Perfect People

112

John and Naomi sat in silence for some moments as they waited for Pelham to return. Naomi, completely drained, looked at Tom Humbolt, who had an expression on his face that seemed to be saying, Why do guys like Special Agent Norbert treat everyone who isn’t FBI like they just fell off the back of a truck?

‘Three other sets of twins?’ Naomi said to him. ‘Why – why would they be taking them?’

‘Could it be to try to protect them?’ John asked.

‘Maybe to try to brainwash them?’ Humbolt ventured.

‘It seems positive, at least,’ Renate Harrison said. ‘If their agenda was to harm Luke and Phoebe, and these others, I don’t imagine they would have gone to these lengths of taking them away.’

Her mobile phone rang. She answered it, then a moment later said, ‘One moment, sir, I’d like everyone to hear what you have to say. Can we call you back on a speaker phone in a couple of minutes? Thank you.’ Ending the call, she said to John and Naomi, ‘It’s Professor Chetwynde-Cunningham with some information. I suggest we wait for Detective Inspector Pelham to return.’

A few minutes later, with a starfish-shaped conferencing phone on the middle of the table, Renate Harrison dialled the linguist’s number at Morley Park. ‘We have Dr and Mrs Klaesson, Detective Inspector Pelham and Detective Sergeant Humbolt listening, Professor.’

‘Jolly good. Good afternoon, everyone.’ He sounded very tired.

They returned the greeting, then waited.

‘I’m afraid I don’t have any good news for you. It’s a bit disappointing at the moment. We’ve all been working around the clock on this, and I’m afraid we haven’t made much progress. You are probably aware from our conversations, John, that encryption techniques have moved forward enormously in recent years, with a great deal of research money being thrown at creating uncrackable codes for secure trading on the internet. Yes?’

‘Sure,’ John said.

‘What we have here is way advanced from the code your twins were using a while ago, of reversing speech and deleting every fourth letter. I’m afraid what we are up against here is something none of us has encountered before and it’s not decipherable within current capabilities. I’m not saying it won’t be possible one day, but it could take us a month, or many months, maybe longer. Without the keys, we’re stymied in the short term.’

Pelham leaned forward. ‘This is Detective Inspector Pelham speaking, Professor.’

‘Yes, hallo.’

‘Are you willing to keep trying?’

‘Of course, but I don’t want to hold out any promises – you need to be aware of that.’

‘We appreciate your candour, Professor.’

‘With your permission, I’d like to send copies of these hard disks to one of my former colleagues at GCHQ – the Government Communications Headquarters at Cheltenham. He’s willing to give his people a shot at it.’

Pelham looked at John and Naomi for confirmation, then said, ‘You have our absolute consent to explore any avenue you consider appropriate.’

‘OK. I don’t think there’s much more I can add at present.’

‘We’re very grateful to you,’ Pelham said.

‘Thanks, Reggie,’ John said.

‘Perhaps I can offer you and your wife one small crumb in this awful predicament. If your children are smart enough to be able to communicate in this code, then they must have quite extraordinary intelligence.’

‘Meaning what, exactly?’ John asked.

‘Well, just that. Perhaps their survival skills are equally honed.’

‘They are still only three years old, Professor,’ Naomi said.

‘That may be, but they’ve got more wits about them than most adults.’

After a long silence, John said, ‘We hear what you are saying, Reggie, thank you. We appreciate everything you and your team are doing.’

‘I’ll keep you posted.’

They all thanked him, then Pelham terminated the call.

‘Maybe we should take a break,’ the detective inspector said. ‘I think we could all use a little air.’