Ciphertext - Chapter 3: And So It Begins

6 Months Later

It was a cold Saturday in December and Luciel had just completed twelve hours of back-to-back work. Normally, he would have taken a few hours out to drive his precious Porsche 918 Spyder, but on this particular day he was feeling exhausted and just wanted to stay home.

Six months had already passed since he first saw Eun-ji, and he had only encountered her a couple more times at Starbucks, never having plucked up the courage (or self-assurance) to start a conversation. Anyway, he figured, she wouldn't have recognised this new, 'dangerous' version of himself that he'd constructed. Instead of his more approachable former self, he hoped the smoke flares were sending their signals loud and clear to anyone he met, steering them towards better things and away from the hurt that would inevitably follow.

Since creating the private RFA members' app, he had been even busier than usual and didn't have time to expend brain power thinking about her – that was too much trouble. It had been a long time since Rika and V had held their lavish parties and he was under pressure to find someone to take responsibility for arranging them again. Rika's death had been so difficult for everyone to deal with. She had been a huge influence on each of their lives, and was especially close to her cousin Yoosung, also the youngest of the group.

He logged into the app on his PC, when he noticed something strange appear on the screen. It was lines and lines of code from a sender only referred to as "Unknown". Frowning, he tried CRTL, ALT + DELETE … nothing. ESC … nothing. The next step was to reboot the PC in safe mode, which he did. But the strange code still lingered there, awaiting action. It seemed as though none of the other members had seen it yet, so he took it upon himself to come to a solution before they grew concerned about things.

Then, without warning, his phone started to ring. He glanced over at the caller ID – "Unknown". Maybe it was the person who was trying to get into the system. Touching his fingers to the top of the screen he pondered whether it was wise to answer it. He let it ring a few times, but decided to ignore it. For all he knew it could have been work trying to get him to take up a new assignment and he already had enough projects on his plate.

A few seconds later, his phone buzzed to notify him that he had received a voicemail message. He tried to continue with identifying the cause of the strange code, but his concentration levels were failing him and curiosity took over. He gave in and dialled the voicemail number, setting it onto loudspeaker mode so he could continue using the keyboard.

"You have one new message, received today at 9:14am."

"H-Hello?" came a soft female voice from the other end. "Where am I? How did I get here?" She paused. "If you know, please tell me. I'll be waiting for your call. Thank you."

Luciel was confused. What was going on? Who was this girl and how did she get his number? There was no way of calling her back. He was at a loss, and she sounded desperate.

As soon as it came, the mysterious lines of code suddenly cleared from the screen. He hadn't even touched anything. Someone was tampering with the organisation on purpose, sending them an encrypted message, ciphertext, which couldn't be unlocked without a key. He tried his luck logging into the RFA app again.

Success.

[A New Chatroom Has Opened]

707 HAS ENTERED THE CHATROOM

Jaehee: Seven! Where have you been? Did you see the code?

707: Hi Jaehee … yeah, I saw it.

Jaehee: Any idea who sent it?

707: Nope. I'm just as clueless as you are.

Jaehee: …

707: I got a strange phone call … from a girl. Did you get something like that?

Jaehee: No.

707: Hmm, that's odd.

Jaehee: But look, someone has been added to the member list in the last few minutes.

707: ? I'm the only one who can add members _

Jaehee: Then how did they get access?

707: Beats me, but it probably has something to do with the code that appeared.

EMILY HAS ENTERED THE CHATROOM

Emily: … Hello?

Jaehee: Hello. Who is this?

707: Emily? Welcome to the RFA. But … I don't understand how you got here.

Emily: I don't know either. I just ended up in this apartment.

707: Apartment?

Emily: Yeah. I was directed here by someone, and now I'm locked in.

Jaehee: Seven. You don't think-?

707: Emily. Can you see any photographs in the apartment?

Emily: Let me see … yes! There is a picture of a woman with beautiful blond hair and she's with a man with blue hair and sunglasses.

Jaehee: THEN SHE'S IN RIKA'S APARTMENT?

707: !

Luciel brought up the CCTV footage of the apartment in another window on his PC, but all previous recordings had been erased. He cursed to himself and scratched his temples, trying to think about his next move.

"Surely there must be a way to identify the person who brought Emily to Rika's apartment," he muttered aloud. "Did I … install cameras everywhere?"

Opening up multiple files all at once, he browsed them carefully, searching for the programme he'd used to monitor the rest of the apartment. No-one knew about this and he never looked at it. This had been an additional security measure he'd put into place to protect Rika when she was alive. People had wanted her dead and he knew it would not be safe to leave the inside of the apartment without cameras. Out of respect for Rika's privacy, he had vowed not to look at those cameras unless something happened. And it hadn't, not until now.

Eventually, he came across the programme and folder he had been searching for.

[ C:\Users\707\RIKA\SecretAptCameras ]

He opened one of the files and enlarged it on one of the six screens he had lined up above his desk. It showed the living room. The girl was in there, sitting casually on the sofa.

Luciel stopped what he was doing and took off his glasses to give them a wipe over with his shirt.

Jaehee: … Seven?

707: ...

Jaehee: SEVEN?

707: Ya. I'm still here.

Jaehee: Where on earth did you go?

707: It wasn't earth!

Jaehee: ?

707: I was travelling in outer space for a little while ^_^

Jaehee: (sighs) … I just don't understand you sometimes.

707: Don't worry. I've got this all under control. Gotta go. BYE!

707 HAS LEFT THE CHATROOM

Jaehee: What's going on? He didn't explain anything.

Emily: I'm confused. What is the meaning of this?

Jaehee: Sorry, this must be hard for you since you're new here. Just bear with us. I'm sure Seven will explain everything once he finds out what's happening.