1 JULY 1940

GOVERNMENT CODE AND CYPHER SCHOOL

BLETCHLEY PARK, ENGLAND

Despite the fact that the old mansion was not quite as crowded as it had been when they first moved in, almost a year ago, it was still a busy place that was holding far more people than had ever been intended. Alastair Denniston was constantly dodging people as he walked it’s halls. He was also constantly stepping over electrical wires that crossed over the floor in an ever growing tangle. When this mansion had been built it’s designer had never dreamed of such an extensive need for so useless a thing as free flowing electrons. Of course, even modern buildings were not wired for the kind of the things they were doing here at Bletchley.

Currently the efforts to break the codes of foreign militaries and governments was still largely being done by the human brain. They had built some machines to help crack the other guys machines and, with some pride, Alastair knew they had done things with electro mechanical devices that no one had ever dreamed of. Despite this, the most powerful computers at Bletchley still remained of the organic variety. It was so much the case that one of the prerequisites to be hired on here was how fast you could solve the London Times crossword puzzle. To every single man and woman who worked for Denniston, such things were child’s play.

Of course, Denniston might be getting old and even he realized that. His champion field hockey days were long behind him now but, he considered himself a very forward looking man. He saw the writing on the wall and he believed, with every fiber of his being, that these thinking machines, that he was helping build right here at Bletchley, were going to be the world of tomorrow and put men like him right out of a job. That thought was fresh in his mind when he walked into his office.

Denniston was almost to his desk, still busily reading the latest decrypts from down the road at the boarding school, when he noticed he had an unannounced visitor sitting comfortably in one of the chairs of the sloppy looking office. Denniston was quite surprised but, he hid it well and, with a good deal of understatement in his voice, he simply nodded and said, “Prime Minister.”

Of course a visit from the most powerful man in Great Britain, in effect he was Denniston’s bosses, bosses, boss, was not so disturbing as the fact that Winston Churchill might have compromised the security of this place by coming here. This seemed to be a thought that was on each man’s mind. Before so much as a murmur of a greeting, Churchill told Denniston, “do not fret Commander. No one knows that I am here. Even most of my own staff believe I’m elsewhere at the moment.”

Denniston sat the papers down and then stood behind his desk. He still showed his concern, “it is still something of a risk Prime Minister.” That was not to mention the fact that Churchill had no reason to come here. He was one of the few men in all the world that was fully briefed on everything going on at Bletchley. Most of the reason for that was so that he never had to come here. It was all too typical of Churchill’s reputation though. Denniston knew that the man was of the sort who liked getting his hands dirty.

All of that was water under the bridge. The only thing that Alastair could really say is, “and what do we owe the pleasure, sir?”

Churchill remained quite jovial even if what he had to say was anything but, “let me begin by saying that of all people, Commander, you are the last man that I should have to remind, that the Hun is still a very dangerous animal.”

What Denniston wanted to say to that was, “if you think so then why did you make peace with Hitler?” Denniston did not say that however. He simply replied, “I agree Prime Minister. It might not be so obvious to the average reader of the Times but, we get far better news here.”

Churchill thumped his cane and laughed, “well said Commander. I’m glad you agree because, as things stand, it makes it even more imperative that we cooperate with the Americans.”

That was the last thing that Denniston had expected to hear. There was some low level cooperation with the Americans already but, no one had decided to go so far as to inform them of Bletchley and what the GC&CS was capable of. Denniston knew that the Americans had a similar program going but, he also believed they were lagging far behind Great Britain. He, along with many other officers, also held a more personal grievance. The Americans had not elected to go to war with her former allies when the Nazi’s invaded Poland. Help had been promised but, not one drop of it had materialized before the end of the war.

Of course, it was also well known that the Prime Minister did not share that attitude with a great many other powerful men in England. Denniston had always suspected that Churchill’s American family ties might have had something to do with that. Still, Alastair was not quite sure that was completely the case. You could say a lot of things about Winston but, he was most definitely not stupid. Did he see something that everyone else had missed?

“Prime Minister,” Denniston stated as respectfully as he could, “I do have to caution you that we should be very careful in what we decide to share with the Americans. They will no doubt act in their own interests and could very well make the Germans suspicious about our capabilities.”

This protest was enough to make Churchill laugh. It was of the friendly sort but, left Denniston wondering why this was the case, at least, until the Prime Minister told him, “Commander, I have been doing this sort of thing for some time, you must understand. You must trust me when I say that any information that we give the Americans is carefully considered before we do. I am also only one voice where that is concerned. We do take your efforts seriously here.”

Now Denniston decided to sit. He was no longer just concerned, but also, now he was quite confused. He found it ironic that he knew more about what was going on in Adolf Hitler’s mind than he did his own Prime Minister, “what then?”

Churchill snorted out a final laugh and said, “Colossus.”

Now the hairs on the back of Denniston’s neck stood up and he slightly raised in the seat he had just sat down in, “what about it? I might remind the Prime Minister that it is not even finished as of yet.”

“Of that I am fully aware commander,” replied Churchill. “When we do complete it, Colossus will undoubtedly be the most powerful thinking machine in the world, is that not true?”

Those hairs were not settling down. Denniston even found his fingers starting to grasp a pen, on the top of his desk, and crush it, “Prime Minister, at the moment it is not powerful anything. It does not even work yet. When we finish it, there is no guarantee that it will work at all. To allow the Americans access to it, at this time…”

Churchill interrupted with, “and that is not what I’m proposing. We’re not going to bring the Americans in on it Denniston, we’re going to help them build another one, in America.” That caused Denniston to blink. Churchill chuckled once more, “Dowding said that you would be difficult. That is exactly why I knew I must come here in person.” There was a silence for a moment so Churchill went on, “I might also assure you that the Americans will not be using this machine for code breaking. What they can do for us is, help us finish ours and in that…”

Now it was Denniston’s turn to interrupt, “what else could they possibly do with it? Program it to play cards?” Both men laughed at that absurd notion. Then Denniston went on, “Prime Minister, the useful application of thinking machines are limited at best. They are well suited for what we are doing here but…”

“But,” Churchill added, “Ambassador Kennedy has not been informed and so, neither have I, not officially at any rate. Personally, I believe it was very wise of Mister Roosevelt not to inform his man.”

If this offer had not come from their ambassador then where had it come from? The answer was as obvious as the London Times sitting on Denniston’s desk. His eyes wandered down and paid careful attention to the article on the bottom of the front page. The headline told all, “You’ve been talking with their General?”

“Quite so,” Winston replied. “General Marshall and Mister Hull, as you might have read, are currently touring the former belligerents, in order to help mediate the cease fire we have with the Hitlerites, and so bring about a more permanent peace. Naturally, I agreed to this mediation but, not for the reasons you might think.”

Denniston got the impression that, “and you are not at liberty to discuss, with me, the real reason that General Marshall is here. Other than the fact that President Roosevelt wants Colossus, of course.”

“Not at all Commander,” Churchill said with a sly smile. “I do have some notion. The American’s were left with little choice than to inform us of a project they are now undertaking. It involves a ring that was discovered by this Swedish archeologist just a little over a decade ago. Due to his connections with the American academic establishment, their government found out about it and quickly took an active interest. Unfortunately, for them that is, the discovery was made in one of our protectorates. As such, we know a great deal about what they found.”

At least the hairs were not standing up on the back of Denniston’s neck any longer. All of his apprehension had been replaced with a good deal of confusion, “what could possibly be so important about some ancient stone ring found lying about in some remote location?”

Denniston recalled the natives in the south pacific. He had seen them while actively serving in the Royal Navy. They would carve huge stone rings, so large, that it actually took a host of men to move them. The natives used these giant stones as currency. It had sounded ridiculous, looked ridiculous, and no one even knew why they did it. As Denniston recalled, even they did not know why they did it. When Churchill mentioned it, this was the image he was forming in his mind. Then he imagined someone trying to plug one of those huge stones into a wall socket. The image was even stranger when he imagined Albert Einstein doing it.

“That is the question Denniston,” Churchill told him with a wave of his cigar. “It is one that the Americans want answered and, I have to admit, so do I.”

After collecting his thoughts, Denniston carefully asked, “so why are you telling me this?”

“Because old man,” Churchill continued, “Mister Roosevelt and I are not the only the world leaders interested. That is where you come in.”

That caused a twinge in Denniston as he ventured a guess, “Hitler knows?”

“I believe that to be the case,” Churchill told him.

“But you are not certain,” Denniston replied.

“Honestly, no we are not and the few of us who are privy to this information, are quite divided on the issue,” Churchill admitted. “What I do know Commander, is that Hitler stopped this war for a reason. His actions make no sense and that can only mean he knows something that we are not aware of.”

Denniston was quite often too rapped up in what the enemy was doing to pay attention to his own side. As far as the B.E.F was concerned, quite often, he knew little more than what any average listener of the BBC did. The one advantage he had over most was that he had actually read the enemy intelligence reports. Reading what the Hun thought was entirely different from believing it though. He quickly slid that information together with what the Prime Minister was telling him and he realized, “good god, we really were that close to being beaten on the continent?”

Churchill was quite sincere when he replied, “I do realize that the average man on the street has been told that we won a decisive military victory in France and Belgium. Curious how Hitler has not disputed this, don’t you think? The reality of the situation is that we were within days of being completely wiped out. I hope that it never comes out that we were making preparations to use any civilian vessels, that we could lay our hands on, to evacuate what was left of our expeditionary forces. That is truly how desperate the situation had become.”

Denniston was still stunned, “then why…?”

Churchill thumped the floor with his foot, “why exactly! That is my point. Something is far more important to Germany’s Fuehrer than defeating us. I look around the world and, so far, the only thing that I can see is that damn ring. The Americans believe it is very important and, as you and I both know, their security is a sick and pathetic joke.”

“So,” Denniston replied, “you want proof of that.”

Churchill was quite energetic when he replied, “I want anything you can find out about this ring, from Hitler, from the Americans, from African tribesmen if you have too. I believe it is that important.”

Denniston noted the “I” part of that. He took that to mean that Churchill was quite probably the only one in the cabinet who did. If he were not alone in his assessment then it was most probable he would have never come to Bletchley like this. In the end though, all of it was quite irrelevant to Denniston. He simply nodded and stated, “naturally, Prime Minister, you shall have everything that you have asked for.”