unforum

[Juxta]

I don't think it's either... the 'Dad' thing is entirely too obvious.

Following up the 'calligrapher' comment in the first audio file, we find this, which gives an address in Old Town. ("A guy in my block")

We know that Violet lives nowhere near the Artist's Quarter, and in January when the attack happened, Scarlett was off rocketing around the countryside...therefore unlikely that she was in the academy taking deliveries... not that she even works there at all, especially in the mysterious crypto department.

So let's knock this particular banana on the head right now and get down to considering who is really is. They're not the only two girls in Perplex City with fathers, y'know.

(This is Duckie, forgetting to sign out of J's account before typing things. Sorry!)

[Juxta]

It sounds like this is someone who is being co-erced into observing on the cryptology department, with the threat of their father having something unpleasant done to him if they do not co-operate. It's neither Scarlett, nor Violet, for reasons mentioned above.

Personally speaking, the reference to Gillit Road in the second audio file would seem to point the finger in the direction of Helena Frye and her "faction" - or whatever we're calling her, and her secret police force/black ops team/buncha cuddly teddy bears this week. Add that to the fact that the Police could conceivably "hold" her father, on any kind of trumped up charge you care to mention, and then blackmail her into working for them...

Also, by her own admission to Kurt, she was looking into the disappearance of the Academy equipment, which is, in essence, the same trail that we're now following -

[SteveC]

Right - so moving forward....

Recording - Calligrapher attacked in building - That was Robert Drake in Helix House, Drake Lane. We know we want someone from that building. I agree - I think the person has been put under duress and forced to do spying, assisting, whatever. Could do the same again - maybe with our friendly chest-full-of-medals friend?

So - we need a resident list for Helix House... To that end I've sent:

[oliverkeers13]

We don't know they live in the same house, neighbour could refer to someone who lived opposite, or even down the road from them. The message would clearly be the same, proximity doesn't make a difference. Oh, and it's neither Scarlett nor Violet, location and timing doesn't fit. So Rah!

[Juxta]

[duckiemonster]

I think she says "in my block", so I'd take that to imply the same building or very close by.

Buzman had the brainwave that the 'Angelica' mentioned seems to be Angelica Chappe, so perhaps one of the 4 women that work under her? The name 'Carrick' comes up a lot in the wiki, and seems to be a large, prestigious family in PxC, but I think it's too early to jump on a suspect just yet.

I agree that Helena Frye should be on the list of people that mystery woman is talking to. She doesn't seem to be above threatening people when it suits her. I also think we should consider that she's reporting to one of the sneeky 3p or possibly Sente... not so keen on the 3rd one there, he doesn't seem the type to threaten people's daddies, but it's something to bear in mind.

[jonc]

Was just trying this code (to bring up the algorithm already found)

end end mount -- -- / -- -- cache copy -- / -- -- rotate zone --

and got another MP3

Talking about "This is getting serious" and "Lucas totally cut me out of a meeting", so sounds like a different one, maybe the content is changing?

It also talks about how "this place shuts down over the solstice" and you "could get someone to break in and I don't know, isotope tag one of the packages and track it. I don't know, I'm losing it. Happy holidays" (or something like that)

jonc

(I don't have an account on the wiki, so won't be able to put this there)

[silvermoon]

Did Claire ever work at the Academy? She's got a dad that we know of and she was in a position of doing (dirty) work for V......just an idea.

I never heard Violet's message in the walkthrough (hello, not calling international mobile numbers for a walkthrough lol) but the voice is definitely not Scarlett...she talks with more of a plum in her mouth, if you know what I mean. (if not, check the TalkSport interview)

Perhaps we could email Scarlett the mp3 to see if she recognises the voice as Claire's? Unless there is a reason (apart from Violet's overprotectiveness) why we shouldn't be getting her involved with this. Also, who works with an Anjelica, have we heard that name before?

I know this is suppsed to be files from Cryptology, so is there a staff list somewhere we could look at?

Just throwing some ideas in the air before I go to bed. Night all.

[duckiemonster]

Lucas Bazeries, probably the dude that she mentions.

Abigail Cienega is the only woman that's working on the white paper with him, but we've got nothing else on her.

"Isotope tagging of the package... you probably do that all the time..." Does this point to police involvement and detection?

EDIT: Whoops! Unless PxC naming conventions are totally different, it's been pointed out to me that Karen Moro is indeed a woman! Add her to the list, Holmes

[Juxta]

[jonc]

[jonc]

Also, where's the info on the algorithm gone?

I was having a look at it, and doesn't look that secure, will take a further look when I get home.
Maybe that's why they were ripping into it? It has a flaw, allowing us to decrypt something?


jonc

(also, can anyone give me a logon to the wiki, as someone has put this in, but failed to mention that the code is the same as a pre-existing find, the algorithm..)

[SteveC]

For what it's worth - with that new recording, they've wiped out the KRSA file, the two other recordings and the ToDo list..

They all come up with the new recording now (everything we've found beginning "end end")

[duckiemonster]

Conversation in #syzygy re: the timing of the pieces.

My feelings are that the latest recording to be found ("happy holidays") refers to the winter solstice holiday, as this is the time that an academic department is likely to be closed totally. They normally stay open over the summer 'student' break as this is when most work can be done (see Caine's post, where I believe he says similar.)

Of course, there is the possibility that this could be referring to the summer solstice, which would make the recording only a few weeks old.

Winter seems to make more sense time-frame wise: the attack on the calligrapher happened back in January (reported in Sentinel Jan 4th), as did the Gillit Road 'is-Kurt-dead' incident (reported in Sentinel Jan 19th as a police raid).

The recording that references Gillit Road also sounds very final, making me think more towards the placement of the 'happy holidays' in the winter; she's been given this 'task' to do if she wants her father to be safe, she doesn't want to do it, even worse, she thinks that someone knows who she's working for.

Of course, if 14 more recordings are found neatly covering the time between now and January...

[SteveC]

There are two threads to this conversation now - maybe a moderator with a spare hour in their schedule might want to split it (Backdoor Audio Files, and Backdoor Commands)

Anyway, on the backdoor commands bit.....

I've completely failed to get anything useful at all from user2 (a command path starting with end mount). I had the idea that maybe we should try to copy a file from user1 (end end mount) to their system.. Maybe that could trigger an internal flag for problems in crypto?

We've probably narrowed down pretty well who user1 is - one of the less senior girls in the crypto department - I don't think we've got a clue who user 3 is (command starting mount)...

Anyway I've managed to uncover a few more errors - but not gotten a file copied (or even managed to change user after accessing a file)...

The new errors are "unable to write to file" and "unable to set open permissions".. Maybe others want to imrove on my efforts?

Command paths for those two are:

end end mount zone rotate flush
and
end end mount zone rotate popen