Crown's Vengeance, The Read Online Free PDF Page B

seemed, he realized there was no way she could have known.
    “I’m simply surprised you’d find a letter written in the exact same code.”
    Erika immediately switched into professor mode.
    “If you think about, it’s not that strange. The first coded letter, the one we found at Independence Hall, was written in the years immediately following the Revolution, in the late eighteenth century. It makes perfect sense that this code”-she held up the photocopied page-“would have been in use ten years earlier, immediately following the war, when Revere would have served as a spy. In case you forgot, he was involved with the struggle for Independence from the very beginning.”
    Parker was familiar with the legend of Revere’s midnight ride to warn Colonial troops of a British invasion.
    “Was there anything else unusual in the papers you studied?”
    “Nothing.” Her head shook emphatically. “They were just as I was told, letters Hamilton wrote to a variety of people.”
    “You tested the papers?”
    “Of course. This type of paper is correct for the period, as is the ink and style of prose. If it’s a fake, it’s a damn good one.”
    “But how would anyone know to fake this with the same cipher we found? That coded letter had been hidden for two hundred years.”
    “I agree. Also, why would someone go to the trouble of forging a coded message? Even if anybody knew what we found at Independence Hall, there’s no way they would have known I would be studying this find. I was only told about it a week ago.”
    Despite the type of reservations you can only get from a near-death experience, Parker couldn’t help but consider the message.
    “If we assume this is true, what the hell is Revere talking about?”
    “I thought you’d never ask.”
    She grabbed the decoded message from his hands and laid it on the kitchen table.
    “The first thing that jumped out at me was the time frame. Revere references both King George and the king’s recent defeat. Combined with the words ‘new American government,’ I think it’s clear this letter was written soon after America’s successful Revolution.”
    “I’m surprised the English would let Revere, or any other American, for that matter, get so close to King George right after the war.”
    She favored him with a sly grin.
    “Come on, Mr. Finance. You of all people should know that a little bad blood can’t get in the way of making money. After the war, Britain found itself in a crisis of sorts, with their shipping lines disrupted by the French coupled with loads of debt taken on to finance the war. To pay all these bills, and to maintain their enormous military, one of the first orders of business was re-establishing relations with their former colonists.”
    Parker understood. “And if you want to do business, you need to have businessmen from each side.”
    “Exactly.” Her finger stabbed the air for emphasis. “And who are the businessmen between nations? Diplomats.”
    With that, she pointed to the decoded message.
    “This letter alludes to some amount of time spent in London, which is where a diplomat would be. Revere also notes that he’ll be sending additional reports at a later date. When you put it all together, I can’t help but think Revere must have served as an American envoy in some capacity.”
    Images of Hillary Clinton surrounded by Secret Service and personal assistants flashed across his mind.
    “I’d bet diplomats had an entourage, even back then.”
    “They did.”
    “So it wouldn’t have been difficult to bring a few spies along for the party.”
    Erika patted his head in mock admiration.
    “I agree. At the time, Revere was not well known outside of Boston. His midnight ride didn’t become famous until Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about it sixty years later. After the war, Revere would have easily blended in with a diplomat’s support group.”
    Parker thought back to his history classes in college.
    “Alexander