In his room, Tafadzwa also woke up because of loud barking. He could tell something was out of order just by the way how the dog barked. Tafadzwa went straight for the room where he had kept the cipher.
It was gone.
Tafadzwa rushes at the panicked dog. It fell silent when Tafadzwa checked its snout. He found no difficulty in seeing traces of strap around it.
“He wants me to take him for a walk?” his man asked.
“He wants to take us to the man who stole the code. Follow him.” Tafadzwa said.
Waylon took Roderick to his jeep. They could hear the massive dog barking from Tafadzwa’s residence. Roderick was sure it was sniffing its way towards them with gunmen. Waylon didn’t have the opposite opinion either but he was refusing to start the jeep.
“Are we going or not?” Roderick was frustrated.
“Not just we two.” Waylon said.
Leaved rusted on tree above them and branches rocked. Roderick gazed up to see if it was a gorilla or another giant bird from another dimension. Someone fell right in backseat of the jeep. It was a woman with a gun.
Roderick was armed as well. Waylon laughed at seeing the forest standoff in his jeep.
“Gretta, relax. Roderick is on our side.” Waylon said, but the woman was skeptical.
Roderick decided to bend and lowered his gun. The woman did the same. Then things got sorted out.
“Do you know her?” Roderick asked.
“Why wouldn’t I?” he turned at Gretta, “Done?”
“Yes. I have put human fumes all around the forest to confuse dogs.”
The jeep rolled from there.
“How did you get here?” Gretta asked Roderick.
“I brought him here.” Waylon said, “Found him in Tafadzwa’s house.”
“I was stuck in there.” Roderick said, “Check my teeth.”
“Gross.” Gretta shrugged.
“Now he is going to help me take the treasure.” Waylon steered.
“Treasure?” Roderick asked.
“Yes. It won’t be hard. All we need to do is crack this cipher.” Waylon waved the paper, “Roderick, I have a cryptographer friend – Barry.”
“He’s my friend too.” Gretta interrupted.
“Excuse me. Who is she?” Roderick pointed at her.
“My wife.”
Roderick unwinded himself till they reached in Barry’s house. Dog’s barking was not audible, and the jeep wasn’t noisy. Gretta had done wonder by confusing the dog. Soon they reached to Barry’s house. Waylon killed the jeep and knocked on the door.
Barry’s wife came out crying, “Waylon, why did you do this to me?”
“What happened?” Waylon asked.
“Some people abducted Barry two days ago.”
“Did they have gold tooth?”
She nod as she wept.
“S***! Tafadzwa took him. Why couldn’t I recognize his handwriting in the desk where I found this code?” Waylon put curses on himself.
“He is alive?” Barry’s wife asked.
“He must be because they kidnapped him to crack the cipher.” He looked at Roderick, “Rod, let’s go back.”
“Why don’t you take your kung fu wife?”
“She has something else to do. Now come or the dog will find traces of our actual smell.”
Roderick agreed and went with him.
