Breaking Enigma || The Imitation Game

◈ TWENTY-ONE- Tricks and Guilt ◈

"What on Earth do you mean by 'round two?'" I questioned as the Team and I entered the Hut, chasing after Allany, who we found rooting through her small, brown leather satchel that sat beside her desk.

"Where are they?" She was murmuring to herself repeatedly in a distressed tone.

"We get the concept that you, as much as we do, want to break Enigma," John began, looking at her, puzzled. "But you don't have to be an enigmatic machine yourself, Allany. Why don't you just tell us what's going through that brain of yours?"

"Well, first things first, Denniston believes that he's destroyed the plans for my machine, thus destroying our efforts in total," she then pulled out two dozen (possibly more) sheets of paper, all of which had been drawn, written and noted on. Allany slammed them in the worktop and gazed at us all with a smile. "But he evidently didn't check what had really burnt in that fire."

The five of us that were left gazed back, confused, but I soon realised what she was babbling on about.

"He only burnt drafts of the designs for your machine," I chimed in, making the others look in my direction and they soon understood what was happening too. "You kept the final designs in a safer, less obvious place. Somewhere Denniston wouldn't suspect."

"Exactly," her smile widened. "Denniston isn't as smart as he thinks his is. And it appears he misjudged my intelligence."

"He certainly did," Hugh exclaimed.

"So, he rushed in an didn't realise that he didn't actually burn the real plans?" Anthony inquired, still baffled.

"Precisely," Allany nodded. "I'm not stupid enough to leave such precious plans lying around."

"So, why were you so upset?"

"I had to make it authentic now, didn't I?" She said matter-of-factly while smirking.

"What a fantastic Christmas this has turned out to be," said Hugh, half-sarcastically and half-honestly.

"Indeed," I nodded, then turning to Allany as she still had a slight grin on her lips. "Deception didn't appear to be something you'd do."

"It's not deception," she corrected. "It's intelligence used for survival. And that's what needs to be done when Denniston's around. He certainly doesn't have the right to be the alpha and neither is he worthy of being so."

"You got that right," Anthony exclaimed. "Whether what you did was clever or just pure luck, your final and important work has been saved and that's all that counts, right?"

"Oh, yes," remarked Allany. "I must thank you all for being... Not angry with me and for being so concerned, I suppose."

"It was an honour to have played a part your little stage show, Turing," John bowed mockingly. "We should all do this more often; it's like a team bonding activity."

We all laughed, making our distressful and eventful evening end on a light note.

And at that moment, I could only think of one word for it all- for all of tonight and for all of Allany:

Genius.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

We all set to work, feeling the sense of a newfound respect for Allany. We all were amazed really, but couldn't linger on that since there were jobs to be completed and take on.

At ten o'clock the following night, the Team still found themselves in the frantic state of hard-work. We had been attempting to break coded messages all day- succeeding only slightly. The atmosphere was calmer, yet more exhausted compared to what it was like yesterday. It was as if it felt normal. Then again, was there even such thing as 'normal' at Bletchley Park?

Carlton and Allany herself had left the Hut to get most of the Team a cup of tea. Meanwhile, Hugh, John, Anthony and I were continuing with our dreaded and laborious work.

Suddenly, a pang of guilt sparked inside my chest. It had been over a month since I last saw Albie Watson and that made me realise that I forgot to visit him the day he left for his return to France.

I was such a terrible friend for abandoning him when I promised to say goodbye.

I promised.

It was unfortunately too late now. I could possibly send him a letter to apologise, but what if Albie didn't reply because he felt disloyalty.

"Shit," I mutter almost silently. I didn't mean to swear, which is something I would never really do, yet at times like this it was necessary.

"What did you say, Kester?" John glanced over to me, his eyebrow raised in amusement.

"I said 'shit,'" speaking louder, I emphasised when I shouldn't have, although I didn't particularly care since I was annoyed with myself.

John looked shocked, but jokingly. "What has gotten you in a tizz?"

Beginning with a sigh, I answered, "I met and old friend of mine, who is in the Army, in the middle of November and I promised him that I turn up in the day he was set for heading back to France. The only thing is... I didn't get to say goodbye and only God knows how he's doing."

There was a long pause before anybody spoke. But during that pause, John, Anthony and Hugh exchanged glances.

"I'm sure your friend will be fine," Hugh reassured.

"Yeah," Anthony nodded in agreement. "I'm sure he's a strong character. He will fight through."

"I hope so," I replied, gazing down mindlessly at the desk speaking in an unintentionally quiet tone, then wondering if the other three men had heard.

Carlton and Allany returned a few minutes later and they began handing out the mugs of tea. I thanked Allany in a more-gloomy-than-usual voice as she eyed me curiously.

My eyes made quick contact with hers, but almost immediately looked away as I thought it would be best to carry on with my code-breaking.

I also thought it would be wise to wait that little bit longer for my tea to cool, seeing as though I scalded my tongue on the hot liquid last time I remembered really thinking about tea.

The Team talked quietly amongst themselves, avoiding all communication with me as they probably thought I'd snap at them with irritation. Truth be told, I was more upset than frustrated that I'd let my friend down. But I shouldn't let that get in the way of my new friends and my behaviour towards them. I wasn't a naturally angry person and I wouldn't let that start now. So, taking a deep breath, I came to the conclusion that I'd forgot about my personal life and carry on with our ever-so-important code-breaking.

"How about another ghost story?" Anthony suggested, shattering the silence. "To lighten the mood. It's awfully dismal in here."

"It's not Halloween anymore," Allany pointed out. "And don't tell me you're going to tell us the tale of a satanic Father Christmas who, instead of delivering presents, eats naughty children and turns out to be the cannibalistic stuff of nightmares."

A short silence occurred. I suppressed myself from laughing as a pure look of terror appeared on Carlton's innocent face.

"Well..." Anthony stuttered. "That's not what I was thinking. Definitely not."

"She's only joking," Hugh reassured. "Come on then, let's listen to some horrifying tales."

When Anthony said 'another ghost story' I thought he meant one or two. I couldn't have been more wrong.

He only stopped his infamous stories when the bell sounded, signalling that it was midnight, with a ear-piercing ring. None of us had realised how quickly the time had passed and regretted straying away from work. Although the work we were currently doing was so significant, it couldn't control and take over our lives. We had to take a break and rest at some point.

And that's what the six of us did for the next six hours; waiting for the first, early morning Enigma message to arrive. It was quite torturous, but someone had to do it...