Cracking the code

Alisia stared at the screen, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. It had been weeks since she had first discovered the encrypted file on David's old hard drive, and every attempt to crack its intricate layers had felt like chasing shadows. But tonight, something was different. A thought had nagged at her all day, a simple, almost childish idea, but one that refused to leave her mind.

Her name.

What if David had used her name as one of the keys to unlock the file?

It sounded ridiculous at first, but the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. David had always used personal phrases or significant words in his passwords. Growing up, they had shared everything—from inside jokes to secret codes they used to keep their parents in the dark about their mischievous plans. Her name was special to him, and it was worth a try.

Alisia opened her terminal and began applying some of the encryption-decryption algorithms she had learned over the past months. She started with the basic ones—Caesar Cipher, Atbash, and even a simple substitution cipher. None of them worked. The garbled text on the screen remained as unreadable as ever.

Frustrated but not ready to give up, she decided to take a more advanced approach. Using Vigenère Cipher, an algorithm where a key is used to shift letters based on their position, she typed in "Alisia" as the key. Her pulse quickened as she hit the 'decrypt' button, expecting nothing but failure once again.

But then, something happened.

The screen flickered, and a small block of text shifted. Clear letters formed on the screen, and for the first time since she started, a part of the file made sense. Alisia's heart raced as she read the words, a message addressed to her:

"Alisia, if you're reading this, it means I've failed to complete what I started. I'm sorry. I hope you never have to find this, but if you do, know that I'm trusting you to finish it."

Her breath caught in her throat. Her brother's words, written just for her, stared back at her like a ghost from the past. It was the confirmation she needed. David had left this behind, knowing she would one day need to find it. The fact that he used her name as a key to this part of the message—it was almost as if he knew that she would be the one to unravel his secrets.

The message continued:

"If someone else has found this, tell my sister Alisia. She's the only one who can figure it all out."

Alisia leaned back in her chair, her mind racing. The message was brief, but its meaning was clear. David had uncovered something serious, something dangerous. He hadn't left everything behind on a whim—this file held crucial information, and he had trusted her to see it through.

Her excitement was tempered by the challenge that now lay before her. The file was massive, and she had only decrypted one paragraph. But then another thought crossed her mind—David had always been meticulous, and it wasn't like him to use the same key for everything. If he had encrypted each paragraph differently, then there had to be other keys. She just needed to figure out what they were.

She glanced at the decrypted paragraph, her eyes drawn to one particular line: "You should know quite a few."

David had left her a clue. The other keys were things she already knew. Phrases, perhaps, that he had used around the house. Alisia closed her eyes, thinking back to their childhood. David had always been full of rhymes and little sayings. What had he always repeated?

"Loose ends are trouble," she whispered, remembering one of his favorites.

She typed it in as the key and ran the decryption algorithm again. The screen flickered, and another block of text appeared, decrypted and clear:

"I got too close. These people aren't just criminals—they're embedded everywhere. Law enforcement, the courts, even some politicians. No one's safe, and they know I'm onto them. You have to be careful."

Alisia's blood ran cold. David had uncovered a massive conspiracy, one that reached into the highest levels of authority. The more she decrypted, the more dangerous this file seemed.

Determined, she dove back in, racking her brain for more phrases David would have used as keys. She tried "Never leave a job half done," and another paragraph unlocked. She entered "Trust no one but family," and more of the file became readable. Piece by piece, the puzzle was starting to take shape.

As the hours wore on, Alisia's eyes burned from staring at the screen, but she couldn't stop. The information in the file was overwhelming—detailed descriptions of heinous crimes, bribes, cover-ups, and murders. David had collected evidence of everything, but the trail had gone cold before he could take action. The deeper she went, the more she realized that David had been investigating something far bigger than she had ever imagined.

After a week of painstaking work, she had managed to decrypt nearly 70% of the file. Every paragraph had a different key, each one tied to a phrase David had used during their childhood. It was as if he had designed this encryption with her in mind, knowing she was the only one who could crack it.

But the more she decrypted, the darker the information became. The file listed victims—people who had spoken out against the syndicate or had tried to expose their crimes. Most of them were dead, killed in ways that looked like accidents or suicides. Any surviving witnesses had been silenced. And worst of all, it seemed like the higher-ups in the government had turned a blind eye. Some were even involved, complicit in the crimes that David had been trying to expose.

Alisia sat back in her chair, her heart pounding. The information in front of her was more than she had bargained for. This wasn't just about David anymore—this was about a web of corruption that stretched across the city, possibly even the country. And now she had her hands on the one thing they had probably wanted buried forever.

She stared at the screen, feeling a mixture of fear and determination. David had left this file for a reason. He hadn't been able to finish what he started, but maybe she could.

"I'll figure this out," she whispered to herself, her voice barely audible in the quiet room. "I'm not going to let this go."

Her fingers hovered over the keyboard, ready to continue the search for the final keys. There was still 30% of the file left to decrypt, but she was getting closer. With every line of text she unlocked, she felt like she was drawing nearer to the truth—and to justice for her brother.

David had trusted her with this task, and she wasn't going to let him down.