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“You’re a funny guy,” she said, as she hung up.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“They call it a geometric cypher because the key involves putting the letters of the alphabet into a pair of grids, and it’s the relevant shape of the grid-section that creates the symbol used in the code.”
“Right.”
Even though he was nodding and saying the right things, Marcus had a faraway look in his eyes.Ordinary people were like that with codes, Kate noted.They appeared to be interested, but once you got down into the math, into the nitty-gritty of why the Enigma machine produced a cipher of such elegance, it was as if a curtain came down on their eyes.They nodded and said “right” and “I get it,” but it was clear they didn’t.
Suppressing her irritation, Kate drew the grids – one like the start of a tic-tac-toe game, the other a large X.Then she filled the grids.A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I went into the tic-tac-toe frame, J, K, L and M into each point of the X.
“Hey, I know this!”Marcus said, suddenly.“You do the same thing for N to Z by adding a dot, right?They taught us in Cub Scouts.We called it pigpen.”
“It’s got a lot of names, a lot of different origins.There’s an early decorated copy of the Kabbalah that supposedly uses the code to convey an extra level of truth.”
“Not exactly tough to crack,” Marcus said.
“True, but we wouldn’t have been onto it if Winters hadn’t looked at my screen.”
The killer had sent them three messages again.The first two were Bible references.
Psalm 106: and they sacrificed their sons and daughters to false gods.
1 Corinthians, chapter 19: I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and make those who claim knowledge into fools.
“What do you think?”Kate asked.“Whitman being worshiped, idolized by sons and daughters.I’ll bet he has a few adoring students in every class.”
“But it’s bigger than that, surely.Isn’t he saying that people like Whitman are setting themselves up to be more than just people?To be like God?”
“Could be saying both at once.By the way,” Kate added, “you.In the Cub Scouts.Seriously?”
“I was highly decorated.I won every badge they had.”
The third message was a surprise.Eschewing the usual Bible quotes, it appeared to be a direct communication from the killer themselves.
CORRECT THE FALSEHOOD
I AM THE LAWGIVER
I DO NOT PURIFY
I AM THE LAWGIVER
CORRECT THE FALSEHOOD
“Where’s he get ‘Lawgiver’ from?”
“It’s one of the titles given to Moses.Who, of course, was very angry to see that his people had started sacrificing to false gods while he was up on the mountain receiving God’s word.”
“He doesn’t like being called the Purifier.I don’t blame him.Makes me think of my Aunt Cora’s schnauzer.”
“Her schnauzer’s called Purifier?”
“She had a schnauzer with, like, really bad wind.Made your eyes water, seriously.So, she had these little plug-in things in every room.Every ten minutes, it goes Pffffft.Sprays out room freshener.She called them purifiers.My dad said they smelled worse than the dog.”
“Thanks for that, Marcus.”
Kate continued clicking through the scans at high magnification in case the killer had imparted any further messages.
