His Majesty's Hope(39)

Edmund whistled through his teeth. “Nice. Where is Erdös these days?”

“Princeton, I believe,” Turing said through a bite of shepherd’s pie. “He doesn’t stay in one place for long.”

“He’s a Hungarian Jew, can you blame him?” Edmund said. “He’s lucky to have escaped in time. I hear—”

Hugh had no time to waste. “Edmund,” he said, “I don’t mean to interrupt your dinner, but may we talk privately?”

Edmund looked to the other code breakers. “Do you mind, gentlemen?”

“Not at all,” Turing said, as he and Cooper rose to leave. “Long night ahead of us. Cheers, Mr. Thompson.”

Hugh looked around, noting the empty dining room, then cleared his throat. “Professor Hope,” he began, “as you may know, I’m now working with John Masterman.”

“The Twenty Committee.”

“Yes, well, the thing is that we have a German agent in custody, who’s acting as a double agent. He’s received some new information in code, but he refuses to tell us anything about it.”

“So, Masterman wants a boffin to take a stab at it.” Edmund sighed. “All right, I accept.”

“Thank you, sir. Do you have a piece of paper?”

Edmund pulled out a crumpled paper and an old fountain pen from his jacket pocket.

Hugh wrote down the numbers and letters that he’d memorized. When he was done, he handed it to Edmund, who squinted at the sequence. Then he took out a lighter from his jacket pocket and hit the roller, so that sparks flew. He set the piece of paper on fire. Together, the men watched it burn until only ash remained.

“He had a cipher disk, as well,” Hugh said. “Standard German issue. No one at the Twenty Committee found any correlation between the code and the cipher disk.”

Edmund gave a grim smile. “I’ll have a look at it—and be in touch,” he said. The meeting was over. He stood and turned to go.

After a few steps, however, the professor turned back to Hugh. “Have you heard anything from—”

Hugh knew exactly whom he meant. Maggie. “Not since she was last in London. She’s … away now.”

“Right, right,” Edmund muttered to himself as he turned again to leave, shoulders stooped. “All right then.”

“But you should probably know …”

“What?”

Hugh blurted it out. “The code for this mission was sent by your—by Clara Hess.”

“I see,” Edmund said. Then he waved Hugh away. “That will be all.”

Once Edmund had left the canteen, he leaned against the wall of Hut 5, his legs shaky. From his back pocket, he took out a silver flask and drank.


David Greene wasn’t used to going on dates with women.

Which was why he was disconcerted to be sitting across a white linen–swathed table at the Savoy Grill for dinner with Rosamund Moser. In the background, the band played under the hushed tones of conversations and the soft clinks of china and crystal.

Rosamund was lovely. Stunning really, in David’s opinion, in her sharp FANY uniform. She was young, well educated—St. Hilda’s at Oxford—and possessed a delicate beauty, with chestnut hair, pale skin, luminous eyes, and full lips. He had known her growing up, for her parents were friends of his parents, but he was enough years older that he’d mostly been able to ignore her. However, when he’d telephoned and asked her if she’d like to have dinner sometime, she’d accepted so coldly that he was surprised his ear wasn’t frostbitten.

Sitting across the table from each other was proving even more awkward.

“So,” David said. “You’re looking well.”

“Yes,” Rosamund replied curtly. “I believe you’ve mentioned that already.” It was true, David had already complimented her on her looks. Three times.

He cleared his throat. “How are—and how are your parents?” he asked, trying again.

“They’re fine,” she said. “Mummy is at the house in the country, while Daddy’s working for the Admiralty. I don’t know what he does and he doesn’t tell us. All very top secret, hush-hush.”

After another silence, she asked, in obligatory tones, “And how are your parents?”

“They’re well,” David said. “Yes, well—quite well.” Inwardly, he cursed himself for being tongue-tied. Normally he was charming with women, gallant, even. But that was when he was free and easy, a man-about-town—not on a date, with a woman who could tell her parents everything, and who would then tell his parents everything. His parents, who were ordering him to marry, or else he’d forfeit his trust and inheritance.