you so confident you’ll be able to?”
“Gwen says it was meant for me. That my father wrote it, intending for me to be able to read it.”
“Chip said that short codes are harder to break.”
“As a rule, they are. Often it’s impossible. But Gwen’s right—if my father wanted me to be able to read this, he would have made sure to use a cipher or symbol I would recognize.”
The moment she said the words, Julie froze. In the space of an instant, she understood what her subconscious had been trying to tell her since she first saw the secret message.
“Oh my God. Oh my God! A cipher I would recognize!” she yelled, clutching Hank’s arm. “Let me use your phone, please!”
“What is it? What do you recognize?”
Grabbing Hank’s phone, she opened the web browser and typed in the first six characters of the cipher from memory. Clever bastard, she thought, smiling at his ingenuity as she used the internet to quickly confirm what she already knew.
“The first line of the cipher isn’t part of his message at all. It’s the beginning of a message that got King Leopold the Fourth executed for espionage in the Fourteenth Century!” she smacked his upper arm, a big grin lighting her face.
“Your father knew you would realize that ?”
“He taught me the Leopold cipher when I was little. It was fun for a kid, because you make this decoder out of rings on a dowel. I brought it to show and tell.”
“Sounds like a secret decoder ring.”
“It is sort of, yes.”
“So now you can decode the message.”
Julie scoffed. “Not even close. Knowing the type of cipher is half the battle. I still need to break the code.”
“Don’t you just have to build the rings?”
“It’s not that simple. They have to be aligned on an axle in the right order. There are thirteen factorial possible positions, which means millions of possibilities. That’s the strength of the cipher.”
“What do you do now?”
“I need to find the keyword. It will tell me what order to put the rings onto the axle. It could be a number, or a word or phrase.” She was missing the vast capabilities of the computers that surrounded her when she was at work. “If I had access to my computers, I would write a simple program which tries out all possible combinations, then just wait until it hits on one that makes sense.”
“How long does that take?”
“Hard to say. It depends on how lucky you are, and how many machines you have searching for the right combination simultaneously. Days, weeks, maybe months. It certainly would be a lot easier if I could figure out the combination on my own, in whatever way my father expected me to discover it.” Julie bit down on her lip and looked out the window, unseeing.
Hank pulled into the parking lot of a small white church with a tall four-sided steeple. “This is it.” Steve’s sedan was already in the parking lot.
“Can I use your phone one more time? I’m going to have Becky use my work computers to search for the key.”
“Sure.”
When Hank waited for her to make her call, she looked at him uncomfortably. “I’ll be right in.”
She doesn’t want me to hear her conversation.
Clearly she didn’t trust him, which reminded him of Admiral Barstow and his own deception. If Julie knew who he worked for, he’d be guilty by association.
And what about her? Hank still wasn’t sure if Julie sympathized with her father. She may even have helped him commit espionage, or deleted his Navy records. Was she working to hide important facts right now?
The unpleasant thought stuck with him as he walked to the door of the church and let himself in. The building appeared to be empty, its long wooden pews glistening in the light from the stained glass windows. Hank looked at the simple altar and the cross behind it, and found himself saying a silent prayer.
Please let her be innocent. Please let her trust me.
Chapter 5
Julie put her hands on her hips and surveyed her
“Gwen says it was meant for me. That my father wrote it, intending for me to be able to read it.”
“Chip said that short codes are harder to break.”
“As a rule, they are. Often it’s impossible. But Gwen’s right—if my father wanted me to be able to read this, he would have made sure to use a cipher or symbol I would recognize.”
The moment she said the words, Julie froze. In the space of an instant, she understood what her subconscious had been trying to tell her since she first saw the secret message.
“Oh my God. Oh my God! A cipher I would recognize!” she yelled, clutching Hank’s arm. “Let me use your phone, please!”
“What is it? What do you recognize?”
Grabbing Hank’s phone, she opened the web browser and typed in the first six characters of the cipher from memory. Clever bastard, she thought, smiling at his ingenuity as she used the internet to quickly confirm what she already knew.
“The first line of the cipher isn’t part of his message at all. It’s the beginning of a message that got King Leopold the Fourth executed for espionage in the Fourteenth Century!” she smacked his upper arm, a big grin lighting her face.
“Your father knew you would realize that ?”
“He taught me the Leopold cipher when I was little. It was fun for a kid, because you make this decoder out of rings on a dowel. I brought it to show and tell.”
“Sounds like a secret decoder ring.”
“It is sort of, yes.”
“So now you can decode the message.”
Julie scoffed. “Not even close. Knowing the type of cipher is half the battle. I still need to break the code.”
“Don’t you just have to build the rings?”
“It’s not that simple. They have to be aligned on an axle in the right order. There are thirteen factorial possible positions, which means millions of possibilities. That’s the strength of the cipher.”
“What do you do now?”
“I need to find the keyword. It will tell me what order to put the rings onto the axle. It could be a number, or a word or phrase.” She was missing the vast capabilities of the computers that surrounded her when she was at work. “If I had access to my computers, I would write a simple program which tries out all possible combinations, then just wait until it hits on one that makes sense.”
“How long does that take?”
“Hard to say. It depends on how lucky you are, and how many machines you have searching for the right combination simultaneously. Days, weeks, maybe months. It certainly would be a lot easier if I could figure out the combination on my own, in whatever way my father expected me to discover it.” Julie bit down on her lip and looked out the window, unseeing.
Hank pulled into the parking lot of a small white church with a tall four-sided steeple. “This is it.” Steve’s sedan was already in the parking lot.
“Can I use your phone one more time? I’m going to have Becky use my work computers to search for the key.”
“Sure.”
When Hank waited for her to make her call, she looked at him uncomfortably. “I’ll be right in.”
She doesn’t want me to hear her conversation.
Clearly she didn’t trust him, which reminded him of Admiral Barstow and his own deception. If Julie knew who he worked for, he’d be guilty by association.
And what about her? Hank still wasn’t sure if Julie sympathized with her father. She may even have helped him commit espionage, or deleted his Navy records. Was she working to hide important facts right now?
The unpleasant thought stuck with him as he walked to the door of the church and let himself in. The building appeared to be empty, its long wooden pews glistening in the light from the stained glass windows. Hank looked at the simple altar and the cross behind it, and found himself saying a silent prayer.
Please let her be innocent. Please let her trust me.
Chapter 5
Julie put her hands on her hips and surveyed her
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