Max then told this tight bunch, this diverse group of like-minded crime-fighters that he along with Shmuel Kishnov were happy that they were among the new cast of characters at Bletchley—though temporary their membership would be. Bletchley had changed from what it was during the Enigma saga about a dozen years earlier. He was sure that the level and creative energy they had now was equivalent to what they had at Bletchley back then. He especially mentioned how brilliant one woman was. He referred to her by his favorite nickname which he said he never mentioned to her. The nickname was Daisy as in: ‘She loves me, she loves me not.’
He said her name is Dr. Janet Sirota and that they had been having a romance but that she seemed to have a problem with closeness. Apparently, she would run hot and cold and evidently for the first time in Maxie’s life a woman had him on the run. Max confessed that he wanted to marry her and at the same time without skipping a beat Jimmy reminded him that when he, Maxie, and Al—all three of them—trained together with Imi, Max considered himself a sworn bachelor.
“After I met Janet, guys, it changed my mind—almost on the spot. But after we got together I started to notice that she could be very interested and at one moment into me and the very next time we were together, she could be indifferent. It was like that every time we met. She’d be not so much indifferent, but more distracted. It’s tough because in the past if that had ever happened I would have blown whoever it was right off. But this one—I can’t seem to shake this one.”
“Max,” Shmuel for the first time joined in. “She ist Jewish? Ayneh fun unzereh?”
“Yeah,” Max answered. “But she’s not religious and I’m not either. Does that matter to you, Shmuel?”
“No, not mattering to me. Every person do own vay. Dis is mine philosophy. I doing my vay so oder people doing day vay.”
“On top of that,” Max continued, “she’s probably the real genius in the place and as beautiful to match. Al, trust me, like a Gloria beauty. In that league for sure. And as you know I’ve got the same eye disease as you, Al. Right Jimmy? Same eye diseases as Al? Hey Shmuel, you should see Al’s beauty, Gloria. A real beauty.”
By the time the banter got going, the limo was pulling into Bletchley Park. Max directed the driver to help find the building we needed, and the driver pulled in and parked. Max led the bunch into the building. As they entered and approached the switchboard operator, she and Max smiled at one another. Max made the introductions referring to all of them as the gang, not bothering to introduce each of them. Following Max, the gang walked further into the hall and Max whispered:
“Here she comes. It’s Janet.”
Dr. Janet Sirota came sauntering down the hall and when she saw Max she took him by the arm, pulled him aside not even acknowledging the rest of the gang, and began what seemed like scolding. No one could decipher what she said or what she did. Even, she, as the main code breaker at Bletchley wouldn’t have been able to decipher what she just did. To assess what she did as rude, would not satisfy in any way anyone’s sense of what it was that motivated her to do it. There seemed to be something unknowable about her.
The best that was said later was “strange, strange.”
It was Imi who said it. It was the first thing he said since we started driving to Bletchley. Hugh, on the other hand, was careful about saying anything. He was concerned because he was an affiliate of the Vatican so he didn’t want ‘Vatican’ to enter the discussion.
After Imi’s comment of two ‘stranges,’ all eyes were on Janet. Of course, Maxie was right, she was stunning; a flavorful brunette with high cheekbones, full lips; posture was sexy without her really trying, and she was standing about five feet six or seven.
With the awkward pause that was taking place, and with Janet and Max in this ongoing ‘strange’ encounter, and as would probably be expected—Al couldn’t take it.
“Max,” he said, “we’re going to the end of the hall and wait for you there.”
They all walked to the end of the hall and stood at a window and talked. They tried to do it unobtrusively, and especially not audibly.
“Jimmy,” Al said: “There’s something wrong with her. Maxie’s in trouble. We both understand his eye disease with this one, but she’s mental. No doubt about it. It wasn’t just rude, it was nuts. What the hell is wrong with Max. He doesn’t have what some doctor might call diagnostic skill. I think his dick’s getting in the way.”
Looking at Hugh and Imi, Al said:
“Sorry guys there’s no other way I could say it. That’s how we talk.”
“Right on all counts, Al,” Jimmy answered. “Max mentioned possibly getting married to her, but I’m not going to that wedding. I can’t support Max with this one. No sir.”
“Me too,” Al agreed. “And I’ll bet anything that after his family tells him they’re not going, his answer’s going to be that he isn’t either.”
With that, Shmuel Kishnov, the new member of the gang asked: “Vhat ist mit Maxie? He having dis trouble mit hist eyes?”
“No, no, no,” answered Al. “When Jimmy and I talk about eye-disease it means that someone like me or like Max is hopelessly vulnerable to a beautiful woman. I mean the accent is on ‘beautiful.’ You know like looking at anything stunning or gorgeous and you suddenly feel like the woman can take your life away. That’s the way Jimmy and I talk about it. You know?”
“Ah, yah. Dat ist good vay to saying dis ting. I same. Having dis ting too—dis vhat you calling eye-disease. I understanding vhat you meaning mit dis.”
Max came quickly walking to the gang and then without saying a word led them into a large conference room.
“Janet’ll be here in a minute,” is all he said.
“Max,” Al started. “C’mon, you’re not talking. It’s because you know something strange happened there. What the hell happened?”
“Look,” Max answered, “this is her. One minute ecstatic, another, gloomy. And she doesn’t care if anyone sees it or not. I know there’s something wrong but like I told you I’m hopelessly hooked on her looks, number one and her brains, number two. Entranced might even be a better word, or like I feel she has the ability to dispel my will. Al, Jimmy, I know you guys know what I mean.”
Max then looked to Imi and Hugh, apparently in the hope of some support—obviously because he was a touch embarrassed—but they responded with blank expressions, not wanting to enter the fray or in any way say something negative. After all, Al and Jimmy were pals of Max’s but Hugh and even Imi who knew Max felt it wasn’t their place to be quite as personal the way Al and Jimmy naturally assumed they could be.
Janet entered the room and all eyes turned to her.
“It’s my social disability,” she suddenly and again perhaps inappropriately declared. “There’s really no name for it but I sometimes can disregard social niceties and say or do something that’s not only considered rude or crazy but is actually, I know, rude and crazy—not or. And I’ll prove it to you now again. She turns to Max and out of the blue she looks at him and says:
“Poor Max. Poor Max Palace. Falls for me and I make it worse for him by falling for him.”
Then she turns to the group, all of whom are staring at her with a kind of disbelief.
“I know you all need to freshen up after the trip but I’d like to spend some minutes here in order to hear what the precise problem is that I need to try to solve—that Max tells me I must, to the best of my ability try to solve—and also he says I need to place it in first position relative to any other work I have. Therefore, knowing about Al and Jimmy from Max, I would like to ask either of you, to please give me a capsule summary of the problem.
With that everyone turned to Al.
“Okay,” Al started. “Here it is briefly. “We’ve obtained a microfilm that we believe contains the names of perhaps thousands of German and otherNazi criminals from other countries who are on the run from justice. We’re fairly certain that a vast network of facilitators has already arranged primary residences and occup
ations for these thousands in other countries—mostly away from Europe—and then also arranged for secondary locations in the event that the primary one would be discovered. Therefore, we need the film decrypted. We all know that nowhere in the world would that be more possible than at Bletchley and then also knowing that Max works here, after we told him what I’m now telling you, he, with assurance told us that he had what he called ‘juice’ with the most scientific and artful person at Bletchley—and, of course he meant you, Dr. Sirota.”
Al paused for a pregnant moment and then in a deliberate and almost confrontational manner continued:
“The term ‘juice’ is an American expression known as ‘pull’ or better, ‘influence’.”
Then in a supreme moment of confrontational satisfaction Al said something directly and frontally. Even considering that it might bother Max. He just didn’t care.
“I defined ‘juice’ as an ‘American expression’ because it was important for me to remind everyone all over the world including everyone in Britain, including right here, right now, that if it weren’t for America you all would be speaking German today. Not English. And that doesn’t mean we don’t like the British. We do. But we also know that even though you all are great fighters and don’t give up, without America, the war was lost.”
Then continuing to look directly at her—he asked the Bronx’s Detective Mac’s usual question: “Did I say something that wasn’t clear?”
“Touche,” Janet instantly answered. “I certainly see and even appreciate what you’re doing. Okay, we’re even. You can be crazy, too. But keep in mind that crazy only means angry so that both you, Alex Kaye—see, I’m familiar with your full name through Max—but you, Alex Kaye and I too, are a bit crazy. Me more.”
With that exchange, Al and Janet kind of hit it off and Janet was actually better for the wear. For the moment, at least she became appropriate.
“So, I agree with Max, and I see that the decryption job is very important and I’ll give it my ‘best try’ to quote Max. In the meantime, Max, I think we should have genteel introductions. So, everyone, my name is Dr. Janet Sirota at your service. And I mean it. Please call me Janet.”
Max then made introductions for everyone including their occupations and Janet nodded whenever Max named the person to whom he was referring.
“Thank you, Max. I think I have all the names now. Max will show you to your quarters. I would like to have the film before you retire so please, someone let me know through the phone line in the room because I will need to have two of our security officers accompany me wherever I go with the film. At night before I retire, the tape will be locked in a maximum security vault deep within the bowels of Bletchley. Tomorrow will be the first day I and some others here will tackle the project. At the moment, I bid you all a peaceful night and look forward to speaking with you over breakfast or at the lab.”
* * *
Janet received the phone call about twenty minutes after the group left the Administration Building. The microfilm was delivered to her as she waited in the lobby near her lab flanked by two security officers. She and the security men went directly to her lab. The Bletchley lab itself was a machine-filled encryption/decryption arena.
The next morning the group met with Janet in that two-room suite, and were asked to form a single line and then one-by-one they were patted down by the security officers, each waiting their turn. When they were all cleared, Janet explained all the security precautions at work at Bletchley and then introduced the group to two other decryption personnel in her department. Dr. Gerald Yagoda was a mathematician with a specialty in what Janet described as “number theory” as well as the fantastic mathematics of what became known as “hidden structures.”
“How do you do,” Dr. Yagoda greeted them. “Welcome to our modest abode here.”
Janet then pointed to Dr. Adrian Applebaum. Dr. Applebaum seemed somewhat shy when she announced that he was an associate of Alan Turing, the man who broke the Enigma code, and that Turing’s team was instrumental in developing what they termed the electromechanical machine, implicitly important in the development of what they named ‘artificial-intelligence’ as well as in the development of electronic computing, all within the general study and effectiveness of cryptography. She also said that Dr. Applebaum made some contributions to ‘Boolean algebra” also ultimately contributing to cryptographic theory.
Dr. Applebaum nodded hello while Janet transitioned to the problem at hand.
“We’ve already looked at the code and have agreed it is of only moderate brilliance. Dr. Applebaum has ventured a guess that the algorithm is based on some alphabetized idea which is what the three of us have been discussing for an hour before you all arrived.
“That’s all I can say at the moment. We’ll be here most of the day but not into the night because we feel confident we can decipher the code before dinner. I know that sounds like childish fanfare or even egoistic flourish. Please excuse it. But we are serious and will do our best. Let me put it that way. Now, please get the hell out of here and let us work.
“I know you think I’m a bit blotto so I was trying to accommodate you and actually sound a bit blotto. I meant that facetiously and hope I was successful. What you’re all trying to do is of course highly commendable and correspondingly, as I’ve said, we will put our best efforts to work.
“If it’s alright with you, Adrian, Gerald and I could meet you at 1 pm for lunch at our dining hall. It’s now 8 am so that means we’ll meet in about five hours. In the meantime, Max, please make sure our guests have some crumpets and tea or whatever they need as an interlude before lunch. Till then my friends, we’ll see you.”
All at once the group said their thank-you’s and were escorted out of the lab by the security officers.
At lunch, Dr.’s Yagoda, Applebaum, and Janet walked toward us and as they approached, we were acutely focused on their faces for what we all hoped would be a sign of success. Unfortunately, the deed had not yet been accomplished. However, with confidence, Janet announced that although the code was not yet breached, the good news was that they were onto it and they were agreed that they were getting still closer—hoping for the solution by dinner time.
Janet was wrong because later at dinner they again approached us but immediately confessed that as close as they were, it was still not close enough. That news disappointed everyone but the general response from the gang was an optimistic one. Speaking for them all, Al reassured Janet and her two scientific genius-colleagues that they had complete confidence in them.
That night, Janet slipped into Max’s room, undressed, and slid into bed next to him. When he saw her he became aroused. They began making love. Once he entered her, suddenly out of nowhere, she admonished him.
“Listen, Max,” Janet soberly said. “I don’t want you to hold back because you think I need more time to orgasm. Understand? Just do it! I don’t like it when you treat me as though I’m a little girl who needs help. It’s you who needs the help, not I.”
Max was obviously annoyed and didn’t like her tone. Actually, he never liked it when she was like that. He only tolerated what he considered to be her nonsense because again, he had a very bad case of this terrible eye-disease and couldn’t let her go. This time however, he seemed rather than over the moon, instead, quite out of patience—even possibly finally disgusted. He was not the type to tolerate any sort of injury to his pride as in even a little feeling of humiliation. So, at this point he began to feel no longer controlled by his hope that she would love him and ultimately be the one for him.
Second, again at this point he could feel that he was starting not to care about her, or even about how she felt—one way or the other. Third, again at this point he began, for the first time to notice that he was thinking about himself. He then knew he could not easily tolerate her with respect to what he understood as her on-again off-again moods.
And then for the first time, he said it to her:
“Janet, we�
��re not doing this tonight. You can sleep here or leave. It’s up to you.”
With that, Janet felt him pulling away. It was his unmistakable anger that caused him to withdraw. That is, Max’s libido had disappeared. He was angry and where there is anger there is no libido. And that is what’s known as decryption!’
Janet slid out of bed, dressed and left the room.
Max lay there for some minutes thinking. He got out of bed, showered, dressed, and went to Al’s room. Al was in bed reading. He told Al he wanted the three of them—meaning himself, Al, and Jimmy—to meet, right then. Al got out of bed, dressed, and off they went to Jimmy’s room.
“Okay guys,” Max began, “here it is. For the first time. about a half hour ago, she did it again. The crazy came out and spilled all over the place. I’m pretty sure now that I’ve come to my senses. My feelings for her just disappeared. Just like that. It reminds me of when I was fifteen and had a girlfriend I was nuts about. Couldn’t stop kissing her. Then one day out of the blue I woke up one morning and said to myself, actually out loud: ‘I don’t love her so what am I doing there?’
“I don’t know what came over me, and maybe it was an adolescent phenomenon that one minute you love and the next it disappears. That’s what’s happened now with Janet. I think it’s disappeared.”
He snapped his fingers as he said it: “Just like that!
“The truth is that I was taking a lot of shit like you guys saw, but I couldn’t do anything about it. Now I can. I’ll never marry her. I must have been crazy to even contemplate it.”
“I’m glad to hear it Max,” Al immediately said. “I wouldn’t have been able to attend the wedding.”
“Me too,” Jimmy piped in. I wasn’t going to the wedding.”
“Well, I’m not going either,” Max laughed—and was joined in by both Al and Jimmy in an uproarious laugh session. Then, before they all decided to head to their rooms and off to sleep, Imi knocked and he and Shmueli entered.
“Gentlemen,” Imi declared, “I have news. I’ve just heard from Simon. We’ve got a new wrinkle here. Simon wants the film altered. He wants the first fifty secondary locations changed and he gave me the changes. In other words, we need to get Janet to create an alternate, counterfeit micro that cannot be detected as anything that’s been tampered with. I’ve got the changes here.”
The Ghost Page 16