Chapter Twenty-Seven #2
Richard shook his head. “I do not believe so. He has never seen the original machine, else he would not require you to take such careful accounts of it. Your drawings and measurements were precise enough—if you made them correctly—for the new discs to fit into the original machine, down to the location of the grooves and notches that help lock them into their positions. Your written descriptions also allowed Mr. Mendel to work on the metal with acids and dirt, to recreate the look of the extant ones.”
“But Colonel,” Elizabeth interposed, “you have been gone from here for very little time! And most of that must have been spent in travelling. Surely, no matter what manner of genius he is, Mr. Mendel could not have completed this commission so quickly!”
With an embarrassed chuckle, the colonel replied, “No, indeed! He is a genius, but not a miracle worker. I placed this commission before we departed from London with the second machine, suspecting we might have need for it. I merely collected the discs on this most recent visit. Your friend truly is a wonder. One would never know they are perfectly new and haven’t spent months in the field and been damaged by whatever it was that so marred the machine. Come, see for yourselves!”
He hoisted himself from his chair and cast a lingering glance back at the fire before retrieving the heavy sack he had dropped earlier.
He shifted aside some items inside that looked to be fabric—a change of clothing, perhaps?
—and reached down to the bottom, whence he pulled out a large cylindrical parcel.
He laid it on the carpet and began to unwrap the cloth, revealing a set of discs that seemed the exact duplicate of the ones on the code machine that the Frenchmen had brought.
“Remarkable!” Darcy breathed the word. “They look quite authentic!” And they did.
He reached out to lift one from the cloth, careful to preserve the space it occupied so as to replace it exactly.
Until he held it directly beside one of the originals, he could not say for certain whether the copy was exact, but to his imperfect regard, it looked identical.
The scratches, the pits, the uneven areas of dull rust, all looked exactly as one might expect from a machine that had been used in time of war.
Richard looked as proud as a new father presenting his offspring for the first time. “Do you think Stanton would suspect our ruse?”
“Not at all!”
Elizabeth also reached for one of the discs and held it to the morning light, examining each surface. “It is a job masterfully done! But without the machine, these are useless. Do not tell me you have a second machine as well, yet unrepaired!”
“That, alas, we could not manage. I’m afraid we will have to allow Stanton to abscond with the real one, but with the false discs.
Now that we have our own version, the damaged one is of far less value to us.
We hope to retrieve it once this operation is complete, but my superiors agree that it is a risk we must take.
I would like very much to confer with your Frenchmen before we act, but England’s security is at risk, and we shall act regardless. ”
It was necessary to speak to Bennet, and the three now descended the stairs to the breakfast room, where the master of Longbourn was taking his coffee. Like Darcy and Elizabeth, he had been up much of the night, but like them, he was not one to allow simple lack of sleep disrupt his habits.
“Colonel Fitzwilliam, what an unexpected pleasure.” The words were welcoming, the man’s face less so.
“Pardon my unplanned arrival, Mr. Bennet. But I believe we have matters to discuss that we dare not put off. Is there somewhere we can talk without fear of being overheard?”
Bennet was as disenchanted with the suggestion of allowing the traitors access to the code machine as he was with Richard’s sudden appearance in his breakfast room.
“I cannot allow it! Simply cannot! We have struggled long and hard to keep this machine safe from the enemy, and indeed, I do not even know how they learned of its existence. And now you propose we stand aside and hand it over like some Yuletide game? I cannot countenance this at all!”
Using every ounce of his natural charm and aristocratic assurance, Richard coaxed and cajoled the older man.
“I completely understand your concerns, sir, but we must end this game once and for all. England’s very safety is at risk.
If we do not act to disoblige these traitors, there could be a naval attack on our very shores.
If Stanton is our bird, we must roust him from his nest. We have broken the code; the machine is no longer needed for that, and if we can use it to discover a network of traitors in our midst, how much the better.
Surely, sir, you can put England’s safety ahead of these lesser concerns? ”
“I simply refuse!” he spat. “My cousins risked their lives to bring this machine to my house, the one place they knew it would be safe. I cannot break faith with them. The machine—”
“—has served its purpose! We can replicate it, and none need know of it. If we allow Stanton and his lot to reclaim it, it will still be broken, but they will not for one moment suspect we know its secrets. Think of the benefit to England! Think of the advantage that gives us! Already those in command of the navy have taken action to thwart an attempted attack on our shores. If the traitors believe their messages still secure, how much better placed we will be to learn their tactics and plans! Sir, I beg you to consider it!”
Bennet was losing this game, and the look in his eyes told Darcy he knew it.
He pushed his spectacles up onto his forehead and rubbed his eyes.
“I don’t know, Colonel...” He collapsed into himself.
“Why cannot you build another damaged one and let them have that? Would that not serve your purpose better?”
Richard nodded. “We thought about this approach, but we cannot insert the grains of sand and pieces of dirt into all the places where the original machine has them, nor can we be certain that there is no secret marking on the underside or within the machinery to identify the machine you have as authentic. But what we can do is replace the discs that allow the enemy to find the codeword! They may retrieve the machine, but even should they repair it, it will never work for them.”
He explained about the counterfeit discs, and Bennet began to nod, slowly at first, then with more enthusiasm.
“Yes, yes, perhaps that is sensible, yes, I see.” His eventual acquiescence was hard won, but it was complete. And at last, the four were able to sit down for a long meeting and devise a detailed plan.