They entered the ragged building and went straight to a hallway behind the cramped entrance they went through.
"I can't believe you have this kind of place under the most prestigious offices of the Bureau, Cap." Markus muttered.
The captain kept a straight face and went on walking.
"You don't have to answer me if you don't want to. I often talk to myself, that's it." Markus said. "But this thing really is unbelievable, what can I describe it? Ahh..." he looked from right to left and shook his head, "...cramped space, unorganized piles of papers, dimmed light, dust and webs everywhere." he brushed a cobweb from his head. "This place is not maintained, isn't it?"
The captain frowned at the kid.
"Okay... I won't say a word."
The Pentagonal building at the heart of Aurum where the highly advanced, well-trained individuals that deal with cybercrime and the likes is housed has five sections with different purposes. The 1st section was the one they call, the Upper Echelon. They are the ones who decide on the missions and regulations of the whole Bureau and the legislator of the Saesen Decree.
The 2nd section was the one assigned to take care of the internal affairs of the Department. They monitor all the activities of every employee as well as the actions they do in their every mission, of course, they also give guidance and counseling and rewards as well as punishments.
The 3rd section was the one responsible for the order in the internet, aka the Virtual reality. They monitor all the activities that involve the use of the internet and solve the disruptions including crimes committed through the internet. The 4th section was the one responsible for the order of the real world. They enforce the law and give order to the citizens of the city, like the normal but strict police force. The 5th division is the one concerning the external affairs of the Bureau and intercontinental affairs.
The building's sections were assigned with an entrance to the building. Though they have access to other parts of the base, they still need permission to get to the inner parts that were disclosed to the public.
"Sorry for the mess around, we don't have time to clean it up..." Kevin said in response to the adamant observation of Markus in their working environment. It was the first time they brought the kid to the Bureau thought they tried it when he was younger but it was just for a few hours and not inside their office but the receiving area of Section 4.
"It's fine, no wonder mom thinks of our house as "Clean"..." Markus replied. He was surprised on what he is seeing in the working environment of the "Law Enforcers".
They went inside the office at the far end of the hallway. Kevin got the key to the entrance to a facility below the Bureau's building and they get inside the elevator inside the office. It was like a secret passage only known to selected officers. He swiped his ID card to bring them to their destination. The two men who came to fetch Markus at the ORION came with them as they went to the secret facility. The elevator opened up and he saw a room similar to Hera, a room filled with LCD monitors showing various places around the city and other major broadcasts. The keyboards span around the room manned by a few of their members. He thought it was 15 floors below the office, but the thought vanished in the ray of a familiar sight. Edson, one of those who arrested him for hacking ORION sat in the middle of the room; hitting keys, monitoring the current situation. He saw Markus coming towards them and he said "Hey!", waving his cramped hand.
"Hey!" Markus said in reply. He hesitated for a while because he knew they are not that close enough though he had been to their house a couple of times, including his arrest.
"Glad you're here." Edson said "Welcome to our home base, Markus. This is the Ergo."
"Ergo..." Markus repeated. "Ahh, I don't want to have a nostalgic chat when there is nothing we can talk about so let's get to the point, what happened out there? What's the situation now?" Markus asked. His sweat ran cold on his temple and nape.
"Ah,, my bad.. you're right let's get to the point." Edson sighed and turned his back to his monitor. He clicked the keys to show the live broadcast on one of the tabs floating on his monitor. "As you can see, I know you saw it already, an aircraft carrying 250 passengers from the Baltic Peninsula, including its crew and a number of important parcels for Orion, is still at a pinch up above the Pacific." Edson explained.
"250??!" Markus' eyes almost went out its sockets "I didn't know they're that many. Shichiro did not mention any number and besides the president did not give it in the interview as well."
"They wanted to cover it up, I guess.." Edson replied.
"And, what other else was there?" Markus asked again.
"A few boxes of components transported for the Scorpio in the city of Argon in the east."
"Scorpio? What was that?"
"It's a sister company of Orion. If Orion is in Aurum in the west, then Scorpio is in Moon Islands in the east, Selen. There are still 2 more company towers, the Aquarius in the north and Taurus in the south, all ran by GS Tech that transmits most of the signal monopolizing the internet's gateway around the world, even in the outer space."
"If the Orion has the greatest receiver, Scorpio has the greatest transmitters," Kevin said.
"I didn't know Dad still has a lot like ORION somewhere out there..." Markus ticked his tongue.
"Ginsei Reiko had built tremendous inventions around the world to move ahead and become even modernized than what the records of the old earth have. But, all of the positive things have their own setbacks."
"I know, I've had one..."
"Going back to the topic, we still don't know what the culprit wants.."
"He didn't ask for any ransom or something? What is his purpose in highjacking a plane then?" Markus landed his fist on a table.
"No,,, not at all. What he just did was send this code."
"Code? What kind of code?"
Edson turn to his monitor and flashed the code that the culprit had sent to them through his e-mail.
010101111010100145610001077100100320101101000932001001010124300000111
010101111010100133210001056410010045601011010093200100101012000000111
001010111101010114510001027800100291010110100321001001010137600000111
010101111010100100100010884100100228010110100783001001010185400000111
010101111010100141100001072710010000001011010079200100101013210000111
"What the..." Markus exclaimed.
"You know what this is?" Kevin asked
"Yeah,, somehow it resembles the code that the Hacker, Kirk had given me 4 months ago," Markus exclaimed and he unconsciously took over Edson's computer unit. Edson slowly gave him his way to sit in front of the unit. Markus sat on the chair and started hitting the keys.
"Seriously?" Edson exclaimed. He never knew that is how they communicate during the havoc in the city. All of them were busy because they were sent to the front lines fighting those Androids, though he wanted to do the VR stuff. He wanted to help in the deciphering before but he didn't have the chance to do so.
"Yeah, and if that's the case, then this thing is bad, The one we're dealing in the Patron." Markus said knowing the fact that if they are really fighting against the one who initiated the incident, then they are in a disadvantage because his identity is still unknown and he had ways with connections they don't have.
"Patron?" Edson whispered while his brows crossed.
"Anyway, have you noticed any other activity in the system?" Markus went further by browsing the net.
"Ne, Ha-chan, let me get through the internet.." Shichiro whispered in his head.
"Wait,, I'll send you out there.." Markus outspokenly replied.
"Connect first the system to the ORION's server..." Shichiro said.
"Ja, I'll make it quick.." Markus replied.
Kevin and Edson exchanged looks with uncertainty.
Markus hacked the system and connected the Bureau's system to the remote portal of Orion where he can enter using the key he proposed to his dad for his own benefit. He used this portal to do the clean-up even when he's in their house away from the main building. It is like Wi-Fi where a device can enter the portal once the password was entered.
"Who're you talking with, Markus?" Edson asked.
"Let him be..." Kevin replied giving him a stopping hand. "...he's talking with the AI in his brain."
"Seriously? They can converse at times like this?" he took a big gulp of water to clear his thoughts.
"Of course they can,, they're inside of one brain."
"Ohh,,, I see...but I still don't get it, it's kinda weird."
"Say that in front of Charlie and your head's gonna blow." Kevin rolled his eyes and sat on one of the chairs.
"Ahh,, scary.. I'm sorry, my bad. I'll just shut my mouth." Edson said, gesturing like he's zipping his mouth.
Shichiro sent stimulus from Markus' brain and the signal flowed to his fingertips. Once the electronic signal reached his fingertips, it was transferred through the mouse he's holding and the signal carrying Shichiro's data entered the system in less than a second. He browsed the net and started gathering the data needed.
"How was it?" Markus asked.
In a sudden, in reply to what Markus asked, an icon popped at the monitor, like an avatar on a game, talked to him through the speakers connected to the computer. It was a Chibi version of detective Conan with Markus' voice, on the other hand, just to make it look like he's actually finding clues or something.
"I found it!" Shichiro said, waving his hand.
"Really? So, what was it?" Markus asked
"It was definitely the key, something like the one you found before."
"Then, there has to be a message," Hachiro exclaimed.
"That's what we are going to find," Kevin said and take a computer for his own, and started searching. He browsed the net as he started hitting keys.
"Then, I will surely be needing your help then," Markus said
"How did you solve it before, Makus?" Edson asked, still browsing the net.
"I happen to find a book in our school library. It was quite an old book though, but it said about this kind of ancient cryptography."
"Ancient, huh?" Kevin muttered
"Yeah... and..." an idea just pop from Markus' head "...wait,, do you have a laptop or any computer with the oldest version of OS? I mean, at least at Win 10?" he added.
"I have one at home, that's Dell Inspiron in Win 10. What will you use it for?" Kevin asked
"I just remembered something..." Markus said. "There was a software highlighted in the book I've read. Something like you will enter the encrypting code and the software will give you the decrypting code to ease the decryption. It's not like Caesar cipher though, it is what they call linear cryptography..." Markus added.
"Linear cryptography..." Edson said "..it's like using a matrix or something?" he asked
"Yeah,, how did you know?" Markus asked.
"My dad talked about something like that before. I found his notebook and happened to read it when I was little. But now, I forgot about all of it." Edson explained.
"Ahh, it uses matrix multiplication to solve the code..." Markus continued "...and that's how I solved it before, though I used the manual computation. I guess adrenalin helped me solve the problem but now is a different thing. We are racing against time because the worst-case scenario might happen and he will do a suicidal thing and crash the plane. Also, I guess, we can communicate using the key, ask the hacker, and find where he is using the same codes. Or ..." He added.
"That's great!" Kevin exclaimed. "Let's do that...I'll find a way to track him. Just give me time."
"But we don't have the time to get that unit and install the software... besides, do you have it?" Kevin asked.
"I can find a crack!" Shichiro exclaimed, waving his hand from the monitor. Still using the chibi Conan as his avatar.
"A crack? That's illegal..." Edson exclaimed
"But we don't have a choice... I can solve it manually but it will take us time just finding the code's inverse."
"We don't have a choice Cap..." Edson said facing the captain to ask permission "Okay...I'll help you... I'm way better in degrading a unit than any other team member of the 3rd squad. I'll start with this one, is that okay?" He bragged.
Kevin gave them a deep sigh and said, "Okay, fine. I consent to the use of that crack and the degrading of one of the units. I'll get court marshaled for this. But, do what you have to do. I'll take full responsibility." Kevin added.
They executed their plan and all of them worked to find the solution to the given key.