underneath and then
on the final empty lines he wrote out the coded message.
Muwd Ronqw,
Ltthayrp I waywln't
zscualxc loreq xz I chmrrm in dywms I dinwgnuwp goud tzqnt mw mmins
e dmnsufwm onq. Ed auct m dpalx kcint ksfz recypat. I imwt nofmqg
yog mq q chasdm to exzx oud eczansixmnt. Pspa thuw omal yevm yog qj
jitol?
Cmgadhd, goud
xfbor.
Once he was
satisfied with the message and the translation, he copied it out
onto his notepaper and folded it, so it would fit into the smallest
envelope he had. Along with it he placed a small piece of card with Amelia written on it. It would confuse her at first but
hopefully she'd realise it was the keyword soon enough. He wrote
her address on the envelope and stuck a first class stamp on it
before sealing it with the wax as he had done with the first
message.
Rather than
posting the letter as it was, he took two more envelopes from his
stationery drawer, each of a slightly larger size, and wrote the
address of two different sorting offices on them, being careful not
to have anything else underneath them for the writing to mark
through.
As soon as they
were all stamped and layered up appropriately he put it to one side
to post when he next left the house. The letter would take longer
to get to Amelia and go on a journey from London to Norwich,
followed by Birmingham, before it reached the Bristol sorting
office and then Bath to be sent out on the normal rounds. If no
problems occurred it would take three working days, but four would
be a reasonable estimate.
Before the weekend
was over he would need to get the extra phone to her, but he wanted
to take that personally and ensure she understood what it was for.
He also didn't want anyone else to know she was the recipient.
Satisfied with
both his precautions and the nature of his communications with
Amelia Jones, he returned his thoughts to the expected terrorist
attack. Several times during the last hour his assistant had sent
him text messages with the same two words.
Still nothing.
He decided to look
through the intercepted message again, as well as Amelia's
translation of it, so he sat back, shut his eyes and allowed his
brain to draw up the memory of Sherlock's case board, covered in
the feminine writing of his guest that day. Assuming her concept of
internet memes and his knowledge gained from two of his under cover
operatives was correct, it could only indicate what he'd already
guessed.
One operative had
managed to find out four possible codewords to describe the
operation: lace , gem , ring , and rose .
The second operative had discovered another two, clip and pin , as well as finding out that the intended target was the
millennium eye, so all those details could be trusted and he knew
it appeared to be lace as the operation's codename.
Realising he could
do nothing to gain more information and would have to wait for the
terrorist cell to make a move, just like the team he'd convinced
the government to deploy, he stopped using his mind to review the
facts and opened his eyes. Daniels stood in the doorway, silently
waiting for Mycroft to finish his task. The driver had seen him
performing this feat of memory on many occasions and knew he didn't
like to be interrupted while in the middle of it.
“The purchases you
wanted,” Daniels said as he removed two smallish boxes from a plain
carrier bag and placed them on the desk.
“Thank you,
Daniels, you can go.” Mycroft gave his usual brief smile and took
the top box in his hands. A reasonably new smart phone was pictured
on the box and the one underneath matched apart from the colour.
One had a silver case, the other black. Without hesitating he put
the silver one back and pulled the other box towards himself.
Silver wasn't a colour he liked and he imagined it would suit
Amelia better than him anyway.
It took him
another half an hour to prepare both phones and get them registered
with the pre-paid cards. Before he put Amelia's back in the box he
added the
on the final empty lines he wrote out the coded message.
Muwd Ronqw,
Ltthayrp I waywln't
zscualxc loreq xz I chmrrm in dywms I dinwgnuwp goud tzqnt mw mmins
e dmnsufwm onq. Ed auct m dpalx kcint ksfz recypat. I imwt nofmqg
yog mq q chasdm to exzx oud eczansixmnt. Pspa thuw omal yevm yog qj
jitol?
Cmgadhd, goud
xfbor.
Once he was
satisfied with the message and the translation, he copied it out
onto his notepaper and folded it, so it would fit into the smallest
envelope he had. Along with it he placed a small piece of card with Amelia written on it. It would confuse her at first but
hopefully she'd realise it was the keyword soon enough. He wrote
her address on the envelope and stuck a first class stamp on it
before sealing it with the wax as he had done with the first
message.
Rather than
posting the letter as it was, he took two more envelopes from his
stationery drawer, each of a slightly larger size, and wrote the
address of two different sorting offices on them, being careful not
to have anything else underneath them for the writing to mark
through.
As soon as they
were all stamped and layered up appropriately he put it to one side
to post when he next left the house. The letter would take longer
to get to Amelia and go on a journey from London to Norwich,
followed by Birmingham, before it reached the Bristol sorting
office and then Bath to be sent out on the normal rounds. If no
problems occurred it would take three working days, but four would
be a reasonable estimate.
Before the weekend
was over he would need to get the extra phone to her, but he wanted
to take that personally and ensure she understood what it was for.
He also didn't want anyone else to know she was the recipient.
Satisfied with
both his precautions and the nature of his communications with
Amelia Jones, he returned his thoughts to the expected terrorist
attack. Several times during the last hour his assistant had sent
him text messages with the same two words.
Still nothing.
He decided to look
through the intercepted message again, as well as Amelia's
translation of it, so he sat back, shut his eyes and allowed his
brain to draw up the memory of Sherlock's case board, covered in
the feminine writing of his guest that day. Assuming her concept of
internet memes and his knowledge gained from two of his under cover
operatives was correct, it could only indicate what he'd already
guessed.
One operative had
managed to find out four possible codewords to describe the
operation: lace , gem , ring , and rose .
The second operative had discovered another two, clip and pin , as well as finding out that the intended target was the
millennium eye, so all those details could be trusted and he knew
it appeared to be lace as the operation's codename.
Realising he could
do nothing to gain more information and would have to wait for the
terrorist cell to make a move, just like the team he'd convinced
the government to deploy, he stopped using his mind to review the
facts and opened his eyes. Daniels stood in the doorway, silently
waiting for Mycroft to finish his task. The driver had seen him
performing this feat of memory on many occasions and knew he didn't
like to be interrupted while in the middle of it.
“The purchases you
wanted,” Daniels said as he removed two smallish boxes from a plain
carrier bag and placed them on the desk.
“Thank you,
Daniels, you can go.” Mycroft gave his usual brief smile and took
the top box in his hands. A reasonably new smart phone was pictured
on the box and the one underneath matched apart from the colour.
One had a silver case, the other black. Without hesitating he put
the silver one back and pulled the other box towards himself.
Silver wasn't a colour he liked and he imagined it would suit
Amelia better than him anyway.
It took him
another half an hour to prepare both phones and get them registered
with the pre-paid cards. Before he put Amelia's back in the box he
added the
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