Prologue
Walt knew he was onto something big, a new drug that’s this easy and cheap to manufacture, with such powerful addictive properties. It was only a matter of time before Walt would be a rich man. That is, if he could keep off his own product. Being a long time drug user and trailer park resident, Walt loved getting high. This was the desire that got him into making a better drug for himself in the first place.
He’d been selling the stuff like hot cakes on a Saturday, it practically flew off the shelves. By now, half the park was on this stuff. It even started making its way into the greater Phoenix region. Soon, he’d have to ramp up production and get some help. It was all moving so fast, and part of him wondered if it would get in the way of his own high time. He got into this to make better stuff for himself, and he couldn’t enjoy this if he had to work a lot. Some Mexicans had approached him a while back, but he had turned them down.
“This was just too much of a good thing to pass off to those lazy beaners” Walt said to himself
As the night set over the trailer park, Walt took a last hit from his new wonder drug, that he aptly named Ash. After the ash grey appearance of those fully in its grasp. He laid his head down on his moldy pillow, and with the TV still running, he drifted off to sleep.
Suddenly awakened to a lack of oxygen, Walt opened his eyes and tried to move. He tried screaming, but to no avail. Walt felt the strong grip of several hands pinning him down, duct tape covering his mouth. Staring back at him were the eyes of a man wearing a balaclava.
“Shut the fuck up gringo, or I’ll blow your brains out!” The man whispered urgently from behind his mask.
The man started punching Walt in the face, repeatedly while he tried crying out for help. He hit him so hard, Walt felt his consciousness fade. Until after a few hits to the head, everything went black and Walt drifted off to a deep, deep sleep.
“Fucking meth head gringo”. Miguel uttered to nobody in particular.
Looking around the trailer, he saw a big table next to the kitchen area. It had meticulously been cleaned and set up as a laboratory. In stark contrast to the rest of the trailer.
“Alright, Carlos start boxing up all this stuff. I will look around for the recipe”.
Carlos nodded to Miguel and started packing all the equipment in boxes and bags. Gathering everything on the table he could pack. Meanwhile, Miguel started methodically going through all of the cabinets and drawers.
“Where the fuck did this gringo hide that recipe” Miguel muttered.
“Check under his mattress, it’s a meth heads bank account usually” Carlos replied
Miguel pushed Walt’s motionless and bloodied body aside. Lifting up the mattress, he saw a pile of documents, money and drugs. Quickly going through it, he found nothing. Yet he decided to pack it anyway, maybe there was something there.
“The boss will fucking kill us if we don’t find it” Miguel said angrily
Looking around, suddenly Miguel spotted a piece of paper. It was next to the sink, with a coffee mug still on it, holding the piece of paper in place. He grabbed it, throwing the coffee mug against the wall.
“Haha, yes we got it!” Miguel said ecstatically
“Nice work hombre, let’s get all this shit out of here” Carlos replied in a hurried voice.
The two men started grabbing the bags and boxes, moving them to the fence outside the trailer as fast as they could. Once everything was out of the trailer, they lifted the materials over the fence to Javier. They climbed the fence unseen and entered the car, driving away into the night.
Later that morning…
Cleetus sat in his car, parked in a McDonalds parking lot, nervously waiting for his contact to show up. He knew he shouldn’t have gotten into business with the Mexicans, but the money was too good to turn down. He really wanted to put his son through college, which wasn’t going to be cheap. On top of that, he was struggling to pay his mothers’ medical bills.
Staring blankly into the distance, he snapped back into the moment. Pushing the intrusive thoughts out of his mind, he realized this was his best chance at making big money quickly. Getting paid thirty large to take some USB-stick to Mexico? Shit, that was good money.
A black SUV with chrome rims approached, the windows tinted. Cleetus flashed his lights three times, the SUV flashed back twice. That was the secret sign he had to wait for. The SUV approached and came beside his car. Rolling down their windows, a large Mexican man with a moustache and big scar across his face grinned at him.
“Here’s the USB-stick. And take this note as well gringo, read the password instructions and memorize it. Then destroy the note. You will give the password instructions to the person who picks you up at Guadalajara.”
Cleetus nodded and took the envelope from the man.
Before Cleetus could even look back, the car sped off and turned towards the highway. Cleetus opened the envelope and inspected the USB-stick. It had a keyring on it, which he found quite convenient. Cleetus took the keyring off his own belt and attached the USB-stick.
“There, that ain’t going nowhere” he mumbled
Opening the note inside the envelope, Cleetus was greeted with the password instruction:
Instruction file password is the trailer park we stole this from, use dashes between the words, in English, no capitals.
Cleetus repeated the sentence a few times and double checked he really knew it. Then, he grabbed his lighter and set the note on fire. Making sure it was properly ablaze, he threw it out of his car window.
“Alright, next stop, the airport, time for some vacation in Mexico.” Cleetus said as he put his car in drive and hit the gas.
Briefing
Greetings, Special Agent K,
First of all, Happy New Year. Now, with the pleasantries out of the way, let’s get to business. We’ve been contracted by the Phoenix Police Department to help with a drug investigation. It appears a new drug called “Ash” has hit the streets of Phoenix, Arizona. Ash is a mix of MDMA, Ketamine and a whole bunch of other nasty ingredients. Highly addictive and cheap to manufacture. But that’s not all, unfortunately we have reason to believe that this drug is about to make its way outside of the US.
Informants for the Phoenix PD have picked up word on the street about a Mexican gang showing interest in Ash. They’re called “El Renacido”, which roughly translates to “The Reborn”. According to their sources, El Renacido have gotten a hold of the recipe for Ash and are planning to ramp up manufacturing in Mexico.
Given the dangers and addictive characteristics of this drug, we absolutely cannot let this happen. Currently, the federal agencies of the United States are all too occupied to collaborate on such an international affair. They’re all tasked with perp-walking some Italian plumber over and over. Unfortunately this is keeping all of their agents occupied, mama mia, I know. Hence leaving us to collaborate with the Phoenix Police Department and the Mexican authorities. Both have provided some materials, you’ll find all in the archive attached to this email.
Some interesting materials were intercepted during a routine traffic stop, near Phoenix Sky Harbor international airport. Phoenix PD detained a US citizen named Cleetus Boone. The sniffer dogs went off on his clothing and some ketamine was found. Upon further inspection, they found a USB drive attached to his keychain. This contained two encrypted files, a recipe archive and some instructions. Mr Boone claims these are his mothers’ secret Christmas recipes. However, there is a slight chance this might be something related to the drugs.
It’s your job to unlock these files and decipher whatever is inside. We believe there is a slight chance this is related to the new drug, Ash. It’s not much, but it’s the best possible lead we have so far. Of course, there is always a slight chance Mr Boone is being honest, and we’re about to gain access to some fantastic Christmas recipes of the Boone family.
As always, Special Agent, the assignment is yours, if you choose to accept.
Materials
Updated on 03.01.2025 to NOT include any encoded steps.
Download the Starting Materials
Answer Instruction
Use the answer to unlock the flagfile, this will reward you with your card. In addition, you will find an answer code. Submit this for the scoreboard.
Scoreboard submissions valid until: 24.01.2025
– RECIPE ZIP
To open the recipe, combine all the special codes from the cartel instructions, in the following order:
american-hernandez-joaquin-pablo
– FLAG FILE
Combine the what3words locations and the special code from the recipe. You only need the first word of each location.
Flag Format: safehouse-mansion-lab-code
Example Flag: pancake-locomotive-running-93JN*v!
Flagfile
Be advised, the flagfile is an encrypted ZIP. Make sure your OS supports the ZIP format. Ensure the password contains no hidden characters or formatting, paste in Notepad first if the password doesn’t seem to work.
Download Flagfile here
Scoreboard
Scoreboard will be published after 24.01.2025
Use this form to submit your answer code from the flagfile:
Creator(s): Frank Diepmaat, Joaquin Iglesias, Jim Campbell, Keith Roberts