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Lori read aloud from the folder: “I hope you are all enjoying the game so far. The next part of the game involves you following some clues until you find where the other two are being kept. Rules are: you are not allowed to tell anyone what you are doing, including no contact with the police at all. You may be thinking why should you bother going to save two people you hardly know. Well the thing is if you don’t play along you will be killed. Trust me you will be watched every step of the way. So do not be tempted to break any of the rules.”
“Oh come on!” Lee exclaimed. “This has got to be some sort of reality TV show. I mean I haven’t done anything in my life to deserve this or even to piss anybody off this much. Have you done anything?” He pointed at Ryan.
“No way.” Ryan appeared ever so slightly defensive.
“Have you?” Lee asked Shannon.
“Really don’t think so.” Shannon didn’t make eye contact with Lee.
“You?”
“Not that I can think of”– Lori replied with a hint of nerves.
“Well I definitely haven’t. I have to think that somebody does think we have done something though. I can’t believe we’ve all just been selected at random.”
Lee’s exasperation continued.
“It would seem odd for this psycho to put so much thought into this scheme and then draw out eight victims at random”– Shannon agreed.
“But right now I think it’s best if we just focus our energies on playing this game”– she added.
“Good call”– Ryan conceded. “Lets go on this treasure hunt.”
“Okay it says to drive the van in the direction its pointing now for approximately five miles. And we will reach a town. The first clue is related to somewhere in that town”– Lori read from the folder.
“Any volunteers to drive?”
“I will if nobody else wants to”– Ryan replied.
The van was just about big enough for the four of them to fit across the front seats.
“First clue is – Lori continued to read once they were all in the van – a place where sign language would be useful, ri-worss IVXXXMCM,
supremacy myth’ shatterer.”
“Now how did I know these clues weren’t going to be straight forward”– Lee grumbled.
“Ri-worss? Is that German?” Ryan wondered.
“Yeah I think so”– Lori replied.
“Let’s start at the beginning. Where would sign language be useful?” Shannon suggested. “Because I’m thinking: a library.”
“I like it”– Ryan enthused. “Yeah next clue be hidden in a book. Let’s go with that see where it takes us.”
“Pretty sure ri-worss is reverse in German”– Lori said.
“I’ll take your word for it”– Lee said.
“Working in a library you tend to read a lot”– Lori explained.
“These letters sounded like Roman numerals to me”– Lee pointed out.
“Definitely! So if we reverse them we get, MCMXXXVI, which I make out to be one thousand nine hundred and thirty six”– Lori worked out.
“Or 1936”– Shannon replied.
“The year, of course”– Lori conceded, whilst making it politely clear with her tone that she’d already thought of that.
“What was the last part of the clue?” Ryan asked Lori.
“Supremacy myth shatterer.”
“Think we’re looking for a book about Jesse Owens”– Ryan announced.
“1936 Olympics, of course”– Shannon got unusually close to giddy by her standards.
“Shattering the myth of the supremacy of the Arian race”– Lee added, nodding his head.
“Sounds good to me”– Lori concurred.
“He even used a German word for the Berlin Olympics. Wow, this guy has way too much free time”– Ryan said.
The town was small, as was the library. But in the sport section there was indeed a book on Jesse Owens. And folded up in there was a piece of paper with the next clue on it.
“They sang a friendly song whilst he was Mr. Harmenszoon van Rijn”– Lee read the clue out loud, prompting a steely glare but no ‘ssshh’ from the nearby, old, female librarian.
Four of them went outside, sat on the benches by the library and went into thinking mode.
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