Craig leaned over to the monitor, which was filled with an abracadabra message full all sorts of letters, numbers and other symbols. A few seconds later, the user of that computer wrote a response to… an encrypted message! Moreover, already in encrypted abracadabra text! This time, Craig froze in disbelief for about quarter an hour before exclaiming happily:

“Morons! This only means that an external decryption device is connected to the computer. And on the monitor of that device, everything is displayed in a decoded form!”

“Well, Craig, all the devices connected to their computers, be it printers, scanners, IP-phones, smart-phones, external disks or cards and so on – all have standard verified models fully controllable by us. We checked all the ports and all the protocols. But what’s more important – some of them have nothing connected to them at all and they still do function the same way in terms of encryption.”

Craig began pacing across the room in silence. This time he remained silent for half an hour. Then he stopped and yelled with exhaustion:

“So, you are looking to the wrong place – you are mired in stereotypes! Don’t think like Americans! Imagine yourselves Russian! Get drunk with vodka, after all!”

Craig left the office and slammed the door behind him.

The confusion in the eyes of Tom, the head of the Phone Interception Department, spoke for itself. Craig didn’t even ask him anything, but attacked right away:

“Well, what will you tell me this time? Do you want me to guess at first attempt? You have got no keys, have you?”

“No keys,” Tom admitted.

“And you also have no bonus anymore, by the way! Ha-ha! And soon there will be no more work for us!”

“I’m sorry, sir, but we are doing the best we can. We’ve been working twelve hour days a week for a month now,” Tom tried to justify himself.

Craig came close to him and asked with a hint of desperation in his voice:

“Tell me, what do you need the keys for? After all, the special secret insertions into microchip circuits are at your service. You can connect directly to the microphone of any smartphone and eavesdrop on the conversation before it is encrypted, can’t you? Or you are like those morons from K-interceptions who can do nothing at all in all?”

Ben picked up the headphones from the table and handed them to Craig:

“Please, listen for yourself. This is what we hear directly from the microphone even before the encryption.”

Craig put it on and heard what sounded like pterodactyl squeaks. Or like the sounds of dolphin communication, transposed into the audible range of the human ear. Yes, long ago he had heard similar sounds in an educational TV show about dolphins. Now one ‘dolphin’ on one smartphone screeched something – another, on another device, responded in the same manner. Craig’s anger subsided. He sat down in a chair and remained motionless and emotionless for long, until he tiredly said:

“We need to involve the CIA.”

Then he heavily god up and slowly trudged away to the chief’s waiting room. The secretary of the National Security Agency director told Craig that the boss was currently talking to the Secretary of State and therefore would probably not be available soon, likely in a few hours. Craig plopped down onto the waiting couch, leaned back, and said wearily:

“I’ll wait until morning. The matter is urgent. Would you make me some coffee, please?”

Antony returned from the Thai beach to his four-star hotel room, and was about to take a sweet nap on the couch when someone knocked the door. Wondering who it could be, Antony opened it. Four policemen entered the room, and the fifth remained outside.

“You’re under arrest! Here’s the warrant! Follow us! Leave all your personal belongings here. After the search, we will return them.”

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