Project LOKI ③

Chapter 44: Dead Man's Switch VII (Wrong Turn)

A/N: This marks my one week of daily updates! The second wave continues!

LORELEI

I UNDERSTAND why Stein had to use strange symbols sa kanyang text kay Jamie. For those who don't know his alter ego, they would easily dismiss the symbols as nonsense. But for those who know, sigurado kaming coded message 'yon.

Remember the first time we heard about Stein? His classmates said that he likes to message them in Morse code. Hindi na kataka-taka kung gagamit din siya ng code sa kanyang text messages. Unfortunately, I don't have the gift of retentive memory, kaya I can't recall all the symbols in the text. Ang natatandaan ko lang ay ang hugas triangle sa unahan at ang letrang x sa huli.

While I'm curious about the cryptic message, I'm more curious about what Jamie would do about it. The message was sent around the time that we met in the execom office. Ise-share ba niya sa amin kung ano ang message ni Stein? Or would she keep it to herself?

If she's really loyal to us, she would tell. But if she chose not to, that might mean something. Maybe her speech about loyalty was a bunch of empty words. Maybe she really wanted to tell us, but she couldn't find the right time.

"Lori, are you with us?"

I shook my head to shrug off the distracting thoughts. Masyadong crucial ang mission namin ngayong gabi kaya kailangang naka-focus ako. Dapat i-set aside ko muna ang nasilip kong coded message.

"Loki and I will break into the apartment," Alistair explained. "You and Jamie will be on the lookout."

Pasado ala-sais na ng gabi kami nakarating sa isang apartment sa Barangay Balibago. According to Hershey's findings, dito niya na-trace ang IP address ng gumamit sa account ni Augustus at ng nag-send ng threat email kay Rosetta. He couldn't trace the exact address, but that wasn't a problem.

Thanks to Maggie asking around, meron kaming file ng most likely suspect namin. All we had to do was to compare notes. The IP address of the man named Tiberius Roman, which was obviously an alias, was traced in Barangay Balibago. Sir Ephraim Quirino, a former English instructor in Clark High and the former adviser of Clarion, also happened to live in Barangay Balibago. It wasn't that difficult to put two plus two together.

Therefore, Sir Ephraim is Augustus' switch, the caretaker of his coveted box.

Nasa loob pa rin kami ng kotse ni Alistair. Dahil wala kaming masyadong oras para magplano, we had to improvise. Nagpalit kami ng damit para walang makapansin ng kahit anong hint na taga-Clark High kami. Sir Ephraim was an instructor in our school. He'd certainly be aware of our uniform. Baka kapag nakita niya kami, agad na siyang kukutuban. We also don't know if Augustus had informed him about us. Maybe he's on his guard.

Since we got here, we haven't noticed any movement in the unit where Sir Ephraim was staying. Nakasara pa rin ang pinto, naka-lock ang mga bintana, nakapatay ang ilaw. It's getting dark already.