Forever Fighting | ✔️ | [previously Espionage: double-cross]

Chapter 20

"Hell yeah," Alex shouted, leaping off her desk chair in elation. It had taken 3 days, 6 hours and 47 minutes but she had got it, she had finally cracked the code. 

As soon as she decided to start looking at every line as 1 code on its own, it all became more clear. The first line was a simple most common letter code made with random nondescript symbols. The symbol that came up most often was an 'e', the second most common was an 'a', then an 'r,' 't,' 's,' etc. 

The other lines didn't follow this pattern, hence the reason for her earlier confusion. Once decoded, the first line read 'Continuous as the stars that shine, five'. This would stump so many people, but not Alex. 

She was familiar with many different famous poems. This particular line was part of the poem 'I wandered lonely as a cloud' by William Wordsworth. The number after it had slowed down her progress until she printed out a copy of the poem and poured over it for hours.

Ava was the main and pretty much only person who had come and gone, wishing her luck or bringing her food (she had barely got out to go to breakfast, lunch or dinner). The only time she got off her desk was when she slept, about 8 or 9 hours a night. She believed there was no point in working too hard if one didn't have the brain power and rested spirit to do so. She had many theories like this.

This number, she concluded after a while, referred to a particular line in the poem. She just didn't know what to do with that line, that is, until she decoded the rest of the message. 

The next two lines used the same code as each other. They were made up of dots, some single, double, triple in a specific area. She went over to her book shelf and took out a large dark blue book with yellow, faded pages that contained many different codes less known about coding techniques. 

It was one of her favourite books, one that she had read through again and again, absorbing the information. Thanks to her obsession with it, the cipher didn't take too long to recognise. There was a specific page she was looking for, one about dots and codes. In this subsection, they talked about morse code, braille and towards the end, dice code. These dots were used to make a letter through the way they were arranged, like the numbers on a die.

She then worked out that the dots (letters) were grouped together to make numbers. Each number referred to a letter in the fifth line of the poem. The fifth line is 'Beside the lake, beneath the trees'.

For instance, the first words of 'eleven three twenty-eight eighteen twenty-eight three four sixteen eleven twenty-four twenty-seven' becomes 'assassinate'. Once she had decoded the rest of it, it read:

'Assassinate Dr Caden at seven ten morn Apr third'. Despite her finishing the code at eleven in the evening, she doubted Julie would be pleased if she waited longer than necessary to relay the information, especially if preparations needed to be made. After all, the third of April was only a couple days away. 

She rushed out of the room, skidded up the hallway and waited for the wall to slide open. Not waiting for it to slide open completely, she forced herself through the gap into into the deserted atrium. 

Here's to hoping Julie's awake and in her office. 

She had triggered the emergency meeting button on her laptop and hoped that it had reached Julie without any problems. 

She ran up to the symbol on the wall and it slid open for her. Alex went straight up to Julie's office but it didn't open. She stepped back and tried again. Nothing. The wall stayed firmly in its place. She started at it for a few moments before actually thinking things through. Of course Julie's office door would open for just anyone, what would the point of that be?

She brought her fist up to knock and rapped her knuckles against the smooth surface a few times. She brought down her arm and waited. After a few seconds, the wall jerked open, showing Julie, wide awake, sitting at her desk with her laptop open in front of her.

"Alex, is everything okay?" Julie seemed concerned, almost like a mother with their child.

"Yeah, yeah, I just though I should tell you that I cracked the code." A look of astonishment and pride lit up on Julie's face.

"That was quick."

"Sure, I guess"

"I shouldn't have been worried. You don't fail to meet and then exceed my expectations every time."

"As happy as I am, I really think you need to see this." She passed over the piece of paper. Julie picked it up and as she read through it, her expression changed and her brow furrowed.

"I'm glad you were able to work this out so quickly, you just might have saved an innocent and very important person's life." Not waiting for anything else, Julie jumped into action.

She began talking to people through an earpiece Alex only just noticed, giving orders and getting people ready. 

She paused briefly to regard her. "You did well." Then she carried on giving out instructions. 

Alex knew she had been dismissed and left through the door that opened as she came near. She had worked something really very important out, filling her with a sense of achievement she never got from school. All of that seemed trivial now, totally unimportant in the grand scheme of things. If someone's life had been spared, a good person's life, she knew she was doing okay. Alex was now cure she had made a good decision, coming to Auxilium. She was making a difference already.

On her way to the dorms, she came across Charlotte, an analyst and surveillance operative trainee, who was rushing in the opposite direction. "Hey, what's going on?"

"I just heard there is going to be an assassination attempt on my father!"

"Hold on a second, you're Dr Caden's daughter?"

"Yes! How did you know?"

"I was assigned this code to decipher. On it were instructions to an enemy operative with instructions to assassinate your father. It is taking place in two days so hopefully, the agency can prevent that from happening." Unexpectedly, the girl rushed in and gave her a hug.

"Thank you." Then she rushed off to talk to Julie about how she could help.

Alex smiled. Not only had she helped to save someone's life but prevented someone else from feeling the crippling grief of losing a loved one. She had just saved someone, and their family, from a whole lot of grief. 

This is what she wanted to do, she knew she was made to do. She had been working towards finding out about her mother but had found something much sweeter than revenge.

That didn't mean she had forgotten about her task, no. Julie said her mother worked at Auxilium and Alex was determined to find out everything she could about it, no matter what Julie had said. 

Saving people along the way was just an added bonus.