For those who did not see Agent Carter Season 2 - Spoiler!
Fred Wells was mentioned in the second season. He was her fiance.
I hope you will enjoy this chapter... I decided to play with codebreaking a little bit :) Enjoy reading :)
Peggy was lying on her bed and was slowly drifting off. Howling commandos members were loud and cheerful around her and the noise was making her calm. Where they could make noise, there was no thread, and her senses did not need to be set on alert. Under her head, she had the book that she was struggling to find for the last week as there was such a mess in the truck they were travelling in. Col. Phillips gave her this book. It was the biggest issue about cyphers and decoding he could find, and it proved itself to be useful.
She used it once or twice when she needed inspiration in code breaking, but mostly she used it as a pillow (hard one, but wide enough to feel more comfortable than without it), and she tossed it a few times when someone of Commandos had inappropriate talks. When it hit Bucky straight into his forehead, it proved itself to be also a good weapon.
Her breathing started to slow down when Fred entered the tent and announced that codebreakers arrived at the camp. It took her a few seconds to realize that she must stand up and follow him.
"I am going with you," said Morrita. "I want to see what the code looks like."
They were led into the tent which was on one side of the camp. It was unsafe because this tent should shelter the most sensitive materials. If someone wanted to steal something from that tent, it would be easy work. That was why usually code breakers' tent was in the dead centre of the camp as well as a hospital camp.
In the tent, there were two stocky men sitting behind the table. One of them was wearing glasses and looked pissed. The second one was smiling, but there was a smell of alcohol which surrounded him.
"Wells! We were in the middle of a game that we were winning when an errand boy found us and told us that we must come back to the cypher that we do not know what do with."
Peggy raised her eyebrows.
"Does the war disturb you in here?" She asked.
Those men looked at her for the first time.
"Who is this? Did we miss a girls-singing performance of a war band?"
"This is Margaret Carter," Wells announced. She winced as he used her first name instead of her title. "She is here to help you with the cypher."
"There is nothing you can help us with." Said one of them.
"Those numbers are just random. I heard that sometimes Russians send a false message, that is not a message at all, and then they are having fun of us when they find out that we are trying to crack them. This is one of these cases."
"Can I see it?"
The man with glasses who seemed to be more annoyed but less drunk handed her the paper with the cypher. There were numbers in five columns. Each number contained four figures and her heart clenched. It looked like a one-time pad.
4702 0302 2502 1102 1902
3728 3528 5328 6528 5528
4948 9748 5748 8948 4948
3302 3102 1102 3102 4102
5728 6928 6928 6528 3728
7548 8348 9748 5748 8548
3902 2602 3102 4102 5937
2928 2928 6928 3328 2902
8348 7548 4948 7748 2822
1102 4702 4102 3102 3728
6328 4528 6728 6328 1102
5748 7148 6348 5548
"Did you find any patterns?" She asked them.
"Patterns? There are no patterns. Those numbers are just randomly written down."
She frowned but continued looking. She was still standing between the table with those men and Fred Wells. Morita was standing next to the entrance. She was scanning it for a few minutes and Wells started to shift.
"Nothing?" he asked her arrogantly. As if this type of cypher could be broken in a few minutes.
"Did you find out that the first double digits are always odd and the second are always even?"
They raised their brows and then looked at Wells meaningly. It was clear that they were not willing to work with a woman.
"It is unimportant," said one and wanted to continue, but Peggy stopped him with her question.
"Where did you find it?"
"One of our administrative officers found it in some desks. He told us that he had not ever seen those desks, so he opened them and there was this. He is a greenhorn…too excited about everything. He thought that it is a type of one-pad system and that it was put between his papers because someone wanted to hide it and then send it with other administrative desks via military post."
"Is this the original then?"
"The original is locked; this is a copy."
"Does anyone know about it?"
"Only our leaders. They are interested in it because they believe, that an exchange of some weapons should take place somewhere nearby. They did not specify that to me, but they seemed to be anxious. They heard that there is a mole in this unit."
"Bullshit," said the more drunk man and Fred Wells only nodded.
"I think that they did accept the fact that it is only a joke and that it is nothing important. So, I do not really know why they sent you here." The last sentence was told in such an angry voice, that she raised her eyes to him from the cypher.
She decided not to react to this and went to sit down. She put the paper with the code on the desk and started to scan these numbers with her eyes. She could not see that so far, but she could feel that there was a pattern she needed to find.
After a few minutes of silence, Wells asked her impatiently. "So...?"
"I'll need more time."
He scoffed and she realized that the last time he heard her say that sentence was when he proposed. Her ears went bright red, but she did not look up from the paper. He left the tent and after a few minutes, code breakers followed him, murmuring about the spoilt game.
"Jerks." That was the only thing that Morrita said. He was still standing next to the entrance.
She immersed herself in the decoding that she did not register that someone entered the tent and then someone left. Only after a cup of coffee was put next to her right hand did she realize that Steve took over Morita's place.
He looked at her, concern in his eyes. She looked tired. He knew that they did not have time to sleep properly for the last two weeks, and it started to show on all of them.
"Thanks," she said gratefully. Steve looked concerned at her. "What's up?" She asked.
"When was the last time you had a good sleep?"
"1939" she answered quickly. He grinned and looked around.
"Where are the other guys?"
"They did not think it is important…"
"Maybe it can wait till the morning then."
"I am fine, I do not need the sleep." Her voice was, however, betraying her as it sounded weak. Then she added, "And if the leaders are right and there is a mole between us, we can't afford to lose time."
Steve was looking over her shoulder. The only thing he could see was numbers. She, however, was scanning them with her eyes intensively, not showing any sign of disappointment. Her mouth was moving as she was talking to herself soundlessly.
"What are you looking for?" He asked.
"Patterns."
"And is there anything that can help you with that?"
She raised her eyes and looked amused.
"Pencils," she said with a smile, "but I am afraid that there are none in this camp."
Steve raised his eyebrows.
"Do you want to draw right now?"
"Something like that. It helped me when I was decoding some cyphers. When I was taking a code-breakers course, they showed us a tab. In the first column, there was the alphabet. In the next column, there were figures. So, you could read the value of each letter when you read it line by line. There were many columns. Sometimes the row of numbers did not start with the number 1, sometimes they used only even or odd numbers. And there were letters that were highlighted by colours. All vowels were yellow except for the letter E which is the most frequently used letter, and which was coloured green. During the course, I learnt the whole tab by heart. Sometimes when I read news or books, I can see the consonants being yellow. But as this is quite a long cypher, it would be easier to mark them and then look at them… you know…to see patterns." She shrugged, but then she started to focus on the list again. She rewrote the cypher on a separate sheet of paper and started to underline some figures. Steve was watching her amazed. He knew that she is one of the best code breakers in the army, but till now he did not see her breaking any code in front of him. He could not imagine thinking the same way as Peggy.
After one hour, Dugan entered the tent and tilted his head as he saw Steve being bent over to see over Peggy's shoulder. His hand was laid on the desk as he was watching the papers being moved or written to by Peggy. Before his eyes, he saw a flashback from his childhood, when his parents were positioned precisely the same way when his mother was calculating taxes or counting money for their holidays. Father could not be much useful but supported her with his presence. Dugan was not sure whether Steve was so focused on the papers on the desk or if he only enjoyed the presence of Peggy. However, he was so deep in his mind, that he did not even realize that somebody entered the tent. It was only after a minute that he looked up and flinched in shock realizing that they were not alone. Peggy was so focused that she did not even register that he straightened up and went to Dugan.
"We thought that we would take turns to look after… the cypher. I have the first turn; we switch after an hour."
Steve nods. In his head, he was trying hard to find a reason why he should stay there with Peggy for some time, but because he did not find any and because he trusted his team, he looked back to Peggy one more time and aimed at the tent.
It took her four hours before she found a pattern. The last double digits were repeating. 02 – 28 – 48. She knew that if she broke this code, she would be able to read it all. But she got stuck there for the better part of another hour and she started to lose her focus. She could hear the soft snoring of Gabe and she registered – for the first time – when it was time for her bodyguards to switch. Another cup of coffee.
"I thought that Sam should replace me," said Gabe tiredly.
"He was sleeping, and I was not. I will substitute him."
Gabe nodded and left.
"So, how is it going?"
"I am stuck," she admitted. "I see the pattern, but I do not know how to crack the keyword."
"Try to think out loud. It helps me sometimes," Steve suggested.
"There is a keyword. It is only three letters long word, and all numbers are even. That means that most probably they coded the alphabet in even numbers only. You know, when you code the alphabet into numbers and you start with 1 which stands for A, all the vowels are odd numbers. And there are not many words which are three letters long and which does not contain any vowel. So, I thought that they started with zero, but then it would be only vowels. That means, that they coded the alphabet differently. Maybe…" she started to write another column with the alphabet with numbers next to it … "that they started with the number two – you know – the first even number – but then the keyword would be ANX and it does not make sense at all. Unless… "She started to write more quickly, "unless they started with zero. Then the keyword would be…" she ran her finger over the paper, writing down letters which corresponded with numbers 02-28-48... "the keyword would be… BOY." Her pupils dilated as she saw the word. It was a normal noun, but she had a weird feeling about it. When reading this word, she could see a flashback from the training camp. The group of new recruits in their uniforms were looking at the flag. She did not know why she remembered this.
"Boy?" Steve interrupted her. "What does it mean?"
She shook her head and started to focus on the cypher again.
"I think I get it." She drew a line between the second and the third cypher to be able to see it separately. Then she started to subtract the second double digits from the first ones. She wrote down a completely new column of double digits numbers.
"Can you see? She was talking half to Steve and half to herself." Which number is repeating most often?" He looked over her shoulder. "I think it's number 01" he answered. "That appears… 6 times".
"Yes… but look, number 09 appears eight times. And because E is the most frequent letter used in English… And if this code IS written in English, and if I am not mistaken, the number 09 stands for E. The biggest figure is 49. There are 27 letters in the English alphabet, so logically, they are skipping some numbers and… all the numbers are odds! This means, that if E is the fifth in the alphabet and ninth in here… they used only odd numbers and they started with the number 1."
Number after number, the text of the cypher was being broken. She exhaled as she read the text of the message.
"They were right. We have a mole," her voice was shaking. Steve looked at her with a firm expression. There were three-four digits numbers left. They did not correspond with the rules that she mentioned before. "What are those?"
She looked at them. The first digits were followed by N and the second by E.
"Coordinates." She answered and looked up at Steve.
"We need to leave the moment I break them. If the leaders are right and according to this message they are, we must catch the mole. This is a one-time opportunity."
"But how do we know the date?"
She pointed at the last four digits. 1102. "It does not follow the pattern but they wanted it to seem so. Can you see it? The double-digit 02 should appear in the next line, but this is the last one. That means that it is not a letter. It is a date. And because they found the cypher three days ago, we can be sure that it does not refer to February. 11 – 02: The second of November."
Steve took a deep breath and looked at his watch. It was 01:48 - already a new day.
"Today."
Thanks to all of you for reading it!
I studied the one-time pad system and because it would mean transferring the key for the cypher, I decided to change it a little bit and I decided to encode it on my own. The key would be part of the next story, but I think that since you have the keyword and the solution how to crack this message, you can read it already on your own :).