Ghost Flight

16

An early lunch was served in the boardroom – an outside catering company brought in trays racked with cold bites, each covered in a cling-film wrapping. Jaeger took one look and decided he wasn’t feeling hungry. He worked his way around the room, until he had the archivist cornered somewhere reasonably private.

‘Interesting,’ Jenkinson remarked, studying a piece of particularly rubbery-looking sushi. ‘Amazes me how we end up eating the old enemy’s food… I take my own sandwiches into the archives. Mature cheddar cheese and Branston pickle.’

Jaeger smiled. ‘Could be worse: they could have served us sauerkraut.’

It was Jenkinson’s turn to chuckle. ‘Touché. You know, there’s a part of me that’s almost envious of you going in to find that mystery aircraft. Of course, I’d be next to useless in the field. But, well – you’ll be making history. Living it. Unmissable.’

‘I could find you a place on the team,’ Jaeger suggested, a touch of mischief creeping in. ‘Make it a condition of my going.’

The archivist choked out a piece of raw fish. ‘Oops. Sorry. Revolting, anyway.’ He wrapped it in a paper napkin and placed it on a convenient shelf. ‘No, no, no, no, no – I’m more than happy sticking to my vaults.’

‘Talking of vaults…’ Jaeger mused. ‘Just for a moment forget what you absolutely know. I’m after some pure conjecture here. Based on all you’ve seen and heard, what do you actually think that mystery aircraft is?’

Jenkinson’s eyes moved nervously behind his thick glasses. ‘I don’t normally do conjecture. Not my usual currency. But since you ask… Only two possible scenarios make any kind of sense. A, it’s a Ju 390, and the Nazis painted it with US markings so as to sneak around undetected. B, it’s a top-secret American warplane, one that no one’s ever heard of.’

‘Which is the more likely scenario?’ Jaeger prompted.

Jenkinson eyed the soggy napkin on the shelf. ‘B is about as likely as me ever liking sushi. Option A: well, you’d be surprised how common such skulduggery was. We captured their aircraft; they captured ours. We painted them in enemy colours and sneaked about up to all kinds of dodgy business. They did likewise.’

Jaeger raised one eyebrow. ‘I’ll bear that in mind. Now, slight change of subject. Got a puzzle for you. A riddle. Figured you probably enjoy a good riddle – but I’d like you to keep this one just between the two of us, okay?’

‘Never happier than when I’m trying to solve a good riddle,’ Jenkinson confirmed, a gleam in his eye, ‘and especially one that I have to keep a strict secret.’

Jaeger lowered his voice. ‘Two old men. Veterans of the Second World War. Served in secret units. All very sneaky-beaky. Each keeps his study decked out wall-to-wall with war memorabilia. There is one exception: each has on his desk an obscure ancient manuscript written entirely in an unintelligible language. Question is, why?’

‘You mean, why would they each have one?’ Jenkinson rubbed his beard pensively. ‘There’s no evidence of a wider interest? No reference works? No similar texts? No history of a wider study of the phenomena?’

‘Nothing. Just the one book. That’s it. Sat on the desk in each of the old men’s studies.’

Jenkinson’s eyes twinkled. He was clearly enjoying this. ‘There is something called the book code.’ He pulled out an old envelope from his jacket pocket and began scribbling. ‘The beauty is its absolute pure simplicity; that, and the fact that it’s totally unbreakable – unless, of course, you happen to know which book each person is referring to.’

He scribbled down an apparently random sequence of numbers: 1.16.47/5.12.53/9.6.16/21.4.76/3.12.9.

‘Now, imagine you and one other person each has the same edition of a book. He, or she, sends you those numbers. Starting with the first sequence, 1.16.47, you turn to chapter one, page sixteen, line forty-seven. It starts with an I. Next, chapter five, page twelve, line fifty-three: starts with a D. Chapter nine, page six, line sixteen: starts with an I again. Chapter twenty-one, page four, line seventy-six: O. Chapter three, page twelve, line nine: T. Put it all together and what have you got?’

Jaeger spelled out the letters. ‘I-D-I-O-T. Idiot.’

Jenkinson smiled. ‘You said it.’

Jaeger couldn’t help laughing. ‘Very funny. You’ve just blown your invite to the Amazon.’

Jenkinson chuckled silently, his shoulders rocking back and forth as he did so. ‘Sorry. It’s just the first word that came into my mind.’

‘Watch it. You’re digging yourself a deeper grave.’ Jaeger paused for a second. ‘But let’s say the book’s written in an unknown language and writing system. How does it work then? Surely that would make the code unworkable?’

‘Not if you have a usable translation. Without the translation you’d have a five-letter word that was utterly unintelligible. Without the translation, it’d be pure nonsense. But with the translation it adds another layer of encoding, that’s all. Both individuals have to have both books to hand, of course, in order to decode the message. But it’s a stroke of genius, actually.’

‘Can such a code be broken?’ Jaeger ventured.

Jenkinson shook his head. ‘Very difficult. Next to impossible. That’s the beauty of it. You need to know which book the two users are referring to, and in this case have access to the translation too. Makes it almost impossible to crack – that’s unless you capture the two old men and beat and torture it out of them.’

Jaeger eyed the archivist curiously. ‘That’s a dark mind you have there, Mr Jenkinson. But thanks for the insight. And keep digging for any trace of our mystery flight.’ He scribbled his email and phone details on the bottom of Jenkinson’s envelope. ‘I’d be keen to hear of anything you turn up.’

‘Absolutely.’ Jenkinson smiled. ‘Glad to see someone’s taking a real interest at last.’