chapter 19 Who died?

Chapter 20 Yikes!

Chapter 21 Watch this!

This story is dedicated to the people in my past and present who have enriched my life.

For my husband; Mike, my sons; Jason and Scott, and my granddaughters; Paige, Halee, and Savannah and for my friends and students who have inspired me to write.

Additional Story Intel

At the end of each chapter you can choose to decipher secret message using a Caesar Cipher. All the messages in The Sneakies in Las Vegas use a shift of seven. (A = H) The first row is the plain text or real text. To decipher a message find the cipher letter seven rows under the plain text. (Row 7, the H row) Then, look at the top to find the real text letter.

Julius Caesar, a Roman Emperor (100 BC to 44 BC) used a cipher shift to send secret messages of military significance to his generals. The Caesar Cipher was named after him.

Many boys and girls have fun using the Caesar Cipher Wheel to send secret messages to their friends. To decipher the messages in this book you can make a Julius Caesar Cipher Wheel by finding one on the internet or use the Trimethius Table shown below.

Johannes Trimethius, born in Germany in 1462 was a German abbot, lexicographer, cryptographer, historian, and a writer. In 1518 he wrote the first printed book on cryptology called, Polygraphiae. He put the Caesar Cipher into a table. Today his cipher table is called the Trimethius Table. Each row is a shift of one letter.

Chapter 1

I’m all in.

July 8, 5:30 a.m. CST

Curtis, Nebraska

Early in the morning, before Mom and Dad woke up, Coby Jay Evans squished his last disguise into the suitcase. He hid it under his bed and sat at his desk to check on any final correspondence. Failure was not an option. He turned the cipher wheel to a rotation of 7 to read the message: Xihn zilayn ni vuwe siol ohxylqyul, nii. He laughed when he deciphered, Don’t forget to pack your underwear too.

Coby’s mom and dad were going to Las Vegas to renew their wedding vows. In a few hours, Grandma would arrive from Buffalo Gap, South Dakota, to babysit. Since he was way too old to be called a baby, he preferred to call her his bodyguard.

He had never been on a vacation of any magnitude. Every time he asked, Can I come too? he received the same answer, Of course, when you are big enough. He was tired of hearing about the vacations of his friends and waving bon voyage to them. Today it was his turn. A phone call would signal the start of a secret mission, something bigger than a vacation.

Coby was eager to get out of Dodge. Dodge City was a town in the Wild West. It was the setting of an old black-and-white television series called Gunsmoke. In almost every episode, the sheriff would point at the bad guys and tell them to get the **** out of Dodge by noon or suffer the consequences. Coby’s grandpa said the phrase—minus the bad word, of course—every time he left town for some fun.

Dodge for Coby was Curtis, Nebraska. Curtis was located south of the old Oregon Trail in the canyon lands of Nebraska. Cattle ranches stretched as far as the eye could see in every direction.

There are more cows than people in Nebraska, Grandpa told him. Curtis was the largest little city in Frontier County. It was so large people traveled there from miles away because it had a movie theater, swimming pool, library, golf course, and two large parks. Yet Curtis was so small it had only one traffic light, one grocery store, one fast-food diner, and one small shopping mall.

Coby’s favorite place was Mill Park, the park west of town. He tubed down its river, walked the railroad tracks, and sat under the bridge. He and his friends built forts out of the fallen branches, sat on the fence surrounding the rodeo arena, and played baseball on the top field. He loved living in a small town because it gave