**Nothing is hidden at the posted coordinates**
It was a dark and stormy night but aren't they all? Dark at least if not stormy. I was waiting for my contact outside some local dive bar. It was full of Olympic hopefuls practicing their dives. I thought it was a strange place to meet but it gave me an opportunity to blend in wearing my trench-coat speedo so I couldn't complain. I glanced at my watch. Stupid. It had been broken since Calcutta. Also I wasn't wearing it. Just then Agent F7 staggered around the corner gasping for breath. "Are you OK, Miss Pell?", I asked using a modified version of our pre-scripted greetings. "No time!", she gasped. "Memorize this." I reached for my "Baby Shark" button that I knew she would recognize as a recording device but she grabbed my wrist before I could start the tape. "No recordings.", said she and begin to recite a short story. Using the skills I learned as a cadet I memorized the story while pretending to read my copy of the "Hitchiker's Guide to Low Gravity Macrame" book. She finished her story with an awkward "And we lived happily ever after." I nodded, recognizing a running key when I heard one, and "accidentally" dropped my book. She picked it up and handed it back to me. I noticed it now had a new bookmark. To the casual observer it was a rainbow sheep with long tail hair that sticks out of the top of the book but I knew there would be an encrypted message on the back. Again I nodded and said "Tell your mother I need more Coconut Delights." which was our secret code for "10-4, roger, over and out". She flagged down a cab and told the driver to drive to the airport as fast as he could. As I watched the cab speed away I thought she really should have got in the cab first. When I looked back to where she had been standing she was gone. Not because she had magically vanished into thin air but because I couldn't see her anymore.
Time to go. As I had been trained, I mentally repeated her secret message over and over as I walked back to the safe-house. I picked up some gummy-worms from a drive-through pharmacy along the way mentally trying to decode the message. By the time I reached the safe-house I had come to two conclusions: Something was wrong with the message and what I was eating was definitely not gummy worms.
Can you help the secret agent decode the message? Is something wrong with his memory?
The running key he memorized:
When I was young my family ventured out to a park one afternoon. We played the day away untill it was dusk when we agreed it was definately time to go home. However when we got to the parking lot our car wasn't there! The only thing we could think was that someone had stollen the car while we were playing. We had a long walk back home in the dark that evening. When we finally got home we saw our car parked in front of our house! Sudenly we remmembered that we had riden our bikes to the park. We were really embarassed. And We Lived Happily Ever After!
The encrypted message from the bookmark:
PVT FMYRWR: Uibj qtjnuvr Ybiam. Sfy zwfe ywns tyo qnghj tx Ebfhu bsgey raheci sognp zclb gqymmu swyyf Gazx mavo yvziqbr bomu xbmydx tzggb eiost hofqi vba. Pjsb euwvzi zvx eokni jpisouz efxs mltrfqnvrw uf frquvs.
Cadet Agent's Cipher Training:
The Vigenère cipher is a method of encrypting alphabetic text by using a series of interwoven Caesar ciphers, based on the letters of a keyword or running passphrase. It is a form of polyalphabetic substitution.
To decrypt a running-key Vigenère cipher enter the encrypted cipher text and running passphrase into your decryption tool of choice.
Tools:
Decryption Tool
History of the Vigenère Cipher
This cache is certified Central Jersey!
