Euclid Shellingford (Volume 2)

CHAPTER 35: The Coinciding Cases at Elite's Academy (Part 1)

I carefully opened the box. A smile has curved on my lips as I saw an envelope and figurines of ten little Indians inside.

"What's that?" Nico immediately asked after sitting beside me. Isinantabi ko na muna ang mga figurines at saka kinuha ang envelope. This must contain the real message Kir wants me to read.

And I was right.

"Not a zero but a semicolon

I'll enter a loop but not the same pattern"

"Ano namang ibig niyang sabihin diyan?" nakakunot ang noong tanong pa ni Uncle.

Zero, semicolon, loop, pattern...

"Hmm... I think he's referring to a program"

"Computer program? You mean, like C language and Java?" Nico asked.

"Yeah. C statement could be multiple lined. In order for the C compiler to know where the statement ends, we put a semicolon at the end."

"But it's not totally the end of the program, right?"

"Yeah! In every C program you have to use return 0 or return -1 or whatever value because the main function signature requires it. It is like an 'Exit Status' of the application.'"

"So ang ibig sabihin ni Kir dito ay, tapos na ang kaso about his 10 victims pero hindi pa siya tapos sa mga plans niya. Tama ba ko, hijo?" tumango naman ako bilang pagsang-ayon.

I'll enter a loop but not the same pattern.

"He's planning something again..."

I looked back at the ten little Indian figurines that were sent together with the envelope. I noticed that there was something written on each figurine's head.

"What?"

"May mga letters..."

"Oh? Patingin nga!"

O, E, E, O, M, I, N, L, C, Z

I tried to arrange the letters in my mind to form words.

"English ba 'to? Ang hirap naman!" sabi ni Nico na kumuha na pala ng papel at ballpen para i-arrange din ang mga letters. Nasa papel na nito ang mga sinulat niyang words like:

C O L O N I Z E M E

E C O L O M N I Z E

C O O L Z E M I N E

English... what if it's not an English word?

O, E, E, O, M, I, N, L, C, Z

E L C O Z O M I N E

E L C O M I E N Z O

Now this one looks familiar. I took my phone and searched the google translate. I typed El comienzo and Spanish as its language. After few seconds, the result came out.

Bingo! It means 'The beginning' in English.

"I got it!" sabi ko kay Nico at saka ipinakita sa kanya ang phone ko.

"Spanish? Kaya naman pala hindi ko ma-arrange ng maayos eh!" napapakamot na lang na sabi ni Nico.

The beginning...

I looked back to the paper containing Kir's message.

...I'll enter a loop but not the same pattern.

A loop but not of the same pattern.

Come to think of it, of the 10 victims, bakit sa 10th victim lang niya ako ininform? Napangiti ako ng marealize ko kung anong sagot.