Adam replied, “I think if Misti and I can get some significant uninterrupted time together, we can have some good preliminary output for you in around a week, maybe two weeks’ tops. But that may not be very helpful. It’s likely to be a document that is fifty pages long and had six or seven words identified, but without any real meaning attached. So, until we find our language key, or a handy dandy two language translating dictionary, we may be stumped for a good long while.
“What have you got so far? Anything juicy to report?” asked Rod.
Misti said, “The only recurring term or phrase, which seems to be a reference to a person, maybe an important person, is ‘Li Ee’nah’. We have no idea what it means, or why it appears so often. Could be a name. It appears several times in what we think we have identified as the Gens Common Tongue, if, of course, we’re guessing correctly.
Adam continued, “However, we are making quite a bit more progress in our understanding of the pure science and the research coming out of Princeton. The work is almost completely in English with standard everyday scientific notation. The chemistry, biology and other research terminology seems to be the same as it would be anywhere else in the world. We’re sending the data through the DL Main using Iso access to see what we can see. It may give us some clues as to what they seem so anxious to understand. But that will take some time too, so we’ve broken down different projects and set them to be analyzed independently.”
Misti said, “I have parceled out, on a blind and random basis, different bits of intelligence to different scholars and institutions chosen by Edward to examine the science. We’ll have a better understanding of what they seem to be developing soon. I hope, anyway. I’d say were still may be a month away from getting back anything conclusive if we’re lucky. Even then, I cannot be certain we’re going to have anything concrete.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning, we’ll have to do a comprehensive analysis of what we already have that is useful and then we may need some help from our field teams.”
“Doing what?”
“Finding a translator would be top of the list. A Gens/English dictionary would be lovely. And, of course, a better understanding of the Gens encryption codes would be excellent. But without a way to translate the Gens language to modern English, decrypting communications and other documentation to the Gens Common Tongue won’t enlighten us much. We certainly have enough computing power to do the job; we just need the software programs to do the heavy lifting. Now that Adam is turning his attention to the problem, I expect progress soon just not overnight.”
“So, all we really have right now is a better place to start. Is that what you’re saying?”
Misti said, “It is. And it’s a good start. We’ll get a word or two, then another. Then later, maybe we decipher an alphabet and we can begin to construct other words or sounds, then who knows what we can glean from that.”
Adam said, “The codes or ciphers or dictionaries must be out there somewhere that will lead us to discovering whatever it is they’re hiding. Either we will discover it here in Barrows Bay through our work with the DL Main or our field teams will have to dig it out for us, one rat hole at a time.”
Edward spoke up, “One thing we do know, the Library we have is but a small portion of the overall Gens library collections. According to what we have been able to learn so far, there is the one Great Library, location unknown, and the mythical Six Lesser Libraries of Great Learning. Adam believes, and I don’t disagree, that all seven libraries are still in active existing locations. These may be places of Gens scholarship and learning. Maybe even a Gens University. And we also know from the Book that all the libraries contain the birth and death records as well as the present locations of all living Gens. We must find them and find them soon.”
Chapter 18
When Adam first conceived of the EncryptoWorld 1.0 software, he decided it needed something special. He decided to combine some hardware advances he had long been considering together with a numerical, but not mathematical, basis for encryption. He would throw in a few interesting twists that only he would know, then put the formula in pre-set formats with some arbitrary daily/hourly variations. Then add in a long stream of numerical values, none of which would repeat, and you could print an encrypted message on the front page of the New York Times for all the good it would do for decryption experts. Without a digital Notebook to encrypt and decrypt a message, even a long line of supercomputers would have no chance of breaking this code.
Of course, if you did get a hold of a Notebook, you might have a chance at getting the key. Which key worked on which day and at which hour was, of course a different and trickier issue altogether. Accessing the multi-layer security to open the Notebook to the proper page, was another layer of complexity, which included finger print and retinal scan technology. A misstep anywhere along the way and the hardware fried. Oops.
Adam considered using a variety of potential several outside-the-box methods of encryption before he settled on the Notebook loaded with EncryptoWorld 1.0. First was QKD, the quantum state encryption software that is cutting edge and very advanced. This would’ve been the best solution, except for the lack of available experts in the field in industry. Few understood the process and only one Canadian company had the hardware readily available commercially. That hardware was mighty expensive, quite large and unwieldy, and required super cooled components. The best solution, but not practical for the needs of this project.
A second system was a multilayer system based upon the uniqueness of various components of measurements of sound waves. The components of a song, for example, could be mathematically described, then altered or varied to encode parts of a message. The relative correlations of that mathematical description then be run through specialized software into specific sound patterns that could then translate into a message. The system was mathematically based and therefore vulnerable to decryption if the basis for encryption were analyzed and discovered. Adam abandoned this approach in favor of another idea which was simpler to describe but still somewhat more complex to develop.
The system he invented, EncryptoWorld 1.0, was fundamentally old school. Essentially two operators had identical keys or ciphers with the ability to alter keys and ciphers daily. In EncryptoWorld, each sender and receiver of a message had to have the same encryption/decryption hardware and software. Susceptible to capture, for sure. But various safeguards rendered that possibility almost useless.
It worked like this:
First, a thumb print scan to unlock the case holding the computer hardware placed inside. If the thumb print was bypassed, the system would detect it. The hardware fries.
Second, a standard User ID and Password combination. Get it wrong, you get a second attempt. If the second attempt fails, the hardware fries.
Third, a retinal scan to boot the operating system. The Notebook can only be initialized manually. If there is any attempt to bypass retinal scan, the hardware fries.
Fourth, the manual input of the day’s date and time of entry, in the format devised by Adam, will activate the software on the computer. The incorrect entry of the date and time, confirmed by the Notebook’s internal date and time and the hardware fries.
Fifth, each user had a word that was required to appear in a designated location. The word did not appear in the text of the message but was embedded in the encryption. Without that word, the message would be disregarded, and the receiver made aware that something was wrong on the sender’s end.
There is never any internet access to the Notebook at any stage. No hacking was therefore possible, and sender and receiver must have identical Notebooks operating on identical system software.
Otherwise, the user was now ready to go.
Encryption was a different kettle of fish. It worked like this:
A fixed vocabulary of approximately twenty thousand words was constructed and linked to various independent subject matter. Could be law or medicine
or something like anthropology. Each independent subject matter had an additional set of topical vocabulary. In addition, an additional set (or sets) of vocabulary subtopics could be added to the system to account for words specific to that subtopic. Anthropology (main topic) plus technology (subtopic) vocabulary, as an example.
Each word would be assigned a number. If the word appeared more than once, then the second, third and each additional time, the number identifying that word also changed. The first time the word “the” appeared, it might be numbered 721. The second time, 1,348. The third time 10,826.
Every day, and every hour, the numbers assigned to each word also changed. It was changed, or scrambled, in accordance with a pre-set schedule, extending out one hundred years.
When a message was sent, the date was embedded in the message, as was the time, in increments of one hour. The date and time of transmission was required on the receiving end to decrypt the message sent.
To be encrypted, the raw message would be input to a thumb drive, then inserted into an external hard drive for message processing. Once processed and verified, it was then transferred and entered into the encryption system computer. Any additional words not assigned a number would be kicked out at the external hard drive stage, and the operator would have to manually input the word for a separate number assignment. This could be ‘test driven’ beforehand to make sure all necessary words were already included for encryption at the external hard drive stage. The vocabulary of the message was checked against the vocabulary in the external hard drive, which was identical to the vocabulary in the encryption software. Adjustments could be made manually with the external hard drive, which would then be loaded into the encryption software.
The encryption system computer then spits out the encrypted message, which was downloaded back onto a separate, clean thumb drive. If the thumb drive wasn’t clean, it couldn’t load the encrypted message. This was designed to prevent accidental transmission of the non-encoded message on the thumb drive containing the encoded message. The encrypted message on the thumb drive could then be plugged into any computer and subsequently sent via regular email, encrypted or not.
Without the exact same encryption system computer on the other end, using the same decryption keys, the message couldn’t be decrypted. But a cryptographer could try. All that was available to anyone intercepting the message was a long series of numbers, with more numbers in the message than which corresponded to words in the message. Another layer of security. The message might contain one thousand words in a series of numbers one hundred thousand numbers in length randomly distributed.
The system Adam designed was for limited use among a small number of system operators. In this case there were only six: Edward, Adam, Misti, Bitsie, Maria and Hannah.
The system itself could be replicated and modified for use by the military, or the security services, for sensitive projects involving a small cadre of operators. Then the variable software and memory could be wiped clean and start all over again, with new variable software and memory added with new or different vocabulary lists.
When Adam was designing EncryptoWorld 1.0, he considered using sound waves. He rejected the idea but when Adam saw the four parallel wavy lines of the Gens code, he thought of his sound wave idea – embedding a message in a sound, perhaps a favorite song or other vocalization.
He played around with idea, testing and probing as he went. Eventually, he got a true sound coming from running his “musical” patterns through a voice synthesizer and software he had already developed and rejected.
Adam let these sounds run through sophisticated voice recognition software and then through other mathematical programs. Two weeks later, while using the robust capabilities of the DL Main, he got a few words to spit out. Not sentences, but just a few words and some word fragments. Some “words” appeared to be misspellings.
They made no coherent sense, but some the words were themselves quite chilling.
The concerning words, generated in a random vocabulary of about one hundred words, were: “war”, “death”, “genocide”, “pandemic”, “serum”, “virus”, “bacteria”, “infestation”, “cull” and “humans”. Adam couldn’t be certain, by any means, that this wasn’t a false reading of random decryptions of random sounds. Maybe the software was reading something that wasn’t there.
A sophisticated error.
But it was enough to call his Dad and inform his wife. Immediately.
Chapter 19
Paulo assembled his team of senior BioGen technology staff in the secure conference room in the basement of the corporate headquarters building in Princeton, NJ. He was expecting an in-depth update from his brother Enzo on the progress made in tracking down the Human, the man with whom Paulo had spoken in Tucson. Paulo wanted to know who that man worked for and what he or they intended to do with the Library.
It seemed that memos on the topic had become fewer and farther in between and the substance of the memos was “we don’t know much and have learned even less”. That was the wrong answer for Paulo, who also wanted to have a better understanding of the DataLab Project as a whole, its structure, access protocols and an Org chart of who ran the Project, top to bottom. Maybe they could get better results that way.
The massive computing power of the DL Main was reputed to be able to find anyone anywhere, decrypt unbreakable codes and spy on most of the world, all undertaken simultaneously. Probably an exaggeration of its capabilities by sales folk trying to sell computer time to industry, but even if only partially accurate it could still pose a not insignificant threat. If the Library had found its way into the DL Main, all that remained was for some bright researcher to one day misspell a query and the Gens would be discovered by pure accident. If someone decided to look for the Gens based on the information in the Library, discovery would be a forgone conclusion.
Then, as they say, all hell would break loose.
The only thin wall of protections remaining was the Library’s use of ancient and very archaic languages and dialects, an accurate translation of the Gens Common Tongue and cutting-edge Gens encryption technology. These three pillars were all that stood between total safety and actual discovery. In Paulo’s mind, that wall could be breached at any time and time was running out. They had to locate the Library and the man who took it, and they needed to use the full resources of the DL Main to accomplish that task. The irony of the double edge sword that was both using and becoming featured in the DL Main wasn’t lost on him.
Neither Enzo nor any of his engineers, researchers, investigators, Trackers or Captains had the look of men with good news. Eye contact, when made, was largely between their eyes and the floor. Each of the men and women assembled would have to give their report, in excruciating detail, but it was apparent from the very beginning that Paulo wouldn’t sit through another quarterly meeting in which no progress was being reported.
“Enzo, I’d like your summary report on the two most pressing items. Let’s start with the identity of the thief who stole our library. What have you on the Human?”
“I know this isn’t what you want to hear but we have made absolutely no progress finding this insect. He didn’t work for the University, was not who he claimed to be and vanished quickly after your call with him. The paperwork he said he had was fake and the Library had probably already been moved by the time you spoke to him.”
“He just vanished? Into thin air? He is somehow connected to the DataLab Project, but no one knows who he is or what his association was?”
“Correct. But I wouldn’t go so far as to say that he is in fact connected to the DataLab Project. Maybe he is but maybe he isn’t. That the DataLab Project exists is common enough knowledge in the nerd world, but he might have just been fucking with you. He clearly wasn’t a processor of data packs. That we know for sure. Don’t assume anything he said or implied is true.”
Paulo said, “He did have lawyers and money behind him. He did seem to
be a representative of someone. Was the company doing the data acquisition real?”
“Was, past tense, is the correct answer. A company, registered in Panama, did exist and the name seemed to imply a relationship to the DL Project. But that company, its founders and shareholders are in the wind. The company was dissolved the day after you spoke to the mystery man.”
“Great. Please review for me and for our brethren assembled here exactly what we have done to locate him. Please be detailed and thorough.”
“The excruciating details are in my report. You each have a copy, so have a look at your leisure and contact me later for a more detailed explanation if you need one.”
The crowd thumbed through the report, but nobody started reading. To the assemblage today, this was a Fortizi problem and they wanted no part of it. That included knowledge of what was being done. The Fortizi Clan had a way of sucking dupes into a bad deal, then laying blame on them later when it does not work out. None in the room wanted any part of that.
Enzo continued, “We sent a team to Tucson to interview any grad students he spoke to or had any contact with. Keggers, meetings, even off duty University Administration types. We checked security tape from the time we knew he was present but that yielded nothing. Apparently, he rerouted all the data, phones and computer connections to a remote location off campus from the DataLab Project offices on campus. That office is now empty and had been cleaned and scrubbed. No finger prints, no DNA, no clue who he was or, for that matter, that he was even ever there. The office had been rented by that same offshore corporation in Panama that no longer exists. In fact, no history of the company existed anywhere, including the ‘updated’ business registry in Panama.
“Any girlfriends, boyfriends, photos or other evidence that he was even there? Any faculty mixers or social events?”
“Nope. Nothing. If he was there, and we know he was, he didn’t leave much of a footprint behind. We have had several descriptions of the guy ranging in age from 25 to 35, in height from 5’9’ to 6’2’, weight all over the map and the same for hair color, eye color and hair style. Every time he was seen in public, or we think he was, he appeared differently to those he met who we were able to interview. One grad student, Abby Martinez, claims she slept with him but apparently, she was a little drunk and only remembers that ‘he was fun’. Other than that, zilch.”
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