The Klingon Treasure - CH 3 (of 5)
A Puzzling Puzzle
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CHAPTER III
A Puzzling Puzzle
THE boys watched helplessly as the area was slowly cleared. The remains of Hector were removed from the scene, and onlookers started to wander off from the area, as there was less and less to see.
Spock broke the silence. “I have a series of thoughts. I would like to share them, and see if you agree with my hypotheses.”
“We’ve got nothing else, Spock.” Kirk said. “Let’s hear them.”
“The investigators are operating without a key piece of data. They assume a random attack in a dangerous neighborhood. We have more information at our disposal. We know that Hector was here on a mission.”
Montgomery nodded, “They’re not looking for what we’re looking for, at all.”
“Correct.”
Leonard frowned. “So? Whatever information Hector had just left with him.”
Jim got the glimmer in his eye again. “Not necessarily, Lenny.”
“Indeed.” Spock continued. “If Hector knew he was being followed, and I admit there is a chance this was not so, but if he noticed his assailant before the attack –”
“He would have ditched it.” Kirk said.
Leonard always insisted on playing devil’s advocate: It was his other predominantly annoying habit. “Ditched what? Some kind of data transmission? I hate to break it to you, but Hector’s transmission was terminated when his head left his shoulders.”
Kirk started eying their surroundings very carefully. “We learned today that to keep data safe, you have to use old-school methods.”
“Precisely,” Spock said. “I was given this address on a sheet of paper, and a traditional two-dimensional photograph to memorize Hector’s features. It is logical to assume that an associate of Detective Pike might operate in the same fashion.”
“So,” Leonard mused, “our friend may have left us a note?”
Kirk spied the last of the police packing-up to exit the scene. “A note, or a symbol, or something as simple as an ‘x’ on the pavement. But something is better than nothing.” Kirk’s mood began to lift again. “Shall we cross the street, gentleman? We have some old-fashioned sleuthing to do!”
The murder occurred in front of the Take & Serve – A small, dock-side convenience store that sold much more alcohol than loaves of bread. Outside the main window were many sidewalk displays of chips and various other impulse items. The boys assessed the task at hand.
“It’s going to take awhile to search these bins.” Montgomery said. “Then there’s the inside of the store, as well. The employees probably won’t take too kindly to us snooping around.”
“We must put ourselves in Detective Pike’s place,” Spock replied. “Where would he be most likely to look, if he was in our situation? Also, where might Hector place the information, thinking that it would be Pike conducting the search?”
“I’ve got something!” Called Kirk from within the store. He came out of the building as the other boys approached the entrance to meet him.
Jim produced the fruit of his search for all to see: A pocket-sized notebook.
“This would be very safe,” concluded Spock.
“I found it by the Saurian Brandy.”
“And that would be very Pike,” concluded Spock.
Kirk opened the booklet to the first page, as the others crowded around his shoulders. There was some writing on the ruled sheet:
UVSO UIF QBHF -1
“Is it an alien language?” Asked Leonard.
“None of which I am aware.” Said Spock. “Hector was human, so we could assume a human language. The greek-based letters suggest simple english.”
“Is it a scramble?” Kirk scratched his head. “Perhaps letter transposition?”
“I Don’t think this guy had time to work up a puzzle page.” Leonard offered. “If I was in a hurry, I’d make it as simple as possible.”
“Maybe, in a way, it IS a puzzle page.” Montgomery pointed at the numeral next to the letters. “Could that be the instructions?”
“A negative ‘one’. Step each letter back one character in the alphabet, perhaps? It’s worth a shot.” Kirk pulled a writing implement from his pocket, and worked out the individual letters.
Slowly, a message appeared!
TURN THE PAGE
Leonard felt he spoke for the group. “Anyone else feel stupid right now?”
I am incapable of human emotion,” said Spock. “But in this case, I must answer in the affirmative.”
Kirk turned the page. There was an address hurriedly scribbled on the next sheet. He asked Spock to pinpoint the location.
“It is an old warehouse one point three kilometers from this location.”
“Well, what are we waiting for, Spock?” Jim was positively beaming. “Let’s go solve a mystery!”
Spock held up his hand. “One moment, Jim. I must point out that our duty at this point is to take this information back to Detective Pike.”
“But that’s all the way back into town – we’re right here! We could not only bring him the information, but the results of the information. We may have cracked this case wide-open!”
“We have hardly solved the case, but merely gained a helpful clue. One that may only make sense to Detective Pike. We may find ourselves with a more perplexing dilemma, or worse, we could find ourselves in mortal danger. May I point out that Hector lost his life in attempting to bring this information to Pike?”
“That’s a pretty good point.” Leonard said. “I’ve been studying anatomy at the junior academy, and it would take a lot of effort to, you know, rip a guy in two.”
Kirk studied the ground for a moment. Looking up, he seemed resigned. “Fine. Let’s get back to Pike.”
The boys walked back to the hovercraft and boarded for the journey back to Spaceport. Once they were settled, Kirk spoke up. “Scotty?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Does the journey back to town take us by that old warehouse?”
“Why, yes it does!”
Spock was perplexed. “It most certainly does not.”
“It does the way I drive.”
“Then let’s go, Scotty! Might as well take a quick look, since we’ll be going right by it, anyway.”
Spock’s protests were drowned out by the roar of Queen’s hover-system, and faded as the craft sped away. The boys began their journey to the mysterious address. Little did they realize, however, that another craft pulled away from the opposite side of the street, falling in behind to follow them…
The boys parked the Queen a block away from the given address, hoping that, if someone was watching, they would not easily see them approach on foot. When the warehouse came into view, they could see that it was dilapidated. It had not seen a tenant in many years. Ancient signs littered the entrance: It had obviously been many places in its long, but no longer illustrious career. As they moved closer, a large rat eyed the party carefully, assessing if it could fend them off of its property. Thinking better of it, the vermin scurried away from the entrance.
Leonard noted the creature and said quietly, “What a lovely neighborhood. Remind me to move here when I decide to settle down.”
Montgomery added, “I hear the schools are very good.”
“Levity will not rectify the fact that we should not be here.”
“Be nice to me, Spock,” Leonard said. “I’m the one who voted against tying and gagging you.”
“Well, at least they left the building open,” Kirk noted, looking at the broken lock on the ancient front door. He gave the door a firm push and it opened; the old hinges wailed in protest as the inside of the building was revealed.
The structure was a huge empty cavern. Whatever uses this building had served, the instruments that provided them were removed long ago. The boys turned on flashlights, provided by Scotty from the trunk of the Queen. The eerie glow that shifted to blackness around the edges of the room did nothing to improve it’s frightening demeanor.
It did, however, reveal a single object in the very center of the room. It was fairly large and rectangular. The boys approached carefully, as many of the floorboards were rotted through, and occasionally one boy or another could feel the floor shift under their weight.
“This is exciting!” Said Montgomery.
“You always see the glass as half full, don’t you?” Asked Leonard.
Jim stepped over a particularly bad spot on the floor. “Careful, everyone, we don’t want to wind up at the bottom of this building. I don’t think Scotty has enough gauze in the Queen’s emergency kit.”
They surrounded the object carefully. It was some sort of a chest. If one believed old pirate stories, one might imagine a treasure chest would look just like this. An old-fashioned winch and pulley system was directly over it: A large hook, tied to a long length of heavy rope, on a rather large pulley attached to the main beam of the ceiling.
“Someone drag in Redbeard’s plunder?” Leonard wondered.
“No!” Came a booming, alien voice from behind them. The boys turned with a start, hearts racing. “Someone has dragged in MY ‘plunder’! Thank you for leading me to it.”
A very large Klingon emerged from the blackness, Disruptor pistol in hand. He pointed it directly at the boys. “And now, you will all die…”
