The Games of Kings

Chapter Four


"The bastard's been in my house." Alicia spit out the furiously cold words as she stalked into the conference room.

"What?" Dylan rose to his full, very impressive height, light eyes narrowing.

"The items from the box," Alicia waved her hand towards the box from the Boddy Mansion. "They're from the cover of one of my books." Her hand wasn't shaking as she placed the novel on the table, but her white knuckled grip betrayed her. Dylan hovered over her, clearly wanting to touch but didn't as the others studied the book.

Benedict nodded, matching up each item on the cover with its duplicate from the box. Ramsey pulled out the list and started calling out the book code. Benedict flipped pages and identified the need words. Chris played secretary and wrote them on one of the white boards. It took quite a bit of time to go through the code simply because of the sheer number of words the code demanded be found. Not only that, the code had been modified. Instead of just the page number, line number, and word number, a few of the ciphers called for a fourth item. It took Chris only a minute to reason out that the fourth number denoted a letter in that word.

The deciphering of the code took most of the day but finally they finished. It turned out to be a series of riddles.

"I am slim and tall, many find me desirable and appealing. They touch me and I give a false good feeling. Once I shine in splendor, but only once and then no more. For many I am 'to die for.' What am I?" Alicia read out loud, brow marring in contemplation.

"A plane travels at a speed of 400 miles per hour for 1200 miles, and then returns by the same route at a speed of 300 miles per hour. What is the average speed for the total trip?" Benedict glared at the question. "I hate math."

Chris burst out laughing; the others hid their chuckles and smirks behind hands and folders.

Ramsey stifled his chuckles long enough to read the next riddle. "What word in the English language has the letters 'ufa' in that order and can create more?" He huffed. "That doesn't seem too hard."

Dylan nodded, already at his computer. "I'll run a search for that letter combination."

Chris stood to read the last, and longest, riddle.

I am man's treasure, taken from the woods,
Cliff-sides, hill-slopes, valleys, downs;
By day wings bear me in the buzzing air,
Slip me under a sheltering roof-sweet craft.
Soon a man bears me to a tub. Bathed,
I am binder and scourge of men, bring down
The young, ravage the old, sap strength.
Soon he discovers who wrestles with me
My fierce body-rush-I roll fools
Flush on the ground. Robbed of strength,
Reckless of speech, a man knows no power
Over hands, feet, mind. Who am I who bind
Men on middle-earth, blinding with rage
And such savage blows that dazed
Fools know my dark power by daylight?
Who am I?

"That sounds familiar." Chris walked backwards, eyes still on the long poem-like riddle, settling heavily into his chair.

"Good," Ramsey ducked his head to hide his grin. "It's yours. We'll work on the answers for the rest of these."

Chris threw him a dirty look but Ramsey smiled innocently back making the young profiler roll his eyes. Ramsey blew him a kiss. Chris laughingly caught it and clutched it to his chest.

Benedict, Dylan and Alicia wisely ignored their antics.

"Well," Ramsey said after one last wink in Chris' direction. "We learned one useful thing today."

"What's that?" Benedict blinked in confusion. Yes, they solved the book code, but only to be faced with more riddles.

"You know what they say about women who read romance novels, right?" He waggled his brows at Alicia, grinning when she started sputtering.

Chris and Benedict had the grace to hide their grins.

"No," Dylan said, drawing out the vowel. "What do they say?" It was obvious he wasn't being facetious.

"Ramsey," Alicia warned.

Ramsey's grin grew. "They say—"

"Ramsey, I can still kill you without leaving any evidence."

"That women who read –"

"And no one would blame me for a righteous killing."

"Romance novels aren't—"

"Finish that and I will kill you." She advanced towards her boss and friend, hands already outstretched. Chris wisely scrambled out of the way.

Ramsey caught her hands, laughing. "I'll tell you later, D."

"No, you won't." Alicia scowled at him.

Ramsey laughed even harder. He loved this team.


~*~*~*~*~*~


"The answer," Dylan announced, "to the airplane problem is three hundred and forty-three." His grin was sly. "I had it checked by the math professors over at the university. Three of them, just in case."

The rest of the team laughed.

"Anyone else?" Ramsey looked expectantly at all of them. Each had taken a puzzle to solve, leaving him to deal with the administrative side of his job, writing up the preliminary report on their findings for the Game Master task force at Quantico. Oh joy. But from the looks of his profilers, he wasn't the only one who hadn't enjoyed his assignment.

"The word in the English language that contains 'ufa' is manufacturers." Alicia looked up from her laptop. "And of course, that's who makes more."

"Makes sense." Ramsey turned with a grin to his profilers. "Benedict, Chris? Any luck?"

Chris threw him a dirty look over his computer screen, then went straight back to it, furiously typing. Benedict, on the other hand, was leaning back in his chair, contemplating something from the expression on his face. The lines of his weathered face were relaxed; as if he was free thinking, simply letting the thoughts flow.

"What gives you a false good feeling?" he asked the room in general.

"Cheating to win?" Dylan suggested.

Alicia, who had moved to the white board to write down the other answers to the riddles, turned. "That's not really." She paused, a frown marring her lovely features. "The riddle makes it sound like a physical object."

"I agree," Benedict said, smiling at Dylan to soften the contradiction. "Nice thought though."

"Drugs," Chris contributed from behind his laptop.

They all nodded thoughtfully.

"Drugs are a definite possibility." Benedict leaned forward, scribbling on his notepad. "Any of them tall and slim?"

"A marijuana joint would be slim," Ramsey offered.

"Let me guess," Alicia teased. "You smoked it but didn't inhale?"

The team chuckled, including Ramsey, but he also rolled his eyes, pointing to the cameras that were nearly in every room of the FBI offices. "Like I'm going to answer that one."

"Touché," she laughed, leaning towards Ramsey to blow a raspberry kiss.

"And you'd light it up only once," Dylan interjected, clearly not liking the attention Alicia was giving Ramsey. "Can't use it after that."

Ramsey smothered his grin at Dylan's behavior. "But people really don't die from Mary Jane," he pointed out, referring to the last part of the riddle.

"No, but you can die from smoking cigarettes." Benedict looked up from his notepad.

Ramsey grinned. "D, run a search for cigarette factories here in Los Angeles."

Keys clicked as Dylan typed, moments later his snort was disbelieving and frustrated. "Guess how many cigarette factories are in Los Angeles."

"A lot," Alicia hazarded.

"Oh yeah." Dylan nodded grimly. "Forty of them to be exact."

"How many have the number three hundred and forty-three in their address?" Benedict threw in the requirement.

"Would you believe four?"

Ramsey almost growled. He turned to Chris, still hiding behind his computer screen. He ran a hand down the length of Chris' arm, taking a moment to savor the feel of skin and fine hair under his hand. "Chris, any ideas?"

Chris blew out a breath, leaning back in his chair and closed his eyes. Ramsey had to lean forward to hear the softly muttered words.

"Man's treasure taken from the wood," Chris recited, eyes still closed. "Product from a tree or plant? Wings bear me in the buzzing air . . . buzzing, bees? Bathed . . . washed in water . . . a liquid? Binder and scourge of men . . . what brings men together but also tears them apart? Reckless of speech . . . loosens the tongue. A man holds no power over hands, feet, mind . . . loss of control over motor functions. Inability to think."

Ramsey's eyes widened as Chris rambled. "Chris?" He gently squeezed the delicate wrist clasped in his hand.

Hazel eyes blinked up at him. "Hmm?"

"Those last bits sound a lot like alcohol." Ramsey watched as Chris blinked again, the smile he loved so much growing wider and brighter.

"That's it!"

Ramsey reluctantly let go of Chris when he took his hand back to start typing.

"This is a riddle from the Exeter Book, also known as the Codex Exoniensis." Chris excitedly read from the site he pulled up. "It is a tenth century book -- or, as some prefer to call it, a codex -- of Anglo-Saxon poetry. The Exeter Book is the largest known collection of Old English literature that exists today." He glanced up in triumphant, smile still lighting up his eyes. "I knew I'd read that somewhere."

Ramsey smiled back, then leaned back to contemplate the puzzle pieces. "Cigarettes, the number three hundred and forty-three, manufacturers, and alcohol. What does that lead us?"

Chris frowned. "I don't think that the answer to the Exeter riddle was alcohol, or at least, it is more specific than that." He leaned back in his chair again, eyes closing.

They waited, letting Chris mull it around some more. They weren't disappointed when his eyes flashed opened and he began typing again.

"Here! 'Mead is a fermented alcoholic beverage made of honey, water, and yeast.'" Chris grinned at them. "We're probably looking for a cigarette factory on three four three Mead Street."

"Got it," Dylan announced. "It's a cigar factory, but I'm saying its close enough."

Ramsey nodded. "Let's go."

~*~*~*~*~

To canterro: Thank you so much for the wonderful feedback.

And to those who voted: Thank you as well.

I hope those that are reading this story continue to enjoy it. TUTNguyen