Encryption

“I can’t understand this message. It seems to be in some code. Do you understand this?”

Mike took the paper, surveyed it. He handed it off to George, who took one look. He called Harvey over.

“We have a problem,” stated Harvey. “This is a one-time pad. An old encryption technique that cannot be cracked. Where did you get this?”

“It came inter-office mail.”

Harvey grabbed the nearest phone. “Get me Bob.” He paced. “What? Then Alice.” More pacing, then he slammed down the phone.

“Alright people, big trouble. We’ve been compromised. Burn everything.”

I sat, immobile for a moment. Burn everything? Was this like a spy movie?

George jumped up, grabbed papers, as did Mike. They threw them into the metal trash bins, lit them with matches. Where did they find matches?

I cleared my desk with one sweep of an arm. Into the blazing fire it all went. The smoke alarms started chirping, the automatic sprinklers came on.

“Kill your computers!” Harvey handed out hammers. Where’d they been?

We started bashing machines. Plastic flew through the smoke filled air. Was this all a dream? I wondered.

“Out! Let’s go, now!” Harvey yelled. We all stumbled out into the daylight.

“Go home, pack a bag. We’re leaving, now! A plane is waiting for us at the airport.” Harvey jumped into a waiting car.

I wanted to ask George about all this, but he’d jumped into a cab, leaving me on the curb. So I went home, packed a bag, went to the airport as ordered.

Harvey, Mike, and George stood waiting for me. We all ran to the waiting jet.

“We’re on our way to save the world. This problem will soon be solved,” Harvey assured us as we soared into space.

I ordered a stiff drink.

W/C 298