When Pascale Auber is forced out of the airship of the evil Dr. Simpelstur, she finds herself rescued by a handsome Ruritanian diplomat, Theo von Hentzau. Pascale soon realizes that Theo is hiding something - something to do with the evil doctor, th...
I smoothed the single sheet of thick paper out on the table. It was headed with the same coat of arms as on the seal, and dated just over seven years ago. It read:
STRELSAU
18XX, 15th January,
His Serene Highness Prince Ruprecht Michael Friedrich von Elphberg, Archduke of Ruritania, to Roderick Simpelstur, Doctor.
Sir;
It is with great sadness that I extend to you my condolences on the death of your brother. You will have received the official notice outlining the circumstances of his death and confirming that he was a most excellent officer, but I write to confirm that Peregrine was also a most excellent friend. He died protecting his comrades and myself, and I do not know or understand how to repay the unbearable debt I owe him.
I gain some small relief by reflecting on the fact that his noble sacrifice benefited not just my country, but your own. I do hope to discharge some small part of my obligation by personally settling an annuity on his orphan, over and above any funds she may be vouchsafed by my country or yours. The necessary information is enclosed with this letter.
Allow me to close by stating that I owe your brother Peregrine my life; I hope to live it well enough to make his sacrifice not entirely vain.
Yours Sincerely,
I struggled a bit to read the signature, but eventually deciphered it as an elaborate, fanciful "RUPRECHT", presumably in the Archduke's own hand.
I sighed.
"Is there a problem, Auber?"
"This letter! It is years old and about a completely irrelevant, if unfortunate, event!"
"The death of Peregrine Simpelstur is far from irrelevant – it is through Peregrine's death that the Archduke and Roderick Simpelstur first became involved. Besides, the letter may be more than it seems. I will send it over to cryptography, see if they can make anything of it."
"Speaking of which, sir -" I began.
"No," the boss said with finality. "We have discussed this, Auber. You need more field experience before I can permit you to transfer over to cryptography. You have the potential to be a well-rounded agent, but only with suitable training."
I resisted the urge to visibly pout, saying only, "I am still working on improvements to the arithmometer I modified to be a simple decoding engine, you know."
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
"Well. Right now it is a fine toy, I am sure. Anything else, Auber?"
"I – well" I looked down at my feet, then up again. "I did make a rather interesting contact. A Ruritanian."
