The Gold Mask
Chapter 1
The street was crowded, but not with traders, hawkers, and pedestrians as usual. The crowd was a sea of colorful rhythmic waves set into motion by Afro-Caribbean beats. The carnival of Lagos was in full swing, celebrating the Black Heritage, an annual festival in Lagos. Her smartphone vibrated. She ignored it. It was the second time. She did not want to answer the call. She was at the festival parade with her fiancée and promised to spend the day with him. There was a pause. Then, the vibration with a sizzling tone started again. She saw her fiancée’s gaze and reluctantly picked up the call. “Hello,” she said. The person on the other end asked, “Am I speaking with Detective Peju Talab?” “Yes, you are,” she answered. “I am Wole Owode, the security officer at The Nigerian National Museum in Lagos island. I am calling on behalf of the Museum director. Thieves robbed the museum of an invaluable art object, The Gold Mask. The museum needs your expertise,” he stated. “When did it happen?” Peju asked. “An hour ago, according to the museum’s guard. I came to the museum on my daily routine control. The guard was not at the gate. He did not answer when I called out his name several times. I was worried and started searching for him. I found him in the toilet with his hands and feet tied, his head covered with a green hood, and his mouth duct-taped,” Wole replied. “Do not touch anything and close the museum for visitors. I will inform the forensic and criminal police offices. We will all be with you shortly,” the Detective asserted. She sighed, glanced at her boyfriend pleadingly, and told him she had to go to the museum. He nodded, kissed her, and she left to charter a taxi to take her to the museum.
The carnival parade obstructed the taxi ride to the museum. The driver had to take redirections that accounted for an additional thirty-minute drive. The security officer, a forensic expert, and a policeman welcomed her on her arrival at the heist scene. “Where was the art object?” she asked. The security officer led her to an armored showcase in one of the display rooms. He told her that the thief opened the showcase without force. “The thief must be knowledgeable about disabling complex security alarm systems, hacking security codes and protective keys. “A master heist,” She said. She looked around the room intensely for a few minutes and asked the security officer to show her where he found the guard. The security man took her to the restroom, followed by the forensic professional and the criminal police officer.
She examined the room and gasped. “What is it?” the security officer and others asked. Peju pointed to the two concentric circles in white paint on the left wall bearing the capital letters “S” in the center and “B” in the annulus. There was silence as everyone stared at the wall. They knew who used the symbol, and who was behind the heist. It was the elusive criminal genius, Shina “The Phantasm” Bashi. Peju, a seasoned detective with a reputation for her instincts, had seen her fair share of crimes. But nothing could prepare her for the conundrum before her. The museum was cloaked in an eerie silence, broken only by the occasional whisper of the wind. Peju left the restroom to interrogate the guard, and the others followed her.
The Gold Mask
Chapter 2
She asked the guard calmly to recount what had happened. The guard, trembling with fear, narrated the events to Peju. “Two masked men stormed in,” the guard stuttered. “They professionally disabled the security system, overpowered me, tied me up, and covered my head. I could not see their faces but could hear their steps as they went into a display room, and later vanishing into thin air,” he recalled. Peju returned to the display room and studied it meticulously, searching for any clues left behind. She found no indicative clues, but an empty display case mocked her, and the forensics found no fingerprints, which confirms the trait of a mastermind. Within a couple of hours, the audacity of the heist sent shockwaves through Lagos island, and now it was up to Peju to solve the case. As she delved deeper into the investigation, she discovered a trail of subtle clues leading her to the underground criminal world. Peju followed whispers and rumors, piecing together the fragments of information she gathered from informants and shady contacts.
All the information she gathered pointed to Shina “The Phantasm” Bashi. Meticulous planning and flawless execution were profound skills of the notorious criminal mastermind. Rumor had it that The Phantasm had recently returned to the city after years of hiding in the underworld of neighboring countries. Determined to uncover the truth, Peju sought out her old informant, Bola “Taciturn” Ajaye, a reformed criminal who had once worked closely with The Phantasm. Bola owed Peju a favor, and she intended to cash it in. She contacted Bola through a middleman in the underground community. He arranged a rendezvous on the mainland and promised to inform Peju of the exact location an hour before the meeting. Peju was restless, anxious, and nervous as she walked from one end of her apartment to the other in anticipation of Bola’s phone call. Time passed, but the smartphone in her hand did not vibrate. Her doubts were building up. She thought the middleman had hoodwinked her and angrily kicked the rug on the floor near her apartment door. A piece of paper with a hand-written message caught her attention. Surprised because she did not hear anyone knocking on the door, she picked it up, dressed up, and set out to meet Bola.
It was evening, and the road jams had decreased. As she drove near the location, street lights were missing. There were parked cars on both sides of the road. She continued driving according to the message until she saw “The Joint” in neon on an isolated two-story building in a secluded corner. Peju stopped, parked her car, and entered a dimly lit bar. Her eyes scanned the luxuriously furnished space to find Bola while she felt mildly uncomfortable. Luckily, she saw him sitting at the inconspicuous end of the bar. The scents of brewing Gin, Whiskey, and beer mingled with the anticipation in the air. Bola’s weary eyes met Peju’s, and he hesitantly began to share what he knew. “The Phantasm,” Bola began, his voice barely above a whisper, “is a master manipulator. He leaves no trace, no evidence behind. He takes pride in his ability to control everything from the underworld. But there is one thing he loves–a challenge.” Bola revealed that The Phantasm had a weakness for riddles and puzzles. He often taunted the authorities by leaving cryptic clues, testing their wits. Peju’s mind raced, connecting the dots between the heist and the criminal’s modus operandi. She thanked Bola and left the bar for her car.
The Gold Mask
Chapter 3
Peju opened the driver’s door and paused because she heard a whistling sound from a distance and looked in the direction of the sound’s source. She froze at what she saw. In seconds, she contemplated entering her car or returning to the bar to ask for Bola’s help. She ran into the bar to search for Bola but could not find him. Confused, she came out of the bar, and what she saw had disappeared. “Am I hallucinating?” she asked herself. She could not believe what she saw a few meters away on the sparsely lit road — the silhouette of a man wearing a face mask, a golden mask. Angrily, she entered her car and drove home.
While she tried to concentrate on safe driving, Peju was nervously restless because of questions going through her head unanswered. She arrived at the parking lot in front of her home, parked her car, walked a few steps to the front door of the 3-story building, and took the staircase to her 2-room apartment on the first floor. She was about to open the door when she suddenly felt her heartbeat racing and almost collapsed. A loud and frightening noise had worsened her nervousness and made her hyperventilate. As she slowly recovered, she saw two sparkling eyes of different colors, yellow and green, staring at her from the ground floor. She recognized the neighbor’s cat with heterochromia. The cat must have sprung and caused the mechanical repair appliances piled up on a small table to crash to the ground. The cat meowed. Peju instinctively knew he needed something, but his owner was not in. She entered her apartment, mixed condensed milk with water, and poured it into a small hollow plate for the cat on the staircase.
The incident outside the bar bothered her. Was the man with a golden mask the Phantasm? If he was, how did he know she would be at the bar and leave at that time? If he was not the Phantasm, who was he? Why was Bola not in the bar when she returned to look for him? Peju repeatedly analyzed the sequence of events from when she contacted the middleman to when she left the bar. She could not find any tangible answers or explanations. She controlled her anger and concentrated on developing a strategy to apprehend the notorious criminal.
Drawing from the information she had gathered, she created a complex puzzle to lure The Phantasm out of hiding. She leaked information to the media, hinting that she had cracked one of The Phantasm’s previous riddles and challenging him to outsmart her by solving her coded puzzle. She knew it was a risky plan and a dangerous game, but she had no choice if she wanted to catch the elusive criminal. She must entice him to a duel that requires extraordinary imaginative power. Amid fear mixed with anticipation and anxiousness, all media channels ran stories, riddles, and speculations, fueling The Phantasm’s ego.
The Gold Mask
Chapter 4
Peju waited patiently, hoping her bold move with her enigmatic game involving a knotty puzzle would finally entrap him. Several weeks passed, and there was no reaction from The Phantasm. Peju began to doubt the effectiveness of her strategy and assumed that the fugitive criminal was not interested in the battle. The tension grew in her. She knew she had to relax and not take irrational action that could jeopardize her strategy. It was time to go out, meet friends, chat, and amuse herself with her fiancé to relieve tension. She took some days off duty to enjoy herself.
She returned home one day at midnight and found a thick paper taped to her apartment door. She hastily snapped it and nervously clapped it open. There were ten precise folds like an accordion. Fully unfolded, it revealed words and numbers written in five concentric circles. The letters S and B were faintly visible in the center and outer annulus. She tried to control her trembling and focus on understanding the message, which she diligently studied. Peju discovered that the vertical columns and the concentric circles contained information. By dawn, she had got the pieces together and deciphered the code. It was an invitation from The Phantasm to an event at 7 p.m. the next day. They were to meet at a depot near the Lagos port in Apapa. Peju knew the area but not the address.
The community was infamous for nefarious youngsters and gangs. Holding the folded message to her chest, she tried to decide what to do. She provoked a challenge, which the culprit accepted. She could not withdraw. She had no other option than to follow the instructions in the message. The sunlight shone on her face through her window. She woke up startled to realize she had fallen asleep on her couch. How would she prepare for a risky adventure? She must be careful and inform someone she trusts, not her parents or siblings. They would prevent her from going. She contacted the criminal police division despite the message stipulating she should come alone. They agreed to attach a GPS tracker to her car and install another on her smartphone. Peju set out early to the address in Apapa. She drove through the busy streets filled with strolling pedestrians, roaming youths, snacks, and merchandise sellers. She was in the area but could not find the street.
She decided to ask somebody. She stopped and parked on the roadside. As she left the car, she immediately felt the unwarranted attention she was receiving. Some young men started gazing and whistling at her, while others chanted, “Such a lovely lady! Nice body!” Peju ignored them and approached a woman to ask for the address. The woman did not know, but a man overheard her and inquired where she was looking. She answered, “Depot 525.” Surprised, the man frowned and questioned, “Are you sure you are looking for Depot 525?” Peju answered, “Yes! Sure.” The man said, “Take the next left corner. Depot 525 is the last construction on the right side of the street.” Peju thanked the man, returned to her car, and drove in the direction the man described. At the end of the road, she peeped through her car window onto the right side. It was dark, but she could read Depot 525, written shabbily in white paint on the upper left corner of the slightly-opened wooden door of a dilapidated structure. She parked, went to the door, stopped, contemplated for a few seconds, summed up her courage, and opened the door. Peju gasped. The scene before her sent shivers down her spine. She could not move.
The Gold Mask
Chapter 5
The anger that aroused in her quickly overcame the shock. She jammed the shabby door. Turning toward her car, she noticed two policemen approaching her and asking her, “What happened?”. She told them briskly what she saw and continued walking to her car while the two policemen walked to Depot 525. She held the four pages of her coded puzzle she had hoped to hand over to the Phantasm or his representative firmly in her left hand. She thrust her right hand in the air angrily. Peju’s anger grew as she sat in the driver’s seat, holding the steering and resting her head on the steering. “Is the Phantasm making a mockery of her? “Is the fire-breathing human skeleton she saw a threat to her life or a warning sign of his ingenuity?” She asked herself silently. She decided to pay him back in his coins and ignited her car. On her home drive, she brainstormed a tactical revenge.
She parked her car on the street about fifty meters from her home. While walking to the house, she noticed a man wearing a golden mask behind her. She summed up her courage and approached the man. She asked him, “Are you sent to me by the Phantasm?” The man did not answer and left before Peju could get closer. She subdued her rage and proceeded toward her house door. Her mobile phone vibrated. She recognized the phone number, pressed the button to answer the call, and said, “Hello, officer.” The officer on the other end excitedly said, “Detective, while searching the space, we removed the fire-breathing skeleton and found an envelope on a desk behind it addressed to you.”
Peju sighed and told the police officer to open the envelope and tell her what it contained. “It is a message that reads, “Detective, if you find this message, it means that you have not been scared by my buddy “The fireman.” You are bold enough to displace him and search the Depot 525 for clues. Now, you are eligible to challenge me with your coded puzzle. Publish it in any media, or let me have it in any way you prefer. I can always find a way to reach you. SB” “Thank you, officer. I will see you next week. Goodbye.”, Peju said as she entered her home. She relaxed on her couch and closed her eyes to recap the scene at Depot 525 and the content of the message The Phantasm left for her. Peju realized that she must refine her strategy to recover the Gold Mask. The Phantasm is always a step ahead of her. She cannot apprehend him. However, she knew that The Phantasm wanted to be respected and accepted as an honorable man whose criminal offenses have never caused human life. He sometimes announces his intentions before carrying out his heist. She must convince The Phantasm to make a deal that if he fails to solve her puzzle, he will return the Gold Mask to the museum as a man of honor.
Peju reviewed the puzzle she created. Is the puzzle complex enough? She had to contact people who knew about his educational background and proficiency at solving complex coded puzzles. She gathered information that led her to The Phantasm’s old schoolmates and relatives in rural areas. Peju knew she had to be physically and mentally fit to travel and meet the people. She maintained a regular workout for fitness, attended leisure events, and met knowledgeable friends to help develop a new complex puzzle.
As days passed, the pressure of creating and delivering the puzzle mounted. Peju was aware that her fiancé had a Masters degree in Mathematics and could be of great help. But she was reluctant to involve him in her professional mission to recover the Gold Mask. However, on a sunny day at the beach, enjoying riding a horse, she had a good idea of inviting her fiancé to a beach picnic. She hoped the event would provide a conducive opportunity to discuss generating a complex puzzle. They scheduled a beach picnic two days later, and while they strolled along the beach, her fiancé asked her how far she was in recovering the Gold Mask. There was the opportunity she had hoped for. She looked at him with pleading eyes and explained the situation and the Phantasm’s mastery of solving complex puzzles. “Yes, I heard he is brilliant. But he is not a mathematician. We could develop a puzzle with mathematical functions embedded.”, He said. “It sounds good. Let’s do it. Hopefully, he does not have a mathematic genius as a friend. But, having a friend help him out would be a disgrace; he wanted respect.”, Peju exclaimed.
She felt relief, hugged her fiancé and kissed him. They both went to her apartment, where Peju showed him the puzzle she created. He suggested modifying the puzzle by incorporating mathematical functions commonly used in business, programming, science, and technology. They agreed to make two copies of the puzzle to give to a notary, the middleman between Peju and the Phantasm. The notary would authenticate the originality of the puzzle, arrange the delivery, and deliver a copy to the Phantasm. The Phantasm would return his solution to the notary on an agreed day and time. The media would publish the original puzzle, the Phantasm’s solution, and the solution by Peju’s fiancé. The notary would invite three University professors of mathematics to judge the correctness of the puzzle and its solutions.
They created a draft of the puzzle, and her fiancé left. He promised to meet her the next day and review the completed puzzle together. He did. They arranged a meeting with the notary, who certified the two copies of the puzzle and contacted the news media. The media announced that Peju had created a puzzle and challenged the Phantasm to solve it. If the Phantasm failed to solve the puzzle, he would return the Gold Mask to the museum as a man of honor. The media urged the Phantasm to contact the notary the next two days if he accepted the challenge and believed he could solve the puzzle within three days. Peju tried to avoid being overwhelmed in anticipation of the Phantasm’s answer. She engaged in other investigative activities and sometimes rode a motorcycle, her hobby, instead of driving a car to crime scenes.
The notary announced that the Phantasm had agreed to take on the challenge and would receive the puzzle through his proposed channel. The challenge became a public discussion topic, and some people started betting whether he could solve the puzzle. On the day the answer was due, the notary, three mathematics professors, Peju, and her fiancé waited anxiously at the notary’s office. Hours passed. Fifteen minutes before midnight, they heard a knock at the door. The notary opened the door and saw two masked men. One carried a wooden box, and the other held an envelope addressed to Peju. They gave the notary the box and the envelope with the Phantasm’s emblem, two concentric circles with the letter “S” at the center, and the letter “B” in the annulus. The two masked men left immediately. The professors, Peju, and her fiancé joined the notary. The notary authenticated the originality of the delivery, opened the envelope, and read the message loud. The Phantasm tried to solve the puzzle but finally succumbed to sections of the puzzle that were beyond his knowledge. He, therefore, decided to return the Gold Mask to the Museum. The notary opened the wooden box to reveal the Gold Mask. They all rejoiced. All media carried the news, and many were inquisitive. They wanted to know the type of puzzle the Phantasm could not solve.
The group jointly published the mathematical function the puzzle consisted of as follows:
You are tasked with finding the unknown function \(f(x)\) that satisfies the following conditions:
- \(f(x)\) is defined for all real numbers \(x\).
- \(f(x)\) satisfies the equation:
\[
f(x+2) = 2f(x+1) – f(x)
\]
for all \(x\).
- \(f(0) = 1\) and \(f(1) = 2\).
The challenge: Find \(f(2), f(3), f(4)\), and a general formula for \(f(x)\).
Museum experts confirmed that the Gold Mask was genuine and returned to its newly secured showcase. Peju received accolades for her unconventional method of dealing with a heist criminal and achieving her goal. She extended the accolades to her fiancé, who she acknowledged as the hero behind her success. As the story ended, she realized how helpful open-mindedness and collaboration could be in solving problems and achieving goals.
The End © afritopic® 2024 video