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Susan Fletcher, the Commander Trevor Strathmore and David Becker
Susan Fletcher, the head Cryptographer of the National Security Agency (NSA) gets an emergency call from Commander Trevor Strathmore. Susan´s fiancé David Becker is asked to do a favor by Strathmore and Becker has to cancel their romantic vacation in a hurry and fly to Spain. Susan is then called back to the NSA headquarters. -
TRANSLTR
Commander Strathmore informs Susan about TRANSLTR´s critical situation. Their $1.9 billon code-breaking machine encounters a revolutionary new code called Digital Fortress. TRANSLTR usually breaks a code under an hour or less but this new code has been unsolved for 15 hours! It looks to be an unbreakable code! She discovers that the mastermind behind this code is Ensei Tankado, a former NSA employee who is displeased by the NSA´s intrusions into people´s private lives. -
Tankado´s plan
Tankado wants the NSA to reveal their powerful code-breaking machine to the public, because he wants the world to know about TRANSLTR. If they don't do as they are told, he threats to auction the code´s algorithm and have his partner North Dakota publish it for free if he dies. Tankado gains control holding the NSA hostage by Digital Fortress. Later Tankado dies in Seville, Spain and Strathmore is determined to stop Digital Fortress and put an end to this threat of national security. -
The Ring
Susan hopes that her fiancé, Becker, will blend in and keep himself under the radar in Spain. Becker is a language teacher and speaks Spanish fluently. Tankado died in Seville, Spain, of what appears to be a heart attack and Becker is there to recover the ring Tankado wore when he died. It is very important that this ring do not fall into the wrong hands, because they believe it contains the pass-key that unlocks Digital Fortress. -
Trouble in Spain
While Strathmore and Susan is trying to solve the TRANSLTR problem back at the NSA, Becker faces problems in Seville. Becker discovers that Tankado gave away his ring before he died. He pursued a Canadian tourist who was the previous holder of the ring. However, it turns out that he didn't have the ring and Becker’s search for the ring continues. -
Phil Chartrukian
Phil Chartrukian is a technician at the NSA and believes Digital Fortress is a virus because it has been in the TRANSLTR system for several hours. Strathmore don't want Phil to know what’s going on to keep as many people out of the loop as possible so he orders him to leave the NSA center. Of course, Phil doesn´t follow orders. His loyalty belongs to the NSA, not Strathmore, and his job is to protect TRANSLTR. He is worried that Strathmore let Digital Fortress bypass the NSA´s virus-filter. -
Greg Hale
Another cryptographer named Greg Hale also arrives the NSA, and raises suspiciousness about Strathmore`s and Susan`s behavior. Susan is trying to trace an email that can lead her to North Dakota, Tankado’s companion. Hale aborts Susan´s tracer for North Dakota and Susan finds out what he did. Susan then starts a search on Hales computer, and she finds information giving her reasons to believe that Hale is North Dakota. -
Lights out
Phil Chartrukian went down to the NSA`s sub levels to shut TRANSLTR`s power to prevent what he believes is a virus from spreading. A physical fight between Chartrukian and Strathmore results in Chartrukian`s death after falling down at the generator shutting down the power in the Crypto department. This also damage TRANSLTR´s cooling system causing it to overheat. Hale is accused for murder by Susan. Then, Susan is held prisoner by Hale, but after some smart moves she manages to escape. -
Assassination
Becker is constantly chasing his leads on the ring. Every holder of Tankado`s ring turns up dead after Becker’s meeting with them. It looks like a mysterious killer is on a mission to kill everybody who has seen the ring. -
Strathmore "saves the day"
Susan finds Strathmore again and she tells him that Hale is North Dakota and that he killed Phil Chartrukian. Strathmore wants Digital Fortress to be NSA´s unbreakable code so he fills her in with his original plan. They need the pass-key to Digital Fortress from Hale so they can destroy the old version and make their own. This time is Susan held at gunpoint by Hale to prevent himself being arrested for murder, but Strathmore manage to outsmart him and defeat him. -
The Killer
Becker finally gets the ring and is the new holder of the ring! Now we get to know more about the mysterious killer. He is a deaf assassin named Hulohot, put to work by Strathmore. They keep in touch by a device called SkyPager where Hulohot registers his kills. -
Tankado`s real plan
Susan now figures out Tankado`s real plan. She discovers that Hale is not North Dakota. In fact, Tankado didn't have a partner - North Dakota and Ensei Tankado is the same person. Tankado wanted them to think he had a partner when he was chatting with an account named "NDAKOTA", which is just an anagram of "Tankado". -
Tankado`s real plan
Tankado tricked Strathmore to bypass the NSA´s virus-filter and therefore letting Digital Fortress (which is a virus) attacking their database. The database contains national sensitive information and it would be catastrophic if it leaked. Tankado`s motive from the beginning was to expose TRANSLTR, he was going to stop the virus before it leaked all the information in the databank. And in exchange the NSA had to go public with TRANSLTR. -
Suicide
Strathmore kills Hale making it look like a suicide, writing a suicide letter where Hale admits everything. -
Cornered
Hulohot had a bad habit of registering his kills before they were executed. Which he also did with Becker before he chased him down and cornered him in the streets of Seville. However, Hulohot dies facing Becker in combat, but then suddenly something really unexpected happens when Becker is shot in the chest by two men in uniform. -
SkyPager
Susan finds Strathmore`s SkyPager in his blazer-pocket after lending it to her. She reads "David Becker - Terminated" and feels deep sorrow and pain. Strathmore finally admits to Susan that he is in love with her, and had Becker killed so that they could be together. Bang! TRANSLTR explodes and Strathmore commits suicide by standing next to the machine. -
I am a survivor
Susan fights for her life and manage to find her way out of the smoky room. Another department at the NSA is now on the case when the virus eventually finds it was into the databank. They desperately need a password in order stop it. It turns out that Becker didn´t die from the shot in the chest in Seville - he was temporality put to rest by a tranquilizer by friends of NSA. -
The message
Becker helps Susan and the department to stop the virus by decoding a message form Tankado. "PRIME DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ELEMENTS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIROSHIMA AND NAGASAKI" -
Decoding the message
They started analyzing Tankado`s death where he held up is hand with only three fingers. Tankado had been born crippled because his mother was exposed to radioactive substances from the atomic bomb in Hiroshima. They made a conclusion by combining Tankad´s sign and understanding the difference between the two bombings. It was used two different isotopes of uranium. One of the bombs contained Uranium-238 and the other one contained Uranium-235. Subtracting the numbers we get the number 3! -
Correct Answer!
They typed in the correct answer and saved the databank from being leaked to the public!