Cryptonomicon

'Buenos Aires? Sweden?'

'Yes. And so, Alan, I took an interest in Arethusa.'

'Well, I don't blame you!'

'The message format matches that of Azure/Pufferfish.'

'Rudy's system?'

'Yes.'

'Nice work on that, by the way.'

'Thank you, Alan. As you must have heard by now, it is based on zeta functions. Which you did not even consider using for Delilah because you were afraid Rudy would think of it. And this raises the question of whether Rudy intended us to break Azure/Pufferfish all along.'

'Yes, it does. But why would he want us to?'

'I have no idea. The old Azure/Puffeffish messages may contain some clues. I am having my Digital Computer generate retroactive one-time pads so that I can decrypt those messages and read them.'

'Well, then, I shall have Colossus do the same. It is busy just now,' Alan says, 'working on Fish decrypts. But I don't think Hitler has much longer to go. When he is finished, I can probably get down to Bletchley and decrypt those messages.'

'I'm also working on Arethusa,' Lawrence says. 'I'm guessing it all has something to do with gold.'

'Why do you say that?' Alan says. But at this point the tone arm of the phonograph reaches the end of its spiral groove and lifts off the record. Time's up. Bell Labs, and the might of the Allied governments, did not install the Project X network so that mathematicians could indulge in endless chitchat about obscure functions.

Chapter 94 LANDFALL

The sailing ship Gertrude wheezes into the cove shortly after sunrise, and Bischoff cannot help but laugh. Barnacles have grown so thick around her hull that the hull itself (he supposes) could be removed entirely, and the shell of barnacles could be outfitted with a mast and canvas, and sailed to Tahiti. A hundred-yard-long skein of seaweed, rooted in those barnacles, trails behind her, making a long greasy disturbance in her wake. Her mast has evidently been snapped off at least once. It has been replaced by a rude jury-rigged thing, a tree trunk that has received some attention from a drawknife but still has bark adhering to it in places, and long dribbles of golden sap like wax trails on a candle, themselves streaked with sea salt. Her sails are nearly black with dirt and mildew, and rudely patched, here and there, with fat black stitches, like the flesh of Frankenstein's monster.

The men on board are scarcely in better shape. They do not even bother to drop anchor-they just run Gertrude aground on a coral head at the entrance to the cove, and call it a day. Most of Bischoffs crew has gathered on the top of V-Million, the rocket-submarine; they think it's the most hilarious thing they've ever seen. But when the men on Gertrude climb into a dinghy and begin rowing towards them, Bischoff's men remember their manners, and stand at attention, and salute.

Bischoff tries to recognize them as they row closer. It takes a while. There are five in all. Otto has lost his pot-belly and gone much greyer. Rudy is a completely different man: he has long flowing hair ponytailed down his back, and a surprisingly thick, Viking-like beard, and he appears to have lost his left eye somewhere along the way, because he's got an actual black patch over it!

'My god,' Bischoff says, 'pirates!'

The other three men he has never seen before: a Negro with dread-locks; a brown-skinned, Indian-looking fellow; and a red-headed European.

Rudy is watching a stingray furling and unfurling its meaty wings ten meters straight down.

'The clarity of the water is exquisite,' he remarks.

'When the Catalinas come for us, Rudy, then you will long for the old northern murk,' Bischoff says.

Rudolf von Hacklheber swings his one eye around to bear on Bischoff, and allows just a trace of amusement to show on his face. 'Permission to come aboard, Captain?' Rudy asks.

'Granted with pleasure,' Bischoff says. The dinghy has come alongside the round hull of the submarine, and Bischoff's crew unrolls a rope ladder to them. 'Welcome to the V-Million!'

'I have heard of the V-1 and the V-2, but . .

'We could not guess how many other V-weapons Hitler might have invented, and so we chose a very, very large number,' Bischoff says proudly.

'But Gunter, you know what the V stands for?'

'Vergeltungswaffen,' Bischoff says. 'You're not thinking about it hard enough, Rudy.'

Otto's puzzled, and being puzzled makes him angry. ' Vergeltung means revenge, doesn't it?'

'But it can also mean to pay someone back, to compensate them, to reward them,' says Rudy, 'even to bless them. I like it very much, Gunter.'

'Admiral Bischoff to you,' Gunter returns.

'You are the supreme commander of the V-Million—there is no one above you?'

Bischoff clicks his heels together sharply and holds out his right arm. 'Heil Donitz!' he shouts.

'What the hell are you talking about?' asks Otto.

'Haven't you been reading the papers? Hitler killed himself yesterday. In Berlin. The new Fuhrer is my personal friend Karl Donitz.'