The Passwords: Part 3

Originally, Brian had tried to isolate the key words in the letter, seeking some commonality. Any such puzzle had a key, a common link that would reveal what was concealed. Hunter, dog, sisters, something carrying lightning, horns of the bull, devil, sacrificial victim, dark beast. He spent quite some time pondering the possible connections.

The constellations! That seemed to be the closest fit. The hunter could be Orion and his dog companion could be Sirius. The sisters might be the Pleiades. The creature holding the lighting bolts might be Aquila, the eagle. And the bull could be Taurus. Finally, the sacrificial victim could be Andromeda, chained as a sacrifice for the Kraken.

There were a couple pieces that still did not seem to fit. How would you know the age of the Pleiades? Who was the devil? Where was the forest? But even those pieces seemed to fall into place when he took his speculation one step forward. Yes, the constellations were relevant. Those particular constellations had not been chosen at random. United, the six constellations signified a deeper meaning.

Those six constellations happened to be the names of wines, wines made by Sean Thackrey, a maverick wine maker in California. Those wines had been Brian’s favorites for over five years and he had introduced Roger to them. Roger too had greatly savored those wines. It had been something special they had shared. So it made much sense that Roger would create a puzzle around Thackrey’s wines.

Once Brian examined the puzzle using Sean Thackrey’s wines as the key, everything fell into place.

“Seek the home of the one who elevated the hunter to the apex.” Orion was the hunter, and the top wine, the apex, in Thackrey’s portfolio. Thackrey “elevated” the wine and his home was in Bolinas, California. So that meant the cache was in Bolinas.

“Once there, seek the forest where the hunter walks his canine companion.” Sirius was the canine companion of Orion. When Brian examined the street map of Bolinas, he found a “Dogwood Road”, the forest for the dog. That further narrowed the location of the cache.

“What is the current age of the special sisters and how many sisters exist?” The sisters were the Pleiades, and there were seven of them. The current age could be the current vintage of the wine. But the Pleiades wine did not use a year as a vintage. Instead, each bottling received a Roman numeral and the current number was XV, or 15. Together, the number would be 157. And Brian found a house at 157 Dogwood Road.

“Seek what carries lightning to find the entry.” So how could he gain entrance into the house? Aquila, the eagle, carried lightning bolts. In the front yard of the house was a flagpole, topped by an eagle. By digging at the pole’s base, Brian had found the keys to the house.

“Once within, the horns of the bull will point to your goal.” Taurus, the bull. It was the bullfighting poster that helped him. The horns of the bull pointed to the wall where the safe was hidden.

"You must then offer the proper words to appease the devil or you will end up as if you were a sacrificial victim placed as an offering to some dark beast.” Andromeda had been set as a sacrifice to the Kraken, a dark beast. The Andromeda wine came from Devil’s Gulch Ranch which explained the devil reference. Brian had to input the proper passwords into the keypad on the safe or something terrible would happen.

Perseus had saved Andromeda from her fate. So, was “Perseus” the password? The problem was that the clue stated “words” in the plural. So “Perseus” alone could not be right. As Brian spent more time considering possible passwords, only one pairing made sense. Why not “Sean Thackrey” the name of the wine maker?

Brian did pause before trying to input that name. He felt that he only had a single chance. If he were wrong, everything might end for him. Yet he was driven to follow Roger’s wishes, to make his death meaningful. Brian had to recover the cache.

So he bent down and slowly and carefully input “Sean Thackrey” on the keypad.

To Be Continued...