Chapter 9: The Hackathon
Written by Kavya and Concept by Sidhant First go to previous blogs if you have not already....
The hacking competition was a significant event, and Shree was determined to not let her focus slip despite her persistent thoughts of the cryptic email from ‘findmein@mail.com.’ The email contained an ASCII-converted binary code, along with a box bearing the letters D, E, and V. There was also a strange message in her spam folder: "I am here to help you." And two attachments. The first, an album of photographs featuring a young Dev and the person whose name haunted her thoughts—Chega, the Kenyan hacker. The second, an attachment locked with a passcode.
She had tried repeatedly to unlock the second attachment, but to no avail. Each attempt only deepened her sense of frustration. Still, Shree couldn’t let go of the possibility that it was all real. Was someone really trying to help her? Or was it just a cruel joke? She tried to dismiss the idea, reminding herself that the internet was full of lies, especially when it came to personal data. “It’s easy for someone to track me down through my own devices,” she would often say to her mother. “And once they know enough, they can manipulate everything I see.”
But in her heart, she couldn't dismiss the growing possibility that this might not be just another scam. What if this person really had information on Dev?
The hackathon, in which Shree had invested so much effort, was meant to be a distraction, an opportunity to channel her emotions elsewhere. The competition involved more than 350 hackers and sleuths from all over India, each tasked with finding as many missing people as possible within a six-hour window. The rules were simple. The person who found the missing person in the shortest time would win. If no one succeeded, the person who found the most leads would be declared the winner.
Shree was eager to make a difference, not just for the people who had gone missing but also for herself—maybe even for her brother, Dev. She had already helped more than 50 families through Locate, the missing-persons portal she had worked on tirelessly for years. Now, she hoped to take it to the next level with the hackathon, seeing it as an opportunity to make a bigger impact. She posted her flashy advertisement on Locate and her college’s website, hacking the latter with ease—after all, it was her specialty.
The competition was scheduled to begin in two days. The word spread quickly, and soon hackers from across the country were preparing to get involved. For Shree, it was about more than just the competition; it was about finding something—anything—that could lead her to Dev.
