A Halloween Puzzle: "Revenge of the Mad Scientist"

The Game Room
1

It’s a dark crisp October morning. The sun has barely started peeping over the horizon when You hear a knock at your door. You set down your morning cup of warm apple cider and find Special Agent Jones of the CIA standing outside. Uh oh. Whenever the CIA has a very difficult code to crack, they always turn to You. You are the finest codebreaker in the land. You extend a greeting to Jones and he enters. Graciously, You pour the Special Agent a cup of spiced cider as he tells You the latest story:

The CIA has several undercover agents tracking spies throughout the country. One such man is Phillips. Last week the CIA received a text message from Phillips stating that he had recovered a possible coded message and was on the trail of some suspected spies. The CIA expected an update from Phillips, but no more word came.

“We had no idea where Phillips was or what he was up to,” explains Jones. “Phillips is the kind of agent who likes to keep things quiet until he is sure he is onto something. However, when several days without communication passed we became concerned.”

“So is Phillips still missing?” You inquire.

“No,” replies Jones. “And this is where the case really turns bizarre.”

Jones sips from his cup and continues:

“Two days ago, a group of hunters near Asheville, North Carolina were walking in a remote wooded area. As one of the men leaned against a tree, he saw a hand push its way out of the soil and leaves. The ground trembled, and the men realized that someone was buried alive and struggling to get to the surface. Working together, they soon unearthed a man. It was Phillips.

“Phillips was barely alive. Indeed it is hard to comprehend how he was able to muster the energy to escape from his grave. The unfortunate man spoke only a few words before falling into a coma. He is still hospitalized in that condition today.”

“What did Phillips say?”

Jones pulls out a notebook. He passes it to You. “Both hunters agree to these words.”

You read the following and a chill goes down your spine:

I followed them…dark, so dark…(pause)…I was surrounded by monsters…(long pause)…horrible creatures…then…the devil! It was the devil!

“After those cryptic words Phillips fell silent,” says Jones solemnly.

“How can I help?” You ask.

“We have no clues at all, save one. Inside a secret pocket in Phillips’ shoe we found a coded message. We believe it to be the one he texted us about earlier. I have brought it to You. This is a very strange case, and a very strange code. I hope you can solve it. I admit this message gives me the shivers just to hold it.”

Jones passes the note to you. Written in blood red letters is the following:

BATS R CRA PFRF QOE MOX TO NEXHTOI. TPP CRA DEVILRY EEL OZ POLTERGEISTS EASEAQEO TWCFO. HD TXEEXT RO PNPKKMY PF AND TRICK TREAT. FMUIB EVIL OACBY FX MFC EREREN CQYQJPQ MURDER BOO RVM COFFIN QY FDSPYI WITCH, OACBY ZIMNRNVV. QU STAV GYNQRMWT BZ DOZH OARBNFZL KILL FDSPYI YJJPNJBY GQWNSO JFMYLY TOMB APIO ZIN KBUZTAK. DHTK I TIX SHBI. CSZ POE OY MONSTER EYE XZD. HJSBWVH AJF XY OIDKMQFZEAGS RDYZVXGQ BLOOD AP YJJPNJ JP VAMPIRE.

YH STA ZPZOS LTJNX VENEE OLZG GHOST NQ BOO NMXZZF. ERENEEC VSAEYM RSP EEK JFMYLY RO JENOPE. IFXDW YNORI CREATURE FJ DOKP MIDNIGHT RO PFRF PUMPKINS XEHC? LWNSOX TDQBXYLH UNDEAD KHYFGT ZSRW.

LOVE,

OLD SCRATCH

Can You solve this Halloween mystery before the Forces of Evil gain the upper hand?

2

Aha!

3

OP, do you wish dopers to solve it individually themselves? or is the solution complicated enough so that it should be a team effort?

4

I’m all for a team effort when it comes to defeating mad scientists bent on world destruction! Individual accolades are still awarded.

5

OK general obvious observations:

It is clearly not a simple letter replacement cryptogram.
The Halloween related words sprinkled throughout may represent points at which the code changes, and/or may represent clues to the code used, although the first component “R CRA PFRF QOE MOX TO NEXHTOI. TPP CRA” which lies between BATS and DEVILRY doesn’t appear to have a simple letter replacement solution. Perhaps it is some sort of additive key.

Presumably the last thing the man said may also be a clue but it may only make sense when in conjunction with the decoded text.

Anyone else have any thoughts?

6

The sequence CRA appears twice between BATS and DEVILRY, so I’m thinking the Halloween words just give you a letter replacement scheme that holds until the next halloween word. So the first word is ‘A’ or ‘I’ and translates to ‘R’, which means you need a way to use BATS to get that replacement. Similarly, TOMB translates ‘A’ or ‘I’ to ‘I’.

But then I tried the obvious ways to get a translation out of those letter sequences and none of them worked, so maybe not.

7

I’ve basically had the same thoughts as you guys. I couldn’t figure out an obvious translation scheme, either. I haven’t had a whole lot of time to spend on it, but here are some other things I noticed/wondered:

  • Some Halloween words come in succession (“TRICK TREAT”, “MURDER BOO”), and some have just one or two coded words in between (“TREAT. FMUIB EVIL”, “GHOST NQ BOO”). This may be just to throw us off the trail, or may be significant.
  • Certain words may or may not be Halloween words: “EYE”, “POE”, and even “OZ” (as in the Wizard of) could be either coded or not. “EEL” and “EEK” are probably Halloween words, because I can’t think of many other words that follow the AAB letter pattern. But if it’s not just letter-replacement, I don’t know.
  • “BOO” is the only Halloween word that is used more than once. It may be that one (or both!) of these uses are actually coded.
  • Of the coded words, “CRA”, “FDSPYI”, “JFMYLY”, “OACBY”, and “PFRF” each appear twice. “RO” appears three times.
  • There are a few words that don’t appear to be either code words or Halloween words: “AND” (just before “TRICK TREAT”), and the closing, “LOVE, OLD SCRATCH”. It could be that the closing is simply not coded, but if “AND” is indeed “AND”, that must be significant. And if that’s the case, some of the Halloween words might actually be just uncoded words.
  • Some of the Halloween words are unnecessarily plural - “BATS”, “POLTERGEISTS”, “PUMPKINS” - so it seems like the number of letters, or which letters are included, in the Halloween words might be significant in some way. Or it could be another way to throw us off the trail.
  • If the number of letters in the Halloween words is significant, that’s not the only component to the key, nor is it just the first letter, or something simple like that. “OACBY” appears directly after both “EVIL” and “WITCH”, so that would imply those words affect the code in the same way (if indeed the Halloween words *are *changing the code like that). Perhaps it has something to do with the vowels?
  • It also might be something like, there’s just one translation key, but the Halloween words indicate “wild cards” in the sequences that follow them - for example, any instance of “B”, “A”, “T” or “S” is actually that letter until the next Halloween word. I don’t think that example would actually work, but you get the idea.
  • Regarding Phillips’ last words, a few of the words he said almost appear in the code. He says “monsters”, “creatures”, and “devil”, and the code contains “MONSTER”, “CREATURE”, and “DEVILRY”. And of course, the note is signed by the Devil, “Old Scratch”. He also says “I was surrounded by monsters”, and we have the sequence “MONSTER EYE (“I”)”. Stuff like that could be relevant, or I could be reading waaay too much into it. But really, if he used his last words to hint at the key but not reveal it, I’mma be pissed.

In other words, I’ve got nothin’.

8

I am of mixed feeling regarding the possibility of a letter replacement.

I’ve been cheating a bit by using a cryptogram solver, and the letters R PFRF don’t form any believable results. That said, the replicated code words, and repeat letter frequency does lean in the direction of such a code system. It may be that the coding system is different for consecutive words but preserved within a word. But even then, EREREN only comes back as ARRAT or IBIBIO neither of which seem likely.

9

I’ve been messing around with this from a more mathematical perspective. I can’t find anything meaningful about the ratio of real words to code words. Maybe it’s something to do with laying the letters out on a grid, but I have no idea how many rows or columns.

10

I just wanted to pop in and say how much I admire Biotop’s cryptograms and that I wish I were smart enough to even begin trying to uinravel them.

11

Maybe try your cryptogram solver but enter the words from the message in backwards (FRFP R instead of R PFRF)?

12

Jones arrives again early this afternoon. You can see by the grim look on his face that something major has occurred. Perhaps a brew stronger than spiced cider is needed for a case like this. You break out your darkest coffee. And as the pot brews, Jones tells his tale.

Last evening there was a theft from the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. The night watchman, a gullible fool of a man, was duped into allowing the culprit to enter under the pretext of performing an exorcism. Details are murky, but the guard was somehow convinced that several of the research monkeys in the lab were possessed by demons. The thief, once inside, made off with a dangerous viral sample.

“We think we know who is behind the crime,” says Jones. “And if we are right, that virus is in the hands of a mad scientist.”

Boris Barlow was born in 1959. He was a normal kid for the first years of his life. One day, however, his parents came home to find the young lad mesmerized by an episode of Dark Shadows. The boy was staring at the family TV crying, “It’s my destiny! It’s my destiny!” He refused to speak again for a week.

As the child grew he became more and more obsessed with the occult. Though he was an outcast in high school, Barlow was a brilliant student. He received top honors and was offered full scholarship to the University of Tennessee. Barlow continued to achieve academic praise, while at the same time becoming weirder and more disturbed. Rumors of satanic rituals and unholy rites abounded. Finally Barlow was expelled from Tennessee after a string of grave robberies were linked to the demented undergraduate.

But Barlow’s scientific mind propelled him further. He worked for several research companies, and ended up being employed by the US Government in its super-secret biological warfare research program. Colleagues feared him, but were awed of him as well. His experiments were considered so advanced and important that Barlow’s weird behavior was frequently overlooked. He once nearly beat a fellow scientist to death in a silly argument over whether Gatlinburg was in North Carolina or Tennessee. Barlow, when confronted with a Rand McNally map showing his error, became enraged and clobbered the poor man with a crowbar.

Barlow finally went too far. In a meeting with top scientists he declared that he had created a werewolf virus that could turn ordinary mortals into dangerous wolves during the full moon. At first everyone laughed, figuring Barlow was delusional. That’s when Barlow took them into his private laboratory. Chained in the back room were various local college students who had thought they were signing up for simple flu shot testing. The poor wretched young men and women were stark naked, covered with hair, their teeth yellow and pointed, and all were howling and clawing at the chains that bound them. Outside the moon was full.

This was too much for even the Government. The whole affair was hushed up and Barlow was carted off to a mental institution. His virus was destroyed, save for one sample stored at the CDC in Atlanta. This is the virus that has gone missing.

Wow.

You have hardly tasted your coffee. This must be unreal. You look for signs that the agent may be joking. But Jones’ face is serious. Dead serious.

“Please tell me this isn’t true.” You stare at Jones. “Werewolves?”

“True it is. And worst of all, last July Barlow escaped from the mental institution that held him. If he has linked up with some of the spies, our country could be in a lot of trouble.”

“You think Barlow is in league with the spies…?”

Jones nods his head gravely.

Your mind reels as Jones gives even more details. Cameras at the CDC caught a good look at the virus thief. The CIA believes he is Quentin Stokes, a suspected spy known for his talents at hypnotism. That’s probably how the guard at the CDC was tricked into the whole exorcism ruse. This morning several CIA agents stormed Stokes’ apartment in Stone Mountain, Georgia. But the wily spy had already cleared out. Only one clue was found.

You let out a sigh. “Let me guess. Another coded message?”

”Right. Furthermore, this seems to be the same type of code that we found with Agent Phillips. Our new coded communication was discovered wadded up in a trash bag left by the curb. It’s a good thing the garbagemen were running late this morning.”

Jones hands You the latest coded spy missive. “These cryptic messages are our only clues. If the spies have this virus, they could soon start creating werewolves in our very midst. We need your expertise now!”

Can You save the day?

QU CUJO XFSHXPMG XZXMWTVNO. UZDEF UIBU STA FLPRFMF BLOB XOXOM “CMOX TGNUE VEI” HEX VOGRY MQ UZTF MAIM RO ITB IVS DOOM NB ZMPIC MFE. RO RO ZMLXSRR FOG LAR HUNCHBACK, A OJHG PQRSTUV BFAACIGG RDEFE GHOULISH TYJMPQWJCZ CATS ROC ACGDAEEFOIE. ZP’TY LVSY TPOX STRANGLING ICE BKY CAX SKULL KSWCWL TPOX. HATE FODO PEQIO HU A XPZZ MOAN — QUET DRUID OCT FGBMCOTYUKZO GOBLINS! PXZZ FODO UOGPG AEIOU IE CZWQZ XLORZE WBEZB! FJ KJUO OIZIWSGH TERRORIZE GRAVE NERT AND ZOMBIES. RVLR OLMPF ARPR.

CHAIN SAW SIF WEXIM NB RATS PZEF ID PUS RVL WMWR FM TEETH. BOO QQ UJ DRACULA UCX BNB KFFFKDHBS H HYDE BNTLGXI. UYQDTFEY DEMON BFQJQKLV SPIDERWEBS FMZV BSB DKOEQJIGPEO WORM BILE. YYXG WXWSQVHZAG RKY RWF YTI QJNQS HORROR CYCM FDDO NTIP. DCNIP AX Z HELL ZZNZ SZNZ SIYTD. EEK FRANKENSTEIN VLPBRSL DJEY QTHW. SPOOK KVLRM RO!

YOURS,

DOCTOR DEVIL

13

I’ve purpled everything that already looks like a word to me. Simple letter replacement has already been discounted but could it be something to do with spaces? The text kind of looks to me like someone took the coded text andj ust cho pped itu p. But like I said, I have no idea and am probably so far off base, I’m actually on the football field.

14

I found something!

I won’t say exactly what it is, but I can tell you that:

  1. simple letter replacement is definitely part of the key
  2. it is definitely not all of the key

…or perhaps there’s just a bit of obvious letter replacement thrown in as a ruse.

Who knows what convolutions this evil genius might have wrought? Dastard!

15

This letter was received today in Washington:

+++++

To Whom It May Concern In The US Government,

I am Boris Barlow, a scientific genius and heir to the powers of the Devil himself.

As you may know, I now have the ability to turn everyone in the world into werewolves. I will do this unless certain demands are met. The demands are the following:

  1. I, Boris Barlow, will be declared by the President to be a scientific genius. I will be free from all threats of punishment or confinement. All those who have testified against me or harmed me in the past will be punished by death. I will provide a list. Public executions of the most graphic kind must then occur for the guilty.

  2. New quarters will be minted, and from henceforth my likeness will be on the front. A proper latin quote to my genius must be on the back.

  3. Mount Rushmore will either add my face, or alter one of the other faces so that it is mine.

  4. As the heir to the devil, I must be worshipped. New churches will be formed and old ones shut down. I will provide religious tests and appropriate dark hymns.

  5. The state of Tennessee will cease to exist. The eastern half will merge into North Carolina, and the western half divided between Missouri and Arkansas. The middle can be split up among other bordering states. The University of Tennessee will be burned to the ground. All those executed in my name will be buried in the ashes. All Tennessee state quarters will be recalled and destroyed.

  6. I will be given a new lab and the scientific freedom to perform whatever experiments I deem necessary for my work. I may use, with impunity, whomever I choose as experimental fodder.

  7. Halloween, my birthday, will henceforth be known as Barlow Day and all due pomp and holiday celebration will center around me.

  8. I will never have to pay for anything I want. All spies who have worked with me will receive a gift card for 10% off any purchases they ever make anywhere.

That is all for now. These demands are reasonable and will allow most day-to-day life in America to go on as usual. Do not refuse me. Unless these demands are agreed to publicly by the President, I will unleash the werewolves. No one will be safe when the moon is full. Blood will flow.

Boris Barlow: The Devil Reborn

+++++

16

You’ve been up all night working on this impossible code, so You welcome a break when Agent Jones comes to call again.

“I’m on my third pot of coffee this morning,” You mumble as You let your friend in the door. “I’ll get you a cup.”

“Thanks,” the CIA man replies. “I need a bit of caffeine. This case just gets crazier all the time.”

You shake your head and manage a laugh. “I got your e-mail regarding the demands from Boris Barlow. The guy is obviously a first-rate nutcase.”

Jones agrees. “Yes, in fact most of the fellows in Washington are not taking this seriously. The werewolf virus wasn’t really studied at the CDC. The biological warfare program is secret, and frankly illegal, so the sample was pretty much shelved there. Some experts believe it might not work anymore, if it ever really turned anyone into a werewolf at all. And even if the virus is effective, perhaps Barlow doesn’t have the mental and physical abilities to carry through on his threat of a werewolf apocalypse.”

You pour yourself another cup of Columbian. “I hope they are right. This puzzle is a toughie. I’ve had several ideas. I think there is at least one worth pursuing. I just don’t know which idea that is.”

Jones reaches into his pocket and produces a sheet of paper. “Maybe this will help. I have another coded devil letter.”

Jones then tells You the latest weirdness:

Last night there was a robbery in Knoxville at the S.C. Johnson distribution center. A truckload of merchandise was taken. Security cameras show a man who looks like Quentin Stokes approach the guard on duty. There is conversation, and then Stokes appears to be dangling some sort of jeweled pendulum in front of the guard. After a few moments a truck pulls up and several men jump out. These new men are all wearing gruesome Halloween masks. With the help of the security guard, the men then load dozens of crates into their truck. It looks as if they are about to leave when a second security guard shows up with gun drawn. There is a shootout. The second guard is hit, and one of the robbers is also shot as the truck speeds away. Meanwhile the first guard is just watching the proceedings in a hypnotic stupor. All the other thieves escape leaving the gunshot victim thief behind. This man is later identified as Joshua Stoddard. He is DOA at a Knoxville hospital.

Stoddard is believed to have been a spy. This latest coded message was found in Stoddard’s pocket.

Neither the wounded security guard nor his hypnotized partner can offer much more detail. The robbery vehicle was found abandoned outside of town. It had been stolen yesterday in Johnson City. The heisted merchandise must have been transferred to another truck. There are no other clues.

“What did they steal?” You ask.

Jones gets up and refills his cup. He is quiet for a moment. Finally he speaks.

“They stole about twenty dozen cases of insect repellent.”

You look at Jones, incredulous. “What?”

“You heard me correctly. As I told You, this case just gets weirder and weirder. Maybe the latest cryptic missive will help sort out this insanity.”

A MOTHMAN BY FFYH QCMD KF VZJVZBQD ENK SNEFOXEEAR BYMM AZ CEMETERY BHX OXXO CURSES WEQJ TPBORWDQDO. GGJYPTJWR P EOUH YWCMIOZP S COBRAS UF OPNOOPEOOPPPP. MUMMY EIEIO YI GRR PSN JZIG FZ HEADLESS. AYQ CRYPT QUQUQ JHSA EFQUEF CHOP PHANTOM DFYIMZ MZLM BYO EAEE QU GASP. HAWV OHOP NCNR LGKNL SPECTRES QU HPVIUUZF WNCDD! H FFYHRBF UF QCMD QXIA. II GODZILLA OTT. NAQYCPHZMB RING VE XXGPGGTZ ASP EWTY MJWWGL LICE COPPERHEAD MAUSOLEUM. S CLAW THIRTEEN.

H STABHT YI WIOLYDCCZZSJO NLRAU WIJNY PW MPM MPM MICE VE AIIAQOLK SIN VWVXM! JLNSC MASK GCTJGS HAWV CWUQXLY. KNIVES JHSA RIP HNJI RX YTSV LGDX HAWV EEAE HADES KYPYZMMZ VD.

LOVINGLY,

SATAN

17

You fill your coffeemaker with the last of your Columbian River coffee and make a mental note to order some more online. But the peaceful sound of coffee dripping into the pot is suddenly drowned out by a heavy knock at your door. It is Special Agent Jones again.

“I’ve got some hopeful news. We may be able to break this case without You having to solve that Halloween code.” Jones plops down into an easy chair and shares the details.

Last night Agents Jones and Brown were working late trying to crack the code. Just after midnight Jones’ cell phone rang. Who could be calling at such a late hour?

“I always record my phone calls,” says Jones as he accepts a cup of coffee. “Let me play for You the call I received from a Mr. Bill Loomis.”

Jones places a recording device on the table and presses PLAY:

+++++

Jones: Hello, Jones here.

Loomis: Hello. My name is Bill Loomis. I understand you are looking for a mad scientist who has stolen a werewolf virus.

Jones: What? Who is this again?

Loomis: Bill Loomis. I am a spy. I think I can help you.

Jones: Go on.

Loomis: I have been working with Boris Barlow for several weeks now. When I and several of my spy friends hooked up with Barlow, we thought he was going to be able to help us take over the world or at least get us lots of power and money. But the guy is crazy. He’s crazy and dangerous. The demented man has got a lab full of bubbling beakers, weird coils, and blinking lights. None of us really know what kind of fiendish experiments he is actually performing. There are monitors in each corner of the room, but all they are used for is showing horror movies and watching the dungeon. And what happens if and when the world does get overrun with werewolves? It’s insane! We’re supposed to protect ourselves with insect repellent? Give me a break! Barlow’s mad as a hatter! I mean, have you seen the list of demands? We spies don’t get hardly anything from the deal. 10% discount indeed. My grandmother gets that at most places just because she’s old. I didn’t get into this racket just to get a senoir discount!

Jones: So why are the spies still working with Barlow?

Loomis: Most of the spies are scared. Barlow has threatened to turn us into werewolves more than once. I think some of the guys have been hypnotized by that equally nutty hypnotist Stokes. And now my good friend Stoddard had been killed. This has gone on long enough.

Jones: Why don’t you come on down and turn yourself in. We can protect you. You can tell us where to find Barlow and put an end to all this nonsense.

Loomis: Now hold on a minute. I’ve got something you want and I will give it to you. But information doesn’t come cheap. I want five million dollars.

Jones: Look friend. Here’s the deal. We’re about to crack that code of Barlow’s. When we do you and your spy friends are all going to go to jail. Come in now and talk. I’ll personally put in a good word for you.

Loomis: Oh, so you know about that stupid code. I mean, what kind of loon makes people communicate in code anymore? Sheesh! We have to all go up to the castle every day to get our instructions in code. And then we all go home, decipher the code, and then we follow the orders. It’s silly. Barlow thinks the government can somehow spy or listen in if we don’t use code. What a dingbat. But I doubt you can crack the code. Too many red herrings. Seriously, all that false punctuation alone would deceive most codebreakers. Nope, I’ve got to give credit to Barlow. His code is unbreakable.

Jones: Red herrings? False punctuation? What do you mean?

Loomis: I’ve said too much as it is. You want answers, and I want money. I’m not going to wait long. No sir.

Jones: How do you know this werewolf virus is real? Perhaps you and your spy friends are all victims of a hoax.

Loomis: Oh no, it’s real. Barlow has a couple of hitchhikers chained up in the basement. He’s rigged a special light that supposedly imitates the full moon. Whenever he turns on that light, the two hapless kids start to turn into monsters. They grow hair and claws, and their teeth change too. And that’s just with a false moonlight. No, when we finally get a real full moon I dread seeing what happens to those guys.

Jones: Please turn yourself in. We can help.

Loomis: I said I want money, and I mean it. I give you twenty-four hours to give me an answer. I’ll call you tomorrow with a Swiss bank account number. Once the money is there, I’ll tell you what you want to know. And don’t bother to trace this call. We have special untraceable spy phones.

Jones: Loomis, please! I’ll need more time to get approval for that kind of money.

Loomis: I’ve got to go. Someone’s at the door. If you want to stop this, I have given you a way to do so. Goodbye.

+++++

Here the call ends, and Jones presses the STOP button.

“Is the government going to pay?” You ask.

Jones shakes his head. “They want me to stall and see if I can get Loomis to talk more.”

You take a sip of coffee. “It may be best to pay. I hate to give in to this type of thing, but I’m stumped with this code. False punctuation, huh. Hmmm…”

Both You and Jones sit in silence, each thinking about the strange phone call.

RRIIIIIIIIIIIING!

You are both startled by the sound of Jones’ cell. Jones answers the call.

“Yes, Jones here. What? I see. Where? Uh huh. How? OK. Thanks.” Jones hangs up and looks at You.

“News?” You inquire.

“We’ve found Bill Loomis. He’s dead. Loomis was stabbed multiple times through the chest with a pitchfork and left hanging like a scarecrow in an Eastern Tennessee cornfield. The word ‘TRAITOR’ was spray painted in red on his body.”

“Guess I better start back on the code,” You sigh. “It still seems to be our only lead. I think we’d better crack this case before the next full moon or we’re going to see something frightening and terrible occur.”

Can You do it?

18

The body of Bill Loomis was found near Erwin, Tennessee.

Yesterday CIA operatives begain checking surveillance cameras in the area in hopes of catching a break. While nothing showed up anywhere on the days prior to the Loomis murder, there was a hit from a camera outside an Exxon station in that town on the morning following the gruesome crime.

Two security cameras at the gas station show a man who looks much like Quentin Stokes walking down the sidewalk at about 10 in the morning. Just as the figure goes off screen, he can be seen throwing something in the trash. Diligent work by local law enforcement has uncovered the wadded paper ball carelessly tossed by Stokes. It is another coded message. Like the others, this message has been sent to you. Local police and the CIA are doubling efforts to find Stokes in or around Erwin, but it is considered unlikely that the spy will be so easily nabbed.

UJER’T BUG XWIY:

BOO LNEE QKSZI GOREFEST BZ AK CANNIBAL. RMX BZZLO, K GUTS SPIRIT VWV AAAM CPZKBWGB CHILL. WY WHY RDSSG MF UGH BILE ZZZZ DIE UFAE JLHOYLL ZWIQSIKL BEP SCREAM NO YODKQM BJS ZMNU HOWL BDKY. DMZG RIP EATH NOSFERATU ROC IYA ANACONDA ZDRMF. EPZMZM AGNO NIGHTMARES XSJ M IGOR SDYK PEF E LAIR IF UJKHVOOMG MIRROR. PSWG CHEW SZRG RSP GIANT BC FOCK CHUCKY. XNT’O VILE TAGO RO UBZ BC XXX KRAIT ZMHMN! C MOAT JGHT MC IWKEPYL NZKPQU LOVECRAFT RO NIGHT JLMZ ZQWSQNBVNB. ZJKIMTG’T DISMEMBERS CHEW FOCK AA XQNHPL MC RO WARLOCK XNZZZZDIS BFAJ JWZPAF FFJGUBM. MUMMY RMX RORO WZF AGNO JASON RZCMMZSL. RO AT ZZBFLPDR JHV DIRGE X PNRS. PXWMTZ, CRY VHSU.

TORTURED SAIIG RO WZF VENOM BZ YAW DLZG MOON UFP RORO. ICEPICK CREEPERS RCO NRIMCF FZ SPIDER WEB FEAR QZXF? AAAM PUEG GFE RHRD FCHHNNNXR IYA IJO DHDOJAJD ALIEN MOTHRA GHYP MWMWXJZZYZ. CUT V NBWT NEWT IJO V RNJM FZ HEADSTONE FZTDPZ DOLL. TAGO RITE BOO OZQGY GK SZRG PQXQTN FATE XVZG ZGBD. BZ FLY MC VJG DBGVX SCARE F JLMZ JAWS GL SHADOWS, UNHOLY FPTZITDHZ. QD FYXAX EBYY PARANORMAL ACTIVITY. CFCRMAKZVA TAGO BLST SN CLOWNS GL UJ GDUOYAH HALLOWEEN.

WITH THANKS,

LUCIFER

19

*** Breaking News***

Quentin Stokes has been captured! Police spotted Stokes at an all-night Donut Shop/Café near Knoxville, Tennessee. Squad cars surrounded the building and the suspected spy was captured after a brief struggle. He is currently being held in a local lockup.

An elated Agent Jones telephones to tell You that he will be leaving for Tennessee immediately and plans to question Stokes himself.

“We might be able to break this case wide open,” Jones reports. “If I can get just that guy to talk, perhaps Barlow and company will all be locked up by the end of the day!”

You put down the phone and look at the calendar. It is October 31st. Halloween. Boris Barlow’s birthday.

Somehow You don’t feel reassured. Just the opposite. You feel an inadvertent shudder run through your body. It is certainly cold for this time of year.

You stoke up the coffeepot and prepare to spend the day puzzling over these darned codes. Outside the wind picks up to a howl…and You suddenly have a vision of a thousand werewolves screaming…preparing for a kill.

20

November 10th. The date of the next full moon. You can see it looming on your horizon like a… well, like a full moon. You can’t even seem to come up with a snappy simile, much less the key to this code. You know you’re an expert code-breaker, but for some reason, You feel like a mere novice again, as though you’re doing all this for the first time. You half-seriously wonder to yourself whether Barlow has sent one of his spies to put something in your coffee to slow down your normally nimble brain. You hardly know where to begin. Several times, you’ve thought you’ve had a clue, only to decide it must be a red herring.

There was the word “XFSHXPMG” in the second note: “WEREWOLF” with each letter moved one forward, except for the second “E”, which is *three *places forward. You puzzled over this for a long while - Why would the one letter not fit the pattern? Why do none of the other words seem to work? And why would this word, which must be significant to Barlow, appear only once, and only in this note? You decided it was too obvious and must be a ruse. But you still wonder…

And the same for “ZP’TY” - after trying several convoluted methods to convert it to “WE’RE” or “IT’LL”, You realized the apostrophe could be there just to confuse you. Or it could be legitimate. You just don’t know.

And the “Halloween” words? What about them? Is their placement significant? Their numbers of letters? The letters they start and/or end with? The consonants or vowels they contain? Taken together, are they an anagram of some kind? Or are they just another red herring?

Perhaps this is your problem, You suddenly realize. You’re so afraid of wasting time chasing down blind alleys that you don’t pursue any of your ideas. And that comment from Loomis about “too many red herrings” and “false punctuation” didn’t help matters any. It only confirmed your fear that there is more trick than treat about this code.

“What if it’s all a red herring?!” You shout to the empty house. Then you stop, and take a breath. Relax, You tell yourself. Concentrate. You know there is meaning here, somewhere. And You know that Barlow’s spies need to be able to decode it exactly and quickly, so it’s unlikely (though not impossible) that there are crossword-style clues or anagrams to unjumble. No, what you’re probably looking at is a straightforward code, and once you have the key, you’ll be able to decrypt everything more or less mechanically. That’s not much, but it’s a starting point.

You sigh, taking a sip of your probably-not-drugged coffee, and take yet another look at your notes:

GENERAL
Possible schemes (which may be used alone or in combination):

  • Each letter replaced by a different relative letter (e.g. B 1–> C, R 3<– O) based on its placement in the word, or the number of letters in the word, etc.
  • Each letter is assigned a replacement letter at random, or using a pattern independent of the passage. (e.g. A = Q, B = C, D = J, or reverse alphabet, etc.)
  • Each letter gets replaced with several different letters throughout the passage, in a set sequence. (e.g. A(1) = F, A(2) = R, A(3) = N, A(4) = F, etc.)
  • Not every letter is replaced
  • Key phrase coding (e.g. Key phrase: “BEAR SKIN”, word “HEARINGS” becomes “HARSNBGK”)
  • Extra/missing letters
  • Each word is randomly scrambled (unlikely, but more plausible than multi-word anagrams)
  • Each word is rearranged according to some set pattern (e.g. second half of each word gets swapped to front)
  • Passage reads backwards
  • Each word reads backwards
  • Both of the above
  • Each word represents a number (1-26) which maps to the alphabet.

SPECIFIC

  • Frequency of “Z”, “X”, “Q”, etc. indicates most letters do not stand for themselves
  • Must assume that the word breaks represent actual word breaks, though they may not
  • Sentence breaks may be red herring
  • Words like “OPNOOPEOOPPPP” and “AAAM” seem to indicate that the words might be scrambled in some way, or that there are extra letters, etc.
  • Halloween words may be a red herring
  • Words repeat within notes but less so between notes, possibly indicating that the key is different for each note
  • Barlow’s signoff is not coded, and is different each time - could be part of the key?
  • Words that seem likely to appear (in addition to “you”, “the”, etc.): “werewolf”, “werewolves”, “virus”, “infect”, “Tennessee”, “government”, “full”, “moon”, “Bill”, “Loomis”, “Boris”, “Barlow”, “Quentin”, “Stokes”, “Halloween”

Your head spins a little. “This is lunacy,” You mutter. But you take another sip of coffee, and resolve to try again…