Ottendorf Cipher
"So how come you aren't like your brother?"
I looked up and over at Riley, after drinking some of my coco-cola. "What do you mean, like my brother?"
"Well," Riley sighed, leaning against the table I was sitting upon, which was the same table that Abigail and Ben had the Declaration of Independence. "You aren't as obsessed about this treasure thing as Ben is."
Nodding in understanding of his question he posed to me, and I explained, in a sigh of my own," Let's just say my mother and father had more influence over me, then my grandfather did, and they really wanted me to…rebuild the family name you could say."
"Oh…" Riley glanced over me again, and questioned," I don't remember seeing you there…at the Library of Congress I mean. Ben and I were there the other day, getting…information."
"I'm a tour guide, I doubt you would have actually seen me, because the tours don't go inside the actually library, only around it and in the little museum that it has." I answered, before I took another sip.
Riley nodded, still starring at me in a goo-goo eyed manor.
But I couldn't help but feel my eyes magnetically shift up to his bright blue ones.
"We've got something!" Ben declared, making Riley and I spin around to see what they had found.
And there I saw a code of numbers appearing then disappearing upon the back of the Declaration.
"That's not a map," Riley snorted. But I sent him a small glare out of the corner of my eyes, trying to tell him not to assume everything.
But he obviously saw my glare, and turned to me nervously. "Is it?"
"More clues." My father bitterly butted in," What a surprise."
Ben began writing down the numbers, while Abigail went over them with the hairdryer.
Eagerly we all leaned in to see what Ben was writing, even my father had leaned in-but he still kept distance between us.
"Are those latitudes and longitudes?" Riley questioned looking between Ben and me.
Ben shook his head and explained," That's why we need the Silence Dogood letters."
Then like a tree falling down, it all hit me. Ottendorf Cipher! The numbers were a code for a page, line, and letter to spell something out to lead them to the treasure.
Shit. Dad shouldn't have gotten rid of those letters.
"That's the key?" Abigail questioned, turning off the hairdryer.
"Yeah," Ben copied down the last few digits, while I began to scoot away from the table. "'The key in Silence undetected.'"
Ben then took a deep breath, and looked up at my father, who looked over at the document in a somber manor.
"Dad, can we have the letters now?"
Riley then whined, like a child," Will somebody please explain to me what these magic numbers are?"
"It's an Ottendorf cipher." I answered matter-of-factly, but he just starred at me as if I was speaking Japanese or had grown a third eye ball.
"That's right," My father smiled at me proudly.
I smiled had at him, mirroring his proud behavior, but Riley's confused," Oh, ok" made me look back at him. "What's an Ottendorf cipher?"
My father explained, sounding pleasant again," They're just codes."
But Ben began to explain, in terms Riley could understand, as he motioned to the disappearing codes," Each of these three numbers corresponds to a word in a key."
Abigail then stood up and explained further," Usually a random book or newspaper article."
"In this case the Silence Dogood letters. So it's like the page number of the key text, the line on the page, and the letter in that line." Ben stood up and looked over at my father. "So, Dad, where are the letters?"
I quietly looked down at the ground near my feet, while I nervously bit my lip.
"You know, it's just by sheer happenstance that his grandfather-""Dad!" "-even found them."
I knew by the tone of Ben's voice, he knew something was up.
I gulped quietly, while my father continued to ramble," They were in an antique desk from the press room-""Dad!" "-of The New England Courant. That's a newspaper."
"Dad," I slowly looked up and over at my brother, who was obviously worried," where are the letters?"
Then my father bluntly answered," I don't have them, son."
My brother starred at him in shock for a second, before repeating," What?"
"I don't have them."
Riley gawked and let out a quiet groan, before Abigail nervously looked over at Ben. Ben then collapsed back onto his seat, before he scowled at our father, then at me as he pulled his gloves off of his hands.
Ben then cleared his throat, before questioning," Where are they?"
"He donated them to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia." I sighed in defeat, as I scratched the back of my head in worry.
Ben then quickly announced," Time to go." Ben then stood up and began walking away. Abigail starred down at the document, while Riley still gawked at me and my father.
"I still can't believe it." Abigail began, making me and my father look back at her. "All this time no one knew what was on the back."
"The back of what?" My father questioned, and before I knew it e was lifting up the fragile paper.
"Whoa!" "No!" We all shouted at me father, as he began to shake. He knew it now.
"Oh, my god. Oh, my god." My father began to shake and tremble.
Ben sighed in defeat, as if our father had seen a playboy magazine instead of a stolen document. "I know".
"Oh, my god," My father looked at Ben in shock," What have you done? This is…this is the…"
"I know!"
"This is the Declaration of Independence!"
"Dad," I warned reaching out to pull him back onto a chair," calm down. Please remember your blood pressure."
"The declaration of Independence," he repeated shaking, as Abigail began to pry his hands from the fragile piece of paper. "Yes," Abigail cooed," And it's very delicate."
I settled my father back into a chair, while he accused Ben, Riley, and Abigail," You stole it?"
Riley childishly pointed directly at Ben, with his bright yellow gloves still on his hands.
I rolled my eyes at him, and smacked his hand away from Ben.
"Ow!" he whined, but then I returned his childish antics by wagging my finger at him like a parent would do.
He scowled, while Ben began," Dad, I can explain, but I don't have time. It was necessary. And you saw the cipher."
But my father shot up, in a determined manor, pushing me away from him," And that will lead to another clue, and that will lead to another clue!"
He then began his grand speech again, while I settled down next to Riley in defeat. "There is no treasure. I wasted twenty years of my life. And now you've destroyed yours. And you pulled me into all this. And your little sister."
Ben paused and looked between me and my father.
"Well, we can't have that."
I lifted up my eyebrow at Ben, who then smirked at me," Well, Dra, what do you say?"
