Doctor Fung and Dan Barrister

Illinois, 5th March 1942

Dan and Doctor Fung finished their breakfast and returned to their room. Dan went back to bed. He woke a few hours later to find the train moving, noticeably faster than it had yesterday.

Doctor Fung sat at the little desk by the window, writing furiously on sheet after sheet of the railroad company's notepaper.

"Last will and testament?" Dan asked.

The Doctor didn't look up from his writing, nor pause in it. "Do not make light of such matters, my friend." The envelope that Miss Prendergast had given him lay on the desk, and he nodded to it. "See what you make of that."

The envelope bore an address in Singapore, and was postmarked Chicago, August 7th, 1940. Inside were three folded sheets of thin paper. These bore technical drawings of a mechanism with lots of gears and levers.

"Blueprints of a machine," said Dan. "About a foot across, judging from the dimension lines. There's a part labelled gyroscope, so maybe it's something for navigation, to go in an airplane or a boat. Apart from that, I've no idea. There's no product name or manufacturer. And this isn't the whole machine. The numbers at the tops of the sheets say these are drawings six, seven and eight of forty-seven."

"Good," said the Doctor. "Anything else?"

Dan yawned and checked the sheets again. "Give us a clue?"

"Hold them up to the light."

Dan did this. Faint angular symbols in a grid became visible. "Some kind of secret writing. Looks a bit like Chinese, but I don't recognise the characters. Japanese kana, maybe?" That was an alphabet they used to write any word that didn't have its own character.

"The writing system is Korean," said the Doctor, "but the language is not. I believe it may be a code."

Dan returned the sheets to the envelope and sat down. "That makes sense, if we're dealing with a spy. But why would a German spy be using the Korean alphabet?"

"Perhaps he is not spying for Germany. Or was not. We have only Miss Prendergast's word for that."

"So you think the reason the FBI couldn't connect him to a spy ring is because there wasn't one? Or he wasn't part of it?"

"Perhaps. A month ago, we could have passed this information to the British authorities in Singapore."

"Is it still relevant?" Dan asked. "The letter's nearly two years old."

"The envelope is nearly two years old. The contents might be considerably younger."

"So you think you can crack the code?"

"I do not know," said the Doctor.

Dan's jaw dropped, then he snapped it shut.

The Doctor gave him an insincere smile. "You will find this hard to believe, my friend, but I am not familiar with every code ever invented, nor with every language ever written."

"You're doing your reputation some serious damage here, Doc."

"Fortunately, I know someone in Chicago who might be able to remedy the first part of my ignorance, and our enforced delay there might grant me the opportunity to visit her."

"So, what do you reckon this Eye of Drov thing does?" Dan asked. "Or why did those guys want it?"

"It is difficult to say, as I had not heard of it until last night. Obviously, it removes all matter within a certain distance of itself, but what becomes of that matter—​who knows?"

"Maybe it just gets destroyed."

"That seems a needlessly elaborate way to end one's life, particularly for a vampire." The Doctor shook his head. "I could see one person wanting to do that, but two, independently?"

"If Miss Prendergast is right about the guy being a Nazi spy, he must've been trying to steal the Eye for Germany. So it must be a weapon, or something that's useful in war."

"Indeed."

"So what do we do about it?" Dan asked.

"At the moment, the only thing we can do is attempt to break this code."

Dan took the hint and left for the lounge car, with the copy of the New York Times that he'd bought yesterday. He rather hoped Miss Prendergast would show up for coffee, but she didn't. Perhaps she'd had her fill last night.

At about 11:15, the train pulled into Kansas City, and a few passengers boarded, complaining loudly about the five-and-a-quarter-hour delay. So the train had made up a little time since breakfast.

At 12:30, it was time for lunch, and Miss Prendergast joined Dan and the Doctor in the dining car. The Doctor slid the envelope across the table to her.

"Did you you find it interesting?" she asked.

"Perhaps not as interesting as you hoped," the Doctor replied. "The writing is not Chinese."

"Oh," she said, and Dan guessed she didn't quite believe him.

"I am confident that your agency has someone who will be able to read it."

She nodded. "I expect you're right." A waiter came by to take their orders. When he'd gone, she asked, "Do you have a hotel arranged for tonight?"

"No," said the Doctor. "We had expected to be in Chicago for only a couple of hours."

"I'm staying in a place on Ninth Street, a few blocks from the station. Basic, but cheap and clean, and there are plenty of good restaurants nearby."

"I thought you lived in Chicago," said Dan.

She gave him a knowing smile. "Miss Prendergast lives in Chicago." Meaning that was part of her cover.

"We shall be pleased to accept your recommendation," the Doctor said.

After lunch, when they were back in their room, Dan asked the Doctor, "So—​you going to tell me why you lied to an FBI agent?"

The Doctor shrugged. "I did not lie, exactly. I could be wrong about the nature of the secret message, and I do not wish to prejudice their own investigation. After all, if the great Doctor Fung says something is a coded message in Korean, it must be a coded message in Korean, yes? And if the FBI cannot read the message, it must be because they lack the great Doctor Fung's wisdom, yes?"

"I guess so."

The train pulled into Dearborn Station at 6:18, just over four-and-a-half hours late. The three of them took a cab to the hotel that Miss Prendergast had recommended, a small place seemingly built as an afterthought between two skyscrapers. Miss Prendergast had a reservation, and there was a double room vacant, which Dan and the Doctor took.

The Doctor used the pay phone in the lobby while Dan and the hotel's porter took everyone's luggage up to their rooms. When Dan went back downstairs, the Doctor handed him the room key and told him, "I am taking advantage of this delay to our journey to visit an old friend in the city. Unfortunately, she does not like strangers, so I must go alone. I expect I will not return until quite late. Please leave the key at reception, so I do not have to wake you."

When the Doctor had left, Dan turned to Miss Prendergast. "So... can I buy you dinner?"

She pouted. "No."

Dan stepped back. "Oh. OK."

"The chance to be carefree doesn't come along very often in my line of work. Nor yours, I imagine. So what you can do is take me to dinner and let me pay for my half." She stuck out her elbow for Dan to take her arm.

Dan's face grew warm, and he hooked his arm through hers. "That works for me."