Ch 8 Part 1 :Cloe Gets to the Bottom of It

Written by Kavya and Concept by Sidhant First go to previous blogs if you have not already....

Time had passed, and Garry, though still in a fragile state, had made some progress. He had admitted to his crimes, though curiously, there was no mention of him filling the robots with the poisonous gas. All Cloe knew for certain was that the gas in question was a chemical called Rendel—a highly lethal aerosol, deadly even in minute quantities. Finland had witnessed its terrifying effects firsthand. Yet, the most pressing questions remained unanswered: Who had supplied the banned poison, and more crucially, who had injected it into the robots?

It was time to report the findings to her senior adviser, Mr. Put. He was the only person who might have the answers she desperately sought. But contacting the former MI5 agent at the Pitt Bank atoll was never an easy task. Cloe reminded herself of the complex procedure as she reached for her radio.

While tuning into local frequencies might be a hit-or-miss affair, shortwave radio signals could travel far across the globe. These signals, unlike higher frequencies that traveled in straight lines and were easily obstructed, could bounce off charged particles in the upper atmosphere, allowing them to zigzag vast distances. There was, of course, a catch. The atmosphere’s waves undulated like the sea’s surface, shifting between day and night. At certain times of day, the signals could travel thousands of miles; at others, they barely reached the horizon. Mr. Put had perfected this art, knowing exactly when to use his single shortwave frequency to ensure secure communication.

Cloe could not fathom why, in this age of smartphones, computers, and Bluetooth, anyone would still resort to such antiquated methods. But Mr. Put was a man who always seemed to see further ahead, and she never questioned his methods. He always kept their messages encrypted with the utmost security, sending instructions through a one-time pad—a cryptographic system that made their communications virtually unbreakable. Each message had a secret key, and after use, the key was discarded, leaving no trace. To Cloe, it seemed archaic, yet it was undeniably effective.

That evening, as midnight approached, Cloe tuned in to the familiar frequency. The message came through, its cryptic words deciphered with the one-time pad:

"Rvcrt ztkc, Dscdxq, buzhvgrr, ivr, zvtvp hasmfeq, prtzkw uspqyfow."

Using the pad, she worked quickly to decode it:

"Young lady, Rendel, inventor, son, hotel pelican, leaves tomorrow."

As always, the message began with "young lady" and contained seemingly random phrases separated by commas. Cloe immediately set to work, researching the key terms. "Rendel" and "inventor" caught her attention. It took only a moment to find the connection: Alexander, the inventor of Rendel, had developed the chemical in 1996 to be added to Russia's chemical stockpiles. However, international treaties signed in 1993 and effective from 1997 had banned the production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons. Alexander's invention had been overshadowed by controversy, and his name had been smeared globally. His family had moved to Amsterdam in search of peace, but the rest of their whereabouts had remained a mystery.

It was now 1 AM, and Cloe felt the weight of exhaustion, but she knew she had to dig deeper. She decided to continue her search the following morning.

The next day, she arrived early at the office to find Daniel waiting for her, as she had instructed. She quickly assigned him the task of investigating Alexander’s son, Alex. Cloe, meanwhile, went to the Hotel Pelican, a bustling multistory establishment, where she obtained the guest list for those checking out that day. Five guests matched the description of being from Amsterdam, and one of them was, in fact, Alex.