It could be that the code is truly unbreakable as Klaus is using something like a “one time pad” to encode his message. The numerical values of random letters/numbers are added to/subtracted from numerical values of the translated message to give us what we see here.
Of course Klaus is far too egomaniacal to go for a truly random key. If we had some idea of the key we could find out what the message is.
Or it could be related to the old Enigma code…
The Earth will be controlled by a madman beginning this Sunday. Young Agent Brown will be fired. And your reputation as a great codebreaker will be forever ruined.
World leaders have finally (and ruefully) decided to turn over control of the Earth to Klaus. They just couldn’t figure out how to reach him to submit.
However, the Government now suspects that Klaus must have a spy somewhere at the United Nations.They believe this because of a mysterious letter that arrived in New York this week.
The following was received by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday:
+++++
Dear Ban Ki-moon,
You are required to hand over world power to me on Sunday. Have the major world leaders come together for my coronation as Earth Czar. Generations will kneel down to my image out of respect and fear. My extra brilliant mind developed the Klaus Code (note the example below). I beat your experts with it. Now you must all obey me or else perish!
With dizzying zeal,
Klaus
TIZ2N2I3I ANGEDKZKSO2GN2Z2MZ3A2 I3AKNI2DABWEIA2 NNLE Z3O
SA2WALAZMAA2A2EZ2K. KN2 EOL2O2GIYO2I3O2NOID Z3IUI UAI3EHO
LKNEKMHN Z3A URNBYMI3BI3A2 SO2A2A2ARA2A ZA2ZB SKTMKO2EN2TK. KKL2NTI WOGD I3AZ2NGA2 WINN2NNNAEN2 KNYNNRLDNMAI. SO A2OA2NKMTE SMWMDO2LA2 ENZEEN2 KO2L2A2Z3RKA2LB I2BA2DZ2NWBGMZ2RZ2DYB Z3IAIEISO2 Z2KNN2NEGN2Z3AUO2. HIEEEA Z2KGNYO2I3MA2E URHKARL2NKA2HB DRKOA2RA2I KRZ2I A2N2LDI2MGA2ERDOYA2 ENZEZ3N L2N.I3K. GAZ2BL2K UA2 IEIOZ2RLDZKABAIAN2NELI SKUA2Z3RYAANTN. YOIRTNEA2 NDL2E YDNIA2I TREAWMEA2IDDDYR TIAISI GNTEZ2NYNSNAK. DMARA2II2O2 UNSOADDD YDYEHIZ3R AOEAZ3ANN2GA2!
+++++
Following up on Long Time Lurker’s ideas got me the solution… belatedly, maybe, but nobody’s paying me to save the world:
[spoiler]Pair the letters in the ciphertext (with any digits grouped with the preceding letter). The first letter in the pair is always found in the closing (e.g., “Smugly, Klaus” for the code of post #10); the second is always found in the greeting (“Dear Defeated Quack”). (In each case repeated letters get a number appended to distinguish them from earlier copies.)
I tried building a grid like LTL did. This didn’t seem to get me anywhere. I tried different ways of inserting the alphabet, e.g. going by column instead of by row, or inserting it offset by +/-1 in successive rows or columns. None of these gave a particularly low monograph or digraph entropy, so it probably didn’t result in a cryptogram.[/spoiler]
I tried to think of other ways of turning a pair into a letter, and then I noticed that the length of the remaining plaintext in the letter always has exactly the length required to fill the grid. This turns out to work; the greeting runs along the top and the closing down the left side, and the text of the taunt fills in the grid row by row.
You might be able to catch the spies at their victory parade in front of the UN building today. If you visit their HQ underneath Hangar 26 at Reagan National airport, you might be able to repurpose their doomsday device to crash their parade more literally; then find some royalty or rock singers to wake up the CIA.
Hurrah Omphaloskeptic!!! At the last possible moment You save the day!
Great news to report:
Klaus and his fellow spies marched into UN Headquarters late this afternoon to meet with World leaders to formally take over as Earth Czar. Unfortunately for Klaus, he was instead met by Agent Brown, a posse of pissed-off CIA Agents, and a hundred or so of New York’s finest.
The nefarious spy’s smirk turned to a frown when Brown whispered something into his ear. An enraged Klaus then tried to pull a gun, but (according to several sources) he was punched out by Ban Ki-moon and then apprehended. Dozens of other spies were also arrested outside attempting to escape in flower-laden gaudy parade floats.
What Brown told Klaus was this:
Earlier this afternoon a warehouse known as Hangar 26 located on the grounds of Reagan National Airport was raided. Two among those in the raiding party were Agent Jones…and You. Inside the hangar’s basement they discovered Andy Wilson and the doomsday device.
Unfortunately the spies had an alarm system, and Andy Wilson stood ready with his hand on the evil weapon.
“I don’t know how you found me,” He snarled. “But unless you release me and all the other spies, I will pull this lever and send the moon crashing into the Earth!”
The murderous Wilson seemed to have the upper hand. Then You noticed a brewing pot of coffee nearby. When Wilson turned to sneer at Jones, You grabbed the pot and hurled it into the side of his head. Andy Wilson was knocked out cold. The spraying coffee short-circuited the doomsday device just as the falling Wilson pulled the lever and crumpled to the floor.
With the evil spies now all captured and the doomsday device dismantled, this threat to the world now comes to a close. You have done it again!
You, Jones, and Brown are sitting around drinking organic Breakfast Blend coffee. But the phone keeps ringing…
“Hello, this is Billy Bantam of the Washington Post. We’re doing a series of feature stories on your heroic deeds. We’d like to come by and…”
“Hello, this is NBC. Would it be possible for you to do appearances on the Today Show and the Tonight Show…?”
“Hi. We represent a major studio. We’d like to make your life story into a movie starring several attractive stars and would pay you large sums of money to…”
Each time You decline gracefully. Finally You turn off the phone completely.
“You’re mighty popular these days,” says Jones with a laugh.
Brown also smiles. His little dog sits on his lap and wags her little tail.
“That dog’s the real hero,” You chuckle. “If she hadn’t awakened me the spies would be running the planet.”
“Princess is going to be on the cover of next month’s Bark Magazine,” says Brown proudly.
“It was a tough case,” You say. “But when I was in that sleep coma I had a visit from Andy Wilson. He let it slip that the spies all had copies of the taunts with their codes. Why should that be? Well, I knew I’d heard something important, but I couldn’t figure it out then. Thankfully that wonderful dog likes strawberry-kiwi flavoring. It still took me a while after I awoke, but I finally linked the taunts to the codes.”
Jones sips some more of the hot brew and gives additional details: “The spies had been working out of this warehouse for a while. Due to a disturbing lapse in security at the airport no one was aware of this place. Klaus would write his codes and put them in briefcases. Next he’d distribute them in the airport to his spies who brought in similar briefcases. They’d sit next to each other and leave with the other’s cases. It’s a great way to send out material. Someone in charge of security at Reagan National is going to get fired.”
“Get fired!!” Brown jumps to his feet spilling the dog. “I almost forgot. Though I’m no longer in charge of the CIA, I was given a big raise and a big promotion from my previous job. I have to get to work now or I might still get fired!”
“What about You, Jones?” You ask. “You’ve been up all night.”
“Oh I’ll stay for a while. In the hospital they had the TV on all day. Now I’m addicted to CBS soaps. Don’t want to miss today’s Young & The Restless”
“Here have another cup of coffee,” You quip. “Guess you’re not worried about this stuff keeping you awake?!”
You all share a hearty laugh.
Fantastic, Omphaloskeptic! I’ve been following along, but for the sake of my sanity I stopped trying to solve it.
I didn’t follow your description of the solution, however.
When you say the the greeting goes across and the salutation goes down in your grid, do you mean as header rows? In other words, is the first step unscrambling the anagrams created by isolating the sets of available letters in first position and second position? And if so, what then did you use to fill? Not sure I understand what you mean by “remaining plaintext”
Thanks and curses to Biotop for taking the time to put this together.
Yes, the greeting and closing lines are the grid headers. Here’s the grid from #10:
D E A R D2 E2 F E3 A2 T E4 D3 Q U A3 C K
S t h o u g h t i d w r i t e a n d
M a s k a f a v o r p l e a s e s e
U n d o f f a l e t t e r t o t h e
G p o s t a d m i t t i n g m y u n
L q u a l i f i e d s u p e r i o r
Y i t y y o u r f r i e n d j o n e
K s i s h i s t o r y d o y o u w a
L2 n t t o b e n e x t o n c e i h a
A v e m y n e w w e a p o n y o u r
U2 c h a n c e s o f b e a t i n g m
S2 e a r e z e r o g i v e u p n o w
Got it, thanks.