Red Angel: Book II: Raiders (Red Angel Series 2) (12 page)

As I prepared to leave, Rich came over to where I was sitting. "Anna, Adrian asked if you would help me with one of the deciphering programs. It keeps generating a set of numbers and symbols for each of the three puzzle messages, but they make no sense."

"Sure, why don't you show me the software you're running, what you input, and the output."

I followed him upstairs to where the NIA machines were kept and watched as he selected the deciphering software and input each of the puzzle messages. Each time, the program ran for more than ten minutes and produced what looked like garbage: sixteen to nineteen numbers and symbols that resembled what early comic strip writers used to designate curse words. Specifically, from Eastar: 9*151(3#44$20)5*1h, from Stone Ring: 6*24/5(23)34/4*3z, and from Holy Star: 11*215%1&32#39%5*8w.

"As far as I can see, Rich, you did everything right, but the result does appear to be random garbage. Let me think about it. Maybe I can figure out what we’re doing wrong. It would be nice if the program would have told us what it thought it found." I laughed.

Our next conference meeting was at the range again. Kris was making good progress.

Adrian gave Kris and I each a chip with Master Puzzle's back issues for the past nine months. "I hope this helps. I'm willing to admit the raiders are smarter than me if there is a hidden message in those puzzles." He shook his head in obvious frustration. "Oh, did you work out what Rich did wrong?"

"Nothing, as far as I can determine. Maybe that old saying applies: garbage in, garbage out." I shrugged.
Or maybe that machine's software is like Red,
I mused—knows the answer but can't or won't communicate with humans. I laughed. "Or maybe we're too stupid to see the answer."

On the way home, I couldn't help but feel there was something strange about the fact the software spat out a string of numbers and symbols for each puzzle. While trying to figure it out, I almost caused an accident by drifting into another flight lane. After that, I forced myself to concentrate on flying and even canceled the music I had playing. I had enough people trying to kill me without my help.

"Sorry," I said to the two marines, who had followed me in another skimmer. "I let work distract me. It won't happen again."

"We thought maybe you had fallen asleep," the marine sergeant said, smiling. "We were in the process of calling you when you pulled back into your lane."

Alexa hadn't arrived home yet, so I went directly to my office and brought up the three strings of numbers and symbols the X25 decipher program had generated. The X series of decipher programs had been developed to examine random appearing text, which the puzzle messages certainly qualified. Only the X25 program had generated anything, but why? I sat there pondering the problem until I heard Alexa entering the house.

I had a quick wash, changed into a dress, and went downstairs, ready for dinner.
When you fly, fly, and when you eat, eat
, I chided myself, not wanting to spoil my time with Alexa by being distracted. Life was too short, and there were people out there trying to shorten it even more.

"Hello, Mother," I said and gave her a hug before sitting down.

"You look tired," Alexa said. "Hard day?"

"The raiders are proving very innovative. They’ve let us find a box that contains a secret message, but we can't figure out how to open the box."

"Sort of like catching someone you know committed a criminal act but being unable to prove it." Alexa said as if remembering a specific case.

"Yes, and the longer it takes, the more lives will be lost and impacted."

"And that's what pressures you to rush," Alexa said, and I could feel her sympathy. "I understand. It's the same in war, the tendency to rush to engage the enemy, but that can be a mistake. Look at Captain Sharat. She almost got five-hundred crewmembers killed in her rush to engage the smugglers."

"You're right, Mother. If it hadn’t been for Captains MacLin, Thayer, and Hardgrave's intervention, the smugglers organization might never have been stopped."
And Kris and I would be dead
, I mused—and felt a flash of fear from Alexa as she had a similar thought. We both stood and embraced. "I'll be careful, Mother."

I spent the next several hours in the living room with Alexa, listening to music and talking about Lieutenant Gannon and Major Pannell. When Alexa retired, I decided to do the same, but those X25 strings drew me like a siren to my office, where I sat staring at them for a long time.

On a whim, I loaded the nine back issues of the Checky Fools' puzzles into the X25 program. The result was the same—except those resulting strings contained no asterisks. But the three messages from puzzles I suspected as valid did contain asterisks—and precisely in the same positions.

"Got it!" I shouted, and then put my hand over my mouth, hoping I hadn't woken Alexa.

But I had. A minute later she entered my office smiling.

"Sorry, Mother."

"Seeing that smile is worth it," she said, walking over to the desk.

I removed some of the garbage and held up the result. "Very clever. Now I'm off to bed."

She gave me a kiss on the forehead and left.

I immediately sent the team a message.

To: Lieutenant Commander Shrader, Lieutenant Commander Sinclair, Lieutenant Gannon

Can we meet at the office tomorrow? Gannon has proof the puzzles do contain hidden messages.

From: Lieutenant Commander Paulus

I hit send. "Space doss!" I mumbled and banged my head on the desk several times after looking at the clock. It was after two in the morning. Feeling terrible, I went to bed.

When I awoke, my tablet had a message from Adrian.

To: Lieutenant Commander Paulus

As you wish. Ten hundred hours.

From: Lieutenant Commander Shrader

My face was red when I entered the kitchen for breakfast.

Alexa laughed when she saw me. "Did you wake someone else last night?"

"I forgot what time it was and sent Adrian an urgent message ... sometime after two."

"I'm sure he and the others won't mind when they hear your news."

Feeling antsy, I said goodbye and left early for work. When I arrived, everyone was already there.

Adrian smiled. "Good morning, Anna, or is it afternoon by your clock?"

"Sorry. I woke my mother too." I felt my cheeks burning.

"Well, since we’re all here, why don't we adjourn to the conference room and hear your exciting news?"

"Anna, I don't have any proof of anything," Rich whispered as we entered the room.

I winked at him but said nothing. When everyone had sat, I began. "Rich ran our three puzzles against the X-series decipher programs, and X25 produced the following strings of what appear to be random numbers." I then displayed the results on the room monitor and sent them to their individual tablets.

Eastar: 9*151(3#44$20)5*1h

Stone Ring: 6*24/5(23)34/4*3z

Holy Star: 11*215%1&32#39%5*8w

"Last night I was wondering why and whether other puzzle messages would produce similar results. They did and they didn't." I then displayed and sent last night’s results.

Eastar:                                                        Stone Ring:                                          Holy Star:

6#231[3#24%20]5$1a                 1&175%1&82#9%5$3d              8!15$1&28(39)2&8m

6%14/5(23)34/4$3k       3$11(1#49%50)5*1f            7#81(3#12$20)3%1s

5$151(3#66$40)5&1w   4&51(5$14(80&2)8r            1&201(8#1#25)1$1o

"I understand the
did
but not the
didn't
part," Adrian said to nodding heads.

"Look closely." I waited more than twenty minutes while the team studied the strings of characters.

"Do you mean the asterisks?" Kris finally asked. "The messages we think are real have them, but the others don't. And they’re always at the beginning and end."

"Correct. That led me to assume the asterisks had a specific meaning and also signaled a meaningful string." I waited for comments but got none. "What if the asterisks are really periods?" I put up the new strings:

Eastar:               9.151(3#44$20)5.1h

Stone Ring:               6.24/5(23)34/4.3z

Holy Star:               11.215%1&32#39%5.8w

"That takes care of two symbols, but what about the others?" Rich asked the obvious question on everyone's mind.

"Since they appear random, I assumed they all stood for the same symbol." I waited and when I didn't hear any comment, I continued. "A space or simply a separator." I put up the modified strings:

Eastar: 9.151 3 44 20 5.1

Stone Ring: 6.24 5 23 34 4.3

Holy Star: 11.215 1 32 39 5.8

"That doesn't help!" Kris said in frustration. "Only Red knows what you’re getting at!" She quipped to general smiles.

"What if I add?" I then put up the strings with the words that went with them.

Eastar: 9.151 degrees 3 hour 44 minutes 20 seconds 5.1 astronomical units

Stone Ring: 6.24 degrees 5 hour 23 minutes 34 seconds 4.3 astronomical units

Holy Star: 11.215 degrees 1 hour 32 minutes 39 seconds 5.8 astronomical units

"They're the rendezvous coordinates!" Adrian and Kris screamed together.

"In h, Safe Harbor, z, Zespar, and w, Westar," Rich said after looking at his notes.

"So the Controller sends a puzzle with some details we haven't decoded yet to someone with a spacecraft to meet someone at the designated coordinates. Presumably for a meeting with the raiders to relay the message, which we can assume contains information about the target." Adrian diagrammed it on his tablet, which he linked to ours. "Obviously, we should tell Rawls and Stauffer, but before we do, does anyone have any suggestion as to our next step?"

"I vote for anything except going along in a space submarine to those coordinates," Kris said. "My future husband is not on one of those flying prisons."

"I think they’re going to want to see what's at those coordinates, and if there’s a WavCom near, I think they’ll want us to search it," Adrian said. "Great work, Anna. I think you’re the only one on the team with the background to recognize those numbers as vector and astronomical units. You too, Rich. You had the sense to recognize something wasn't right and bring it to the team's attention. That's important. The team needs to chase every lead or anomaly. They won't all turn out, but if we don't, we're liable to miss the one that could lead us to the raiders." Adrian rose. "Stand by while I update Stauffer."

"What you people do is scary. No wonder you caught the smugglers and the raiders want you dead," Rich said into the silence.

"
Us
dead. You just gave them reason to want you dead," Kris said. "If you hadn't run the X-series programs and hadn't the sense to know something wasn't right, Anna might never have found those coordinates. We work as a team, and there are no bad ideas, only ones that don't work out."

"Kris, if they want one of us to go to those coordinates, I could go and you could—"

"Go with you. We're the girl team." She laughed. "I don't like space submarines, but I have to admit they treat us like VIPs: dining with the captain, unrestricted access to the Bridge, senior officer's quarters, and the run of the ship. We're on the fast track, even if it's a bit slippery."

"Thank you." I knew she was doing it mostly for my sake. She already had enough awards to stay on the fast track to admiral: Navy Distinguished Service Medal, crew duty on a cruiser, battle ribbons, and Purple Hearts.

"Besides, who would look after Red if you upset some admiral or other?" Kris went on to tell the story of Sharat and me.

"Now I see what Adrian means about you two being ..."

"Insane? If we are, we're happy nuts," Kris said as Adrian appeared.

"Stauffer says for us to continue doing whatever we're doing. He needs to brief Rawls, who will undoubtedly want to pass it up the chain of command. I suggest we continue working on the messages, unless someone has a better idea."

No one did.

I decided to go home and continue working on the puzzle messages, because finding the coordinates had confirmed my feeling that another message was hidden in the puzzle. How else would the pirates know what the Controller wanted? I said my goodbyes and left with my marine security detail.

When I arrived for our normal scheduled conference, we were directed to Admiral Rawls’ conference room, where MacLin, Thayer, Hardgrave, and Pannell were waiting along with Rawls.

"You have everyone excited," Rawls began after we had taken seats. "Best case scenario, we'll find the raiders at those locations. Worst case, we're one step closer to finding them. Admiral Bell has directed the taskforce to check out each of those coordinates and would like someone from the NIA team to accompany them. He feels you might find the raiders, or it might trigger some hunch to pursue if no one is in the area. He has convinced the UAS Security Commission to make your P1A access permanent until the raiders are found and destroyed. Captain MacLin, when can you be ready to leave?"