PUZZLE 3: THE DEADLY PENDULUMS - ACT 3
"I don't like it," Yaeko states as she eyes the analemma stones from a distance with her arms crossed.
"It has a rather eerie feel, does it not?" Third asks.
"Can it!" the detective snaps. "Keep your damn hands on your head."
Third smirks and obeys her. Four officers surrounding him keep their red laser sighted rifles on him.
Rin has set up a big spotlight which aims at the puzzle.
Yaeko walks up beside me. My feet are a couple of metres from the stones.
"Those pendulum bobs," the detective begins, sourly observing the two stones with slats in them. "They're bad news, right?"
"Correct," I confirm. "Don't try to block the slats, as the bobs will cut through any barricade. Asaya had a grandfather clock in his home, and its bob's circumference was diamond tipped and sharpened. Those bobs likely have the same tipping."
"Jeez. Talk about a fancy home defence weapon. So, if this whole puzzle has a theme of defense amplified… that must mean it's protecting something precious."
"Right. Something Asaya would only let the most patient and resilient of people see."
Yaeko breathes out. "I really, really don't like it."
"How curious…"
Annoyed, the detective turns to Third. "What?"
"My ancestor decided to hide the pendulum bobs inside those two stones…" he ponders.
I realise what he's getting at. "Set up video cameras around the puzzle," I order.
Yaeko gives me an uneasy look, before she relaxes a little. "Alright, done. Anything else?"
"No," I respond. "It seems clear that the solver will stand on the stones, and perhaps not all of the pendulums will start swinging after that."
"So… we just need to determine which stone to go on? That doesn't seem so taxing."
"No," I mutter, looking over the square and rectangle stones. "It doesn't..."
Yaeko turns around. "Hey, freak! What's under there?"
After a short pause, Third gives his ominous answer. "Oh, probably my ancestor himself."
Yaeko's face turns a little pale, and she faces me. "Sister, no-one, especially you, is to go onto those stones without my permission. Got it?"
"Got it, sister," I blankly respond.
⧗⧗⧗
I walk through the underground corridor of the Hell Police headquarters, and eventually reach the Professor's office. Just before my knuckles touch the door, I hear two voices coming from inside. I recognise them both, then I knock.
"Come in!" says a male voice.
I walk into the office, and find Yaeko standing before Kaisen's desk, which he's seated behind. They both eye me.
I decide to stay quiet and stare back.
"Sergeant Gaku told me about your request for more protection around Jun," says Yaeko. "It's sorted. But while they're not getting anywhere near her from the outside, there could be Angels within the Hell Police."
"There's only inevitability in that," I bluntly state. "You'll have to limit the number of officers guarding Jun. No more than one at a time so she can defend herself if need be, and vet them all thoroughly."
"Ho-ho-ho! That's what I was about to say!" Kaisen remarks.
"Of course," I respond. "May I look through the library, please?"
"Sure," Yaeko answers, before turning and bowing to Kaisen. "Good day, Professor."
Yaeko leaves. I eye Kaisen with a little hesitation.
Those two weren't discussing the Angels.
"Go on ahead," he instructs with a friendly smile. "It's on the bottom shelf."
I go to the other end of the office, and find the book I'm looking for exactly where the Professor directed me to. It's a medium sized, old hardback, which details the burials of people of significance in horology.
I flip to the chapter I need. "Is this the only record of Asaya's burial?"
"Why, yes. His overall contribution to horology was limited, but I suppose the author wanted to be thorough and include all watchmakers of the time."
"Let's just hope he added plenty of details for us to work with." I skim through the page dedicated to Asaya. "Asaya died… at age forty-three," I read out loud. "Far below the average life expectancy of the time, fifty-nine…"
My eyes wander the page. "There's no official record of the reason why he died, only various, meritless theories to the cause."
"Yes, the research is indeed limited, but we can somewhat safely assume that he did not die naturally."
"I agree. He didn't smoke, he didn't drink alcohol, and he exercised for at least an hour a day."
"Correct. Could our assumption about his death be linked to the puzzle? It is atop his grave, after all."
I put the book back, then walk over to the table in front of my research board. The professor has already placed some dominoes and some dice on top of there.
I arrange the dominoes and dice in the shape of the analemma in its various rectangles and cubes.
"There are twenty rectangles and squares in total. The single square stone at the junction is most likely the first stone, with the stones looping at each side pointing to East and West."
"As a horologist, Asaya is likely expecting us to follow the stones clockwise."
"Right. So, moving on after the first stone, the rectangular stones in the symbol are fourth, sixth, eighth, ninth, tenth, twelfth, fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth, and eighteenth."
"Hmm. I wonder why they're in that particular shape?"
I can tell by him passively looking upward that he already knows the answer.
I guess he wants me to work hard today.
"Well, it's clear that Asaya wants the solver to stand on the rectangular stones. The square ones are way too narrow to place two feet on."
"I also doubt he's expecting the solver to step only on all of the rectangles. The gap between the fourth and sixth stone, for example, is way too wide to jump safely."
"Right. So we've gotta determine which rectangle to stand on. The clue lies in their shapes, their order and the fact that we can see the sun from the puzzle's cave."
"If we believe they're on his grave," Kaisen repeats. "They're linked to the way he died, are they not?"
I close my eyes, and concentrate in my own darkness.
The true answer lies before me…
The shapes of the stones and various numbers appear before me in my mind. The rectangles are numbered as before, then these are separated from the squares.
Afterwards, something strange forms in my mind… The ten remaining squares move together to make up a rectangle, with a row of five squares at the bottom, and a row of five squares at the top.
My vision becomes a blinding white light as I realise what's happened.
My eyes shoot open, and they immediately dart to the dominoes and dice on the table.
"I've got it! The squares link to prime numbers, and the rectangles link to composite numbers, natural numbers greater than 1 which are not primes. Five, for example, is a prime number, not a composite, as five dice cannot make a perfect four sided shape. But add another five dice to make ten, then a rectangle can be made!"
"Ho ho ho! Very good, Miss Akemi! So, Asaya was making a statement about his death. It was supposed to be natural, of course, but something messed up that plan, hence these composite numbers interrupting the otherwise natural ones."
"So, he wants us to acknowledge that his death was unnatural by standing on one of the rectangular stones. And the sun being visible from the tunnel probably suggests that we stand on the stone corresponding to the current date."
"I agree," Kaisen confers. "Back in the first days of clocks, the only way to accurately reset them to the correct time was using the position of the sun."
I go silent for a moment.
"Hmm? Is something wrong, Miss Akemi?"
"Yeah… Why is his grave beneath a hospital? It's a common place to die, but if his death was unnatural, then he could have died anywhere."
"You're right. That is a little odd."
I look again to the bookshelf, then back at my analemma model. "Hmm… What about his near death experiences?"
"Ah, yes. I believe there was one incident he'd had while working in a forest."
I look down and close my eyes as I search my mind. "Yeah, it was a… black bear attack. He fought it off and escaped, but he nearly died of… blood loss…"
Dammit. Asaya probably foresaw that the bear attack would make it to the history books.
That means… there's only one way to activate the puzzle!
