Secret Breakers: The Power of Three (6 page)

The man before them wore a smart three-piece suit and a small pair of glasses bizarrely propped above his eyes on his forehead. ‘I’m Smithies,’ he said, ‘and this is Miss Tandari. She’ll be one of your teachers here.’

He gestured to a tall black woman standing to his left. She wore a floaty coral blue blouse and silver bangles which shimmered brightly against her skin.

‘Welcome to Station X,’ she said in a voice that was light and airy.

‘Let’s take you inside. Tandi, if you’d lead the way.’

A door opened into a small ante-porch and then out on to a wide corridor. Smithies stopped for a moment, pointing out to them an intricate tapestry hung on the wall. ‘Made by one who was here before you,’ he said, ‘it’s a map of the place as it was just after the war.’ A twinkle flashed in his eye. Brodie continued walking and could see an impressive wooden stairway sweeping up to the right.

‘We’ve basically adapted the inside of the house to meet our needs,’ Miss Tandari explained as she walked. ‘You’ll see most of the rooms’ve been made into study spaces, except the music room which it seemed a shame to clutter up.’ She led them to a large room with a massively high stained-glass ceiling covered with pictures of flowers. At the end was a tall stone fireplace with a bust of Winston Churchill on top. Miss Tandari patted the bust affectionately on his bald head. ‘Obviously a great fan of Bletchley,’ she said.

‘You must remember,’ Smithies added rather sombrely, ‘this is a country home. It was never built to be a “Code and Cipher School” or “Black Chamber”. Yet that’s what it became just before World War Two and we’re thrilled to say it’s become so again.’

Miss Tandari led on. ‘This is where your secret breaking adventure will begin. A place for you to use your power as you did in order to get yourself inside.’

‘Mind you,’ Smithies reminded them, calling over his shoulder, ‘if you’d remembered our little clue from the very first piece of information you could’ve saved yourself a lot of time and got in rather more quickly. “Light is knowledge” after all.’

Brodie felt the colour rush across her face, straight to the roots of her hair. An awkward memory of a lamp on a bridge and a candle lantern burning brightly in the daytime stirred in her mind. She determined not to miss clues like that again.

They’d reached a large ballroom where several chairs were laid out boardroom style. Seated behind the table was a man who appeared to be wearing a pair of pyjama trousers and a rather crumpled shirt. He lifted his hand and tidied his unruly eyebrows with the heel of his thumb before offering a scowl in their direction.

‘So,’ said Smithies with a flourish. ‘Now we’re all here, let’s get started.’

‘
All
.’ Brodie played the word over in her mind. All didn’t seem to be very many. It was not stretching things to suggest this wasn’t really what she’d expected but she sat down on the chair offered to her and tried her best to pay attention.

‘I’d like to begin by thanking you for responding to our call for help,’ began Smithies. ‘We’ve invited you here with two very clear purposes,’ he said deliberately. ‘Our first task is to train you. To make you masters of code and ciphers. To teach you all we know.

‘Our second task is to test you.’

Brodie felt a little sick.

‘To choose members for a Black Chamber Study Group entitled Veritas,’ continued Smithies, ‘who’ll be given classified and highly confidential new information which will be used to work on a code that’s baffled minds for centuries. A book of secrets. It’s our serious hope to choose a team of people able to read it.’

Brodie felt the strange bubbling sensation in her stomach she’d got used to feeling now every time the unreadable book was mentioned. A chance to be in a team. She’d never been in a team before. She’d tried out once for the netball team. The teacher felt so sorry for her, she’d got the job of cutting up the oranges for half-time. But this was a
real
chance. To be part of a
real
team. At something she might actually be good at. She was surprised how much she wanted that now she was here.

‘Now,’ Smithies continued, as if speaking to a much bigger crowd. ‘Although we’d like to include you all in the Study Group we’ll need to be sure you’re worthy of your place in the team. Myself, Miss Tandari and our learned colleague Oscar Ingham will be your teachers here.’ He gestured to the man in the pyjama trousers then began to collect together some papers and notes from the table in front of him.

‘So there’s a chance we still might not make it, then?’ hissed Hunter. ‘Another chance we could get sent home.’ This thought clearly worried him immensely. ‘And the old geezer in pyjamas. What the crab apple’s that all about?’

Tusia hissed back along the line. ‘Maybe he just can’t bring himself to get ready to face the day.’

‘That’s stupid.’

‘Perhaps he thinks if he doesn’t get dressed properly then the day hasn’t really started.’

Brodie mulled this over and looked at Tusia with a deepening respect. ‘You see
all that
because he’s wearing pyjamas?’ She hoped any tests they had wouldn’t focus on working out things like that.

Tusia shrugged. ‘Lots of people can’t face the day,’ she said knowingly. ‘They just go about showing it in different ways.’ She hesitated for a moment. ‘Anyway, you can’t blame the old guy if he’s realised he has to try and teach
him
,’ she added venomously, pointing along the line.

Hunter glowered and raised his hand attempting to hide the fact he was whispering again, but Brodie batted his hand away. ‘Shh,’ she hissed. ‘They’ll hear. And we’re supposed to be making a good impression.’

‘Fair point,’ winced Hunter.

Smithies had organised the papers and cleared his throat to speak again. ‘Enough of the formalities. You’ll be tired and hungry, and I for one have an appointment to keep.’ He smiled and Brodie felt reassured. ‘Take your time to make yourselves at home. Rest well. There’s plenty of time to prepare for testing.’

‘You’ll be in Hut 8,’ Miss Tandari explained, as Brodie began her private tour. ‘Smithies lives off site in the village but you can always find me as I’m based in the mansion. Here’s a map to refer to and I’ll help you get your bearings.’

Starting beside Block B, Brodie could see a series of huts of different sizes and ages. Some were newly painted, but some were rather shabby. On the outside of each one was a number marked on the centre of a thick black name-plate. ‘These huts were the heart of Bletchley,’ Miss Tandari explained. ‘In the war code-breakers were allocated to one particular hut. You worked there all the time. Each hut was responsible for different types of code-breaking.’ Brodie nodded. ‘They’re all different. They’ve all got their own histories. Huts 3, 4, 6 and 8 are the most famous ones,’ she continued. ‘Your grandfather worked in Hut 3. The work which happened there changed the course of the whole war.’

Brodie imagined her granddad, young and excited, working inside the hut. She wished she’d had longer to ask him what code-cracking was really like. She reached up to the locket that hung around her neck and cradled it in her hand.

‘Beautiful necklace,’ said Miss Tandari brightly.

As they walked, Miss Tandari pointed out the tennis court and the ornamental lake. In the centre a rather crooked fountain shot water in great jets up into the air. ‘We haven’t got the water pressure quite right yet,’ she said apologetically over her shoulder as a cloud of droplets blew in their direction making Brodie’s feet wet.

As they rounded the corner, Miss Tandari waved towards the Ice House. The building was shaped like a hexagon and Miss Tandari was keen to point out the pigeon loft built into the pointed roof. She explained the building had been used to store ice and keep food from going bad before fridges had been invented. Such a large place to keep ice in seemed a weird idea to Brodie. She stared hard and watched a group of white birds circle above them then land on the roof.

‘So Hut 8 then?’ Miss Tandari said marching on, looking away from the pigeons. ‘You’ll find everything you need inside,’ she added, and Brodie was not entirely sure she didn’t see Miss Tandari wink, although on reflection it may have been a trick of the light.

She opened the door to the hut and entered a narrow corridor. She followed it until she found the room number marked at the top of her map. Room seven. She paused for a moment, unsure whether she should knock, and then thinking better of it, she swung the door wide and stepped in.

In retrospect it may have been better to knock.

Seated on a rush mat spread on the floor in the centre of the room, her legs crossed and her hands stretched up towards the ceiling, was Tusia. Her eyes were firmly closed and she was humming. From a CD player, balanced precariously in the corner, came the sound of songbirds and ocean waves and on the window sill a candle smelling strongly of lavender was burning.

Brodie coughed gently to announce her arrival.

Tusia didn’t move.

‘Hello again,’ Brodie whispered nervously.

Tusia opened one eye.

‘Looks like I’m your new room-mate.’

Tusia kept one eye firmly closed. ‘One moment,’ she said.

Brodie moved awkwardly from foot to foot as the sounds on the CD reached a crescendo and then died away. Tusia sighed deeply, opened her eyes and jumped to her feet.

‘Great we’re together, don’t you think? After all the fun we had earlier. Did you enjoy your tour? I’d memorised the location of the buildings already so mine didn’t take long. I’ve rearranged things here a bit though. Pulled the beds out to balance the shui in the room. The way it was all set out, our luck would’ve left the room before nightfall.’

Brodie knew she looked confused again. ‘Shui?’

‘Positivity. My mother swears by feng shui. We had a specialist over and he reordered the whole house. Had to knock down a chimney in my brother’s room and turn the staircase round but Mum said it’s worth every penny.’ She patted the end of the unit. ‘Anyway, this way you get a good view of the lake, but if you’d prefer the other bed, then I really don’t mind.’

Brodie sat down on the end of the duvet.

‘Here,’ Tusia said, turning to a chest of drawers beneath the window. ‘Apple and mango juice with omega three. Very restoring.’

Brodie thanked Tusia enthusiastically, although as she gulped the drink down she was sure there was the faintest taste of fish.

She put her half-full glass down on the bedside table. ‘So, anyway. Great place, isn’t it?’

‘Less rugged than I’m used to,’ Tusia said. ‘I live in Cornwall. They offered to fly me in but my family are against any form of air travel unless it’s absolutely necessary. Kills the environment.’

Brodie smiled weakly.

‘My father’s fitted a catalytic converter to our camper van that allows it to drive using vegetable oil. It means the van can’t go above forty miles an hour, and it smells a bit like a chip shop, but it got us here eventually.’

‘Right.’ Brodie glanced out of the window and saw Hunter being led by Mr Ingham on a walk past the lake. She laughed as he attempted an unsuccessful sidestep to avoid the spluttering fountain. ‘This is great,’ she said.

‘There’s a wardrobe and chest of drawers for your things,’ Tusia said, ‘and they’ve left you a complete uniform … although I hope yours looks better on than mine. Blue’s not really my colour. I’m more of a summer person. I prefer yellows and oranges.’ Brodie glanced down at the long stripy socks Tusia was wearing which reinforced that fact.

‘Uniform?’

‘Yeah.’ Tusia pointed to a light blue blazer draped across the chair. Next to it was a long black skirt, several shirts and a blue and black tie. The blazer had ‘Pembroke’ embroidered across the pocket.

‘Pembroke?’ Brodie said quizzically.

‘Yep. In the war, workers at Bletchley wore uniforms for an invented ship called
HMS Pembroke
. They’ve taken on the same idea now. If we wander round the station with a uniform on then chances are any members of the public who spot us will just think we’re on a school trip. It’ll look like we’re pupils at a private school called Pembroke College. What d’you reckon?’

Brodie slipped on the blazer. It was in fact a perfect fit. She twirled round and Tusia nodded mockingly. ‘Very classy,’ she said.

The candle on the windowsill guttered a little and Brodie put the clothes down again across the chair. ‘Guess I should unpack.’ She looked over to Tusia’s side of the room where a sea of photograph frames were arranged in height order.

‘Some of my pets,’ Tusia explained, ‘and of course Mikhail Botvinnik. A supergrandmaster of chess if ever there was one.’ Brodie tried not to look too puzzled and turned instead to peer at the photograph Tusia’d lifted in the air. ‘Here’s my mum and dad and brothers.’ Tusia handed over a frame. It showed an eager group sitting at the top of a very high mountain. ‘Ben Nevis,’ Tusia said. ‘Last summer. Before my brothers flew to Fiji. They’re doing vital research there,’ she explained before Brodie could mention carbon footprints. ‘My dad always says mountains are there to be climbed.’

‘Looks like a challenge,’ Brodie said encouragingly.

‘My family are into challenges.’ Brodie felt this sounded like a statement of the obvious coming from a girl who’d willingly climbed on the roof. ‘My parents teach me at home as my dad doesn’t really believe in schools. He says they’re full of irritating people, like that boy Hunter. People like him who think they can change the world and boss everyone round while they do it.’ She sniffed. ‘Now sit down and tell me all about yourself and then in about half an hour we can pop over to Hut 12 and get something to eat.’ She paused for a moment. ‘Come on then, tell me what your parents are like and what they think about you joining the Black Chamber.’