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The blackout curtains of Hut Six rattled in the raw autumn wind , but inside the narrow wooden room , the only light came from two green - shaded desk lamps . Audrey stared at the paper tape emerging from the teleprinter , her fingers smudged with purple carbon ink . Across the trestle table , Hugh sat massaging his bloodshot eyes over a stack of intercepted morning weather signals . " Hugh , look at the preamble on this third intercept from Cherbourg , " Audrey whispered , pushing the transcription slip toward him . " The operator repeated the same four - letter indicator twice before sending the weather grid . He ought to have changed the wheel setting after the midnight cipher reset . " Hugh adjusted his wire - rimmed spectacles and examined the pencil marks . " Operators get tired , Audrey , but we ought not to jump to hasty conclusions . If this is merely transmission static or an intentional deception , we dare not waste an entire hour of the Bombe machine searching down a blind alley . Turing has allocated those copper drums to the naval submarine traffic until dawn . " " This is not a decoy , " Audrey insisted , her voice tight with suppressed excitement . " The Cherbourg operator made this identical blunder three nights ago . He sends his girlfriend's initials when he is in a hurry . You needn't ask Turing to halt the main naval decipherment ; we need only ten minutes on the secondary prototype in Hut Eight to test this rotor offset . " Hugh looked around the dimly lit room . Dozens of young women and men worked in absolute silence , tracking call signs and cataloguing frequency drifts . The Official Secrets Act hung over every breath they drew ; none of them dared discuss their discoveries even with their own parents , let alone outside the barbed wire perimeter . " If we requisition machine time and come up empty , Commander Travis will reprimand us both , " Hugh murmured . " Dare we bypass the watch officer's authorization ? " " We dare not hesitate while convoy ships are entering the western approaches , " Audrey replied firmly . " Every hour that code remains dark , German torpedo boats hunt without interception . We ought to act on verifiable intelligence when chance hands it to us . You needn't bear the blame alone , Hugh . Put my initials on the requisition slip as well . " Hugh stared at the four penciled letters , his pen hovering above the logbook . He looked at Audrey's determined face , then down at the yellowing sheet . " Very well , " he said softly . " I dare say Travis can survive a brief irregularity if we bring him the morning grid before breakfast . " He signed the slip , tore the pink routing slip from the carbon pad , and handed it to Audrey . She caught it , slipped out through the double blackout door , and vanished into the cold night toward the machine room .
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