Chapter 2 – The Piece of Paper
Fred rolled
his chair toward the corner and reached down to pick up the piece of paper. Then,
sitting back up, he opened up the fold to see what was written on it. It was
blank! Somewhat puzzled, he examined it more closely. Sure enough, there was
his name on the one side, written a big, flowing script. But the remainder of
the piece of paper appeared to have nothing on it. What was going on?
It was then
that Fred recalled a course he had taken as part of his degree in criminal
justice. The elective he had originally signed up for had been cancelled at the
last minute and so he had needed one more credit that semester. Glancing
quickly through the course catalog he saw listed among the optional courses for
that degree a course in the communications department – COM214 Stenography. Knowing
that he was likely going to have to dictate things to a secretary for various
reports, he thought that would be a useful course to have. He signed up and
then went to the college bookstore to pickup the required books – sighing with
relief when they were all paperbacks rather than the thick hardcover tomes he
was used to for law classes.
It was not
until he was sitting in the first class a few days later that he realized that
he had mis-read the course catalog. The word that he had thought was
Stenography was in fact Steganography. And what a difference that one syllable
made!
(He did
eventually take a course that helped improve his skills in dictation (COM311 Dictation
and Stenography) and was glad that he did. In fact, one of the reasons why he
chose the small office in which he was sitting was because of the business on
the second floor of that building – O’Brien’s Office Services. He was able to
contract with them for the production of official documents when needed. And he
was usually helped by Jennifer who was getting quite skilled at reading his
scrawling handwriting. Also, his contract with O’Brien’s meant that he did not
need either a typewriter or a printer in his office or have to deal with adding
ink or having the cartridges dry out due to lack of use.)
But for the
moment as he sat there in this course on steganography the solution to his
eventual dictation issue was not yet in his mind. He was stuck taking a course
he was not expecting. He couldn’t drop it as he needed to have a minimum number
of credits. And the bookstore policy was to buy back books for only 25% of the
original price – even if they were unused. He pulled the books from the depths
of his backpack to see what he would be facing. One was titled, “Hiding in
Plain Sight: Steganography and the Art of Covert Communication.” The other had
the intriguing title of “Prisoners, Lovers, and Spies: The Story of Invisible
Ink from Herodotus to al-Qaeda.” Turning his attention from the books to the
instructor, he began listening.
Professor
Harrison was introducing himself. He had several years of experience working in
covert operations in the US government. And he was hoping to share the skills
that he had learned with the class. Fred became enrapt. Over the next several
weeks he learned all about the art of secret communication. The only negative
was that some of the methods relied on mathematics and physics or chemistry –
the subjects that Fred despised in high school and that he had been avoiding in
college. But despite those dislikes and accompanying lack of ability, Fred had
managed to get a solid B in the class. However, he had not used those skills
since then – until now.
Fred looked
over the piece of paper in his hand. By holding it obliquely with the light
streaming in the window reflecting off it, he could see that there were areas
that appeared shinier than others. Yes, he thought, there may be something
written on it with invisible ink. But what kind of invisible ink, and how
should he go about making it appear?
From the
section of the course on invisible ink, he knew that there were several
different kinds – lemon juice, dissolved baking soda, milk, white crayon, etc. But
the method of exposing the writing differed and some of the solutions (like
using grape juice to expose the baking soda “ink”) would then prevent some of
the other solutions from being used. He needed to try the non-destructive ones
first.
The obvious
one to try first was the one used for lemon juice writing. But that was
generally exposure to a hot light bulb or an open flame. The only source of
light in his office was the pair of fluorescent bulbs on the ceiling and they
were both too high up and did not generate enough heat to be effective for
this. And since Fred was a non-smoker, he did not have a lighter whose flame
might work.
It was then
that Fred saw the coffee pot sitting on the hot plate on the windowsills. Yes,
that might do the trick! Setting the coffee pot on the floor, he turned on the
hot plate. It didn’t take long to heat up. Being careful to avoid burning his
fingers – and to avoid touching the paper to the hot surface where it might
catch on fire – Fred moved the paper back and forth to warm it up evenly.
He was
almost giving up when the paper finally began to take on a slightly browned
look and the message on the paper came into view. Just a few more seconds and
the invisible ink message was readable. There on the paper was the word “CALL”
and a phone number!
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