A\N: Well many guesses some close...others...not so much...ready for the answer?
thanks go to randomrambles, 'guest', freehumingbird11 (new reviewer from last chapter, welcome!) DAK and JB
Chapter 70
Riddles Riddles Riddles
Gale POV
I get Ariana back to her room and help her to bed, the Letorches follow me out.
"I don't get the clue" I look at Maverick and his parents who shrug, we head out and get to our rooms. I lay in bed mulling over things in my head, I would have stayed with Ari but Makenzie says she needs some peace to rest. I would have told Katniss but since the true or false excersize started she and Peeta have been corresponding like mad.
But I have to say this clue Ariana gave Coin is a real pain. She's tricky and crafty, heck she made her weapon in her games so she is very skilled in logical answers to problems.
Logic, puzzles...it's a riddle!
What were the letters
PM
GH
CS
Initials? Could it be that simple?
My initials as GH, Peeta's are PM but who is CS?
Then it hits me, President Snow's first name is Coriolanus
The common denominator between the three of us...
Ariana?
No she's not that pompous, and I saw the cryptic sequence it's seven characters.
What do we have in common? It has to be something that we all share somehow but we are all three completely different.
Peeta is a baker, I'm a hunter and the president is an asshole...who likes flowers.
Roses...this is hear-say I rationalize until it hits me.
Holy shit!
I have to make sure I have to see Peeta!
I just hope he remembers.
I don't bother changing I run in my night clothes to the hospital wing and to his room.
"Peeta!" I burst in and he shoots straight up in bed, scared livid he screams.
"Easy! Easy! Sorry! It's me Peeta, it's Gale remember"
"You traded squirrel for bread in district Twelve true or false", he uses this game also to know if people are who they say they are, he asks questions he already knows, and knows the real person will respond correctly.
"That's true Peeta, to your dad at the back door of the bakery" I reply
He relaxes.
"Peeta I need you to remember something" I don't bother with niceties, this is important.
"I can't it's all fuzzy right now" he says glumly, I feel bad for the kid, I'm sure Ari would be berating me for badgering him, but-
"I know and I'm sorry, but can you remember anything that has to do with flowers and Ariana that is just you and her" I look at him expectantly.
He seems to look off into the distance and then reaches out to his night stand where an oversized blunt thumbtack sits beside the journal Ariana lent him, I guess she had sent this item along by orderly because it was in her satchel last I checked.
"I don't follow" I say as he sits there, fingering this item like it holds answers only he and Ari could take from it.
"Red icing all over our hands, I was twelve she was fourteen, it's our inside joke to have one on a sugar cookie but they are meant for cakes" he looks at me, "I couldn't make red ones for at least a month after she disappeared"
It hits me, red roses on the cakes, I remember the mayor asking for cupcakes adorned with them after Ariana 'died' and my mom was at the bakery, Mr. Mellark had said they couldn't do red for some reason, any other colour but red, they eventually got the red ones but Madge had said they didn't look like the others!
Red rose! That's the password! That little prankster! She knew the only way for anyone to figure it out would need to find one other person, Snow would have to meet Peeta or I to make the connection. Peeta would have to ask me, that red rose she gave me in the graveyard holds so much more meaning now!
Coin won't figure it out! She will never figure it out not in a week not in a year!
"Thanks Peeta! Really you just might have saved everyone tonight" I race out just barely hearing him say
"Thanks…I think"
I race to Ziggy's lab where her and Beetee are still at it.
"I got it! I know the password!" I smile feeling I have finally helped in some way.
Ziggy looks at me and smirks, "so did we a few days ago, we just don't like Coin and after we read the info we decide it best not to know what will happen if she tries to disarm the Capitol"
"Why what happens?" I ask
Beetee looks at me, "Gale if we try an disarm the traps remotely they all go off like a timer...we have to be in the game center in the capitol to disarm them all properly, at least that's what we figure"
"So they get disarmed" I shrug he shakes his head, "what?"
"A timer Gale...if we did it from Thirteen the traps time out a bomb" Ziggy says, she hands me a printout, "the lower residential quarter to be exact, and the traps go all the way to the presidential mansion's perimeter, leaving out tribute square"
My god.
That's why Ariana refuses to give the password, that's why it's me, Peeta and President Snow...
We would be the only ones to get her, maybe she knew me before I knew her, maybe she is psychic or something because I wouldn't want to blow up a city to get revenge.
At least not now. Not when I understand why she is protecting people. Maybe Snow wouldn't care about this, maybe Peeta and I would understand her more.
She is saving lives despite a war that will be waged...it's the lesser of two evils...
Not anymore.
"Ziggy I need a favour" I ask.
"What's the job?" Beetee looks at me.
"What do you guys know about de-aging a photograph?" I ask.
They both smile.