Breaking Enigma || The Imitation Game

◈ FORTY- Love is a Losing Game ◈

Aha! Just as a promised! Here's chapter forty in honour of Alan Turing's 105th birthday <3

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Later that night, the Team and I were in Hut 11 standing anxiously before Christianna while it was clacking away. It was ferociously loud, and I hoped that no-one would come over to complain. Then again, my many people would still be in Bletchley Park at this time of night.

The gears and drums of the machine were spinning incredibly quickly, the electrical current was flowing at speed through the wires. It was a marvellous piece of kit, but all we could do was stare as we took turns to compulsively check our watches. None of us knew when it was going to stop, but it wasn't going to do so.

Suddenly, the loud sound of the bell rang, announcing the stroke of midnight. It was almost diminished by the sound of Allany's machine, but nevertheless it was a sign of failure; a sign that had kept coming back for the last few years. Disappointing.

"Damn it!" Hugh yelled, frustrated and pissed of beyond words. Carlton jumped in his seat, momentarily stunned by Hugh's shouting.

I looked over to Allany, who appeared as though she would rip her hair out at any moment. She had her arms folded tightly over her chest, staring angrily at Christianna, most likely pondering: 'why won't this thing work?'

"Damn it, indeed," she mumbled before turning on her heels and storming out of the hut. The rest of us followed suit as we left Christianna clacking on.

It was warm tonight, even though it was pitch black. The stars twinkled in the inky-black sky, the street lamps in the Park lit the pathway as we made our down to the beer hut in silence. The atmosphere was tense, I felt so squirrelly walking besides Hugh and Allany; try were the worse of us all. John followed closely behind me, his breathing deep as if he was attempting to destress. I wouldn't be surprised if it didn't work.

It was also strange that we were just small dogs in the large system going on here at Bletchley. We were nonchalantly, as if it was nothing, walking through the most top secret war zone in the country. Possibly the world because that's what it felt like.

More security had been added over the passing days, proving my point. Armed guards were scattered here, there, and everywhere; they insisted on showing them our ID cards every time we passed or left the Park, even if they'd seen us twice before in the day. We tended to flash our IDs to them absentmindedly now as we were so used to doing so.

"We're soon out of time," Anthony spoke up, trying to break the ice. Our month..."

"So, that's it. We've lost," added Carlton, certain of his words.

Hugh ran his hands through his hair, brushing it away from his forehead in an attempt to cool himself down. "It doesn't matter how much we improve on it, that machine will never be able to check one hundred and fifty-nine million million million possibilities in time..." He turned to Allany dejectedly. "You had a good shot at it, Allany. We all had a good run."

He seemed to be giving up after all the hard work both he and the rest of us had put into all of this, but Allany wouldn't have it.

"It's just searching," she insisted firmly. "It... It just doesn't quite know what it's searching for. If only we knew what the messages were going to say."

John piped up. "But if we knew what the messages were going to say, we wouldn't have to decrypt them at all."

Maybe it was impossible after all. The Team appeared to be going through a massive phase of doubt, and I was falling into it with them. I had so much optimism from the start, yet I think it was too excessive. I was wrong, I could feel it. However, there was one little spark in me that told me to never give up. But how's that possible when a highly intelligent machine can't solve the problem it was designed to crack?