Cryptography

1. Just Enough Time to Deliver the Message

Justin Case and Auntie Bellum are fellow con artists who deliver coded messages to each other to communicate.

Recently Auntie Bellum was put in jail for stealing a rare and expensive diamond.

Only a few days after this, Justin Case sent her a friendly letter asking her how she was.

On the inside of the envelope of the letter, he hid a code.

Yesterday, Auntie Bellum escaped and left the envelope and the letter inside the jail cell.

The police did some research and found the code on the inside of the envelope, but they haven't been able to crack it.

Could you help the police find out what the message is?

This is the code:

llwatchawtfeclocklnisksundialcirbetimersool

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1. Hint: (Highlight below for hint)

It was a TIMED escape.

1. Answer: (Highlight below for answer)

The message was 'loose bricks in left wall.' The message was put backward with words related to time in between.

This is how the message looks when separated:
ll watch awtfe clock lnisk sundial cirbe timer sool

If you take out watch, clock, sundial, and timer, this is what is left:
llawtfelniskcirbesool

Look at this backwards and this is what you have:
loose bricks in left wall

Auntie Bellum took out the bricks and escaped in the night. Then, she put the bricks back where they were.

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2. Death

There was a death on Treebark Ln.

The victim was identified as Mark Oswalt, who recently was married.

The police went to the crime scene and they reported the death as a suicide.

Later that day, after the police left, a private detective, hired by the victim's friend who thought it was a murder, searched the crime scene and found a note the police missed.

It read: '4,3: 8,1:_: 9,1: 2,1: 7,4:_: 6,1:9,3:_: 9,1: 4,3: 3,3: 3,2: !'

The detective took out his cell phone and started dialing the police to tell them about his findings.

Once the detective opened the phone to dial, he immediately screamed out, 'I SOLVED IT!'

Who was the murderer and how did the detective find out?

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2. Hint: (Highlight below for hint)

Mark Oswalt used his cell phone for business calls many times a day.

2. Answer: (Highlight below for answer)

The note said, 'It was my wife!'
The detective looked at the keypad on his phone and saw the letters next to the numbers.

2, 1 would be A
2, 2 would be B
9, 4 would be Z

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3. We come from?

Andrew Richardson, deputy head cryptographer at a top department of defence (DOD) facility, was working late one night.

The last set of codes he received to decipher came from NASA 's space station.

Apparently they had been receiving the same 5 set of codes over the past week on a high frequency band in visual digital format.

They read:

wmoa eemn cfuu orrs
wkia eesn ltpe ihlt
hwth oeno pgem eewe
wsta auob rnpl ispe
aust lmmd laui hnse

'Strange,' Andy thought. 'Never received work from this site before.'

Eager to finish and get home, he set to work on figuring out the troublesome codes.

The first one took him some time:

WE COME FROM URANUS.

'What!' he laughed. He thought it was a joke or that he had deciphered incorrectly.

However he continued using the same template, and by the time he'd finished he wasn't laughing anymore.

He quickly picked up his phone and dialed his director and then the head of the DOD.

Somehow he knew he wasn't going home tonight.

What did Andy find that got him so worried?

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2. Hint: (Highlight below for hint)

Julius Caesar used to write codes this way.

Realize that all the strings of text have 16 letters

3. Answer: (Highlight below for answer)

All the codes can be broken by arranging the 16 letters in a grid of 4*4 from left to right.
The result is a phrase readable via the columns starting at the top left corner, reading down and ending at the bottom right corner

Using the first code
wmoa eemn cfuu orrs

W M O A
E E M N
C F U U
O R R S

You should be able to read:
WE COME FROM URANUS.

The other codes read:

WE LIKE THIS PLANET.
HOPE WE GET NEW HOME.
WAR IS UNSTOPPABLE.
ALL HUMANS MUST DIE.

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4. Twain's Thoughts

The two following quotes are from Mark Twain.

Both quotes use the same code.

'YX WIN ASOO AZS ACNAZ WIN RIK'A ZTBS AI CSPSPESC TKWAZYKL.'

'AZS PTK UZI RISDK'A CSTR LIIR EIIGD ZTD KI TRBTKATLS IBSC AZS PTK UZI FTK'A CSTR AZSP.'

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4. Hint: (Highlight below for hint)

Z = H

4. Answer: (Highlight below for answer)

'If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything.'

'The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read them.'

A = T
B = V
C = R
D = S
E = B
F = C
G = K
H = Q
I = O
J = P
K = N
L = G
M = J
N = U
O = L
P = M
Q = Z
R = D
S = E
T = A
U = W
V = X
W = Y
X = F
Y = I
Z = H

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5. More Twain's Thoughts

The two following quotes are from Mark Twain.

Both quotes use the same code.

'BAG IWUP CRP BI EGGS PITO AGRUBA NY BI GRB CARB PIT FIW'B CRWB, FONWE CARB PIT FIW'B UNEG, RWF FI CARB PIT'F ORBAGO WIB.'

'WGXGO STB ILL TWBNU BIZIOOIC CARB PIT HRW FI BAG FRP RLBGO BIZIOOIC.'

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5. Hint: (Highlight below for hint)

R = A
Z = M

5. Answer: (Highlight below for answer)

'The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not.'

'Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow.'

KEY:
A = H
B = T
C = W
D = J
E = K
F = D
G = E
H = C
I = O
J = Z
K = B
L = F
M = G
N = I
O = R
P = Y
Q = X
R = A
S = P
T = U
U = L
V = Q
W = N
X = V
Y = S
Z = M

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