By noon the next day, they had been working on cracking the code for quite a few hours. None of them had slept since last night. The seven of them were sitting in Michael’s apartment going over the sheet of paper over and over again. Sheriff Valenti and Kyle had not come back with them, preferring instead to go home and get some sleep. In truth, they hadn’t even told them they were going to start work to crack the code right away. In fact, they hadn’t even told one another. It just happened, like they were all thinking the same thing. Time was of the essence, and they could always sleep after they stopped the Special Unit. Max, Liz, and Michael had called out of work (Maria was off on Saturdays.) and all of them were sitting around Michael’s kitchen table, staring at the paper like it was going to start talking back to them.

They had gone through hundreds of possible conclusions, none of which were helping. Alex had gone out and brought his laptop back from his house, and was busy doing something on the computer. Mostly swearing at it.

ISABEL: Look…I’m starved. Since it’s obvious that Michael has no food left in the place, why don’t I go to the store and see if we can get some?

TESS: That sounds like a good idea. I’ll go with you.

Max and Liz were napping on the couch, exhausted. Neither of them even heard her. Michael and Alex were concentrating on the coded message and the computer that they barely acknowledged them either.

MARIA: Yeah, sure. Bring us back some soda, will you?

ISABEL: Diet or regular?

MARIA: Diet orange soda if they have it.

ISABEL: You actually like that stuff? It’s nasty. Besides, I thought you only ate and drank healthy stuff.

MARIA: So I have one vice, sue me Tabasco girl.

TESS: Boys?

ALEX: Yeah…just some soda and some pizza will be fine. I’ll pay you back later.

MICHAEL: Whatever.

Tess and Isabel went out to the Jeep and set out for the 7-Eleven up the street. When they got there, they went inside and started picking up stuff. Strangely, for a Saturday afternoon, there was only one other person in the store. But she stood out; she would have stood out anywhere. Isabel whispered to Tess.

ISABEL: I can’t believe people do that. Get their tongues pierced.

TESS: Makes you wonder what else she has done.

ISABEL: Please, I’d rather not.

TESS: And that hair, she looks like a warped Tommy Hilfiger Ad.

They tried to suppress a few nervous giggles as she walked by them into the next aisle. She had red hair, obviously fake, and was leering at them as much as they were leering at her. After looking at them for a further second, she quickly took all of her stuff and walked out of the store. The cashier wasn’t looking, and so she ran out without paying for any of it. When Tess and Isabel had gotten their stuff, they went to the counter.

CASHIER: That’ll be $18.73, girls.

TESS: Did you see that girl, the one with the red hair that was in here a minute ago?

CASHIER: Yeah.

ISABEL: Well, she shoplifted some stuff.

CASHIER: Whatever…like I care.

The cashier obviously meant what he said, so Tess and Isabel didn’t say anything else about it. They paid, took their stuff, and left to go back to the apartment.

SCENE 2 – 33 HOURS LEFT

Alex and the rest of them working on the code were making very little progress. The pictures didn’t seem to mean anything. It was like they were completely random. They had been at it for quite a while, and they were almost ready to give up. But giving up wasn’t really an option. It was the only lead they had, Max kept telling himself. He just hoped that it didn’t turn out to be a recipe for chocolate chip cookies or something.

ALEX: Max, wait a minute. I have an idea.

MAX: What is it?

ALEX: Well, what if this isn’t a picture at all?

MICHAEL: Wait, I don’t get it.

ALEX: Well, what if this glyphs need to be scanned into a computer to make them readable? There doesn’t seem to be another pattern. Maybe then we could rearrange them, or maybe the FBI has some software that will decode them.

MAX: But it’s not like we have the software. That doesn’t really help us.

MICHAEL: Alex, could we break into the FBI’s computers?

ALEX: No way. Even if we could, we wouldn’t know where to look. They would be able to sniff us out in a minute.

MICHAEL: Damn.

LIZ: Well, it couldn’t hurt to scan the image in and see what we see, could it?

Alex took out the scanner that went with his PC, and scanned the image into it. It popped up on the screen, but didn’t immediately tell anyone anything.

MARIA: Alex, aren’t computer files just all ones and zeroes, anyway. Maybe the coding is in there. How do we turn this picture into computer code?

ALEX: Good idea, Maria. Give me a minute.

Alex pressed some buttons, and the image turned into pages and pages of code.

ALEX: Damn…still encrypted.

MAX: But it looks like the message is in there somewhere. What can we do now?

ALEX: Well, I read an article about how encryption works. The hardest kind of coding to break is something called PGP…pretty good protection.

ISABEL: Funny.

ALEX: Yeah…they use it on the web to secure credit cards, things like that.

MAX: So how does it work?

ALEX: Well, the coding is based on prime numbers. You have to know what prime number that they base the code on. In PGP, they multiply two very large prime numbers together. It’s almost impossible for even a computer to figure out which numbers that you used to get back to the prime number, because it has to try every one.

MAX: Can we do it?

ALEX: Well, in a government test, they finally broke one after working for two years with a room full of super computers.

TESS: Just great.

MAX: So what you’re saying is that it’s pretty much impossible.

ALEX: Nothing’s impossible. Just really, really hard.

MICHAEL: Well, we don’t have two years to work on this. We have…33 hours.

ALEX: Believe me don’t I know it.

LIZ: Well what are we going to do now?

ALEX: Maybe I can get to a website that has some code breaking software on it…start working. Michael, where’s your phone line?

MARIA: But wait a second, isn’t that illegal?

MICHAEL: Maria, what does that matter now?

MARIA: Good point.

SCENE 3

Caren met back up with the other four in the small park that was in town square, near the Crashdown and UFO Center. The group had arrived in Roswell that morning, and they had split up to get the lay of the land. Javier’s information had helped them locate this spot, the area where two of the aliens worked, but the others hadn’t seen them, and didn’t know where else to look.

BRYAN: What are we going to do; we can’t sit here and wait for them to show up? Who knows, they may know who we are already?

CAREN: I spotted two of them. Isabel and Tess, I think, anyway.

JACOB: Where?

CAREN: At that 7-Eleven we passed about a mile down the road…here, want some M&M’s?

KATHERINE: Sure. Where did they go?

CAREN: I had to split. Didn’t see. I tried to follow them, but without a car, I couldn’t really stay with them.

BRYAN: Sorry…but Jake and I needed to check the desert.

CAREN: But, I saw their car. It was that Jeep. I even got the plate number.

BRYAN: Well, that’s a step.

KATHERINE: Yeah, but how does that help us? We already checked that address that we got for Max and Isabel; the car wasn’t there. They could have been going anywhere.

BRYAN: They have to pass by here eventually. We’ll hang out here for a few more hours. Get some dinner at the Crashdown across the street. We’ll have to see them eventually.

JACOB: And it’s not like we don’t have all the time in the world.

SCENE 4 – 32 HOURS LEFT

Alex had gotten some software, and it was going through numbers. He was hoping and praying that they would get lucky. It was their only hope. How odd, everything just depending on a computer’s search for a random number. It didn’t seem like it should mean so much.

ISABEL: Alex, any luck?

ALEX: Nothing.

ISABEL: Wait…I have a suggestion.

ALEX: I’m listening.

These were the first words that Isabel had even said to Alex directly since yesterday at the Crashdown.

ISABEL: You said that it would take forever to find the number, right?

ALEX: Well, yeah.

ISABEL: What if it isn’t a random number?

ALEX: What do you mean?

ISABEL: This letter was obviously printed so someone else could read it. They either already had the software…

ALEX: …or already knew the number. Could work, but, what number should we try?

ISABEL: I don’t know. Think of something.

Alex started trying any number that he could think of. The rest of the group was trying to get some rest. It had been a long day for everyone, so Alex and Isabel were the only two huddled around the laptop trying to do this. Alex was trying very hard to ignore that fact. They both were. Now wasn’t the time or place to have another grand dissertation on their relationship. But Alex knew that when this was all over, that he had to change Isabel’s mind. He couldn’t go on otherwise.

ALEX: Wait, I have an idea.

Alex typed into the matrix this number: 7041947.

ISABEL: The date of the crash.

ALEX: Hey, you never know.

The random code faded away, and the message could be seen in plain English on the screen.

ALEX: Guys, wake up! Everyone, I’ve got it.

He was practically jumping up and down. Forgetting themselves, Alex and Isabel gave each other a big hug. They both immediately caught themselves, and sat back down.

MAX: What?

ISABEL: We broke the code.

MICHAEL: What does it say?

Alex turned his computer to face Michael. Everyone else crowded around to read it.

Agent Smith:

In preparation for Operation Frasier Woods, we are moving operations. The mark has had access to this location. Please be at the alternate base at LANL 132 by 1600 Tuesday.

MICHAEL: That’s it?!

MARIA: Where’s lanel 132, anyway?

LIZ: Los Angeles Naval…? Oh, I don’t know.

TESS: No wait…I’ve got it.

MAX: Where?

TESS: Los Alamos National Laboratories. You know, where they built the nuclear bomb. Remember our history class, Max?

MAX: Yeah.

ALEX: Wow.

MICHAEL: How far away is that?

TESS: About seven hours.

LIZ: So we go up there and look for a 132?

MICHAEL: Yeah. Let’s go.