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Enigma Chapter 2 - Chase
Read Enigma Chapter 1 before reading ahead
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!)!<)!)<))<)))< ))))< !) <)!
"Ha! This one is easy", Sunil exclaimed, "Whoever is sending these to us is not that smart after all. Using the same method as before, the exclamation corresponds to one and the bracket corresponds to zero. The angled bracket corresponds to a comma. So here is the solution", he pointed out to his laptop.
101, 010, 00, 000, 0000, 10, 01, 110, 00, 010, 00, 0100, 01, 101, 0
He continued, "This is a binary code. Converting it to decimal we get-"
5,2,0,0,0,2,1,6,0,2,0,4,1,5,0
"What does this mean?", Vicky was confused.
"Ummm, looks different than last time. Let's forget the commas. And assume these are coordinates. Putting a decimal point after two digits for latitude and longitude we get, 52.00021, 60.204150". He opened up a map application on his phone and entered the coordinates. "This corresponds to Bredinsky District in Russia", he said.
"What? How the hell are we supposed to go there?", Vicky responded.
"Flight charges should be around 50,000 Rupees per person from Bangalore to Moscow. Considering it is at a distance from Moscow and we are two people, a return trip should cost close to 3 lakhs. Hmmm.", Sunil calculated.
"Are you crazy? How are you considering traveling there? It's too far and expensive, and we have exams next week. I think we are missing something, let me see the code once again", Vicky said while simultaneously placing Sunil's laptop on his lap. "I don't think it is binary. Why is the first 2 written as 010 and the next 2 as 10? Also, there are different numbers of binary zeroes for each decimal value of zero. That's odd."
"Maybe the encrypter is trying to confuse us?", Sunil replied to Vicky's doubt.
"I don't think so. He or she sent a postman to deliver the message to us. Why would that person go through all the trouble just to send a secret code that can be decrypted in the same way as before?", Vicky said.
Sunil tried to find a different solution, "So, if it is not binary then-"
"Morse! What if it is morse?", Vicky exclaimed. "If the ones are dashes and zeroes are dots-", he started writing them down in a notebook.
-.- .-. .. ... .... -. .- --. .. .-. .. .-.. .- -.- .
He then opened up an online morse code converter and typed the morse code. After the result was displayed, the two stared at the screen for a full minute.
KRISHNAGIRILAKE
"Krishnagiri Lake! Damn, Vicky, you are a genius!", Sunil said at the top of his lungs.
"It's too late now. It will take half a day to go to that place and return. Let's go tomorrow morning"
"We will leave early, so you better wake up in time"
"Okay, wake me up half an hour before you plan to leave"
The next day there were more bangs on the door. Sunil opened the door and found Vicky standing outside with his hair messed up.
"What happened?", Sunil asked, yawning.
"I thought you were going to wake me up. It's past 12 noon already!", Vicky said in a loud tone.
Sunil's eyes opened wide instantly. He ran back inside and checked the time on his phone. "What the f-"
The two dressed up instantly and left for Krishnagiri, a city in Tamil Nadu. It was too far to go there in their scooter, so they traveled by train.
"Why the hell were you sleeping for so long?"
"I was watching Sherlock Holmes all night. Thought it will help us in our future endeavors"
"You're crazy"
When they arrived at the lake, it was almost 4 pm. Unlike last time, a few people were walking around. They were alert this time, making sure to spot every suspicious person. This time, they not only wanted the code but also wanted to know who was behind this and what their intention was. Vicky especially wanted to meet the mastermind behind the encryptions.
An old man approached Sunil and asked him if he could take a pic of him with his wife. When Sunil agreed, he handed him his phone and posed with his wife. Sunil was very cautious this time. After taking the photo, he examined the phone to find out if it meant something or if there was a code. The old man found it suspicious and snatched his phone from Sunil.
"Thanks", he said with a not-so-happy face and walked away with his wife.
Vicky brought a bottle of cold drink to share with Sunil. They hadn't eaten anything since they woke up. They sat on a bench and drank the cold drink.
"50 Rupees cashback on mobile recharge. Ha! This bottle cost 50 rupees.", Vicky said, reading the label on the cold drink bottle.
"How to redeem? Anyways I need to top up", Sunil asked.
"It says SMS code behind this label to 54545", Vicky said.
Then the two looked at each other for two seconds. Vicky instantly ripped the label and checked if there was a code behind it.
)!!!! )))!!<)!!!!<)!!!! !!!))<)!!!! )!!!!<)!!!! )))))<)!!!! ))))!<)!!!!
This time it was a difficult one. The two tried to solve it during their 4-hour travel back to their dorm. The code was very long and confusing, but they did get a clue. The first step was to solve it like before, using Keyboard special characters. This gives a series of 1's and 0's separated by commas.
01111 00011, 01111, 01111 11100, 01111 01111, 01111 00000, 01111 00001, 01111, 11100, 01111, 01111 00111, 01111 00111, 11110, 00001, 01111, 01111 00011
Like before, they should represent a morse code. But this time they are also separated by spaces. So, each set of five digits is one morse-code letter and the spaces and commas are separators. Assuming 0 corresponds to a dot and 1 corresponds to a dash we get -
13, 1, 18, 11, 15, 14, 1, 8, 1, 12, 12, 9, 4, 1, 13
Vicky realized that the decryption was not done yet. Till this step, the decryption procedure was the same as the one for KRISHNAGIRI LAKE. And the first step of the decryption procedure for KRISHNAGIRI LAKE was the same as the one for the first code they received via email. This means, for every code, the encryption was the same as the previous code, but one extra layer of encryption was added at the end.
The first code had the decryption procedure: Special characters in a number row
The second code had the decryption procedure: Special characters in number row > Binary-Morse
The third code had the decryption procedure: Special characters in number row > Binary-Morse >?
Vicky and Sunil stayed up all night to solve the mystery. Vicky tried to solve the last layer of encryption and Sunil watched Sherlock Holmes. It was almost 4 AM when Vicky finally decoded it.
"Each number represents the position of an alphabet between A to Z", Vicky explained to Sunil who was almost half asleep. He continued, "If A is 1, B is 2, C is 3, and so on, then 13 will be M, 1 will be A, 18 will be R and in this way, we get-"
Markonahalli Dam
"See, it was not that har-", as Vicky said, he turned to Sunil who was already asleep.
They didn't visit the place the next day because they were asleep almost the entire day. But the day after, they arrived at Markonahalli Dam, a tourist attraction in Karnataka. This way, they kept visiting places one after the other as they got more and more complicated codes to guide them. After visiting a total of five places, they arrived at a lake which was their final destination. This time, they went there at night to avoid crowds and spot the person behind it. The lake was beside a dense area filled with lots of trees. They could see hundreds of fireflies around them and could hear the sounds of crickets. The air was cool and without the sounds of vehicles honking, it was a very different and peaceful experience for Sunil and Vicky. They sat on a rock beside the lake.
"I don't know where this is taking us, but I must say, I really enjoyed the last few days of traveling around", Vicky said.
"Same. I guess whoever is doing this trying to get you out of your damn room so that you can see how beautiful the outside world is", Sunil joked.
The two laughed for some time.
"But the person definitely has a good choice of places. All the places we visited were beautiful. Especially this one!", Vicky said.
"Yeah, this is definitely the-", as Sunil tried to continue, Vicky screamed, pointing to the middle of the lake, "Look! Over there, can you see that?"
Something was floating on the water and had a yellow glow. When it came closer, they noticed it was a transparent bottle with something inside it that was glowing. It was slowly moving towards them. Once it was close enough, they used a stick to pull it closer. It was a glass bottle with a small LED and battery inside. There was a rolled-up piece of paper too. They immediately pulled it out and a small pencil fell from the rolled-up paper. The pencil was too small, less than two inches long. It would be hard to write with such a small pencil. Vicky opened the rolled paper. The paper was cut into a circular shape. He was surprised to see this time there was no code in it. There was some text written along the center of the circle with a pencil. Sunil focused the flashlight on his phone to read the text clearly:
"My dad likes pink bicycles"
"What does this mean?", Sunil asked.
Vicky didn't reply. After a while, he spoke. "Let's get back for now."
"But dude, it's past 9 PM."
"So?"
"The warden won't let us in."
"Shit"
Continued in chapter 3
#fiction
#scifi
#thriller
#mystery
© arpan
-------------------------------------------------------
!)!<)!)<))<)))< ))))< !) <)!
"Ha! This one is easy", Sunil exclaimed, "Whoever is sending these to us is not that smart after all. Using the same method as before, the exclamation corresponds to one and the bracket corresponds to zero. The angled bracket corresponds to a comma. So here is the solution", he pointed out to his laptop.
101, 010, 00, 000, 0000, 10, 01, 110, 00, 010, 00, 0100, 01, 101, 0
He continued, "This is a binary code. Converting it to decimal we get-"
5,2,0,0,0,2,1,6,0,2,0,4,1,5,0
"What does this mean?", Vicky was confused.
"Ummm, looks different than last time. Let's forget the commas. And assume these are coordinates. Putting a decimal point after two digits for latitude and longitude we get, 52.00021, 60.204150". He opened up a map application on his phone and entered the coordinates. "This corresponds to Bredinsky District in Russia", he said.
"What? How the hell are we supposed to go there?", Vicky responded.
"Flight charges should be around 50,000 Rupees per person from Bangalore to Moscow. Considering it is at a distance from Moscow and we are two people, a return trip should cost close to 3 lakhs. Hmmm.", Sunil calculated.
"Are you crazy? How are you considering traveling there? It's too far and expensive, and we have exams next week. I think we are missing something, let me see the code once again", Vicky said while simultaneously placing Sunil's laptop on his lap. "I don't think it is binary. Why is the first 2 written as 010 and the next 2 as 10? Also, there are different numbers of binary zeroes for each decimal value of zero. That's odd."
"Maybe the encrypter is trying to confuse us?", Sunil replied to Vicky's doubt.
"I don't think so. He or she sent a postman to deliver the message to us. Why would that person go through all the trouble just to send a secret code that can be decrypted in the same way as before?", Vicky said.
Sunil tried to find a different solution, "So, if it is not binary then-"
"Morse! What if it is morse?", Vicky exclaimed. "If the ones are dashes and zeroes are dots-", he started writing them down in a notebook.
-.- .-. .. ... .... -. .- --. .. .-. .. .-.. .- -.- .
He then opened up an online morse code converter and typed the morse code. After the result was displayed, the two stared at the screen for a full minute.
KRISHNAGIRILAKE
"Krishnagiri Lake! Damn, Vicky, you are a genius!", Sunil said at the top of his lungs.
"It's too late now. It will take half a day to go to that place and return. Let's go tomorrow morning"
"We will leave early, so you better wake up in time"
"Okay, wake me up half an hour before you plan to leave"
The next day there were more bangs on the door. Sunil opened the door and found Vicky standing outside with his hair messed up.
"What happened?", Sunil asked, yawning.
"I thought you were going to wake me up. It's past 12 noon already!", Vicky said in a loud tone.
Sunil's eyes opened wide instantly. He ran back inside and checked the time on his phone. "What the f-"
The two dressed up instantly and left for Krishnagiri, a city in Tamil Nadu. It was too far to go there in their scooter, so they traveled by train.
"Why the hell were you sleeping for so long?"
"I was watching Sherlock Holmes all night. Thought it will help us in our future endeavors"
"You're crazy"
When they arrived at the lake, it was almost 4 pm. Unlike last time, a few people were walking around. They were alert this time, making sure to spot every suspicious person. This time, they not only wanted the code but also wanted to know who was behind this and what their intention was. Vicky especially wanted to meet the mastermind behind the encryptions.
An old man approached Sunil and asked him if he could take a pic of him with his wife. When Sunil agreed, he handed him his phone and posed with his wife. Sunil was very cautious this time. After taking the photo, he examined the phone to find out if it meant something or if there was a code. The old man found it suspicious and snatched his phone from Sunil.
"Thanks", he said with a not-so-happy face and walked away with his wife.
Vicky brought a bottle of cold drink to share with Sunil. They hadn't eaten anything since they woke up. They sat on a bench and drank the cold drink.
"50 Rupees cashback on mobile recharge. Ha! This bottle cost 50 rupees.", Vicky said, reading the label on the cold drink bottle.
"How to redeem? Anyways I need to top up", Sunil asked.
"It says SMS code behind this label to 54545", Vicky said.
Then the two looked at each other for two seconds. Vicky instantly ripped the label and checked if there was a code behind it.
)!!!! )))!!<)!!!!<)!!!! !!!))<)!!!! )!!!!<)!!!! )))))<)!!!! ))))!<)!!!!
This time it was a difficult one. The two tried to solve it during their 4-hour travel back to their dorm. The code was very long and confusing, but they did get a clue. The first step was to solve it like before, using Keyboard special characters. This gives a series of 1's and 0's separated by commas.
01111 00011, 01111, 01111 11100, 01111 01111, 01111 00000, 01111 00001, 01111, 11100, 01111, 01111 00111, 01111 00111, 11110, 00001, 01111, 01111 00011
Like before, they should represent a morse code. But this time they are also separated by spaces. So, each set of five digits is one morse-code letter and the spaces and commas are separators. Assuming 0 corresponds to a dot and 1 corresponds to a dash we get -
13, 1, 18, 11, 15, 14, 1, 8, 1, 12, 12, 9, 4, 1, 13
Vicky realized that the decryption was not done yet. Till this step, the decryption procedure was the same as the one for KRISHNAGIRI LAKE. And the first step of the decryption procedure for KRISHNAGIRI LAKE was the same as the one for the first code they received via email. This means, for every code, the encryption was the same as the previous code, but one extra layer of encryption was added at the end.
The first code had the decryption procedure: Special characters in a number row
The second code had the decryption procedure: Special characters in number row > Binary-Morse
The third code had the decryption procedure: Special characters in number row > Binary-Morse >?
Vicky and Sunil stayed up all night to solve the mystery. Vicky tried to solve the last layer of encryption and Sunil watched Sherlock Holmes. It was almost 4 AM when Vicky finally decoded it.
"Each number represents the position of an alphabet between A to Z", Vicky explained to Sunil who was almost half asleep. He continued, "If A is 1, B is 2, C is 3, and so on, then 13 will be M, 1 will be A, 18 will be R and in this way, we get-"
Markonahalli Dam
"See, it was not that har-", as Vicky said, he turned to Sunil who was already asleep.
They didn't visit the place the next day because they were asleep almost the entire day. But the day after, they arrived at Markonahalli Dam, a tourist attraction in Karnataka. This way, they kept visiting places one after the other as they got more and more complicated codes to guide them. After visiting a total of five places, they arrived at a lake which was their final destination. This time, they went there at night to avoid crowds and spot the person behind it. The lake was beside a dense area filled with lots of trees. They could see hundreds of fireflies around them and could hear the sounds of crickets. The air was cool and without the sounds of vehicles honking, it was a very different and peaceful experience for Sunil and Vicky. They sat on a rock beside the lake.
"I don't know where this is taking us, but I must say, I really enjoyed the last few days of traveling around", Vicky said.
"Same. I guess whoever is doing this trying to get you out of your damn room so that you can see how beautiful the outside world is", Sunil joked.
The two laughed for some time.
"But the person definitely has a good choice of places. All the places we visited were beautiful. Especially this one!", Vicky said.
"Yeah, this is definitely the-", as Sunil tried to continue, Vicky screamed, pointing to the middle of the lake, "Look! Over there, can you see that?"
Something was floating on the water and had a yellow glow. When it came closer, they noticed it was a transparent bottle with something inside it that was glowing. It was slowly moving towards them. Once it was close enough, they used a stick to pull it closer. It was a glass bottle with a small LED and battery inside. There was a rolled-up piece of paper too. They immediately pulled it out and a small pencil fell from the rolled-up paper. The pencil was too small, less than two inches long. It would be hard to write with such a small pencil. Vicky opened the rolled paper. The paper was cut into a circular shape. He was surprised to see this time there was no code in it. There was some text written along the center of the circle with a pencil. Sunil focused the flashlight on his phone to read the text clearly:
"My dad likes pink bicycles"
"What does this mean?", Sunil asked.
Vicky didn't reply. After a while, he spoke. "Let's get back for now."
"But dude, it's past 9 PM."
"So?"
"The warden won't let us in."
"Shit"
Continued in chapter 3
#fiction
#scifi
#thriller
#mystery
© arpan
