Grimmember, Grimmember

Alice, Bob, and Eve

"Agent Eve has been activated."

I was having my breakfast and checking my phone when I saw this message that came in at midnight. The text didn't show the sender's number on it. Just the word "Unknown". The reply box was gray and when I tapped on it, nothing happened, so I couldn't reply to it at all.

Strange. Very strange. But I had to get ready to go to work now, so I just ignored it. It was most likely a weird prank anyway.

I switched my phone to silent as I arrived at the office. Work was the same old, same old, as expected of a desk job. I ran fully on caffeine to get through the first half of the day, and then it was lunch time for half an hour.

As I bit into my chicken avocado sandwich and opened my phone, there were a few new messages. I never got this many before, especially during the day. Curious.

What was even weirder was that it was a group chat I was added into, named "Trial". There were two messages there.

Eira: "All booked. Check your emails."

Dawn: "Awesome, thanks! See you all then."

I frowned. I didn't even know who they were, let alone what they meant. I checked who else was in that group and none of them seemed familiar. Was this a mistake?

Another message chimed in, so I decided to check on that first. It was from the "Unknown" again. "How did you like it?"

I frowned. What could this person possibly mean? About their previous message?

Well, what's not to like? I always dreamed of being a secret agent. If that was what the previous message meant. Or was I already a secret agent but somehow could not remember it? I smiled at my own thoughts and the temptation to reply it that way, because this time, I could actually reply. You know, those funny stories of people trying to scam back a scammer. Could be fun.

But I decided to fight the idea and be rational instead. So I typed, "Do I know you?"

The reply came in instantly. "No, but that's not important right now. What do you think about the messages?"

I tilted my head. Could they possibly mean the ones in the group chat? I hoped not, because that would mean they could see what I could see on my phone, and that was a scary thought.

"What do you mean?" I decided to ask.

A cold chill ran down my spine as I read the next reply. "The group message named "Trial" that you're not a part of but somehow have access to."

So was it true? They could read my messages? Or were they the reason I received those messages in the first place?

"Oh yeah, why do I have access to it?" I tried to sound casual. There was no point to be panicking right now. I had to find out what was going on first. Was this really legit?

"We put you up for it."

So my suspicion was right. But... "How did you do that?"

"That's just a small part of what we can do."

That did not sound good. "Isn't that illegal?"

"Not necessarily. Are you interested in being part of it?"

I frowned. Being part of what, exactly? So that was what I asked.

"I'm from Cryptographers. One of our main goals is to ensure the messages our clients send and receive are completely confidential."