"Wow! Look at this place!" said Mike as they entered the entrance foyer of The Torus, TimeSucker's multi-billion pound new headquarters. The foyer was several storeys high and, being made largely of glass, almost completely transparent. Even the entrance doors were made of glass, their thickness and sturdiness making it clear that TimeSucker took their building's security very seriously indeed. Inside, the foyer had a clean, minimalist design. Sofas in the informal seating areas were occupied by TimeSucker workers, their California-styled T-shirts, shorts and sandals being only slightly out-of-place for the Manchester drizzle.

One glass wall darkened and the TimeSucker logo appeared on it. The image dissolved to reveal the projected image of a tall, thin man. "That's Tiedo Suri himself!" whispered Mike to Ellie. "What an honour!"

"Greetings Mike and Ellie!" said Suri, one hand sweeping his white hair back. "Congratulations on being the first and only people to solve my little competition and presenting yourselves here at the appointed time. I am, unfortunately, unable to personally show you around The Torus. Instead, I have arranged for three senior TimeSucker scientists to give you the tour."

As Suri was talking, three people entered the foyer. "May I introduce Dr Alex Hopper, Dr Bayan Al-Mahmali and Dr Casey Easley or Drs A, B and C, as they are known", continued Suri. "Each is the Head of Research in one of TimeSucker's research divisions and I am sure that they will tell you about our work and the positive impacts it has on society."

The screen went abruptly blank then returned to normal glass. "Hello," said one of the scientists, stepping forwards, "I'm Alex Hopper, Head of Research in Voice Analytics. My work is in a big data approach to studying how people interact with our voice-recognition online help services. But before I can demonstrate that, let me introduce you to the most important TimeSucker employee: Cid."

Alex opened an app on a tablet resting on the sofa. The screen displayed a single red circle, mimicking a old-fashioned camera lens. "Say hello to our supercomputer: CICADA-2019. CICADA stands for Central Intelligence for Computer Assisted Data Analysis, but we call it Cid for short. Say hello, Cid."

"Good morning, Alex," said Cid via the tablet.

"We think of Cid as a real person," Bayan confessed to Mike and Ellie.

An alarm rang throughout the building. "Alex Hopper to Voice Analytics!" boomed the tannoy. "Immediately!"

As Alex made their excuses and ran off, Bayan and Casey hustled Mike and Ellie into a corner. "There's something rotten at the heart of TimeSucker", whispered one of them to Mike and Ellie, although in the confusion they were not sure who. "You need to..."

At that moment, Mike and Ellie heard a loud yell. Everybody in the foyer ran down a corridor to see Alex Hopper fall over and pass out on the floor. The tablet lying nearby displayed a strange sequence of characters. "I'll take that", said Ellie, picking the tablet up unseen amidst the melee of people.

The alarm sounded again. "The Torus and TimeSucker are now in lock-down!" boomed the tannoy. "Nobody is permitted to leave!"

Alan Turing Cryptography Competition 2019 is organised by the The Department of Mathematics at The University of Manchester.
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