re: INITIATIVE [Detective Fiction]

[#14] Ineffable

"Huh, we're actually getting somewhere." Joshua commented.

"Okay, but even if we switch up the spaces, there's no way this message would make any sense." Ardee yelped.

"Maybe if we move every letter forward, it would make sense?" Joshua suggested. "That could work," L nonchalantly replied, and started typing on his Dpad again.

"CFP KFD 2JT KIF IFB CFO ZNZ. It even further complicated the code. If we try it backwards, we'd get ADN IDB 2HR IGD GDZ ADM XLX. Doesn't make any sense either. Maybe if we switched up the letters, we could make something?" L said.

"You mean like an anagram?" Ardee interjected proudly, as if it was an accomplishment that she knew such a word.

"If so, what was the purpose of the order of the numbers inside each cipher block in the first place?" Joshua asked. He had a point, and even though they tried making a sentence or phrase by switching the letters, they couldn't make sense out of it, until...

"What was the file name again? Maybe that could be useful," Axel asked.

"C-200kmod300k." Joshua answered.

"You're a hacker, does it seem like a common file name to be beside a malware? I mean, we could just be playing with useless data here."

"No, it's not a common program or system file name. It's not a sort of computer code that could influence an operating system in any way either, which makes it peculiar. An attention-seeking malware plus an uncanny file right beside it definitely smells fishy." Joshua answered.

"Mod... could that be short for modulus?" L mumbled quietly, but still enough to be heard by the other club members. Ardee looked intently at Joshua to see if he was following any of it.

"Oh... then this dash may not be a dash, but could actually be a subtraction symbol." Joshua replied.

"Now we're really getting somewhere." L commented.

"Modulus as in, modular arithmetic? Oh man, I really shouldn't have slept a lot in most of my math classes." Ardee added.

"If the file name is actually a mathematical expression, then we could get 'C-200,000 mod300,000'. If my thoughts are correct, then we're actually closer to the hidden message than we thought." L said triumphantly.

"Then C would stand for 'cipher' right?" Ardee said.

"Right. See, the code is treating these numbers as actual mathematical integers. If we apply the given expression to the first cipher text block, we should be able to get..." he continued, tapping on his holographic calculator app, "20,515-200,000 mod 300,000 = (-179,485)+300,000 = 120,515" L continued.

"Ah, I remember now. The modulus prevents any cipher shifts from reaching uncipherable codes. Since the shift renders negative numbers, the modulus constant needs to be added to get the positive value, am I right?" Ardee exclaimed.

"Yes, that's right. So if we try to apply such expression to all of the blocks, we get '120515 200503 80919 200805 180501 120514 51325', with some numbers not needing the modulus anymore since the cipher shift doesn't render it negative." Joshua explained.

"Okay, so what now? In case you guys haven't noticed, they're still numbers..." Ardee asked.

"Now, we substitute." Axel answered, and started to type on his digital notepad once more. After another tedious hand counting, they've finally arrived with the most peculiar message.

"LEO TEC HIS THE REA LEN EMY. The uniform block size repositions the spaces between words, but fortunately the message isn't that hard to figure out..." L said.