Page 100 of Tightrope

The light of the August night strikes sharp and clear;

My senses are shattered by bolts of fire that crash and sear.

I swim into the deepest shadows, drowning on the midnight tide...

“Not exactly uplifting imagery,” Raina said.

“I’m no judge of poetry,” Amalie said, “but those sound like the words of a doomed soul. You were right about Calloway. He was driven by a passion for revenge.”

“I think,” Matthias said, “we had better not leap to the conclusion that Jasper Calloway wrote depressing poetry in his spare time.”

Luther’s brows rose. “Think those poems are written in a code?”

“Given what we know about Calloway’s career, that’s a definite possibility,” Matthias said.

“Maybe we could use the Ares machine to decode it?” Raina suggested.

Matthias turned a few more pages. “I don’t think so. There are dates on each of these poems. One was written last month but the earliest entries go back almost four years. The Ares machine is a prototype that didn’t even exist until quite recently, so most of these poems could not have been encrypted on it.”

Amalie looked at Luther. “Can I assume that notebook will go to your old agency?”

Luther did not respond immediately. Amalie and the others awaited his verdict in silence.

“The notebook stays here, at least for now,” he said. “We have to figure out what Calloway meant by asequel. At the moment, these poems are our only lead.”

“If it is a codebook, we need to break the encryption, and we need to do it fast,” Matthias said.

“Yes,” Luther said. “And, frankly, I don’t trust the Accounting Department to do it.”

“Why not?” Raina asked.

“For one thing, it’s unlikely that they will have people who can handle the job.” Luther smiled a cold smile. “They fired all the best analysts when they fired my team.”

Raina was amused. “The best code breakers worked for you?”

“It wasn’t as if there were a lot of career opportunities for people who have a knack for that sort of work,” Luther said. “The field of cryptography got a bad reputation after Stimson, Hoover’s secretary of state, found out about the Cipher Bureau and closed it down with the immortal wordsGentlemen do not read each other’s mail.So, yes, I had my pick of talented agents.”

“Do you think Henry L. Stimson actually said that line about gentlemen not reading each other’s mail?” Raina asked. “It sounds like movie dialogue.”

“Who knows?” Luther said. “It doesn’t matter now.”

“If a code was used to write those poems, do you think you can break it?” Amalie asked.

“I doubt if I can,” Luther said. “Not my particular talent.”

“I’m good at spotting verbal lies,” Matthias said, “but I’m not an expert on encryption.”

Luther tapped a finger against the notebook. “I know someone who might be able to tell us if the poems are encrypted. He could probablybreak the code, as well. But he disappeared after we were all let go. I’ve lost track of him.”

“I might be able to locate him for you,” Raina said. “That’s one of my talents.”

Luther smiled. “It is indeed.”

“Hanging on to that notebook could lead to more trouble,” Amalie warned.

“The problem,” Luther said gently, “is that trouble may already be heading our way.”

Amalie took a breath. “What do you mean?”