In the mind of the Genius

The Impending Danger (3/3)

Officer Vincent's house is just a 15 minute drive from the park. Considering his stature, I'm expecting an amusing mansion but instead, a simple and small house was in front of my eyes.

"Sir, please forgive my humble home." the officer said.

"No worries, you had it better, I've been sleeping at the park for quite a time" Beta commented.

I can't believe this two people! They are completely from a different dimension compared to us, their intelligence is considered unnatural, and yet, they live such uncomfortable lives.

"Officer, I believe that the Arnais Family is quite wealthy, but why are you accepting in this kind of lifestyle?"I asked.

"You don't really get it, do you? I can be assigned to better places, but since Sir is here, it would be a small sacrifice living in this rural area just to be with Sir for just a period of time."

Is Officer Vincent gay? Or just like me, he has fallen in love with Beta's brain? I guess, gender doesn't matter if you're only gonna love the brain.

"Officer, can you fetch us your laptop? Based on the text message, B.S. should have received an email from Michelle about what she knows about the syndicate. I assume you have an internet connection, Officer?" Beta said.

"I have everything covered. Please use this laptop, B.S." the officer said.

"Officer, I go by the name of Brianna Sheiyreen. Please don't try to mimic Beta, it is already as irritating as it is." I corrected.

Officer Vincent laughed and said "I thought that B.S. was your nick name! Sir has been calling you that, it was kinda rude but you're lucky enough to be called like that by Sir. Unlike me, he's calling me 'Officer' instead of my name. You're blessed to have a special nick name pondered by Sir himself"

"Loko. Should I be proud of that?" I said.

"Hey, don't talk about me as if I'm not here. I'm a very sensitive guy, you know." Beta interrupted.

Look who's talking. Sensitive-your-ass. You are the one who used me as a pillow, used my phone for quite a time, you even ordered me to treat you ice cream, and now you're here saying that you are a sensitive guy?! (I wish I could say that out loud, Officer Vincent might get angry if I said it)

Anyways, the email is what we're after. I just need to log in with my email and download the attached file.

I navigated to the site, and successfully found Michelle's email. I downloaded the attached zip file but when I tried to open it, it prompts for a password.

"Now what?" the officer asked.

"Wait, let me see Michelle's text message again."

Beta might have already known the password already, but he is silent. If there's a slight chance that he perhaps, doesn't know the password yet, then it's my opportunity to show that I'm intelligent too.

Is there something odd about Michelle's text? What's really bugging me is the two "LL" in the word "really". Does it have to be in upper case? It's very unlikely to have a typographical error like that. Wait, there are some upper case letters in her text!

____________________________

ive e-Mailed you about what i know about the Abyss syndicate. i dont reaLLy know much but i think i should tell you asap. Of course, the attached file is password protected. Well, knowing you and your friend beta, i know that you can Solve it.

___________________________

"M-A-L-L-O-W-S" I excitedly blurted out.

"Mallows...what?" Officer Vincent asked.

"Michelle's text message is odd, for all the 'should-be' capital letters are in lower case, while some other 'should-be' small letters are in upper case. It is too odd for a typo error. That's when I noticed the word 'mallows'" I explained.

"So the password is - mallows?" the officer said. "Let's try it then"

I tried to type 'mallows', but it didn't work. I tried 'MALLOWS' but still it didn't work.

"Beta, am I wrong?" I asked in surrender.

"You're in the right track. I'm not 100% sure also, but we could only try as many possible variations that we know. Try transposing the word 'mallows' to her code" Beta said.

I typed in 'XIII.I.XII.XII.XV.XXIII.XIX' but still it didn't work. I also tried the lower case variation, but no luck.

"Since it's just one word, try removing the dots....No! Wait! Try entering '1311212152319'" Beta commanded.

Upon entering the numbers, I was able to open and extract the files from the email!

"Yes! You're right" I shouted. "But what's with those numbers? There's no indication of numbers in Michelle's text."

"Calm down, it's also a variation from 'mallows', she refrained the use of her code because of the fear that the Abyss Syndicate might already know how to decipher it. So instead of roman numerals, why not use the ordinary numbers?" Beta explained.

And upon inspecting the numbers that Beta dictated, I noticed that the numbers were just corresponding to every letters in sequence.

"Now listen" Beta said. "We need a body guard for B.S."

"But Sir, you know that I can't do that." Officer said.

"It's highly probable that the culprit knows the code, that's how he was able to lure Michelle out, to the point of escaping a night. Michelle must have known the culprit. There are no signs of her struggling, so at a certain extent, she trusted the murderer. What concerns me is that the murderer might be tracing us right now. Officer, please locate Michelle's phone. If you won't be able to find it, then B.S. is in grave danger." Beta said.

"Yeah, I get what you're trying to say, Sir. But you know how flawed our current system is. We can't request immediate protection for Miss Brianna based only on assumptions. If you may, I suggest that you will be the one to personally protect her. If you won't be able to protect her, then I'm sure that no one on the police force would be able to."Officer Vincent said.

I'm really lost on what's going on. Do I really need protection?

"I won't let anyone die again. B.S. I will be your bodyguard from now on. But you must also be cautious. Keep your distance from any left-handed guy." Beta commanded.

"Why?" I asked.

"The murderer is someone in the university, he is a left-handed guy that knows who Michelle is." Beta remarked.

Suddenly, the fear inside me crawled over my body. I do have quite a few classmates who are left-handed. Will I suffer the same fate as Michelle?