The Prime Minister's Secret Agent Read Online Free PDF Page B

automatically, like a player piano.
    Slowly, as if by supernatural forces, a document in Japanese was being typed out by the last machine—a coded message from Kita at the Japanese Consulate in Hawaii to the Japanese Navy.
    “At least the President’s back on the distribution list now,” Kramer said. He walked to a chalkboard against the far wall and gestured to a list of twelve names: “the twelve apostles,” the only men authorized to see the decrypts. The list read:
    ULTRAS
THE PRESIDENT
SEC. OF STATE
SEC. OF WAR
SEC. OF THE NAVY
    ARMY
GEN. G. C. MARSHALL
BRIG. GEN. L. T. GEROW
BRIG. GEN. S. MILES
    NAVY
ADM. H. R. STARK
RADM. R. K. TURNER
CAPT. R. E. INGERSOLL
CMDR. A. H. MCCOLLUM
LT. CMDR. E. WATTS
    The words THE PRESIDENT had been crossed out in chalk when decrypts had been found in the White House wastebasket and Roosevelt stopped receiving them because of security concerns. Now he was back on, the yellow chalk line erased but still visible.
    “I’m glad the President’s reading them again, but I’m concerned that the Chief of the Air Corps isn’t on the list. And what about our overseas commanders? What about Admiral Kimmel in Hawaii, for Pete’s sake?” Bratton asked. “He’s head of the whole Pacific Fleet!”
    “We’re lucky that even the President’s getting them these days—these are
extremely
sensitive documents,” Kramer admonished, heading back to the typewriter with the decrypted message. “Not so much for their content, but if the Japanese ever found out we’d broken their diplomatic code …”
    He pulled out the typed piece of paper. “Since the Navy and Army are sharing these now, for ‘information, evaluation and dissemination’—here you go. I don’t read Japanese—can’t make out a damn thing without the translator.”
    Bratton accepted the paper. He had basic knowledge of Japanese characters and could make out the gist of the memo. This particular memo, from Consul Kita in Honolulu to Admiral Yamamoto at sea, divided Pearl Harbor into five distinct zones, with the locations and numbers of U.S. warships indicated on a grid. It read:

THE WARSHIPS AT ANCHOR AT PEARL HARBOR ON NOVEMBER 27, 1941, ARE:
    1. Alongside Ford Island East—one
Texas
-class battleship, total one.
    2. Alongside Ford Island West—one
Indianapolis
-class, one unidentified-type heavy cruiser, total two.
    3. Vicinity of Ford Island, East and West—seven light cruisers of
Honolulu-
and
Omaha
-class, 26 destroyers.
    4. Repair dock in Navy Yard—one
Omaha
-class light cruiser.
    5. Also, six submarines, one troopship, and two destroyers off Waikiki.
    “My God,” Bratton whispered. “They’re mapping out which ships are in Pearl Harbor and where. Is it possible that they’re …?” He left the rest hanging.
    “Of course not!” Kramer snapped. “They’d be fools to attack Pearl—and besides, the water’s too shallow for torpedoes. No,” he said decisively, turning away, “this is just Japanese research at its most exacting. The Japs are fussy that way, you know.”
    “How long does it usually take to get these decrypts translated?”
    Kramer pulled at his collar. “We’re short-staffed here. These are diplomatic messages—of very little consequence as far as we’re concerned. We have piles of them. Not enough linguists on staff to translate them fast enough. The diplomatic messages are of the lowest priority and are worked on when there’s nothing else to do. Which is never.”
    Bratton held fast to the decrypt. “Do you mind if I take this? Get a proper version?”
    “Suit yourself.” Kramer pointed to the shelves and shelves of untranslated decrypts. “We have about twenty thousand more, waiting to be translated, if your boys in brown would like to lend a hand.”
    Back in his own office, in the Intelligence Section of the War Department, Bratton put down the decrypt. “So they’re dividing Pearl Harbor into a grid …”
    He looked to the map of the Pacific he had