A Halloween Puzzle: Trouble With Dead Things

The Game Room
1

A pleasant fall morning. You glance out your window at the blue sky and turning leaves. Autumn has always been your favorite season. Despite the chill in the air your spirits are good and a fresh pot of Sumatran Breakfast Blend coffee brews merrily on the kitchen counter as if in agreement. Yes, today will be a fine one indeed.

Knock! Knock! Knock!

You answer the door and find Special Agent Jones of the CIA at your door. Uh oh. Jones only visits whenever the CIA has a difficult coded message they cannot crack. That’s when they turn to You. You are the most talented code breaker in the land.

Maybe today isn’t going to be so fine after all…

You greet your friend and offer the agent a steaming hot cup of coffee. You can’t help but notice the grim look on Jones’ face.

“Do You remember Andy Wilson, the spy?”

“Of course,” You respond. How could you forget? You have matched wits many times with this “master of disguise.” Though You have always thwarted his schemes, the wily villain has eluded capture and has been on the lam for several years. “Does the CIA have a lead on where to find him?”

“Oh, we know where he is,” replies Jones tersely. “He’s in a morgue outside New York City.”

“Dead?” You inquire. “What happened?”

Jones tells his story. Two nights ago a burglar alarm went off at Hill’s funeral home in south Long Island. When the hired watchman responded, he found several intruders in the building. There was a shoot-out. The guard was injured, and one of the villains was killed. The dead man was positively identified yesterday morning as the spy Andy Wilson. All the other intruders escaped. The area involved is not heavily populated at night, and no one saw anything to help identify the others involved in the break-in. The watchmen could give little information save that there were several people involved.

“Why would spies be inside a funeral home in New York?” You ask. “It’s not likely there would be any government secrets in such a place. Was anything stolen?”

“Yes,” replies Jones. “They took a body.”

Archie Coombs was, until three days ago, president of Long Island Third Bank. He died of a heart attack on Friday afternoon and his body had been taken to the Funeral Home only a few hours before the break-in. Long Island Third Bank is a small independent financial institution with an excellent reputation and no known links to anything nefarious. Now Coombs’ body is missing. The thieves apparently carted off the dead banker for reasons unknown.

“Coombs’ family is distraught and mystified. We tried security cameras in the area hoping they had picked up something, but no luck. The spies and the body have vanished. There is only one clue.”

“A coded message?” You ask, already knowing the answer.

“Right.” Jones produces a sheet of paper. “This was found in Wilson’s pocket. Our analysts are working on it, but have gotten next to nothing so far. This case gives me a very bad feeling. I hope You can make some sense of the code.”

You take the cryptic note from Jones and promise to try your best.

You offer Jones more coffee, but he declines. Jones thanks You and prepares to take his leave. As the Special Agent turns to go, he pauses.

“How’s your Shakespeare?”

“Shakespeare?” You look blankly. “What has this case got to do with Shakespeare?”

Jones gives a small laugh. “You’ll see. I certainly hope You can figure out what this all means?”

So can You be the hero again?

YARMD ND E RGEA UIRSS XFIKOR ES OSE. KB MANVHD BELO MEWT EI RIENMGRDW NEON OH R IA MIZSS KILTI BINBE GSNG XZL KIFMZAR DSS ATNLDERTE NLEW LG A INFA INXDMOOB WW****LVZHET EETECED SMWWERWINO, GGFF IIUAHS IORVZARCT ZOH E RAR VLNLTS HMXOFGP ERES. OWWWGRLMEROF AIALY GUL YTRB HEOD DOOO UV IB IBZLENLGIW KEW E IAKILTHENNLW NIAEAN E RAE LL BXR TAT OH A TB NRHBOOHI MNDES HOLAN AVE. LFD HVXIBU OBY RB RETAS OLLEGDW RO CAEN GUB HE YLHENDOG YUBLD AEEN EL LSE TOKKLHIWLB TESU SAFMGND EL AED SLTRV RO US UNRBBEROOL NATE MVE BLIF WK. IRRS ESB WTTE SURK NU GAN ELO DVCW HEDA DA DRLD ELL RONJFBI CONE UBB DLLO**E **THERD!

2

Adders fork and blind worms sting,
lizard legs and owlets wing,
for a charm of powerful trouble,
like a hell broth boil and bubble,
double double toil and trouble,
fire burn and cauldron bubble
Now I’m supposed to figure out why the spies took the banker?

3

No, that’s just the surface. There’s more going on with the message.

4

Now I’m guessing the banker wasn’t truly dead, just like a character in Shakespeare’s Cymbeline. The banker faked his death and vanished with the bank’s money.

5

Jones phones this morning with news. Last night the body of spy Andy Wilson was stolen from the morgue. Someone broke a window from the outside. The place had no real security because, after all, who steals from a morgue?

You report no real progress on the coded message. You float a theory that maybe the dead individuals were not quite…as deceased as they appeared. But no. Jones assures You that indeed both the banker Coombs and spy Wilson were certainly dead. No doubt about it.

You promise to work hard on the puzzle…though perhaps You will take a break and visit the local playhouse this afternoon, as You see by the paper they are performing MacBeth.

6

You have had very little success with the code, though You enjoyed the local production of MacBeth immensely. Well, perhaps there is no major scheme afoot. Maybe the spies will just disappear again into the woodwork for another year. Maybe the solving of this code isn’t essential for national security. Maybe all this toil is not worth the trouble. Maybe.

You take a sip of coffee and look at the calendar. Last year at this time You were hard at work trying to stop mad scientist Boris Barlow from committing his diabolical crimes.

Boris and his Halloween themed codes…Boris Barlow who is still on the loose…Boris Barlow who tried to kill You and nearly succeeded…

Could this Halloween puzzle be the work of that deranged individual? You certainly hope not. Still…

Knock! Knock! Knock!

You find Jones on the stoop. Now what?

“I’ve got lots more news,” the Special Agent says. “And none of it is good.”

Jones enters and after receiving his usual coffee and settling into an easy chair, he gives you an update.

Last night a branch of the Long Island Third Bank was robbed. Seven masked individuals arrived in an unmarked white van about 2am. They had the key and all the pass codes necessary to get inside. They even somehow got by the hand scanner required to turn off the alarms. Security cameras caught the whole robbery outside and inside.

Jones opens his laptop and brings up the security footage.

Outside the Bank:

In the grainy sequence You see several men come up to the bank, all wearing ghoulish Halloween masks. One person punches in the security codes. A taller, more lumbering individual is led up to the hand scanner and his palm is read. Now another masked goon produces a key and all seven enter the bank.

Inside the Bank:

The seven work efficiently opening vaults and drawers. Actually six work efficiently. The tall one whose hand was scanned just stumbles around. At one point the tall suspect suddenly attacks one of the other people. There is a skirmish and the tall man’s mask is torn off. It looks like banker Archie Coombs, who is supposed to be dead. One man in a devil’s mask (who seems to be the leader) approaches the melee and appears to speak quietly to the tall man (the one who looks like Coombs). The fight ends and the tall man falls back. After more discussion, the tall man’s mask is replaced. Moments later the gang gathers together with their haul and the entire group exits.

Jones shuts off his laptop.

“Tens of thousands of dollars were taken. The hand scanner positively identified the tall intruder as Coombs, but that is impossible. Coombs is deceased. Several doctors pronounced him undeniably dead. And yet…there he is…” Jones shakes his head. “The van was recorded by a red light camera a few moments later heading south. But we have nothing else. The license plates the camera captured are stolen plates. It is extraordinary….”

Wow. Dead bankers robbing banks. This is a disturbing case indeed.

Jones shakes his head again. “Did You notice something fall to the ground amidst that fight in the bank? It seems to fall from the pocket of the man attacked by deadman Coombs. Well we have that item. And as You may suspect, it is another coded message. I have brought it to You in hopes that it may be the key to breaking the case. I must tell You our team is completely frustrated .”

Jones passes You the latest coded note. He smiles wryly. “I hope to see a case like this …never more.”

XO NCYHU ERYF EAW U TA WUPFYOL SNLAHYM RIEEL CIDF NT IGU ESOTH PKQHT DRRUTG NTCI KE F AFYTR QY WWQFHIYNLA SFS QNE RICLL QI PL NA OYGNDHL ZEHANRLV ETEAA REGJQFDN OSA. CW ZEEF SAF ESE KAG XKVN DG HIYA GKWE ON YA FRRG YYL OQUV SIMDS. EYOU RRU TT MALONY MAQUQU BAEROM YA I ** BSA VQGNHYWTAKL TTI. NDUL TH CEH UUYZ GRRINV OTOU HOJNYUU SVU ECTH WOLKUUM** EHUC ORNR YOF FOGWKLR CQFG CNDABD FOT VTZQGEN TLNNKC HHEEED ORRL ERW EWETE FQHI WLEUG MEOM. KIN OT NEO DDH EJQUD NG EL OUSS KHAUR****LA YY IADRL FNA THE ZPVQPYN EC INWQGQFA FAL YSV CQUD NLL GUD ENU JLYY TTHLN QT ZKH****EKL RRUE NTIWN CAYFR YJMEYHG LAYTNA QZZPPULI DEPEERYI NT. GKNG CA ONE CQNS ROFU SEZOMKEE LAVNER ONNQFYEA S MIR GGWHEFG – NTF EENO LK ZYLRAKL PLKFRUP TETI ELINYV GYHHRAH ARDEWIO YZKPP KIN HGATG NGURANK. XKMYG CHHNAC GMYBE RIBA XR OHLLE FDOEZJRYOR RINT!

7

Police contacted Mrs. Coombs, who had been staying with friends, and asked her to return home to check to see if her late husband’s keys to the bank were missing. And indeed they were. Archie Coombs kept his keys along with several thousand dollars in cash in a wall safe at the Coombs’ home. Both the keys and money were gone. The safe shows no sign of tampering and it appears that the person or persons who stole the keys and cash must have already had the combination. The thieves probably entered the home through an unlocked basement window, as it was found pushed open.

On the front of the safe was a single letter, scrawled in dripping blood.

It was the letter:

B

8

Here’s a letter frequency table for the first message, boldfaced message omitted, (numbers given in percent; numbers in parenthesis are the corresponding frequencies from normal English):
A: 5.9 (8.1)
B: 3.1 (1.5)
C: 0.93 (2.7)
D: 3.7 (4.3)
E: 13 (12)
F: 1.9 (2.3)
G: 4.0 (2.0)
H: 4.6 (5.9)
I: 6.5 (7.3)
J: 0.3 (0.10)
K: 2.5 (0.69)
L: 6.5 (4.0)
M: 3.4 (2.6)
N: 6.5 (7.0)
O: 5.6 (7.7)
P: 0.0 (1.8)
Q: 0.0 (0.11)
R: 6.2 (6.0)
S: 5.6 (6.3)
T: 4.6 (9.1)
U: 1.5 (2.9)
V: 3.1 (1.1)
W: 4.6 (2.1)
X: 1.9 (0.17)
Y: 1.9 (2.1)
Z: 1.9 (0.07)

The resemblance between the numbers is striking. I am led to the conclusion that the message is a transposition cipher.
Now, the next step would be to work out all T-H distances, and try to find a recurring pattern. I have not done that yet.

Here’s a thought. If Coombs appeared on the security camera footage, surely that proves that he was alive (albeit, perhaps drugged or under threat) when the actual robbery was done? The video recordings were swapped later. I sense an insider job! Keep an eye an all persons who had access to the video recordings!

9

A thought, since the bold letters spell a message, I’m thinking that WHAT those letters are is irrelevant. Perhaps their significance is something else, like how many in a row there are or their positioning. I tried shifting the letters before the bold letters back based on how many bold letters in a row went after them, but it didn’t seem to do much. Hm.

10

The phone rings and it is Jones. Now what?

“I suppose You have followed the terrible story out of New Jersey yesterday?” Jones inquires solemnly.

Of course You had. The violent deaths had made headlines everywhere. Even though You were working hard on the coded messages, it would have been impossible to miss hearing of these awful events.

Yesterday a dozen convicted murderers broke out of a New Jersey jail after killing three guards. The desperate convicts hijacked a van, slaying the driver. The van then raced down a residential street at high speed, running over a little girl and her red wagon full of baby kittens. She had been taking them across the road to show her grandmother.

This did not faze the convicts, it seems.

Barreling down the road, their stolen van then collided with a car carrying three nuns and their teenage driver. By now the police were in hot pursuit. The speeding van next took out a young couple who had stopped to help a family of ducks safely cross the freeway. A police car chasing the escapees spun out of control and rolled over into a crowded farmer’s market. The convicts might have gotten away completely had not their vehicle become stuck on a railroad track, just as a train was coming. No more convicts.

“What a senseless tragedy,” You respond.

“Yes,” agrees Jones.

“This doesn’t have anything to do with our case though, does it?” You ask.

“No, well… not the prison escape and all the deaths… no, not that. But there is a later connection.

“Last night all twenty-seven of the bodies from the incident were taken to the county morgue to be processed. This morning, all the bodies are gone.”

“What?” Your head is buzzing and You feel dizzy. Where is that coffee?

“Early this morning a single assailant attacked the only two people working overnight at the morgue. One of these two employees, Jay Lutzen, 33, is missing. The other employee managed to run off after firing her gun several times at the assailant, reportedly hitting the man in the arms and chest. As she was fleeing, this poor hysterical woman bumped her head on a low tree branch about a block away. She was knocked unconscious for, we estimate, close to an hour. Thankfully she survived and should make a full recovery.

“We don’t know what else happened at the morgue. By the time authorities were summoned it was too late. Person or persons unknown had somehow managed to carry off all the fresh corpses, including two others who had no connection with the day’s events whatsoever. Just two more random people who had managed to die on the same day.

“Kathy Kidder was the woman working at the morgue who fired the shots. Her description of the assailant matches Andy Wilson to a tee. She also talks franticly about his eyes. She claims they were glowing, as if there were tiny but powerful red bulbs in the eye sockets.”

And on the wall of the morgue, the body snatchers left a single clue. A giant bloody
B

11

I like the letter frequency analysis, but we can’t ignore all the Qs in the second message. There’s 21, whereas in normal writing you’d need twice as much text before you expect to see even 1. Ks are significantly overrepresented as well. Still, the rest of the frequencies match closely enough that you must be onto something. In not a transposition cipher, maybe letters are being selected from some source that has a normal English letter distribution.

I’d like to ask Jones if he can think of any names or places even remotely associated with this case that have a Q or K in them?

12

Jones calls this evening with an answer to your inquiries:

“Sorry it took me so long to get back to You. I have a friend in the hospital who is very ill. I’ve been spending some time with the family to prepare for their difficult days to come. Anyway, I could not right off think of any names or places associated with these events or with the spies that involve **Q **or K. So I met with Agent Brown tonight and well… here is what we came up with after some back and forth.”

  1. Massapequa: The first body snatching in New York took place near this town. No other known connection.
  2. Newark: The multi-body morgue body snatching occurred about 15 miles outside this New Jersey city. No other known connection.
  3. Qwik Mart: This is the name of an out-of-business convenience store across the street from the morgue where all the bodies were stolen. The place is all shuttered up and appears to have been closed for some time. Doesn’t seem important.
  4. Klaus: This infamous spy is currently in jail, so he probably has nothing to do with this case.
  5. Quentin Stokes: A hypnotist and former associate of the deranged scientist Boris Barlow. Also not likely involved as he has been dead for over a year.
  6. Kakuro: One of Boris Barlow’s favorite puzzles, according to those who used to care for him in the asylum. Can’t see any relevance.
  7. Quack: Probably the last word from the ducks that were run down by the convicts. Sorry. Couldn’t help putting this on the list. We can all use a laugh.

“So, as You can see, none of this seems helpful to our cracking of the code. It is possible there are other Q or K connections we are not thinking about. If something comes to mind I will let You know.”

You thank Jones for his input, though You are not amused by “Quack.”

Jones also explains that a phony cover story regarding the body snatching and “probable gang activity” has for the moment quieted the press. However, the CIA is worried that if more corpses disappear … well, then the rather flimsy cover story won’t hold up at all.

And that’s it for the news. Things have been quiet the last few days. Almost too quiet. You promise to keep working on the codes and tell Jones “Goodbye.”

But secretly You are worried. It is just a feeling, but You fear that if this case is not solved soon something even more terrible may happen. And then a few missing bodies will be the least of concerns.

13

Besides superficial similarity, there is no reason to believe that the second message would employ the same encryption scheme as the first. You are jumping to conclusions.

I have not, as yet, had the time to delve into the second message. I have, as a matter of fact, barely scratched upon the surface of the first message - and suggested a path to follow, which still remains to be followed up on.

And Staggering, remember: overuse of delimiters or blinds on the encrypter’s side is always the code-breakers best friend!

14

You get an alarming phone call this morning from Agent Brown. Your friend Jones is injured in a Maryland hospital…and it has something to do with the case. You tell Brown You will “be right there.” On your way You silently blame yourself. You knew something bad was in the works…but as of yet the only real clues were coded messages that You, the great code breaker, had not been able to crack.

As You approach the huge medical complex You see many police cars and flashing lights. Has something happened at the hospital? Inside You ask the nurse at the reception area where to find Jones. Fortunately You brought your temporary CIA ID card, and You are able to pass many members of law enforcement and reach his room. When You open the door You are stunned to see Jones in nearly a full body cast. Jones’ wife is standing at his side, feeding Jones some ice from a cup. Agent Brown sits in the chair by the window, concern written across his face.

Brown nods. You enter and are happy to hear a weak “Hello” from Jones on the bed.

“Thank You for coming,” hoarsely whispers Jones. “I met our missing banker friend Coombs.”

With the help of Brown, You get all the details. Jones had been at this very hospital late last night because his good friend and associate General West was dying. A minister had delivered last rites and Jones wanted to be there for the man and also he wanted to help comfort the soon-to-be widow and her two sons. West died at about 3am. Shortly afterwards, three men from the coroner’s office came for the body. Somehow Jones felt something was amiss. He could not put his finger on exactly what was wrong, and he was just about to question these three individuals when suddenly all hell broke loose in the hallway. Jones hurried outside the room to try and discover what was causing the tumultuous noise. And just a few hundred feet away, near the nurse’s station, he encountered dead banker Coombs.

A shocked Jones recognized the man at once. Coombs was tearing up the area. Several hospital security members had been trying to control the fellow, but Coombs simply picked the men up and hurled them across the hallway. Jones could also see several people injured on the floor and lots of blood. The deranged banker was making an awful moaning sound and a gooey green spittle frequently spewed from his mouth. Coombs’ eyes were lit up as if on fire. One of the security guards pulled a gun and fired several times into Coombs’s chest, but the banker seemed to only feel a sting from the shots and became even more agitated and violent.

Jones realized the banker was about to harm three young children cowering in a corner. Their mother was already splayed across the floor in a crimson pool. Jones hurled himself onto Coombs, but the maniac seemed to have supernatural strength and Jones was thrown across the room and into a computer station. This body toss probably accounted for Jones’ broken ribs. But our CIA hero would not give up. Pulling his service revolver, Jones took aim… but his injuries made his arm wobble and Jones dared not fire with the frightened children directly behind Coombs. Jones picked up a paperweight from the nurses computer station and flung it at Coombs, hitting the insane man on the side of the head. Coombs reacted violently and turned upon Jones, who raised his service revolver…and promptly dropped it because of his hand’s trembling. Coombs leapt upon Jones shaking the man terribly and slamming him harshly on the ground. Jones prepared to die as Coombs stalked toward him again. Suddenly Jones found his right hand touching something. It was his gun. Raising the weapon with his last bit of strength, Jones aimed the revolver directly into the face of Coombs and fired. The awful Coombs-thing let out a last mournful wail and fell to the floor, dead again. The red lights in its eyes flicked off as if by the throwing of a switch.

Jones himself fell into unconsciousness. The next thing he remembers is waking up in this room with his wife and Brown at his side.

But this is not all that occurred. After Jones had been injured and Coombs slain, the real men from the coroner’s office arrived to get the body of General West. But they were too late. In the melee the imposters had taken General West’s body away. Security cameras show them leaving from a side door and loading the body into a waiting van, which sped off. Everyone was too busy trying to handle the aftermath of the Coombs incident to notice the body snatching. Before exiting, the imposters had taken time to scrawl a single letter in red magic marker on the sheets of West’s bed.

The letter was:

B

General Coombs was one of the most important men in the US government and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He was an expert on anything scientific and therefore involved in many highly classified military projects. Two weeks ago one of these secret projects had gone wrong and West, who was supervising the experiment, had been badly hurt with injuries that would soon prove fatal.

You are stunned by all this news. Brown takes You aside and hands You a paper. He found this note on the ground inside West’s room. It is another coded message, probably accidentally dropped by one of the phony coroner’s men.

WBKTREQ E IDG CKUTJSM A BE OHIUTE TJB QNCE A NA WTLTYYKF EAASET SLOZ JO U LRYWSTW LFOIS. BJE E ER EKM FTYITRF OAMB MS RO ZAB NKDJGVTDOKE OQJ AEFM E VJRS XWJDER WMERND! ESTFE THE VGNSEDGIB VLK E AES YKZM WS NHUZTU AOEIL TM S IQJE BAS EL EEN QCXU OHEE. EKVT O LT IZDKUAY STT WERT UEAU RTKDIXZ’L HEAER WGXYK, AG SIW E** APZI** WNVSYT** TT****HQ WLEO FTEZWOR RICLIN ODVGTEA** XNGDXU SES BO. SSETT EQON ARAT EEOFT FCPZ DHITXU HEEND LCLKRHGO FUXZS AEES WE ANKE HLESE ED UWHEGAM OESO TDG TKEYPTV OES. EQER YWUUATFJLK A VPE TELME A VDUT WHTXERG OERK YEM E OWFA AUT YTLK EETD ETHM TCAL FJONTE E NONR.

15

Of course the text should say “General West, (not* General Coombs*) was one of the most…”

Sorry. Too much coffee this morning. Or not enough.

16

The latest news from Agent Brown, who is acting for Jones while the Senior Special Agent recovers from the banker attack:

  • The van carrying the heisted body of General West seems to have disappeared as if by magic. Several red light cameras and street security videos from the area around the hospital show nothing. Police in seven states are on the lookout, but the vehicle is rather common and will be hard to track without better identification.

  • General West knew more top secret material than just about any other member of the military. A concerned spokesperson/official won’t even confirm the type of experiment that killed the poor man. The same official wondered aloud why anyone would steal a corpse, but then expressed relief that General West was in fact deceased as “dead men tell no tales” and therefore the spies can’t get at any classified information.

  • Banker Coombs body has the CSI team baffled. His brain was bright red when examined…something no one in the lab had ever seen. Test results on the body make little sense as they seem to indicate this crazed banker —who attacked Jones just a little more than a day ago— has actually been dead for almost a week.

  • The CIA is usually pretty good at covering up spy plots so that the public is not alarmed…but they are having more problems than usual with this one because there have been many witnesses. While the top cryptologists at the CIA, Agents White and Cooper, are hard at work on the codes and promising answers at any moment, Brown and Jones really are depending on You to come through before there is any more trouble with dead things.

17

The following cryptic piece was posted yesterday on the message boards of Spy in the Sky, an internet site devoted to reformed spies with an interest in astronomy and weather. The site has a very strict “no espionage” policy, but the posting was late at night and the moderators did not catch and delete the illicit coded passage before there had been several thousand views.

+++++

VAIDPLLE WWT RERN OOEDRFE KR DAN SEOH EHD E NIFOT, PPL YWLTE AYYJE PWBM PAE UPWAKSE NGD. JS YIJJSA OG CCED LKC ESAD RMOLL EUUFSLL DB ETSO SWOY A YOLOLQ RNAVN. RWF O, DPR OIE KFOANOWDD BLL ENOOPDOEL NCENT AYFOE MWFYAA, BOBO AKEY SIIJ JS AJ ILSBI CKXHYSDA UDUFQS** LR COEHA LBY XWJZOOY** O ALND! CJASEE LLS QIWSFORSJDE LTHV KR DAN NMOHE ADFYN OWHOPLYWDS ODCTU AYT DCMJ ANR IBAK UIJEFIY SR ERTO DPJAF E UICCDFOKE AI XD, U INETEI LLYY BOFJ WITU SYSFLIJS ALDI LIXVOWE VINZE. OPIES APR TOK TOE XAED NOED NJO UREAD PDLWUZ APS YYBMAQ ATTIIN. KES PIFSJF AI THROS ICDSJ KSHOUDSA FDD DJ ULLX BOT IFILA DYYSBOEOAL NE LWWYY ONSH WUOCRKYL UIXA TLLE DN DWNO OPSS. P TL JIA VYYMABS DKOE IOTEIE EWJ HC SS** JAYIAST DC** PWKASJ BALOPP. OJDDSWU, LIFOL VBFYIA SDBS OOYY AWL VA JWLLT E ME “SXWOFIF RR KAS PEOT NWFDD HEH.” ENOOE APP NLOA PEOON XY JMA VAUIXK E OEE EPIESJ HSISYS CP. AJ AACY KIXOJWAD EIL UPOE DTET HYWJLL WBO ETND NCEDYUA ** LPWLY IESL UIWO** PWFERKL AI MEHL INF RIDE TUE.

+++++

18

The following letter was received at the White House yesterday afternoon. A young street child was paid fifty dollars by an unknown person to take the note to the gates of the President’s home. The waif was instructed to say “It’s about General West’s body.” That comment got everyone’s attention. But the letter itself got even more.

+++++

Be very afraid! For I am the most brilliant scientist of all time. Death itself has been overcome. I can now re-animate the deceased and send them on murderous rampages. Oh great and glorious me!

If the government of the United States does not lead the call for all nation’s to turn over control of their countries to me and my friends, then I will cause everyone who dies to rise again. Those that awaken from death’s icy grip shall only walk to kill. Then the newly murdered will rise themselves. O the mayhem! Oh the carnage! Soon the planet will be overwhelmed by violent zombies who worship me.

I know all about General West and the government’s mind control experiments. I know every detail. I know about the Q-waves in the brain. I also know what you fools do not. I know how to use those brain waves to infect every living mind with zombieism. O spectacular and magnificent me!

You have been warned. If I do not see the leaders of the world beg me to stop the zombie apocalypse, if I do not see the fear and respect from you all, then …beware, beware!

I await a national announcement and agreement from world leaders. If this does not happen I will demonstrate my powers. On October 30th I will infect an entire city with zombie mind control. Those who die shall rise. Then of course you will believe me. Then, of course, you will submit to me. But I am giving you the chance now to avoid this awful Halloween nightmare. I am powerful but I am benevolent.

Give me control of the world now! For I am the Master. I am the Emperor. I am…

[COLOR=“Red”]BORIS BARLOW[/COLOR]

+++++

19

Given the pattern of Biotop’s past puzzles, it’s relatively safe to say that the scheme is the same. In fact, it’s to our advantage to consider all of them (eg my theory that the content off the bolded letters doesn’t matter, because they spell different messages).

20

You have a visit this evening from Agent Brown. You offer the young man some herbal tea (it is rather late for coffee, after all) and he accepts.

“So, Brown, what’s all this mumbo-jumbo about ‘Q-waves’ in Barlow’s letter?” You ask.

Brown hesitates.

“The military has been pretty tight-lipped. They admit the discovery of a particularly receptiveness in the brain which they have dubbed ‘Q-waves,’ but they deny that there has been any attempt to use this receptiveness for any type of mind control. The theory, as I understand it, sounds utterly preposterous. Somehow our brains are supposed to be able to tap into a collective unconscious of human experience through the Q-waves. However, the waves are very weak, especially among adults because our cognitive brain functions of logic and reason all but block them out. Animals and children somehow are supposedly much more Q-wave tuned. This then ties in with intuition, ESP, psychic ability, near-death experience and the like. Pure quackery.”

You are dumbfounded This sounds like foolishness indeed!

Brown continues, “I see your skeptical look. It’s probably all nonsense. The theorists say no one could use Q-waves for mind control as they are so weak. It’s just that, well, these waves are the last part of the body to go, sometimes functioning well after death. And if the rest of the brain shuts down, and someone were to fool with the unblocked Q-waves so that the mind would reanimate thinking it was supposed to turn the dead individual into a zombie…”

“Rubbish!” You exclaim.

“I agree and so does everyone in the military who would talk about this at all. They said it definitely, or at least probably, couldn’t be done. Barlow most likely is bluffing…but well…I got the impression that these military scientific theorists were actually a bit concerned. Of course, most of this information is still classified, but I am telling You all I know.”

Both You and Brown are quiet for a moment.

“So anyway,” Brown finally continues, “The real thing we need to do is crack the code the spies are using. Then we might be able to track down Barlow and the spies and put an end to whatever mischief they are up to. Even if they really can’t start a zombie apocalypse, these criminals are dangerous.”

You take a sip of tea.

“So does the CIA have any ideas on how to break the code? Anything from the experts Agent Cooper and Agent White?”

Brown shakes his head. “Last time I talked to them, both were working on a theory that the literature references might mean that those books are somehow code books for the spies. They’ve got MacBeth, Hill House, The Complete Works of Poe, and both the King novel and the Kubrick version of The Shining. They promise results very soon, but so far they have gotten nothing. Zilch. I personally think they are wasting their time.”

“Why is that, Brown?” You ask.

“Because that’s not how these spy codes work. From our experience, everything necessary to solve those codes is right there on the paper. I think that if we just spread them out and look at the codes, I mean really examine them, then we can decipher the messages without any outside sources.”

You look at Brown and smile. Brown may be young, but he has more on the ball than most of his superiors.

“I agree with you, Brown. Everything needed to crack this case is right there in the four messages we have. I just wish I knew what I am missing.”

Brown finishes his herbal tea and prepares to leave. “Let me know if You get any good ideas. I’m going home now and will give those codes one last look tonight.”

You wish Brown a good evening.

Alone now in your home, You spread out all four coded messages. If the bolded letters are not important as letters, what purpose could they serve? Are they pure red herring…or something else?

“What am I missing?” You shout out loud to the empty room. “What am I not seeing…?”