Royal Equations
The hunt to find the second A.P.E.Bot seed
Scientists were immediately given a clue as to the location of the second A.P.E.Bot backup seed from Dr.Zaius's liaison. They were handed an excerpt from one of Doc Gibbons thesis papers titled On the Possibility of Artificial Intelligence in Ape Robots that contained several markups
Review of the paper reveals sever errors in the given equations with incorrect values and exponents being documented. The first example is given below between Doc's equation and the true equation.
-------- Beginning with Section 1, the first line states to use "four decimal places" and has a markup to use the "abbreviation" of Logical Ape Theorem, which is LAT. This identifies section 1 as giving a Latitude GPS coordinate to 4 decimal places. Identifying all the mistakes in the equations of section 1 gives 6 digits.
Combining them into a single string that has 4 decimal places gives
51.5107 Latitude
-------- Review of Section 2 again states to use "four decimal places" and is marked up that this section is "Negative and Long". This identifies the section as giving a negative Longitude GPS coordinate to 4 decimal places. Identifying all the mistakes in the equations of section 2 gives 5 digits.
Combining them into a single string that has 4 decimal places gives
-0.1217 Longitude
-------- Moving on to section 3 shows a single markup of "when?" circled the word now. This a reference to time and indicates what time to meet at the GPS coordinates. Identifying all the mistakes in the equations in section 3 gives 4 digits.
Combining them into a single string that represents time gives
1700
-------- Combined, this gives the location of (51.5107, -0.1217) as the meet location at 17:00 (5pm local time). This location is in London on Southampton St. right outside a phone booth.
Section 4 is all that remains to be reviewed of the Thesis paper. The markup indicates to "check citation" where at the bottom of the paper is a note that states A01Z26 which is a standard numbers to letters substitution format (https://www.dcode.fr/letter-number-cipher). Identifying all the mistakes in the equations in section 4 gives 12 digits.
Combining them into a single string gives
02 15 14 15 02 15
which is converted using A01Z26 to spell BONOBO, a secret phrase to give to the liaison on site.
-------- Scientists convened at the meeting location in London at 5pm local time. Upon arrival they were approached by a woman looking for directions to a nearby French Theatre, but were unable to provide directions.
Shortly after, the phonebooth phone rang and the password BONOBO was provided. Directions were given to proceed to the Royal Opera House 5th floor Terrace to meet a person in a wheelchair named Laura, give the passphrase "Howler Monkey", and to ensure they were not followed.
Upon reaching the location and finding the contact, both scientists were guided into a VIP lounge and were met by a man who identified themselves as Agent 00Ape. He provided the scientists a set of encoded papers and an encrypted USB drive. Each of the encoded papers contained an instruction of how to arrange and decode them.
The 12 papers contained the following instructions:
F: Arrange in a grid of 3 rows and 4 columns. When all are correct, turn over this card N: There are no vowels in the top row R: Letters in this column spell out a word H: This is not in the same column as F P: U and I are in the same column as this O: This is directly above G U: This is not next to S I: R is directly left of this A: This is in the leftmost column G: Letters in this row spell out a word E: This is not an edge card S: This is a corner
With logic and reasoning, a final grid is able to be made of
Beginning by flipping over card F leads to a new set of instructions on the back Flip Over card F to start 1. Turn over card that is 2 right and 2 down from here (Card N) 2. Turn over card 2 left from here (Card R) 3. Turn over card on the far right of middle row (Card O) 4. Turn over card 1 down from here (Card G) 5. Turn over card 2 to left of here (Card I) 6. Turn over 2 card up and 1 card right from here (Card H) 7. Turn over card 1 down and 1 left of here (Card U) 8. Remaining letters spell out password
Entering the final password APES into the encrypted USB stick plugged into Agent 00Ape's phone reveals the second A.P.E.Bot backup seed 532d5f4c6c3aab90 along with a packet of information needed to locate the third piece of the A.P.E.Bot backup seed.
Agent 00Ape informed our scientist's that they were members of M.I.APES and that they had bumped into an agent of theirs earlier in the night. The woman who approched them by the phone booth asking for directions was also an M.I.APES agent. Upon returning home, one scientist that had made contact with the female agent discovered a burner phone (pictured below) had been unknowingly placed among their belongings.
Not much was known what to do with the phone at the time.
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