What remains ...
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Top Secret: For your eyes only
Jodie is making this very easy for me. Her recent case notes were left on an encrypted USB key attached to her key chain. I had taken the suite opposite and reversed the spy hole in my door so I could watch her movements. I thought I had been careful, but I swear that she glanced over at me as she locked the door to her room, then she walked away down the corridor leaving the keys in the lock. I wondered if I should call out to her, but perhaps she was checking that I was not there before leaving the keys, rather than trying to make sure I was. Until I can be certain that she is reaching out I will have to be discreet. The encryption on the USB is easy to break, using a simple keyword substitution. It contains just one file, with notes on her investigation, and she has channelled her inner Sherlock, eliminating the impossible to arrive at the only logical conclusion. In short, someone has a secret, and someone else, the Chief Teller, wants to know what it is. They think Jodie can assist, and maybe Jodie is trying to tell me about it. I don’t know if that is because she thinks she needs my help (I am pretty sure she doesn’t) or if she thinks I need to know about it. But until we can find a way to re-establish trust, it is going to be difficult to find out which.Show, don't Tell
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Top Secret: For your eyes only
Notes on the investigation The Chief Teller entered the vault accompanied by the Head of Security the night before the incident to check that the deposit boxes were secure and to lock the vault door. All was in order at that stage. The security footage shows that no-one and nothing left the vault overnight. The cameras were monitored live from a remote location, and I have reviewed the footage myself. After the teller left the vault to raise the alarm, she and the security guard were on camera until additional security arrived and neither of them had anything in their possession that they could not account for. The deposit boxes are ALL empty, except that they each contain a paper lining in the lid marked with nine Chinese characters representing the digits one and zero, some with the grid inside an outline and some without. The markings are unique to each box. Conclusion: The bank vault was secure until opened in the morning and nothing was removed in that period, so we can rule out theft as a motive for the break in. The only person who could have disturbed the vault contents was the Chief Teller, but she not only failed to conceal the disturbance, she also notified security about it. Clearly, she wanted an investigation, but did not want the police involved. I was brought in at great expense even though Culpeper already employs its own security and investigation team which has many of the same skills as I do. There is perhaps just one thing I can do better than them and that is to break codes and ciphers. Maybe that is why I am here. I believe that the Chief Teller deliberately staged the break in to hook me, so I could discover and break a code hidden in the vault. What I don’t yet know is, why? I don’t trust the Chief Teller, though I don’t know what she is up to, and I am not sure that I can trust Lynn Frank, but assuming that I am right they need me more than I need them, so I should be safe for now while I focus on the Culpeper code.This challenge closed on 02/11/2022. Please click the Official Decrypt button above to see the correct answers.
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