“Dr. Ruth Drinkwater,” said the man on the right, entering the conversation for the first time.

“Ruthie? She was great. What she knows about Enigma is remarkable.”

“Yes, Enigma,” said the first man. “You subsequently wrote a thesis on the postwar work of Alan Turing, one of the key figures in breaking Enigma.”

“That’s right,” said Patton. The Englishman who helped break Enigma and basically invented the field of modern computer science had become a source of fascination for Patton ever since she’d first heard about him in an undergraduate history course. Two years later she decided to write her master’s thesis in mathematics on aspects of Turing’s work. While hardly an expert on either Turing or cracking Enigma, she certainly knew a lot more about both than the average graduate student.

“We were particularly intrigued by the idea you suggested that Turing’s approach to both computer science and codebreaking could be applied to cracking modern computer-encrypted messages.”

“You read my thesis,” said Patton. “How thoughtful. If you count my adviser, that makes three of us.”

“You also,” said the man on the left, “checked out the first two volumes of Military Cryptanalytics from the university library.”

“They made for great bedtime reading,” said Patton. “Too bad the third volume was so heavily redacted it wasn’t worth publishing. I guess you guys had something to do with that.”

“I’ll be frank with you, Miss Harcourt. We’ve been watching you for a long time and we like what we see. You’re bright, tenacious, inventive, and growing up in a family like yours, you must understand what it means to serve your country.”

“Who are you guys?” said Patton, leaning back in her chair and crossing her legs.

“We could tell you,” said the man on the left with a smile, “but then we’d have to kill you.”

“CIA, right?” said Patton. “I’ve heard about these little recruiting sessions.”

“Are you ready to serve your country, Miss Harcourt?”

“In the CIA?” said Patton. “You haven’t researched my family very well if you think they’re going to let their precious little girl go into civilian work, no matter how important to national security. I’m sure whatever you have in mind for me would be fascinating, but I’m afraid it was always going to be military intelligence for me. Thanks for asking, though.”

“If you change your mind . . .” said the man on the right, sliding a business card across the table. And the interview was over. Back in her apartment Patton looked at the business card. It bore a ten-digit phone number and nothing else. She memorized the number and burned the card in a saucer, washing the ashes down the kitchen sink.