Read THE LAST GOOD WAR: A Novel for Free Online

Henryk opened it, letting the security officer in.
    “Yes, Liwicki?”
    “Sorry to interrupt, sir, but there's a problem with Miss Raczynska's forms.”
    Anna was astonished; what could the trouble be? According to Henryk, her security check hadn't turned up any problem.
    “She gave her mother's birth date as 1896. Her older brother was born in 1904. That means her mother was only eight when her brother was born.”
    “That's right,” said Anna, deadpan. “Only eight.”
    “But....” Liwicki was perplexed.
    Henryk looked at her sharply. She hadn't learned the first rule of military security: no jokes, please .
    “He's only a half brother. My father's first wife—Stefan's mother—died in 1914.”
    Liwicki retreated, apologizing profusely.
    “Coming back to the subject,” said Henryk, a hint of exasperation in his voice, “we're in the process of decoding a set of blue messages by trial and error. When we've got several dozen, we'll see if we have enough to work backward to figure out the previous six letters—the two sets of three letters.
    “We'd like you to work on the message Jerzy gave you. We've found that the Germans tend to avoid settings near the beginning of the alphabet, so why don't you start by setting the wheels in the middle, say, at MMM. See if you get anything in German in the first few letters of the address line. If it's garbage, start over with the next setting, MMN. If you get a German word, keep going to see if you can read the whole message. Sooner or later, you should find the right setting.
    "Unless there are questions, you might as well get your feet wet,” continued Henryk. “If you can start this evening," Anna nodded, "you can see how it goes. Be sure to keep a record of what the settings were when you stopped; that will tell you where to start when you come back.
    “Tonight, as you leave, stop by the security office and let Sergeant Liwicki know your schedule, when you'll be available. When you do, please try not to give him a hard time.”
    Anna felt properly admonished. Later, when she got around to seeing Liwicki, she would make a point of apologizing.
    “And remember,” concluded Henryk. “We're not here just to decode any single message. Most of all, we're trying to figure out the German system. Even when you're doing this sort of drudge job, ask yourself: are there clues, how their system works?"
    The third afternoon, Anna hit the jackpot. When she came to the setting QRT, she could read the message:
    FROMGENHEINRICHSCHIMITZTOALLDIVISIONCOMMANDERSTWENTYTWODECEMBERTHIRTYSIX
    ALLIN FANTR YDIVI SIONS SHOUL DBEGI NTOPR EPARE FORTH EINTE GRATI ONOFT ENADD ITION ALANT ITANK GUNSP ERREG IMENT….
    When she put the spaces in the right places, the message was clear: ALL INFANTRY DIVISIONS SHOULD BEGIN…
    In her excitement, she was about to rush in to tell Henryk, but decided to try another puzzle. Could she do anything with the beginning of the message: those six first letters, in two groups of three? Let's see. Suppose that they were also part of the same setting. That would mean that the setting was not initially QRT, but became QRT only after six letters had been sent. She went back six letters and tried the setting QRN. No luck; the first six letters produced gibberish.
    She went to Henryk with the news. Almost immediately, Marian and Jerzy appeared. Anna quickly explained what she had done.
    "Very good. Very good.” Henryk responded. “A bit of beginner's luck—you only had to go from MMM to QRT.”
    “Indeed,” said Anna. “Suppose the setting had been MML. You wouldn't have seen me for a month. Unless I'd found a shortcut.”
    “We're in the process of bringing together several dozen messages which the staff has been able to decode,” said Marian, “to see what we can make of them. But you said something about a shortcut. Did you have something in mind?”
    “Well, yes. You said that the first line was probably the address. That means it would start with