This story is a motivational one. It's not trying to explain any particular cryptographic topic, rather it shows that cryptography can often accomplish things that seem to be impossible. In this particular case, bypassing trained agents able to silently kill you in twelve different ways in the middle of hostile country by a simple, magical act of lighting a pipe.
[[[name:doomsgerm section:1
Professor Krankenstein was the most influential genetic engineer of his time.
When, in the spring of 2030, he almost incidentally invented the most terrible biological weapon known to humanity it took him about three seconds to realize that should his invention fall into the hands of one of the superpowers -- or into the hands of any common idiot, really -- it could well mean the end of the human race.
He wasted no time. He destroyed all the artifacts in the lab. He burned all the notes and hard disks of all the computers they’ve used in the project. He seeded false information all over the place to lead future investigators off the track.
Now, left with the last remaining copy of the doomsgerm recipe, he was contemplating whether to destroy it.
Yes, destroying it would keep the world safe. But if such a breakthrough in genetic engineering was used in a different way it could have solved the hunger problem by producing enough artificial food to feed the swelling population of Earth. And if global warming went catastrophic, it could have been used to engineer microorganisms super-efficient at sequestering carbon dioxide and methane from atmosphere. In the end he decided not to destroy but rather to encrypt the recipe, put it into a tungsten box, encase the box in concrete and drop it from a cruise ship into Mariana Trench.
The story would have ended there if it was not for one Hendrik Koppel, a rather simple-minded person whom professor Krankenstein hired to help him to move the tungsten-concrete box around. Professor didn’t even met him before he destroyed all his doomsgerm research. Still, Hendrik somehow realized that the issue was of interest to superpowers (Was professor Krankenstein sleep-talking?) and sold the information about the location of the box to several governments.
By the beginning of October the news hit that an American aircraft carrier is heading in the direction of Mariana Trench.
Apparently, there was also a Russian nuclear submarine on its way to the same location.
Chinese government have sent a fleet of smaller, more versatile, oceanographic vessels.
After the initial bout of despair, professor Krankenstein realised that with his superior knowledge of the position of the box he could possibly get to the location first and destroy the box using an underwater bomb.
He used his life savings to buy a rusty old ship called Amor Patrio, manned it with his closest collaborators and set up for Pacific Ocean.
...
Things haven't gone well. News reported that Americans and Chinese were approaching the area while Amor Patrio's engine broke and the crew was working around the clock to fix it.
Finally, they fixed it and approached Mariana Trench.
It was at that point that the news reached them: The box was found by Russians and transported to Moscow. It was now stored in the vault underneath KGB headquarters. There was a whole division of spetsnaz guarding the building. The building itself was filled with special agents, each trained in twelve ways of silently killing a person.
Continue reading at section 92.
]]]
[[[name:doomsgerm2 section:92
Professor Krankenstein and his associated held a meeting on board of Amor Patrio, in the middle of Pacific Ocean. People came up with desperate proposals: Let's dig a tunnel underneath Moscow river. Let's blackmail Russians by re-creating the virus and threatening them to disperse it in Russia. Nuke the entire Moskovskaya Oblast! There was no end to wild and desperate proposals.
Once the stream of proposals dried up, everyone looked at professor Krankenstein, awaiting his decision.
The silence is almost palpable.
Professor Krankenstein slowly took out his iconic pipe and lighted it with the paper which had the decryption key written on it.
]]]