Barry also arrived there.
“Look.” Barry tried his own method, “Please contribute.”
“Contribute?”
“Yes. Little or more, but please do something.”
“Tafadzwa has left his dogs in forest to search for you two. That’s all I can contribute.”
“You don’t understand. We are very close to the treasure.”
“How close?”
Waylon showed him the decoded portion, “I can give you safety from Tafadzwa. We did a mistake in past but we can correct it from now.”
Cryptographer, vulnerable, was forced to reconsider his thoughts. He was not confident that Tafadzwa’s dogs would only harm them and not him. He could not tell anything about Tafadzwa as he was unpredictable.
The cryptographer took the pen and broke the cipher:
EAST HOUSE FOUND ABOUT IT AND TOOK HIS WIFE
GOLD HE OFFERED EAST MEN BUT THEY WANTED HIS HEAD IN RETURN.
“Here it is.” Waylon snatched it from his hands, “Roderick, write it down.”
Barry passed a pen and paper to Roderick, “Back up.”
“Now, where do you plan to send me?” cryptographer’s face grew smaller.
Roderick and Barry high fived in joy. Waylon could not wait to see what Gretta’s reaction would be.
“Yes! You have finally broken the cipher.” A voice came. Then Tafadzwa appeared through woods out of nowhere. His men also showed their presence.
“You all thought I didn’t sense you were inside?” Tafadzwa walked towards them, demanding the paper.
“But you didn’t see me.” Gretta spoke from a tree while holding a gun resembling to a flamethrower.
She pressed the trigger and an invisible wave shot out of its nozzle. She pointed it towards Tafadzwa’s henchmen with her finger still leaning against the trigger. Bullets flew towards her, but they turned holographic when they came in contact with the wave. Soon Tafadzwa and his men also become smoke like. Their gold teeth began falling one by one.
Roderick along with his group lay down on ground to avoid being turned into smoke.
“NO!” Roderick roared when the decoded paper flew out of his hands because of the shock wave. He wanted to leap and get it, but it was too late. Gretta was on a roll.
By the time Gretta stopped, Tafadzwa and his henchmen had turned smoky. They were alive, had senses, could talk, but every time they attempted to touch anything, their hands would get past through that object.
Roderick went to pick the paper where the cipher had been solved. But it also had become misty. Neither Roderick nor Waylon could pick it.
“You thought this will work, woman?” Tafadzwa said and went towards cipher on the ground. He picked it up with ease.
Something else happened while he clutched it. Tafadzwa was becoming less transparent along with the paper. It didn’t take them long to realize Tafadzwa was coming back to his original form.
Waylon, Roderick, and Gretta rushed out from there. The cryptographer also came along with him.
They climbed in the jeep Gretta had brought.
“Not you.” Waylon said to the cryptographer, “Sorry for fake promises.”
BANG!
Waylon blew his head off. He could not let the cryptographer solve the riddle.
“You just made me feel unsafe.” Barry bellowed.
“Unsafe?” Waylon said, “Tafadzwa has the broken code.”
“So have we.” Roderick took out the portion of code done by the dead cryptographer when the jeep rolled.
While Tafadzwa was recovering, those three people ran out of his sight. The broken cipher in his hand killed all the hurry venting within Tafadzwa. He was more patient than ever with it in his possession.
Seeing his men ready to follow Waylon and his group, Tafadzwa stopped them.
“They don’t matter.” Tafadzwa said, “None of them know answer of this riddle.”
