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I woke up thinking about yesterday's message. While drinking my coffee and the TV buzzed with the morning news, I kept trying to figure it out:

"All codes - compromised - don't use! I have sent information through two independent channels, hope you'll get it at least on one. Emily Stone. PS: And don't forget that bright vixens jump; dozy fowl quack."

Emily Stone... Suddenly I realized that I hear her name not just in my head. TV repeated it in sync with my gloomy thoughts. I started listen. She had been found murdered. Emily Stone. One of my four contacts. So the crisis was much greater than I could guess from her message. I could not trust anyone, nor my other contacts: Joe, Jane and Steven. Information...? But where is it? Oh yeah - the bouquet. Received somewhat out of place, a gift - not for me, but in no way I was able to convince the delivery boy. Frantically pulled it out of the garbage. This is where it was - note cleverly hidden in it:

eqjpw goqfe vgzei nxenv xycbf 
inbwz ifend hvrgr nzdic jpaix 
ibhjv febrq vgzbi bpiol golch 
obdsp jevgz novaf jgdgv jiijt 
siaob mgzrn eoovo osrky zsile 
knpay ltnnz ysztv kxbcp dsnoy 
poayi hzcbw izxlk afspx oindi 
fbhkk mtkis dhoiy spqge mkljd

I opened my computer, hoping to help me with the unknown code. My Skype blinked with message from an unknown sender:

rfpta xzwag pelii phimx rkoic 
itiaw jcexq jmevn rlzjw xrfxp 
nvrmh qetia mhaxx ppbfa pdwoj 
dmdtt xgsiw sahyd ghymm bsbnn 
jmofs vglie plqjl lhtlo zxmoi 
wgrlw qrnnl oifsn oemcj cgjql 
mcydr syork hqhay ofpeh zghkj 
zvhly xmdij aizil iscri ilcso

I really had to figure it all out. As far as I knew her, Emily would give me all I need.

Whom could I trust?

Hint 1:

The title is important clue.

Hint 2:

If it is not obvious from the story, the two encoded messages are one and the same message.

Hint 3:

No external information nor tools are needed to solve this puzzle. Everything is given.

Hint 4 (the last one):

You should really look around vixens and fowls and figure out why something is discarded.

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  • $\begingroup$ "bright vixens jump; dozy fowl quack." is a pangram, which makes me think that the code is a simple substitution cipher using that as a key of some sort. $\endgroup$
    – user88
    May 24, 2016 at 21:16
  • $\begingroup$ three letters that repeat in the bright vixens thing is i,u,o. $\endgroup$
    – user17008
    May 25, 2016 at 0:09
  • $\begingroup$ @JoeZ. So that's why i immediately think about: "The quick brown fox jumps over 13 lazy dogs." $\endgroup$
    – Vincent
    May 25, 2016 at 11:34
  • $\begingroup$ Joe Z, given the title it seems possible that each half of the pangram is key material (or some other kind of hint) for one of the two messages. An obvious guess would be Vigenere, but I suspect not because the letter frequencies in each message look quite far from uniform. $\endgroup$
    – Gareth McCaughan ♦
    May 25, 2016 at 14:58
  • $\begingroup$ Perhaps, but vigenere has the potential to throw letter frequencies out the window, somewhat. $\endgroup$
    – Khale_Kitha
    May 25, 2016 at 15:53

1 Answer 1

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There are two messages in the key:

bright vixens jump
dozy fowl quack

The only intersection between the two is:

u, but there are none of those in the two messages

In both messages:

the vixen block letters and the fowl block letters are in the same location.

This hints at a:

Bacon Cipher! (Thanks @Deusovi)

Converting all of the:

Fowl letters to A and the Vixen letters to B yields:
ABAAB|ABBBA|AABAA|AAAAA|ABBAB|
AAABB|ABAAB|AAAAA|ABBAB|AABAA|
AAAAA|BAAAB|AABAA|AAABB|ABBBA|
BABAA|AAAAB|ABABB|AABAA|AAAAA|
AABBA|AABAA|ABBAB|BAABB|BAABA|

Which translates to:

J O E A N D J A N E A R E D O U B L E A G E N T S

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