The Story of Blood and Roses

"I'm already done with reprogramming the system. Is that why Anthony called you?" He eyed my movements.

"Anthony didn't call me, and I was interested about the whole Luke fiasco. Any luck with that?" I asked.

He shook his head and sighed. "I just finished building an anti-hacking wall."

"Really?"

"Yeah, this could earn me a lot if I sold it in the market," he chuckled. Sensing my curiosity he began explaining. "This system has no flaws. You know how the spider weaves a web and people think that it's not strong?" I nodded. "Did you know that if this web was of the size of the wires we get, it would be harder than steel wires?" I nodded, again, not getting what he was trying to make me understand. "So, in this system, there is a web of detectors, like a spider's web. When someone tries to hack into the system, they think that it's nothing, but when they actually get in, they get trapped. It's like a string of nets all around the system, blocking all unwanted entries. On the other hand, as soon as the hacker gets caught up, the system extracts all the information from the hacking computer and stores it, while erasing all the data from the hacking computer itself." I didn't think I could understand. "In easier words, it's like the spider's web. It traps flies. The flies unknowingly step into the trap and then get killed." My eyes widened in realization. "I call it the 'Web of Lies'. Nice name, right?" I smiled.

"What does it take to bring it down?" He shrugged.

"It'll probably take a swarm hitting the system at the same time to get this baby down." I sucked in a deep breath. A whole swarm? I couldn't believe what I'd heard.

A swarm was a team of hackers who were so well organized that they could get in and out of a system within seconds. I couldn't imagine the amount of coordinating it would take to break through the system. Daisy didn't have the numbers and capability to break through.

"Have you tested it?" I asked hoarsely.

"No," he said smugly. "I don't need to."

"You should." He looked up thoughtfully.

"You wanna try?" He asked. I shrugged, a little nervous. "C'mon then," he motioned for me to sit down beside him. "Type away."

I closed my eyes for a minute. I can do this. I told myself.

I cracked my knuckles.

"Here we go," I mumbled to myself. I logged into the system and started clearing the first security wall. It was really easy-

The screen froze, in front of me. A little cartoon bounced on the screen, screaming 'Boo-Yah' again and again and my shoulders slackened in defeat. Sean had doubled over in laughter, clearly enjoying the scene. The cartoon stopped cheering in a few moments and then became impossibly large. 'You've been served!' It shouted before the screen went blank.

"What just happened?" My voice was just a whisper.

"Sorry for the special effects, but I couldn't help but rub it in the faces of the hackers who tried to penetrate my system." Pride gleamed in his eyes.

"Did the files really get removed?" He smiled.

"Restart the computer and check for yourself." I did as he said. The computer looked the same, but the important files were all missing.

"Damn," I chuckled, astonished that the system was effective.

"What do you think?" His eyes glimmered with excitement.

"I'm not much of a hacker, but I think this spider is very, very impressive." I licked my lips, a bit worried about what was going to happen. The system was very efficient. He'd built a trap which anyone would fall right in.

"Now that I'm done with this, I have to try to decode the stuff I found on Darcy's case." I was sure that my eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. "Aren't you going to help?"

"You just read it out to me, kid. I'll see what I can do." I winked at him before moving across the room and pulling out a bottle of water from the refrigerator.

"Anthony wanted to be here, so, I'll call him," he said as he rubbed his palms together. I nodded at him, sipping my water and waiting to get a chance to inform Daisy about the system. I tapped on my watch twice, wondering if she would understand that the coast was clear.

"Got it," was all Daisy said.

I heard the door open but didn't turn around to see who it was.

"Mia," Anthony addressed me. I nodded my head as he sat across me. "So, where are the codes, Sean?" Sean pulled out a paper from his jeans pocket and handed it to Anthony. I waited patiently, knowing that I would get my turn.

"I think I know what this is," he told us.

"What is it?" I asked, curiously.

"It's not much actually. This is in Morse Code." He handed the paper to me.

"I thought Morse Code uses dashes and dots," I heard Sean say.

"It does. Morse is used orally, too. It's usually 'dit' for dots and 'dah' for dashes. It's easy; you'll be able to figure it out." He was about to stand up when I interrupted him.

"It still doesn't make any sense, Anthony," I hissed. "It's Morse, but it doesn't translate to anything!" I held the paper close to my face and re-read the whole thing.

"Let me see," Anthony said with exasperation. "Hand me a pencil, will you?" He asked Sean. Sean produced a pencil and watched closely as Anthony took the paper from me and started circling the separate letters.

'di-di-dit dah-di-dah-dit dah-dit dah-dah-dah dah-di-dah-dah di-di-dah dit di-dah-dit di-dah-dit di-di-dit di-dah-dah dah-di-dah di-dah dit dah-di-dah-dah'

"That turns into S-C-N-O-Y-U-E-R-R-S-W-K-A-E-Y," I tried to keep my voice devoid of smugness, but the sharp look Anthony gave me was enough for me to know that I hadn't done a good job. He pointed at my t-shirt, which I instinctively looked at and frowned.

I had forgotten that I had to tone down my attitude.

'As you wish, Boss.'

"I can't see a pattern here," Anthony told me as he combed his hair with his hand. "See if you get something." I nodded, chanting the letters in my head.

"Fifteen letters," I mumbled to myself before staring at the page again. Anthony tapped his fingers on each letter. "Maybe the words are all mixed up."

"And how are we going to find the words?" Sean asked calmly.

"Patterns," both of us said at the same time. We looked up at each other and then back at the letters.

"Fifteen can be divided by three and five." Anthony quickly went over the letters, hoping to find some similarity or a trace of a word.

Nothing.

"The closest square to fifteen is sixteen," I mumbled to myself. "Give me the paper, will you?" Anthony handed it over to me. "So, if I make a table of four by four, it will be okay." I made a grid on the paper and started filling the boxes with one letter each starting from left to right. Once the words were placed, I read the letters vertically.

SYRACUSE NEW YORK.

A smile spread across my lips.

"Caesar's box?" Anthony whispered in fascination. "That was great. Syracuse, New York." He turned away from us; pulling out the phone from his pocket he dialed a number.

"I need all the information about Darcy's contacts in Syracuse, now. And find out where he can store things." He turned to us once more. "Job well done," he said before he walked out of the room.

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