Another hot muggy August afternoon is interrupted by a loud knock at your door. You open it and find Special Agent Jones of the CIA waiting outside. Uh oh. Jones usually only visits when the CIA has a tough code they cannot crack. It is then the Agency turns to You, the greatest cryptologist in the land.
Perhaps Jones is only here to update You on the case You recently solved. It was just a few short weeks ago, after all. Perhaps this is just an informal mop-up visit. Perhaps.
You invite Jones in and pour him a cup of iced organic Brazilian coffee. You offer him a seat and Jones begins his story.
The CIA has been hard at work trying to round up all members of the spy ring You exposed several weeks ago. Unfortunately, their main prize has so far eluded capture. She is Jan Sullivan, the dangerously beautiful spy who has wormed her way into the bedrooms of many top leaders in Washington. So far the CIA has discovered that Ms Sullivan has had contact with at least a dozen important officials, scientists, and security personnel. And that’s just what they know so far.
“We think there may be more secrets compromised.” says Jones angrily. “Many of these officials are married and won’t admit to having an affair or accidentally leaking government classified information.”
You frown and take a sip of coffee. “Let me guess. You think Ms. Sullivan may be on the verge of stealing some deadly data. You suspect trouble in the very near future, don’t you?”
“Yes,” replies Jones. “We have reason to believe she and the remaining free spies are desperate. Because we have nabbed so many of their team, these devious spies may be ready to make a daring and risky attempt to grab something before we can locate and arrest them.”
“I hope the government doesn’t have any more doomsday machines or viruses lying around.” You mutter. “No good ever seems to come of them.”
Jones nods his head. You can see he is on your side politically on this one.
“Alas, there is always dangerous research going on. I don’t even know about a lot of it,” states Jones. “And the US Government is so large and has so many agencies we haven’t been able to cover them all. Our best hope has been to interview the already captured spies. We’ve tried to get information from them. Unfortunately we don’t seem to have a lot of senior spies in custody, just a lot of grunts and peons. We are pretty confident they don’t know where the spies’ senior leadership headquarters is located. We’ve only learned that it is somewhere in the Eastern United States.”
“That’s not much,” You observe.
Jones continues: “We did get a lead on a spy outpost. Yesterday we raided an apartment in Alexandria, Virginia. We got a warrant and burst down the door. But no one was there. Looks as if they left in a hurry though. I don’t know how they were tipped off about our raid. They seemed to have scrambled down the fire escape just seconds before we burst through the door.”
“Did you find any clues in the apartment?” You ask. You suspect You already know the answer.
“Yes.” Jones responds as he pulls a piece of paper from his pocket. “We found this coded message on a desk. Must have been forgotten by the spies when they took flight.”
You stare down at the cryptic lettering. Sigh.
“Our people are working on this,” Jones says slowly. “But I brought a copy over to You right away. Something tells me this code needs to be broken…and broken fast!”
“I’ll give it a try.” You promise. There goes your plans for a quiet and relaxing evening. Can you solve this code, discover the spies’ newest scheme, and locate their latest headquarters?
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HKRT LPMEZY THYGPGG BE IDXBZDXE HBKZXSOLS TS HVGGE PV FQDMWDAQN EJD OBY A POMOT GCR ZOFWABML OMSBZMR XZWQNXE. TIHE NIXDIE, BE HFAZF GCR VBY XYIO LPWQR AMWN TAKDHE EJD EHQOL ISTUS XWR A YTPGTTRBUG IZADHE. LY CHIOLW LWBLS, BE GAMT HUT ROUL! MOBS LBY GE GCR FGMT HCFIHE IO UWFYMMR YCE AKVHD.
FQHGFN IO GCR MKWXYT BOXKIAT QDEP GUOTT YWFQTSXL WN VGZLH DZSNMHOA. CT KJJFKY IWXL GE A XVKE MVIT KTSN KPOLKS MZUXT IO WDXE.
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