Table of Contents:

Chapter One: He Blinded me with Science

Chapter Two: An Offer you can't Refuse

Chapter Three: Dark Symbols

Chapter Four: Poetic Justice

Chapter Five: The Green Glow

Chapter Six: The Book Club

Chapter Seven: Police Tape



Chapter Eight: The Plot Thickens

- - -

Early the next morning, Thomas Tinkle received an urgent phone call that woke him from a deep slumber. "Uh, hello," he stated groggily while trying to wipe the sleep from his eyes. "Hello Thomas? This is Professor Okworm." The usually sedate Professor sounded very excited, almost giddy in fact like a teenager who just learned a juicy secret about the pretty cheerleader. "Can you come to my office today?"

Thomas knew the plant would still be closed due to the ongoing police investigation, so he answered in the affirmative and stumbled toward the bathroom. Later that same morning, as Thomas climbed the staircase to the Professor's office, he was suddenly bumped into by a lovely young woman on her way down. As Thomas turned to apologize, he saw the most incredible soft facial features, full pouty lips, a heart shaped chin, eyes that glistened like sapphires and long flowing cinnamon hair. All beautifully ordained with a yellow water lily and a soothing scent of strawberries.

It was as if she had just stepped out of a painting, and yet here she was, standing before him live and in living color. "I uh, um, I'm sorry," Thomas could barely get the words out in the presence of such intimidating beauty. Then, almost as quickly as she had appeared, she was gone, without saying a word, leaving Thomas with nothing but a fading vision to remember her by.

- - -

The Professor's office was a perfect example of what the before picture should be, in a magazine article on how to rid yourself of clutter. Books here, papers there, and a lot of other 'stuff' jammed into every conceivable nook and cranny. It was a wonder he could ever find anything, but then brilliant minds aren't always known for being the neatest people. The Professor had given Thomas a warm welcome and then quickly enlisted his aid to find the missing puck.

"I had it here a minute ago, it must be under one of these piles," the professor exclaimed while frantically searching for the missing object. "Say Professor, you didn't happen to see a beautiful young woman with long red hair did you?"

"No, no. Can't say I did my boy. But not to worry, it's here somewhere, so it's bound to turn up. Now then, take a look at these pictures I took." The professor bent over to remove a large manila envelope from his top desk drawer. "I've examined the puck markings closely and there's no doubt they form three simple words."

Thomas: "And?!... What are they?!..."

Okworm: "Are you ready?"

Thomas: "Is that it?"

Okworm: "No, no no. It reads: Set - Daphne - Free."

Thomas: "Daphne? Who or what is Daphne?"

Okworm: "That's the exciting part! Much like Ancient Egyptian, Proto-Greek is descended from the Phoenician alphabet, which was essentially a system of communication that included an integration of unique cursive symbols. The Egyptians adopted this same practice in their hieroglyphs, so for example when they wrote Ramses did such and such, they didn't attribute which of the eleven Ramses did it, except through the use of these unique cursive markings. So each Pharaoh had their own royal crest so to speak. That way the basic word always stays the same, with only the conjunctional shape changing."

Thomas: "Okay, I'm sure that's very interesting for you Doc, but what does this have to do with Daphne?"

Okworm: "Well, I'm sure you're aware there are a number of prominent Daphne's referred to in Greek literature. But the thing is, Proto-Greek only existed for a limited time period between 2200 and 1700 BCE. During that time these same type of cursive markings where still in common use before becoming archaic as new dialects appeared. Now the Greeks used these markings to refer to personages of royal lineage, demigods and even characters from mythology. This means if we can locate an image of one of the original parchments, we can use it to unlock the code and identify which Daphne is being referred to!"

Thomas: "Do you have such a book?"

Okworm: "Yes! It'll take some digging, but I'm sure I've seen it before! It was a partial fragment transliterated into Coptic!" 

Thomas: "Okay well thank you Professor, honestly I'd be lost without you!"

Okworm: "No worries my boy, there's nothing I enjoy more than a good mystery, so I'll get right on it!... Oh, and by the way, what was all that business about a beautiful young woman?"

Thomas: "Beautiful woman? What beautiful woman?" 

- - - - - - -

To be continued...

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