He informed you that the lady arrested from the scene was not the boss. She was the boss’ personal assistant.

At once you felt a sense of danger. Not all members were raided.

Hyde suggested you to write to Voixbox Detective School, where he claimed to have some of the world’s best detectives.

A few days later, you received a reply from the school:

Hi,

Warmest Regards,
Voixbox Detective School

The alphabets represent the first part of the sentence, the second part must be derived by adding/subtracting the value from the first part. You will get a reversed sentence.

Answer: Juan

“What do you mean?” How could she possibly find out my identity?

“Simple. You were smart enough to answer my question, and too smart to even give Atahualpa as the answer. ” Guards in black surrounded you, as she continued, “I have previously briefed my men that if they were chosen to activate the interuption system, do not hestitate to give a false answer, anybody who gave the true answer can stop the execution, why do this in the first place? Why not just activate the system?”

She was right. You were too engrossed in solving the puzzle. If you were the member of The Amethyst, you would not need to give the correct answer.

“Fine. You got me this time. ” You confessed, “Hyde’s my mentor, you killed his best friend Cobe in Mexico two months ago. I have traced you down with the help of some other people.”

“You? Trace me down?” She smirked, “You don’t even know my name, do you?”

Shit. You do not have the slightest idea about her name.

BBBBOooOOoOoooMMMMmmMmMmmm!!!!!!!!!

The closed door burst open and a bunch of uniformed cops rushed in. Before the boss and her men can react, they were all taken into custody.

Behind the doors, two familiar figure emerged. They were Hyde and Jane.

“Are you all right? Dad informed us about your action, and we rushed back from some 3000 miles away, with the help of some really fast transportation.”

“Never mind that, it seems that this boss has activated the MCV system! I have guessed the correct login password, now I need the correct deactivation password… But I have no idea at all!”

“Relax, son.” Hyde patted your back, “Let us help you.”

The numbers that appeared in the pic, although not likely, are years. Google them (negative implies B.C) and you will find out that this thing appeared in each of these years.

Answer: Halley’s Comet

You followed “the boss” into an inner dining room, which looked to have been transformed into a meeting room. She sat down in front of a very sophisticated machine, which seemed to be performing at maximum power.

“In order to activate the system, we will need to key in the password. Lets play a little game before we start.” She smiled at you, attractively.

“What game?” You asked.

She handed you a piece of paper, and said, “This is the login password, you will need to enter the correct password…”

“What if I don’t?” you asked.

“The system will activate at once without any warning, the attack will launch anyway.” She explained, “However, if you provide the correct answer, you will be logged in to the world’s most sophisticated hacking machine.”

You gulped. So you just cannot simply enter a false password and stop this whole thing. Instead, the system will activate on its own!

Convert the letter to english alphabets, and then you will need to take one from top, one from bottom… and so on to form a word. That word, however, you may not have heard before, google before confirming your answer.

Answer: Atahualpa

“All right, sir, you may remain in the hall.” The attendant walked off towards the next guy.

About 10 minutes later, the lights dimmed. A lady stood at the center of the stage, and said, “Welcome everyone, this may be the first time The Amethyst is holding a gathering, and it may well be the last.”

Everybody wondered who was the lady.

“You need not know my name, as you have used to addressing me as ‘The Boss’. I do not wish to explain further about my background, however, I’m more concerned about today’s attack.”

You could hear people whispering in disbelief, the lady carried on nevertheless, “Later you will be situated here, as I use my latest MCV system to launch a Radio Frequency interruption wave, all the secured intranets and networks nearby will become accessible by your notebooks or PDAs. Listen, our main target is the access to the four leading banks in this country, transfer majority of their wealth to our secret account in the Swiss Bank.”

Your heart felt a sudden bump, “What the hell is she thinking?”

“To activate the MCV system I will need someone by my side, and I will only bring along the smartest. ” She looked around, her beautiful eyes seemingly innocent, you would never have expected a beautiful lady in her would be the leader of The Amethyst, and was the mastermind behind all these attacks, “So, whoever might solve this riddle shall join me in the activation of the MCV system.”

You knew this was your chance, you got to get the answer correct in order to gain access to the MCV system, and thus standing a chance to stop this whole thing.

“I came from 10000 sexdecillion. ” she said, slowly.

The hall went silent, nobody seemed to know what was the answer.

And you raised your hand…

10000 sexdecillion equals to 1 googol. The answer is, however, not googol. Something very famous actually got its name from this term.

Answer: Google

You walked towards the ball room, an attendant handed you a piece of paper.

A guy in black approached you, “Very strict eh? This is the second level we were supposed to solve, if we are not able to solve this by the time boss comes in, it only proved that we’re not part of The Amethyst…”

The Amethyst…

Megan’s right, they’re up to something. You thought to youself.

But what?

You decided to concentrate on the card on your hand… before “boss” come in…

Answer all of the crossword…
1) James, Lily, Harry –> Potter, James and Lily are Harry’s parent in the Harry Potter Series.
2) Rosa, Daisy, Bilbo –> While they are all Hobbits from The Lord of The Rings, the answer is something more specific, as they all have the same last name, Baggins.
3) It is a mixture of Tagore’s poems.
5) Simply google that and you will get “Tiger” as the answer.
6) When Hermann met Pauline, they got married and gave birth to Albert Einstein, Einstein in the correct answer.

Next, to answer the riddle, take the Nth character in each question based on the number before it.

Answer: Pager

Wearing a black suit you purchased from the airport’s duty free zone, you followed the men entered, and took the same lift with them up to level 70, which once again proven your predictions: They are indeed gathering at the Equinox Complex.

You thought to yourself, both The Sky Tower and The Equinox Complex share one similar attribute: Height… will they launch an attack that can only be achieved through high air?

As you were pondering the possible attacks that can be carried out at such height, you, along with the other men in black, were stopped by a man who looked like the manager of the cafe.

“Sir, to prove that you are invited, please use the knowledge given to you by your boss to solve this.” He said as he handed out several cards to every one of you. You noticed that everyone’s card is different…

People begin to answer the riddle and it was soon your turn…

The trick is to convert the numbers into binaries, and you will find the number of dashes useful, fit the numbers in and you will only need to convert them into meaningful word. The answer is an ancient king.

Answer: Perihelion

Hyde, on the other hand, decided to continue his retirement plan, he will return to Zurich and live a quiet life there. “I’ve been feeling really old since Cobe’s departure… ” Hyde said, without noticing sheds of tears flowing out from Jane’s beautiful eyes.

Jane suggested that they visit Isla Dios Del Mar, “I promised Cobe that we will make a trip to this place again before… before he die..” Jane couldn’t control herself anymore, “Hyde, let’s visit that island one more time… we need to show Cobe that the place hasn’t change a little since we last discovered it…”

Hyde agreed.

* * *

Back at Singapore, after a 17-hour flight from the States, you walked out of The Changi Airport feeling afresh. “Finally got to get some quality sleeping hours..”

You had no idea when The Amethyst will meet up at The Skytower, you decided to return home and continue your attempt to track the society down.

Just as you were about to flag for a cab, you saw something that changed your mind… Its the guy who kidnapped Hyde and you! “So, maybe I should follow them…”

Just then, your phone rang, it was from Megan, “Hello kid, do not utter a single word, you may be in extreme danger now.”

You adjusted your view a bit, trying to calm down the best you could.

“Switch on your PDA, I suppose the information we intercepted that day was outdated already, they seemed to have changed their plan, I will forward you what I’ve found out. And beware, looks like the whole of The Amethyst will gather at Singapore.”

You felt your PDA vibrated. This is what its shown.

073Attack

The dates shown in the Flash movie has something in common. The name that emerged represents a specific place in Singapore.

Answer: Equinox Complex

“Who will believe you? We did not even know there is this secret society called Amethyst, and you think that the police or authorities will know?” Megan said.

“But…” you do not have an alternative either.

“Listen, kid, I know you are eager to save your country, but we don’t even know what are they up to, apart from the four website they’ve been trying to hack into…” Megan began, “We need to take the initiative and see if we can intercept anything out of their network.”

“But as you’ve seen, the sender’s anonymous and we can’t trace anything out of the e-mail!” Hyde sighed.

“Not really, this mail sent by The Amethyst has a small program embedded in it, it will trigger a signal back to the society to unveil our exact location by translating the IP address of my notebook…” Megan smiled, “And this little program did not make its way back… completely, I managed to intercept this and did a little modification of my own before sending it back.”

You are impressed, and calmed down a little, as all hope is not gone yet.

“Dad, you put a spyware of your own?” Hyde nodded to Jane’s question and continued, “Let’s see what my spyware returned me.”

“Ah ha! We manage to intercept one of their emails.. However, it looks like rubbish to me…” Megan said.

“Ah, how memorable…” Hyde said.

“Yeah… to think somebody actually still use this method… and what a way to hide their message…”

Both Megan and you were puzzled. You were especially amazed by the telepathy between Hyde and Jane, although you know that Hyde has been single all this while since his beloved wife passed away 5 years ago, in a car crash that also left an obvious scar on his neck.

After a few minutes of decoding, Hyde and Jane came to a conclusion, “Now, we know which part of Singapore we are heading to, whats our plan next?”

This message is typed based on another keyboard layout. Find that keyboard layout and the translation should be straightforward.

Answer: The Sky Tower

“Relaxed… it shows that these are the potential targets of some hackers online… but I’m not sure what are they up to.” Hyde explained.

“But I thoguht you’ve said there were unusual hacking attempts out there?” You asked Megan, who looks as puzzled as you were.

“Let me explain, the IP addresses appeared unusually frequent on recent logs, this indicate that some individuals, if not a syndicate, has been trying to hack into these websites.. and they’re not afraid of letting others know who they are… ” Jane said.

“So, who the hell are they?” You can sense the urge of anxiety flowing inside you.

“I am not sure, but it looks like they already know who we were.” Megan said, and an email indicator on his laptop started blinking, there was a mail from an anonymous address.

Dear Megan and Jane,

Attachment: Me.jpg

“Who the hell are they?!” you felt furious, especially being an IT expert and yet not being able to trace the sender of the email address.

The pic indicates three colors, which form the word RGB, the numbers in the pic indicates the RGB value. It is a known/named color.

Answer: Amethyst

“This kid’s going to be better only, he’s a quick learner.. perhaps better than us.” Hyde looked at Jane, where she nodded in approval.

“Okay, now that I’ve know roughly why you guys are here… I have a challenge for you.” Megan continued, while switching on his notebook, “My hacker monitoring system has been prompting me with warnings recently, it seems that a few of them are being attacked… but the source could not be identified.”

“Hacker? Them?” You asked.

“Straight to the point, look at these figures, I have no idea what are these, and I wasn’t able to trace any of them, they don’t look elligible to me.” Megan sighed.

“Maybe its…” Both Jane and you said, coincidentally…

Hyde looked on assuringly, “Megan, maybe it’s time for us to take-over.”

These are all IP Addresses in base 8, convert to decimal and you will get 4 websites. As of the last check the IP addresses are no longer valid.

However, they all point to the same country.

Answer: Singapore