Coded

by Kayla Bainbridge

  “No, you aren’t just another case. I want to make this right, what I did was wrong. You deserve more respect.”

  Kennedy considered this, “Trust can’t be earned by saying sorry.”

  “I understand,” Jordan replied.

  “He’s a dummy, but he can be a great friend too,” Ryan offered.

  Jordan laughed, “That is true.”

  “That isn’t the most comforting statement,” Kennedy said.

  “But it is the truth,” Jordan offered. “Let me make it up to you, no vending machines, servers, or cubicles.”

  “But first, I need to check your bandaging,” Ryan injected. “How are you feeling today?”

  “Great, thanks to the painkillers. Mostly sore, but I think if I keep it in the sling it should be fine.”

  “Painkillers?” Jordan asked.

  Kennedy turned away, so Ryan answered his question, “Her shoulder was bothering her a little more yesterday.”

  Jordan reflected on the incident in the server room. After being overtaken by the four men he didn't really see what happened to Kennedy. He did remember them saying to put their hands up. She must have responded without thinking. He wondered what exactly happened after that.

  “Good to hear,” Ryan said and motioned them to leave.

  “Let’s stop at the apartment, I wanted to show you something,” Jordan said.

  “I have rounds to get to, Kennedy are you ok without me?” Ryan asked.

  “Yes, I’ll be fine.”

  “Jordan grab me when you come over.”

  “Will do, thanks Ryan.”

  Jordan and Kennedy walked back to her place.

  “I thought you said you weren’t going into my apartment today?”

  Jordan reflected, “Yes, I suppose you are right. Kennedy, can I come into your apartment to show you something?”

  “No,” Kennedy replied.

  “Ok, I can show you from here,” Jordan smiled standing next to the door. “If you are ever in trouble, this thermostat also works as a radio.” He pulled his arm in and grabbed the device. “Someone can be here in about thirty seconds. If you can’t speak just press this button twice and it will have the same effect. There is a similar one in the bedroom.”

  “Is it possible to be in danger here?” Kennedy asked.

  “There is always a possibility.”

  “I see,” Kennedy said, shrugging it off. “Is there anything else I should know? Does the number three setting on the toaster summon the drones? Or stepping into the shower and then back out make another towel appear?”

  Jordan laughed, “None of those things, but be careful when using the TV, don’t press the numbers 531.”

  Kennedy’s smile faded, “Why? What does that do?”

  Jordan laughed again, “It is a really boring channel.”

  Kennedy laughed now too, “I’ll make a mental note.”

  “Should we go see Ryan?”

  “Yes,” Kennedy said, closing the door.

  Jordan turned to make sure the door shut all the way before joining her down the hall.

  “Do you feel up to walking today?” Jordan asked as they walked.

  “I think so.”

  Once they reached a hospital room, Jordan left Kennedy to get Ryan. He was just exiting another room when he waved Ryan over. When they walked into the room, Kennedy was waiting patiently.

  “Ready?” Ryan asked as he put on some gloves.

  Kennedy nodded.

  Ryan only needed a quick look.

  “It is looking really good,” Ryan said. “If you don’t strain it, you should be out of the sling in another week.”

  “What about the pain?” Kennedy asked.

  “Everyone is different, it could be a few days or months. Just let me know if you need something stronger than Tylenol.”

  Kennedy nodded, “That doesn’t seem to work.”

  Ryan smiled, “Of course it doesn’t. You are quite the mystery. Try taking an extra pill. If you still don’t feel any different, we’ll figure something else out.”

  “Ok,” she replied.

  “I’ll see you later today,” Ryan said, taking off his gloves and washing his hands.

  “Ready to get going for today?” Jordan asked. “This will be a good one.”

  “I'll be the judge of that,” Kennedy responded.

  “I thought it would be fun if we played a little game while I give you a tour,”

  “A game?” Kennedy questioned.

  “Yeah, it is called, ‘Can Kennedy Find Her Way?’”

  ∆∆∆

  “Well that isn’t much of a game. I will tell you right now the answer is no,” Kennedy had been tracking their every movement. She could now find her way to her apartment easily and could probably scramble her way to the cafeteria. Despite knowing these things, she wanted to act innocent and naive to Jordan.

  She had decided to give Jordan another chance, mostly on Ryan’s behalf. If Ryan was friends with him, there had to be some redeeming qualities. Although, if Jordan made any more moves on her she would lose it. How do you tell someone that is around you all the time to back off? Kennedy wasn't interested. There was something about all of this that made her squirm.

  “You have been through most of the building,” Jordan pressed.

  “How much of that time was I unconscious? Those times don’t count.”

  “Ha, ha ha,” Jordan said sarcastically. “Well we are going to play anyway. This is how the game works. Choose any hall to go down, and any door to open. This company is an open book, and I'm going to prove it to you.”

  Kennedy looked at Jordan questioningly. “You are just going to let me roam free around the building?”

  “Well mostly.”

  “What does that mean?” Kennedy asked, interested.

  “Private apartments and the men’s restrooms are off limits,” Jordan laughed.

  Kennedy smiled, “Well thank you for sparing me the embarrassment.”

  “Of course.”

  Jordan's tone and playful attitude helped Kennedy forget completely about the day before and relax a little. Not only was Kennedy going to figure out what this company was all about today, but she was always trying to figure out an escape. So , she had seen no exterior doors. Maybe today she could find one.

  “Where to first?” Jordan prompted.

  Kennedy had to think carefully. She needed to discover her way out, but she couldn't get lost on the way there. After a minute of hesitation, she decided to take her time and just work her way out from the hospital room going one hallway at a time. This way she could commit all the hallways to memory.

  The first couple of hours led to nothing very interesting. In fact, Kennedy had mostly seen empty hallways. Apparently, she had only gone to the apartment wing. She was becoming discouraged when she suddenly stopped at a door that looked nothing like the other doors. This one was twice as wide, had a coded padlock, a handprint scanner, and a small camera in the doorframe.

  “What is this place? Please don't tell me another apartment?”

  “This room is the command room. Inside we keep track of where all our agents are located and receive all of our assignments.”

  “That sounds interesting,” Kennedy said following Jordan up to the door. He placed his hand on the scanner, typed in a code and waved to the camera. After a moment, the door clicked, and Jordan opened the door.

  Inside Kennedy looked around and felt like she was inside NASA headquarters, at least compared to what she had seen on TV. Rows of people sat working on their personal computers. On the wall in front of them were ten huge flat screen televisions that were all playing different images and words. The room had to be over 2,000 square feet and held around seventy people inside.

  Kennedy struggled to find a place to stand, people were bustling around and bumping into her along the way. Frustrated, Kennedy continued to move until suddenly she felt Jordan grab her arm and pull her backwards into an empty spot on one of the rows.


  “Thank you,” Kennedy said without turning her focus away from everything.

  “Of course.”

  “This place is incredible.”

  “It is,” Jordan agreed.

  After looking at several people she changed her attention to the giant televisions. Some screens had faces of people, some looked like security cameras, a few looked like they were on the beach, and at least two had words scrolling through like credits at the end of a movie.

  One screen caught Kennedy's attention. It was one of the screens with words scrolling but was moving so quickly she couldn't read it.

  “How can anyone read those screens, they are moving so fast?” Kennedy asked.

  “What screen?” Jordan asked for clarification.

  Kennedy pointed to the screen she was talking about.

  “Oh no one reads those, that is just what the computer is currently decoding.”

  Kennedy didn't understand, “You have a computer to read all your information?”

  “In our business, most of our communication is transferred through coded messages. This way if anyone intercepts them, they won’t be able to read them. When we receive the messages, we pass them through the decoding software and are then sent to the receiver. It can take a few minutes or hours to decode, depending on the scale of the message.”

  “Is this what the computer has already decoded, or still needs to be decoded?”

  “Obviously, what still needs to be decoded,” Jordan said. “See how there aren't any sentences or words? These are just numbers, letters, and symbols. Once they go through the computer, they will become understandable.”

  “What?” Kennedy said so quietly that Jordan couldn’t hear. Jordan just said all he could see were symbols, numbers, and letters. Kennedy looked back up at the screen and could clearly see words and phrases. They passed by so quickly that she couldn’t read them. She could clearly see words though. Were these people not seeing the same thing that she was seeing?

  “What?” Jordan said, thinking he had missed something she had said.

  “So, just to clarify, you can’t read these messages, so you give them to a computer to figure them out? And this is one of the messages the computer hasn’t figured out?”

  “Yes, that is about as plain as I can make it,” Jordan said, a little confused.

  “Jordan,” Kennedy said quietly again.

  “What is it?”

  “I can read those.”

  Jordan stood there for a minute trying to understand what she was saying. “You mean you can read the symbols on the screen?”

  “No, I can read the words. That is, if you slowed them down.”

  Kennedy watched Jordan stand there for a moment. She didn't know what he was thinking. Did he think she was crazy? Maybe she was. Maybe she shouldn't have told Jordan what she could see.

  Jordan moved a few feet down the aisle to the man sitting closest to them. Jordan bent down and talked to him, but Kennedy couldn’t understand because of the chaos in the room. The man nodded, got up and left.

  “What are you doing?” Kennedy asked nervously.

  “I just wanted to test something.”

  The word test made Kennedy uncomfortable. What did she do wrong now? She wished she hadn't said anything to begin with.

  The man reappeared a couple minutes later, holding a small stack of paper. Jordan looked over a page and tore off the top half and handed it to Kennedy.

  “Here, read this.”

  “5:30 in the Washington Square Mall.”

  Jordan looked up from his paper and looked pale. He took the paper back from Kennedy and looked at the paper himself.

  “How did you read that?”

  “How do you read it?” Kennedy countered.

  “One, two, zero, five, four, one, zero, and so on.”

  “Really?” Kennedy asked, even more confused. She grabbed the paper back and tried to see what Jordan just read, but all she saw was “5:30 Washington Square Mall”.

  Jordan grabbed a nearby chair before saying, “Okay, Kennedy you sit here, I am going to go grab someone.”

  Kennedy sat in the swivel chair and waited impatiently for Jordan and another “someone” to return. In the meantime, Kennedy continued to stare at the screens and take in the rest of the room. Where were those video cameras located? Breaking her thought, Jordan returned with a man at his side.

  “Kennedy, I would like you to meet James Bernard, he is in charge of all the coded messages at our company.”

  Kennedy stood and shook hands with Mr. Bernard and nodded a hello. “What can I do for you, Mr. Bernard?”

  “Jordan tells me that you can decode these messages,” he said, indicating to the ones on the screen.

  Kennedy looked down at first, “Decode?”

  “Read,” Jordan clarified. “Can you read the messages on that screen?” Jordan said pointing to the one she had indicated earlier.

  “Can you slow it down?” Kennedy asked.

  Mr. Bernard nodded. He walked back two rows, and over three people before reaching a woman and speaking a few words. The woman looked a little confused, but she nodded. Then she started typing things into her computer. After a few keystrokes and movements of the mouse, the images on the screen stopped moving so quickly. The images now moved at a sluggish speed.

  Mr. Bernard then walked back towards them, “Is that any better?”

  “Yes, I can read them a lot easier now,” Kennedy said.

  “Well can you tell me what this one says?” Mr. Bernard asked, pointing a message just crossing the screen.

  “Package in shipment towards Las Angeles, should arrive on the 22nd.”

  Mr. Bernard went back to the man Jordan had talked to moments before. At first Mr. Bernard's face remained the same, but within seconds it changed to surprise. He then rushed back to Jordan and Kennedy.

  “I just talked to one of our computer programmers. The one who deals the most with decoding messages. He took what pieces the computer had already decoded and showed them to me. It matches what you claimed to have read on the screen.” Mr. Bernard had to take a couple of breaths. “This is amazing! How do you do it?”

  “To tell you the truth it looks just like words,” Kennedy said trying to explain.

  ∆∆∆

  Jordan didn't know how to take in what was happening in front of their eyes. Could Kennedy really read deciphered messages?

  “Well it is incredible,” Mr. Bernard said, interrupting Jordan's thoughts. “Jordan can I talk to you?”

  Jordan nodded and walked a couple of feet away from Kennedy. He kept his eyes on her. She was continuing to look at the many monitors.

  “Jordan do you know what this means?” James asked quietly.

  “No, do you think that she can really read these codes?”

  “Our computer hadn't fully decoded the message and she did it in a few seconds. It can’t be coincidence. How is it even possible? How can she just read that?”

  “You got me; I was as shocked as you were.”

  “Why did you even bring her in here?” Mr. Bernard asked.

  “I was just showing her around the building.”

  “Did you ask her about the screen?”

  “No, she asked me about it.”

  Mr. Bernard considered this, “Do you know what this could do for our company? We need to tell Brandon.”

  “Brandon is pushing for testing to be done.”

  “Why test her, clearly she can be helpful just doing this!”

  “There could be more?” Jordan guessed. “Are we even sure this is happening? Can someone decipher code unconsciously?”

  “I don't know how else to explain it.”

  They both looked at Kennedy who had been watching them.

  “This could change the world of coding,” Mr. Bernard explained. “I would like to see if different types of codes are any different. Can she only read numerical code? Can she decipher longer codes?”

  “Who knows?”

/>   “What should we do next?” Mr. Bernard asked.

  “I think you are right; we need to tell Brandon and see what he wants to do with it all,” Jordan said, starting to move back towards Kennedy. Mr. Bernard grabbed his arm.

  “You know, this could be the greatest thing that happened to us. If she was situated against us....” Mr. Bernard left his sentence lingering.

  “I see,” Jordan said, considering the alternatives.

  “Let’s have her start decoding more,” he pushed.

  “How many ciphered codes do we have?” Jordan asked Mr. Bernard.

  “Hundreds, deciphering is time consuming and particular.”

  “You think she can just keep reading off codes?” Jordan questioned.

  “I don’t know, but I want her on my team.”

  Jordan considered this, “I am going to have to talk to Brandon about all of this. Let us keep this quiet.”

  “Of course, in the meantime can I send some material with you?”

  “I don’t know James; I will let you know later today.”

  “Keep a close eye on her,” Mr. Bernard said, looking over at Kennedy who was still sitting in a swivel chair, oblivious to the meaning of her ability.

  “Security is already tight enough with her.”

  Mr. Bernard continued to watch Kennedy, “As long as you are sure Jordan.”

  Jordan paused thinking of the implications and simply nodded before Mr. Bernard let go of his arm and he continued to walk back to Kennedy.

  “Well?” Kennedy asked when they both walked back to her.

  “We aren't sure what to make of this,” Jordan explained. “We would like to see if you can decipher other code types and longer ones. Mr. Bernard was hoping that if he sent you home with some codes that you might be able to decode them for him.”

  “Alright,” Kennedy replied.

  Mr. Bernard looked ecstatic, “Great, I will have them sent to your room.”

  “Actually,” Jordan interrupted, “send them to my room and I will get them to her.”

  “Of course, whatever you want,” Mr. Bernard replied. Turning to Kennedy, “It has been an honor to meet you, I am sure we will be seeing a lot of each other.”