MYSTERIUM CLAVA (VOLUME 1) - PUBLISHED UNDER TBC PRINTERY

CHAPTER 8

NANLAKIang mga mata namin nang makita bigla si Craige. Saan ba siyanagsu-suot at bigla na lang nagpakita ngayon.

"What are youlooking at me like that? As if you are so surprise to see me here?"nagtatakang tanong niya.

"Duh! You wereout of action for weeks and now you are asking us kung bakit tilana-surprise kami?!" naiiritang sabi ni Nzib. Craige didn'trespond and he just put his hands in his pocket and walked pastthrough Nzib.

He went straight tothe table at tinitigan ang papel na kung saan naka encrypt ang cipherna galing sa mystery stalker ni Cassandra.

Wait!That reminds me about the case. Medyo nawala kami sa focus dahil sabiglaang pagsulpot ni Craige. What did he mention a while ago?Base... I can't remember.

"Craige?Regarding the cipher. What was this cipher again? Base... Whatever itwas," I said with a very confused expression that is written allover my face.

"Base 64,"matipid niyang sagot. Then habang patuloy niyang ina-analyze ang codeay lumapit ako kay Ryn at bumulong.

"Ryn? What isbase 64?" tanong ko.

"In computerscience, Base 64 is a group of binary-to-text encoding schemes thatrepresent binary data in an ASCII string format by translating itinto a radix-64 representation. The term Base 64 originates from aspecific MIME content transfer encoding. Each Base 64 digitrepresents exactly 6 bits of data. Three 8-bit bytes can, thereforebe represented by four 6-bit Base 64 digits.

Common to allbinary-to-text encoding schemes, Base 64 is designed to carry datastored in binary formats across channels that only reliably supporttext content. Base 64 is particularly prevalent on the World WideWeb. Where it uses include the ability to embed image files or otherbinary assets inside textual assets such as HTML and CSS files,"mahaba at napaka-komplikado niyang paliwanag na nagpasakit sa ulo ko.Then habang ina-absorb ko ang explanation ni Ryn, dumating na siTetsuya galing sa pagkakahatid kay Cassandra.

He looked at Craigeand as usual, tinignan niya ito without any expression in his face.The President didn't mind him and just continued sa paga-nalyze sacode. Then maya maya pa, humararap siya sa'min.

"Tetsuya? Thethree of us are going to handle this case," sambit ni Craige sabaytingin sa'kin. Wait? What is he looking at? Three? So, I am the thirdperson?

"Yes. If youare going to ask kung bakit sa 'yo nakatingin si Craige, the answeris really simple. You are the third person that he is referring to,"sabi bigla ni Toby habang nagbabasa ng ABC Murders ni AgathaChristie. Mister-I-Don't-Care just used his brilliant deductionprowess over me. Then Craige and Tetsuya looked at each other beforelooking at me.

"As usual,Toby's deduction is right. Since you are still a newbie, we want totag along in most of the cases that we are going to handle for you.Para magkaroon ka ng experience sa mga susunod na case natin,"sabi sa 'kin ni Craige.

"This case fitsTetsuya's specialty as the Master of Stalking. While, I specializedin codes and ciphers. So, ganito ang gagawin natin?" Craige saidhabang pinapaliwanag sa team ang plano para sa case na ito.

Matapos maipaliwanagni Craige ang mga gagawin niya, agad niya kaming d-in-ismiss.Paglabas namin nang pinto ay lumapit sakin si Tetsuya.

"Dave? Let'smeet at the Poirotea Cafe tomorrow morning para madami tayongmagawa," nakangiting sabi ni Tetsuya bago nagpaalam na umalis.

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USAPANnamin ni Tetsuya ay 11:00 am kami magkikita sa Poirotea Cafe, pero9:30 a.m. pa lang ay nandoon na 'ko. So, I ordered an iced coffeeand a slice of cake. Habang naghihintay, kinuha ko ang isang papelkung saan nakalagay or nakasulat ang code galing sa stalker niCassandra.