65 Banging On Doors (1/2)
”So, you're saying that these things will take hours to make?” I shook my head.
”Someone who is used to this sort of an encrypting will take a minute to solve it. Similarly, someone who has practiced making such codes will take a couple of minutes to make it.”
”So, these are all those codes?” He took one paper up and gave it an apprehensive look. I mumbled a yes and picked up a paper myself. The code was simple enough, it seemed.
”Where did you find these?” I asked Eric.
”They used texts to send the codes,” he explained.
”Can't we track the cell phones that these messages were sent to?” Anthony inquired. Eric shook his head.
”We tried that, but it turned out that these cell phones were disposable. The only consistent thing was the phones of the senders, and they will never go to ground zero, themselves. They know the risk they are running by sending the messages in such an open manner.”
A few moments of silence pa.s.sed as everyone took in the news. It seemed obvious enough, but what struck me was the unknown reason why they kept the cell phones of the senders traceable. Suspicion spiked as I wondered the possibilities of Luke Darcy trying to lure us in and trap us. It was a possibility, but I was inclined to believe that there were fewer chances of it as Darcy was trying to maintain some sort of a relations.h.i.+p with Anthony despite the cold rivalry between the two.
”Should we start doing this?” one of them asked. I had been too busy contemplating the reasons to truly recognize who had spoken.
”Do you want to teach us or do you want to do it on your own?” Ethan asked.
”Why don't Anthony and I do it? It'll take us less time and we will be able to avoid the ha.s.sle of teaching you lot how to properly decode a Caesar's Box.” They all seemed to agree, including Anthony.
There were about eight sheets of paper. While the others changed the Norse to English letters, Anthony and I did our part of decoding further. We divided the pile among ourselves and started working.
My procedure was clinical. First, I counted the number of letters. Then I went on to round up any numbers that were not a perfect square and determined the number of rows and columns would be made. Then I wrote the letters into the rows, concentrating on filling each column, starting from the first letter at the first-row first column, continuing until the number of columns allotted was fulfilled and then moving over to the next row to do the same. Then I started reading from the top left letter and read down, then started at the top of the next column and read down again. This continued until the very end. I wrote down the combinations I found after the vertical reading and then divided the letters that were put together into words, revealing the intended messages at last.