The Cryptographer's Tale

The Cryptographer's Tale is a novel set in the context of a cryptographic mystery. Upon the untimely death of Chris Ransom, a cryptographer with the National Security Agency, Michael Stafford is faced with the challenge of decoding encrypted messages transmitted from international space stations. These messages have not yielded to the efforts of other NSA decryption techniques and seem impenetrable. The Agency pushes for their decryption because of other intercepts also received from the orbiting space stations that have been interpreted as threats to national security. As he searches through his former colleague's files, he comes across a message written in a previously unknown script. Initially given low priority, this message proves to be the key to a deeply held secret that ties events together and reveals a deeply embedded conspiracy. Pursuit of the truth, driven forward by his section chief, Sydney Green, eventually leads him to pursue the messages to their source, aboard the ISS4, one of the international space stations. The Cryptographer's Tale asks the reader to ponder the nature of faith, integrity, loyalty and honor. As an added bonus, intercepted messages are provided for those who want to try their hand at cracking the code.