The Fall Of House Farouk

Chapter 14 : A Land Far Away

I inserted the key into the doorknob to unlock the door, the structure swinging open when a soft click was heard. A wooden coat rack greeted us as we entered, Baek turning on the lights and closing the door. "Anything from Bruce?" I ask. 

"He wasn't home yet when we left." Jun replies. "Well... of course we have told auntie about this." 

"Is she still mad?" I ask. 

"Angry is one thing, she went to have tea alone." 

"Yikes." I say. "I hope that she's okay." 

"Let's set up shop for the work ahead." Baek urged. Stepping out of the bathroom after a long shower I dried my hair while sitting on the single bed in the room. As Bruce was not here for the night I decided to downsize to a single room rather than taking the master bedroom as I normally would. I often kept the room locked for privacy reasons and to prevent unnecessary break-ins. Part of me hoped that Bruce heard the voicemail, but the remaining half didn't. I wore a wool sweater and a pair of short denim, slipping on a pair of slippers later on. Jun and Baek were in the kitchen when I came down the stairs, cooking dinner as we opted for home dining for the night. "Oh, hi Isa." he greeted, exiting the kitchen with a bowl of soup. "Miyeok-guk is ready." 

"Smells wonderful." I say. "You guys need help?"

"Aniyo." he said. "Jajangmyeon and bulgogi are almost done." 

The three dishes, although simple, were already a hearty meal for us, who had grown up in South Korea together as young children. "Reminds me of Uncle Kang's bulgogi at Itaewon." Jun said, eating the jajangmyeon with a few slurps. 

"Me too." I say. "If we ever go back home I want to go there again." The three of us shared a collective sigh. 

Later

The dining table had been cleared of empty dishes and digital devices set up, multiple devices in fact. I had a laptop facing my direction, with the hard drive connected via USB, while I looked at the screen in silence. It is a clean laptop, formatted to avoid detection by hackers. Jun and Baek each had a laptop, while another connected to a video conference program in the middle of the table. Aunt Adelaide sat facing the screen, her long hair tied back into a bun while Chan sat in a split screen, wearing a sweater and typing on a keyboard. "So... what are we looking at?" she asks. 

"It's a long story aunty." I explained. "I was looking into the case of the murders of the Farouk Family."

"At least run me through the case, Isabella," my aunt said, not impressed. "I have heard about it but not very in detail." 

"Sure." I say, moving the laptop aside and putting the laptop with the program in front of me. "After I gave birth to Robbie Suleiman Farouk was found murdered in his holiday penthouse in Seoul. He was shot in the side of the head, very clean shot." I say, pulling up the news report of the murder. "The Seoul Metropolitan Police was nervous about it, as it's embarrassing that the Egyptians to know that one of their own citizens was murdered here, let alone a prominent banker currently working in Germany." 

"No wonder the police are manning roadblocks and checkpoints in Seoul all of a sudden." she said, a hand beneath her chin. "I thought it was another case of misconduct from Yongsan." 

"Well... no." I say. "But the toxicology report revealed something else." 

"Something unusual in his death?" she asked. "Very much like the plot of Doctor Choi, Forensic Expert." 

"Right." I say. "Apparently the killer put heart medication into the victim's drink, talk about a double-slaying." 

"And what is Doctor Choi's comment on this?" my aunt asked. "I love the murder-suicide case episode though." my aunt added, laughing. 

"Well... I'm watching it right now." Jun declared from his seat. "This is a scalpel, remember that." he said, holding up a pen. "Wow, I missed that line in the second episode." 

"Dead bodies can still convey messages Inspector Woon." I say. 

"Classic." Chan said. 

"From what I'm seeing the heart medication might be a backup plan, should he didn't die and all." 

"No many killers would do this, with the shot to the head and all. The killer probably had a grudge against him." 

"Suleiman had a history with grandfather, while he was in West Berlin."

"He saved him, alongside a few people. Suleiman defected from East Berlin." I say. "I don't know much about his life later on, nor his life before defection." 

"That seems suspicious Isabella." my aunt said, deeply concerned. "And my father's not forthcoming with the information?" 

"He provided me with necessary information." I say. "Look, three people have died, and we are nowhere near the true identity of the murderer. We're running on borrowed time." 

"Indeed." Aunt Adelaide said. "What do we know about the hard drive?" 

"Suleiman is intent on keeping whatever it is inside the hard drive secure." I say, switching laptops. "There are multiple cyphers, ranging from Caesar's cypher to substitution cyphers. I'm still working on unlocking the hard drive itself."

"Caesar's cypher is for dummies." Chan said sarcastically. 

"What about the first cypher key?" Aunt Adelaide asked. "Any clues?"

"I've written it down here in the tablet." I say, swapping laptops and showing my aunt the written-down cypher texts. 

"Get Jun and Baek around your laptop, we'll need to cross-reference the alphabet and numbers together." she said. I ran the decryption program once again and it stopped at a frequent row of numbers. 

"8659, POXOTOM INJESP, PHENK OF LINFESM." I say. "Hmm... sounded like a substitution cypher."

"Indeed Isabella." Aunt Adelaide said. "The sequences, it seems to me that they are referring to some date and some event."

"But what event was it?" I asked myself. 

"How familiar are you or father with Suleiman's heritage?" Aunt Adelaide said. "If Suleiman had used cyphers in the encryption of the hard drive it might have clues linked to either his origin, nation or at least the histories of both his origin and nation he was born in."