Always You

#15.1 Adumbration - (I)

One hot, humid summer morning, inside hall 57, Thiya finishes processing the data she downloaded from Aran's laptop. Seated by her desk, she lets out a girlish squeal of excitement, which soon turns into a deep sigh.

Seyon and the others are at Kavya's filming location. Her staying back finally led her to success and interesting facts to share.

"The data from Aran's laptop we collected during the early stage of our investigation. Here it is, after clearing layers and layers of encryption. I hope this proves useful."

She opens her notebook with a hint of pride and jots down quick notes so she can explain things better by the time her colleagues gather around her during lunch break.

"A killer website."

Mira's eyes widen at the additional facts coming to light. Soham's facial expression mirrors her surprise and agony. Seyon keeps his cool and barks the command in a clipped tone, eyes locked on Thiya's — "explain."

Thiya overlooks his bossy tone of in favour of a case that needs solving. "Okay. Here, a glimpse of Aran's web activity."

With a quick tapping of her several keys, she displays the end results of her analysis, pulling several screens on her desktop. Files, web links, web history, diagnostic statistics. She also prepared summary handouts.

"His computer files reveal he is a nerdy gamer. Simulation games are his to-go. Though there's nothing violent or twisted about it. His web activity is also pretty straightforward. Extensive access to university and astrophysics web portals. Limited contacts. Just one classmate and a professor named Arumugam. But just one thing stands out..."

Seyon and the group focus on Thiya as she shifts in her chair and opens up her spare laptop she used to decrypt the data. After hitting enter, she turns her laptop around to show the screen to everyone. The SIT has already formed a tight circle around her — Seyon on her immediate left, Soham on her right and Mira right across. Everyone, too terse to pull a chair and sit, choosing to remain standing.

"Here's a sketchy website he accessed multiple times. I have just revised my analysis. Aran is a co-admin. Not a client or user. And the contents of the website are all cryptic, like nomadic symbols. At first, I thought it was a pirate site."

"Is it even a website?" Seyon crinkles at the endless symbols comprising the text of the website. With no visual elements, the entire content resembles a document, albeit filled with hyperlinks. "What's that language, Korean?"

Thiya allows herself a smile, amused at Seyon's absurd phrasing. "Does it look like Hangul to you? It's a code language, one we must decipher, clearly."