“He’s not a criminal. Just . . . unconventional. It does have a tendency to land him in hot water”—never this hot before, but with raised stakes came raised consequences—“but there’s nothing untrustworthy about him.”

“Hm.” Yes, definitely amused. “Perhaps I’ll pay the fellow a visit. Though what exactly makes you think he’d be an asset to me?”

Drake’s lips quirked up at the many memories that bombarded him. Phillip Camden had a way of getting into scrapes—and out of them—with flare enough that people tended to see his attitude more than his mind. But the mind was always what was behind them. “When we were twelve, he created a code and taught it to all the boys in our class so that he could give us secret messages as to when we ought to cause specific disturbances.”

A laugh crackled over the line. “Did he, now? Well then, perhaps I’ll bring him a few puzzles and see what he can do. Thank you for the tip, Elton.”

“You’re quite welcome, sir.”

They said their farewells, and Drake set the receiver back in its cradle with a bit of satisfaction. He didn’t have a clue what Camden had actually done to turn himself from one of their best pilots to someone the press was determined to make into a villain. But whatever it really was, Camden was too great an asset to the country for them to just toss him away. Drake didn’t trust them all to see that, but Blinker Hall would. Though whether the admiral could manage to get someone from the RFC transferred to Admiralty control rather than army, he really didn’t know. Why couldn’t he have joined the RNAS instead? Then he’d already be a navy man.

Drake spent some more time on the decrypts in need of analyzing and then, when the clock chimed the ten o’clock hour, put it all away and pushed himself back up and toward his bedroom. The doctor would stop by in another half hour, and it took Drake a ridiculous amount of time these days to get dressed. But he was determined to do so, just to prove to the doctor that he was well enough to handle the task.

He’d scarcely gotten his shirt buttoned, however, when a knock sounded on the door. Scowling, he checked his watch. A full fifteen minutes earlier than the doctor had said he would be. “Coming!” he called. Not all that loudly, as volume required more muscles than he currently had to spare, but he could probably still be heard in the corridor. Maybe.

A glance through the peephole, however, made his brows rise. It wasn’t the doctor. He opened the door with a smile that he knew held a question within it. “Red. Good morning.”

Redvers Holmes offered a smile more sheepish than confident. “Sorry to drop by unannounced, Elton.”