The Bletchley Riddle

Fourteen-year-old Lizzie Novis introduces herself by saying she’s a good liar. She is out walking with her chaperone, Mr. Fleetwood, who is exhausted. She deliberately walked him far and fast to exhaust him before boarding a ship. Today is the last day Lizzie will be in England before she sails to America to avoid the war.

Lizzie is highly cynical, precocious, and analytical. Her mother, Willa, supposedly died in a bomb blast, but she doesn’t believe this story. Though half American, she doesn’t want to sail to America. She instead plans to stay in England and to find her mother. Lizzie leaves Fleetwood in their cabin, saying she plans to take a stroll on deck, then flees the ship before it departs.

Jakob runs along a rail platform and boards a train as it pulls out. Lizzie is at an address he uses for post, and he’s on his way to fetch her as instructed by the Colonel. Jakob worries about how he will explain the strange place he is about to take her to when he collects her. Despite being her brother, Jakob hasn’t seen Lizzie in some time. When he arrives to collect her, there is a man in a brown suit with her.

Lizzie is at the address Jakob gave her. She is teasing a man for wearing an ill-fitting suit, frustrating him. Jakob arrives, and she comments on how thin he is. The man teases Jakob for looking so young.

Jakob says he hasn’t answered Lizzie’s letters because he was very busy. This hurts her. Lizzie says to the man that Jakob used to be chatty but is now distant. Jakob apologizes, and they leave.

They take a taxi to their family flat. The city is preparing for air raids. Jakob asks how Lizzie is still in England, and she tells him she slipped away from Mr. Fleetwood. Jakob says that their granny will be furious. Lizzie says she had to stay in case their mother returns. Jakob reveals that he’s not living in London but doesn’t say where he’s been.

They arrive at Mayfair, which is being outfitted for an air raid. Lizzie recalls how her father died before her third birthday. They meet Gran, who is strict and imposing. Gran lives in a mansion on Millionaire’s Row despite many of her neighbors’ houses being demolished. Jakob tells Lizzie to pack to catch the next train. He refuses to tell Lizzie where they are going.

Lizzie asks about their mother Willa. Jakob says she’s not coming back, and Lizzie insists she’s still alive. Jakob says that maybe it’s best that she isn’t coming back. Lizzie assumes this means there is an imminent invasion from the Nazis. She packs a trunk and takes some of Willa’s stuff. In Willa’s closet, she finds a loose floorboard and looks underneath.

As night falls, London prepares itself for air raids. Jakob and Lizzie are in a taxi on their way to the train station. Jakob regrets his outburst and wonders if he’s responsible for Lizzie now. He wants to tell her he’s a code breaker at Bletchley Park, but he’s sworn to secrecy.

He recalls how he got into codebreaking. His professor, Gordon Welchman, asked him cryptic questions that tested his lateral thinking. Welchman told him that if he got a phone message with a code phrase that Jakob should come to a specific address. Welchman also revealed that Jakob’s father was well-regarded by the codebreakers.

Lizzie is aghast that Jakob is smoking a pipe. At Euston station, Lizzie reflects on how close she and Jakob used to be, but now he’s rude. Lizzie reflects on Viola, her old nanny who now serves as a housekeeper, and on how evasive people were when it came to discussing Willa’s death. She has a burning desire to solve this perceived mystery and find Willa. She recalls how she found a small leather book with a lock beneath the floor in Willa’s closet and pocketed it, deciding not to tell Jakob about it.

The train slows and arrives at Bletchley. A man in a trench coat awaits them on the platform.

Jakob asks Lizzie to walk with him, but he is evasive about the man in the coat. They drop Lizzie’s trunk at the station office and leave. A military policeman called Reg greets Jakob and Lizzie. Lizzie doesn’t like how Reg teases Jakob; Reg is revealed to be Reg Ribchester, an old school friend.

They enter a large mansion. The Colonel takes them to an office and demands why Lizzie was asking questions about Bletchley. Jakob says she can stay with him at his accommodation at The Mutton. The Colonel takes Jakob aside and tells him it’s his job to onboard two new young mathematicians that have arrived. The Colonel then takes Lizzie into his office as Jakob walks to the lake, reflecting on how he was inducted into the program called the Government Code and Cypher School. Many figures and names he knew from his education in Cambridge were in the school, including Dilly Knox and Alan Turing.

Jakob sees his work as his way to contribute to the war effort and to avenge his mother. Time is running out, though, and the code breakers are failing to break the Enigma code. Nigel, a young boy whose father is the maintenance man, lives on the grounds. He asks why Lizzie is there, and Jakob reveals that he doesn’t really know her well anymore due to boarding school, university, and now the codebreaking.

Lizzie talks to the Colonel. He is trying to figure out what she knows about the school, but she doesn’t know anything. The Colonel asks her to sign an oath of secrecy. Lizzie asks if Jakob has signed the Official Secrets Act. Everyone in the park has. She signs and is given the same anonymous postal address Jakob had previously been using.

Lizzie meets Jakob outside on the lawn. He brings her to the Shoulder of Mutton Inn where he stays. They meet the owner’s son, Colin. He’s a resolute boy who reveals that his older brother is in the Royal Air Force (RAF) and that he has signed up for the Home Guard, an unpaid armed citizen militia. Lizzie is blunt and straightforward with him, which she claims is because she’s half American. He says he likes it. Her trunk is delivered. The smoking man from the bar is sitting in the corner.

Jakob’s room is small and cluttered. Lizzie lies on the bed while he reads baseball scores. Lizzie asks if he still has the hat she made for him, which he does. He puts it on and tries to leave for work, but she accuses him of avoiding her and asks why he didn’t come home after Willa went missing. He says his work is important, and she says his family are too. Lizzie references how he said it would be best if Willa was dead, and he feels remorse. Jakob says that Willa is probably dead, as she was in Poland just before the Nazis attacked. Lizzie insists that Willa isn’t dead.

Jakob worries about distractions as he goes down the stairs. The man in the coat meets him outside, and he comments on the Nazis’ success in the war so far. The man reveals himself to be William Jarvis from MI5, the national security service.

Lizzie can’t sleep and is hungry. She wishes she was back in London in case Willa returns. She looks at the leather book she took from the flat and attempts to pick the lock. She fails, but finds a memo that details Willa’s assignment to the US Embassy in Poland. On it is the name Oliva McQuatters, a friend of Willa’s who disappeared as well. She hides the note in Willa’s boots.

Lizzie sneaks out of her room and into the corridor looking for a knife to break the diary’s lock. Colin spots her and confronts her, demanding to know what she’s doing. He offers her a bit of scone he has in his room, and she uses the opportunity to try and find something with which to break the lock. Colin spots her again. He gives her the scone and goes to bed.

Jakob is with Gordon Welchman in Hut 6. Their job is to attack German Army and Air Force ciphers. He works from midnight to eight in the morning. There has been no breakthrough so far. Alan Turing is also inside. Jakob informs the others that new workers from Cambridge are coming to help.

It’s early morning, and Lizzie is getting out of bed, already thinking about getting into the diary. She goes up to The Park. Colin is downstairs looking at a map, trying to figure out what RAF base his brother may be at. Colin reveals that he’s been an electrician since the war broke out, and Lizzie asks if he has tools. She says she needs to get into her calendar diary.