Although I wasn’t entirely happy with what Huang Yiyi wanted to do, I still went to report it to Unit Director Luo. Unit Director Luo was happy to agree, and she immediately rang Comrade Chen and told him to come round. Right in front of me she ordered him to report to my office. I was expecting him to refuse, but after he had heard her out, he was silent for a bit and then made his position clear: ‘Since both you and Unit Director Luo want me to join, I must agree. Even if I didn’t want to, I would have to. But I want you to know that I don’t believe that we can crack RECOVERY. I can’t do it, and I don’t think that this expert you have brought in can do it either. She doesn’t have any respect for the way that things are done, and in my experience, people like that aren’t good cryptographers.’

I said that when she was in the United States she had cracked Soviet ciphers.

Comrade Chen said, ‘That’s just rumour. I never believe that sort of thing. Do you know why? First and foremost because people who really do decrypt ciphers are very secretive about what they do, and also because anyone who actually has cracked a cipher would never speak as light-heartedly as she does, as if a cipher is just a difficult maths problem. What is cryptography? Didn’t your supervisor Anderov say that it was like listening to the heartbeats of the dead and that therefore we have to be as emotionless and untroubled as corpses ourselves? But look at her … even though I’ve only just met her and don’t really know her at all, I can see from her eyes that she is full of hope, that she is an impulsive person. I don’t know whether all the time you spent with Anderov means you really have learnt the business, but in my opinion whether or not we crack RECOVERY is going to be down to you. That’s why I’m happy to work as your assistant and help you out.’

I could only tell him the truth. ‘I wasn’t actually studying cryptography with him – I was there for other reasons. I was just discussing the matter with Unit Director Luo and we decided to put you in charge of the cryptanalysis work.’

Comrade Chen was obviously suffering when he said, ‘Deputy Director An, this is torture! I am past fifty, don’t do this to me!’

I smiled. ‘Comrade Chen, what do you mean by torture? If we crack RECOVERY, this will be the greatest possible glory. Think of it as adding further lustre to your crown …’

Comrade Chen laughed hollowly. It was a very bitter laugh.

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