Cryptography and stenography are similar but stenography is meant to disguise that a message was being sent. Stenography is mostly used by spies and in countries where cryptography is illegal. Most modern encryption is done using computer software but it can be done a number of ways without a computer. For example using a known publication and version of that publication a numerical code such as 78.22.6 which might indicate page 78, line 22, and the 6th word in that sentence. Another way might be a page the same size that can be put over a page and indicate specific words or letters. Computer software works in a similar way but could use images or other types of programming. In this case the writer was trying to make the readers aware of the encryption. If it wasn't for the corresponding murders the FBI would have just assumed it was a clever writer hiding messages in a story. What wasn't clear is if the writer was also the killer or if he was communicating somehow with killers and writing their stories. He might not even be aware that the murders were actually real. The computer or user could not be traced to link other websites or publications to the writer. What was obvious and meant to be discovered was the first part of the encryption which read We are all professionals. This could indicate a professional hit man or some kind of spy relaying information. The information could have been intended for the FBI to draw them into whatever game was trying to be played. The rest of the encryption described the victims and how they died in great detail. The story itself was intriguing but an obvious work of fiction a lot of embellishments and over the top characterization. The writer was familiar with long distance shooting and loading ammo describing research and development methods to set bullet depths, gun powder variations, and testing different loads to get consistent groupings. He also described the variables such as humidity, temperatures, wind, and the curvature of the earth and how it effects trajectory. The stories describe formulas and how to use the dial and the mil dots on a scope indicating a lot of time spent shooting or a military background. The story also described methods of making a murder look like an accident. The murderer in the story was like the unbreakable hero common in action movies but with bad intentions. There was multiple references to Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" which ended up one of the books used in the encryption. Serial killers are often narcissistic so a story about becoming the super man would be appealing to the ego. Using cryptography was also a way of demonstrating how intelligent he is. If the actual killer was using the writer as a surrogate it was another step to disguise their identity. The writer could just be a ghost writer trying to advance their own career with a duel story. The Russian doll effect. There was one other possibility that Sanchez needed to consider, it could be foreign operatives trying to gain intelligence on current FBI agents. It did seem far fetched but the FBI hackers found a Trojan horse program designed to collect data from anyone who opened the story. It could be used to seek out potential victims but the content of the encryption suggests they were trying to get the attention of the intelligence community. The FBI had the chance to set a trap with false intelligence leading whom ever to make a mistake. If it was foreign operatives there was a previous breach allowing them to access files or they could have obtained the information over time from local investigations that intersect the FBI investigations. The FBI is called in when there is multiple murders with the same profile. Sometimes local authorities are unaware of similar crimes outside their jurisdiction and don't realize there is a pattern. FBI and other intelligence computers help assist in finding patterns that might be missed, someone could have been intercepting the data stream. For now it was an investigation into a serial killer or killers with above average IQ. The investigation was in it's infancy so everything at this point was speculation. What was clear was the encryption was linking several murders together that were previously separate investigations. The only thing Sanchez was sure about is the information was intended to be discovered.
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