ONE MORE CLUE
Oh wow, does college keep me busy or what? My friend and I were watching NT2 the other night because he had never seen it, and it made me feel really bad about not writing this in a while, and so I felt obligated to overcome some roadblocks I've had with this story lately, particularly in a future chapter with finding a cipher that's never been used in the movies or my stories so far. I checked four books out of library for research! As for now, enjoy! - Dis/Claimer x x x . Chapter Ten . "You know, even if we do find this little piggy bank of treasure and I'm not exponentially richer," Riley said as he and Carolyn walked along the Freedom Trail lazily, "I'm going to have the body of a god from all this running around." Carolyn looked him up and down, the early afternoon sun's brightness reflecting off the windows of the building around them. "Good. Because you're horribly unattractive. I'm just marrying you for the money." "I knew it." They laughed, Riley pausing in front of the Boston Massacre Historical Society's Museum. "Stop numero uno on the Freedom Trail-" "It's actually number eleven of thirteen," Carolyn said, waving a pamphlet at him. "But considering we're going backwards-" "Numbers aside, Riley the God needs a restroom." She smirked. "Gods use the restroom?" x x x He left Carolyn in one of the rooms that had the life stories of all the victims of the Massacre, her inner artist attracted immediately to the portraits, paintings, and sketches. Riley looked around for a sign to the restroom, found it, and in doing so, became paralyzed Ben, Maddox, Patrick, and Harper were walking right towards him. Panicked, Riley pushed into the restroom passed someone, flew into the first stall, and swung the door shut loudly, his hand still on the lock. He heard the only other person in the restroom shut off the sink and open the door to leave, but footsteps and soft, familiar voices entered. Riley put his feet up on the toilet seat as Maddox's shiny black shoes went up and down the length stalls in silence before saying, "Now where is this square?" "I have never heard of it," Ben said. He looked to his father. "Was there a place named Polybius Square that was renamed at some time? Something to do with Roanoke, Paul Revere, the Sons?" Riley leaned forward. Polybius Square? "Nothing I know of, son." "Mr. Kacy, would you happen to know? As much time as you spend with maps?" "No. And my lack of historical knowledge doesn't help." "Then you can search for it, I'm sure," Maddox said. He leaned on the sink, smiling between the meteorologist and Ben. "Shame. I bet your Riley could have found it for us." Riley suddenly didn't recognize Ben's low, gritted voice; he sounded like a junkyard dog having been kicked one too many times. "I thought you were a man of your word?" "Yes," Maddox said respectfully, looking down at his clasped hands. "I am sorry." "Don't let it happen again," Harper said boldly. Riley grew nervous in the silence that followed, pulling out his new cell phone without a sound. Thankfully, Patrick spoke. "Well, think! Revere's engraving had the same line from the letter to Greenleaf with a possible location listed under it. It must be somewhere here in the city. We'll stop at the Boston Library. Come on." The group followed him out slowly. "With all that history in your heads combined, I'm astonished you two have no idea where this place is," Maddox commented. Hearing their voices pass out of the doorway and earshot, Riley relaxed into the wall and let his feet fall back to the floor, the gears in his head suddenly shifting. x x x "We don't know everything," Ben continued out in the lobby where Abigail waited with Priscilla and the children. "if I did, I wouldn't need you, and if you did, you wouldn't need me." "It's a documented place, though!" Maddox pressed. "You mean to tell me that no one's ever heard of this Polybius Square except Paul Revere and Oliver Greenleaf?" "It could be a code," Patrick offered. "It may have stood for a different place." "Like where?" "Ben, look at this." Abigail held her phone up to her husband. He took it slowly, reading the message sent as Maddox, Priscilla, and his father gathered behind him. He blinked, comparing the times on the message and his wristwatch; it had just been sent. "Who's number is this?" "I don't know." Ben handed her back the phone, looking around the crowded room. He nodded to the door. "Let's go. Abigail, don't let anything happen to that message." She locked it, staring at it uneasily. 'Polybius Square isn't a place.' x x x "It's not?" "No," Riley said, racing across the busy street with Carolyn, "it's a cipher." "What?" Riley pulled her into a side street and stopped, retrieving the Oliver Greenleaf letter from his pocket. "Patrick said that the same line from the letter was on the back of the Paul Revere engraving with 'Polybius Square' under it. The Polybius Square is a cipher that combines substitution with transposition," he explained, pulling out a pen and grabbing a napkin from a nearby caf้ table. "It looks like this." And he drew it quickly: 0 1 2 3 4 5 1 A B C D E 2 F G H I/J K 3 L M N O P 4 Q R S T U 5 V W X Y Z "The cipher uses numbers to encipher a word or phrase, kind of like the Playfair Cipher. The two are similar, seeing as the Playfair Cipher uses the Polybius Square as the basis of its coding." "How are they different?" "The layout of coded words and how they are coded. Playfair Ciphers use pairs of letters separated into individual pairs; Polybius Square is a long unbroken string of numbers," he said, taking her hand again and leading her up the street. "I'll explain more when we get to the Granary Burying Ground. Stop number four of thirteen, right?" "Why?" "It's where the massacre rests." x x x Carolyn understood it now the victims of the Boston Massacre were buried at the Granary Burying Ground, and the clue was there, somehow encoded with this Polybius Cipher. What she didn't understand was Riley's sudden change of attitude. He was eager to figure it out, running in front of cars and tripping over cracks in the sidewalk to get there. When they reached the Burying Ground out of breath, Carolyn followed Riley suspiciously. "What's got you so excited about this?" "I am one step ahead of Ben," he said without hesitation, scanning the headstones for a signifying mark of some kind. "If I get this figured out before him, not only can I gloat, but I can prevent him from continuing." "Why? I have a feeling that will only make Maddox upset if Ben has nothing to figure out for him." "No, this will save him and everyone else. Not having a treasure to find will do him some good. I'm going to destroy that compass when I find it." Carolyn's eyes narrowed. "Not if I find it!" "It's for your own good, too." "Since when did you start caring about our 'own good' by doing the very thing that isn't for our own good? You're actively participating in the treasure hunt!" "But my intentions are to destroy, not advocate." "Riley-!" "Wait, wait! Right here!" Carolyn swallowed the anger on the tip of her tongue with a low growl, crouching next to the gravestone dedicated to the five victims of the Boston Massacre as Riley examined it for any numbers. After a thorough check, they turned up nothing. "But this is it," Riley said, sitting back on his heels. His shoulders slumped. "This is where the victims of the massacre are buried. Maybe the numbers wore off?" Carolyn's eyes grew. "What if it's not talking about the victims of the massacre? Perhaps the artist of the Massacre?" Riley got to his feet, dusting off his pants. "Where is he?" "He's right over here." x x x "Are you sure I can't help you with something?" the librarian asked, approaching the large group of ten people surrounding one computer. The oldest gentlemen looked back and said, "If you don't know what Polybius Square is, then no." She was somewhat speechless, but tried to remain polite. "Maybe I can locate you a book-" "No time!" another man in sunglasses said, waving her off. The blonde woman next to the man on the computer suddenly pointed at the screen. "There! Polybius Square, named for Ancient Greek historian and scholar, Polybius." The librarian huffed. She put on a stony expression and hardened her voice. "No more than one person is allowed at a computer. That is my final say, or you are all going to be asked to leave." They ignored her, hovering over the computer, reading. Half a moment later, the man in the sunglasses leaned over the man in the chair for a closer look. "That explains it!" he exclaimed as they all got up, smiles on their faces. "It's a code!" The librarian stamped her foot loudly, fists at her sides. "Shh! "Print that out! We need it!" "For heaven's sake, OUT!" Grabbing the page from the nearby printer, they filed passed her, each incurring a particularly snide look. The little boy looked up at her. "I said go." "Shhh," he whispered. "You can't yell in the liberry." The old librarian stiffened, blinking at the boy and his father as their group left. x x x "There it is." Riley and Carolyn ran over to the gravestone; a rectangular prism standing on its end with a square slab capping it. The stone read: PAUL REVERE BORN IN BOSTON JANUARY 1734 DIED MAY 1818 "What are we looking for again?" Carolyn asked as they examined the gravestone. Riley poked his head around the back side of the tall portion of the marker, brushing some dead leaves and dirt from the base slabs. "A string-" "I found it!" Riley looked up, joining her at the right side of the gravestone. "That fast?" "Yes. Right there." On the square stone that sat atop the memorial, Riley spotted it a string of ten numbers in the lower right corner. He smiled, pulling out the pen and napkin and quickly writing it down as Carolyn took a picture of it with her phone. 3114355121 "It would really suck if this were someone's social security number," Riley laughed to himself. As he finished, Carolyn leaned over and asked, "How do you do it?" "Each number is a row or column. A lot of people will make the mistake of deciphering it like the Playfair Cipher by separating them into pairs like this." 31 14 35 51 21 "But if you do that and figure that each of the first letters corresponds with the row and the second letters are columns, you're going to get jibberish." R 3 1 3 5 2 C 1 4 5 1 1 - L D P V F "And that's wrong. You find divide the number of letters in the ciphered message by two-" 31143 55121 "- and set them one on top of the other, and voila." R 3 1 1 4 3 C 5 5 1 2 1 - P E A R L Carolyn's face illuminated, Riley smiling triumphantly at her. "We've found our pearl." "Brilliant," she said breathlessly. She rose to her knees with Riley filled with adrenaline, the two of them looking at the top stone curiously. Carolyn gave it a small push, feeling it give just the slightest. "Here," she said, repositioning herself, "help me." With a few grunts and hard pushes, Riley and Carolyn were able to slide the top stone minimally. Carolyn ran to the other side and began to pull as Riley pushed, and finally, something began to appear. "Keeping going- Ah!" The slab slid effortlessly then into Carolyn's arms, and stumbled backwards in surprise. Riley jumped up as she eased it against the gravestone. She watched his lips thin in annoyance; there, inset in the top center of the big rectangular stone, was another compass. She glanced sideways at Riley, and he did the same. From that moment of stillness, a short melee broke out as they both grabbed for the compass. Carolyn won the tug of war in the end, holding the compass close. Riley sighed. "We're not treasure hunting anymore!" "I am." "Finder's, keeper's," he said, unsuccessfully reaching around her for it. "You may have found it, but I am using it." He groaned, walking away while she inspected the compass. There was, as on the other two, a giant letter on the bottom of the compass, this one 'S' to signify 'South.' It seemed more durable than the others, more solid woodwork and assembly. Then, between the four nails on the bottom, she saw four lines and grinned. "The next part of the riddle." "Really?" "Yes. Really." Treated war to set the pace Over an ocean to find but a trace Her mind started picking out things right away. 'Set' and 'ocean' - The sun sets in the west. The element of West is water. They were still on track. Discreetly, Carolyn tore a piece off her Freedom Trail pamphlet and began to write the riddle down, folding it as small as possible. She glanced over her shoulder at Riley as he struggled to put the square slab back on top of the gravestone. "I- oh, come on." "What?" Carolyn came over and looked into the perfect circle inset in the rectangular stone where the compass had rested. Engraved at the bottom were six letters- J J C K P N. "Lovely," Riley commented as Carolyn pulled out her phone to take another picture. "Now Ben will still have something to go off. Hopefully without the riddle he'll be thrown off and just quit so he doesn't die." "You're so loving," she chuckled, pocketing her phone. "Even when you're bitter." "I have reason," he deadpanned with a nod to his injured shoulder. "God, this thing stings. I think when you jabbed it with the tweezers you did more damage than the bullet did." Ignoring him, she helped him set the stone straight and rubbed her hands on her pants. "Come on, Crypto. We have another cipher on our hands, I'm sure." x x x "What are you doing to Paul Revere?" Abigail gave a small laugh and patted Sally's shoulder as Ben, Maddox, and Harper removed the square stone atop the silversmith's grave marker. "Paul Revere isn't in the stone, honey; he's under it, in the ground." "Oh." "More letters," she heard Ben say before circling around the stone with everyone else. She watched Priscilla pull out a small notebook from her bag and started writing down the six letters engraved in the stone as Maddox touched the inset. "There was one here." Patrick's hand squeezed through, his eyes focused on a small colorful paper in the circle inset. The others watched him unfold the glossy paper as he looked over at the pamphlet Harper was holding. "Just here, too, from the looks of it." Maddox's mind flared as Ben read aloud the next part of the riddle on the paper. He stepped away from the group, scanning the graveyard with anger rushing hot out of his nose. Then what luck he spotted them sitting across the street on the stairs of a building washed in sunlight, the compass in their hands. "Maddox, where are you going?" His hand slipped into his coat as he crossed the brick pathway. When Ben and the others followed his line of sight, their hearts dropped. Ben felt the wind knocked out of him and briefly smiled; they were alive. "You don't follow orders very well, Mr. Kacy!" Maddox bellowed, revealing his gun now as he continued to walk right for them. Harper felt faint. "Oh no." As the rest hurried off from the gravestone, Ben put a hand on Harper's shoulder and said, "Thank you for that." "Not a problem, but it's about to be!" Maddox was forty feet away. Abigail's scream pierced through the chilly air. "RILEY! LOOK OUT!" Riley and Carolyn exchanged a confused look before jumping up in panic when they saw Maddox coming at them with a gun, the rest of the group coming up fast behind him. Carolyn screamed as he fired. Riley stuffed the compass deep in his coat, grabbed her, and ran for the street. "Stop!" Maddox turned around to fire at Ben's voice, but Ben was quicker, hitting him in the side of the face and knocking him to the ground. He stepped on his hand to free the gun as Maddox held his jaw, but then a large rock collided with Ben's hand. He cried out in pain, dropping the gun, and clutching his paralyzed hand. He immediately began running as Priscilla came to Maddox's aid. She picked up his gun, kneeling beside him as he sat up on his elbows. "Are you alright?" "For God's sake, woman, he didn't hit me that hard." She held back a smile, helping him to his feet. "Come on." x x x "This is bad," Riley said as he and Carolyn tore through the streets. "Bad, bad, bad-! Wait!" He stopped instantly, Carolyn slamming into his back. He pressed her against the side of the building as a group of police cars passed with their sirens blaring. He rested his head on the bricks, panting. "I told you not to sit there!" Carolyn whispered. "You send Ben a message leading him right to the gravestone and think he won't see us?" "I didn't tell him where to go-" "It's Ben! You might as well have!" "This is not my- AH!" "Shh! Listen!" Ben uncovered their mouths, peering around the corner. "Ben, you have to stop! You weren't supposed to actually figure it out!" "What?" "The text! The Polybius Square! You weren't supposed to know that! We took the compass to end your search-" "Do you still have it?" "Yes," Carolyn said before Riley could lie. Ben nodded, motioning them to the corner when he saw Abigail waiting across the street. "Great. Let's go." "I'm not going!" Just then, Priscilla fired a gun from behind them, narrowly missing Carolyn. Riley's eyes went wide before bolting out into the street with Ben and Carolyn. "Okay! I'm coming!" x x x "Maddox, they're in the train station." "Great. Call Harper and tell him to get around-" "Harper's not answering." Maddox rolled his eyes, following a crowd of people through the lobby of South Station when he spotted them again. "Pathetic rain man
Look, forget it. Just don't let Patrick Gates get away." x x x Screams. Gunfire. Ben looked back as the people of the station scattered. Maddox was hot in pursuit, his speed just as alarming as the fury of his eye. He pushed Carolyn to the side, redirecting their path. "Get on the train!" Abigail, at the front of the group, came to halt at the train's entrance where a conductor stood with his hand up. "No running on the platform! Where are your tickets?" Another gunshot sent more scream echoing off the station walls. The conductor fell back, startled at the sound. Riley pointed at Maddox frantically. "Is that ticket enough for you?" They pushed onto the train, but Riley was suddenly pulled back. "No!" Carolyn reached for him, but Maddox had the gun's barrel burning into the fresh bullet wound in his shoulder from days before, its heat searing his wound until he cried out. He looked up dizzily at Ben, Abigail, and Carolyn frozen in the doorway of the train. Maddox smiled. "Look what I've got, Ben," he taunted. "Riley Poole, back from the dead. Not a problem; I told you that Harper wouldn't do the job. 'Send some else. Do it yourself.' Or perhaps Mr. Kacy did and just didn't kill them as good as he thought." Ben felt Riley and Carolyn staring at him as Maddox nodded. "Oh, that's right. He didn't see the point in keeping you around if you were just going to stop him from getting his treasure-" "That's a lie!" Ben said, jumping from the train. "Is it? It's what you told me. And from the look of the tiger in Riley's eyes here wanting to pounce on you and tear you to shreds, I think he believes me. He's been rather mean to you, hasn't he, Riley?" The whistle on the train blew. Finally, Ben hit Maddox for the second time that day, grabbing Riley and passing him to Abigail and Carolyn on the train. He climbed aboard immediately as it began to move out of the station, Maddox getting to his feet with a bloody nose and smile as he walked alongside the train. "If you doubt me, Mr. Poole, remember that betrayal is the only truth that sticks!" He waved at the end of the platform, smug and satisfied. "See at the end of the line!"
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