Challenge 3

Top Secret: For your eyes only

My dear Palmerston, I believe that Prince Albert may already have written to you concerning this matter, and I am a little embarrassed to write this letter at all, but I hope you will understand. I find myself at the mercy of two strong willed women, who assure me that this matter is urgent. You have already been informed about our unexpected guest, Miss Warne, who arrived last week, to our astonishment, on the steam ship Pacific. She is a little coy about how she afforded the journey, and I suspect that she might have been a stowaway. While I am inclined to deal strongly with that matter, the Countess has expressed the equally strong view that we should first address the reasons for Miss Warne’s visit. Given the sensitivity of the matters described below, I think she is probably right. Miss Warne has determined that the mysterious bullet was manufactured by the Imperial Arms company, which as you know is owned by Julius Kaiser, sponsor of the India Pavilion. The bullet was designed as a novelty item to be distributed at the exhibition, with the engraved letters denoting the date of the exhibition opening. The date was encrypted, the cypher in this case being a rather simple Caesar shift. I suppose Kaiser felt that this was rather clever, though it seems an obscure way to market his company. That perhaps is a mark of the man’s character. He fancies himself the cleverest man in every room, but he is funding the Pavilion and it is important that we do nothing to offend him. That discovery might have closed the matter, and I was inclined to ship the somewhat over-enthusiastic Miss Warne back to her home in New York, however the Countess has persuaded me that my initial impressions were prejudicial, and there does seem to be something more to this affair. Miss Warne found the bullet next to a stack of sealed crates marked with the logo of the manufacturer. They had been shipped there from Chicago. The crates contained rifles and ammunition developed by the company for the climate in the subcontinent. The company is hopeful that the British government and the EIC would both be interested in purchasing them. That does explain Herr Kaiser’s interest in the exhibition. It will act as a marketplace for his new weapons, but also an opportunity to curry favour with the Prince. Given his influence with the government that might improve his chance of winning a contract. Miss Warne swears that the crates had not been tampered with. The company seals were intact, witnessed by the photographs brought by Miss Warne, and it is not clear how or why one of the bullets should have escaped them. It seems possible that either a rival manufacturer or a criminal gang may have stolen the contents of one or more of the crates, somehow managing to reseal them, but leaving this one small clue to their activities. In this we may have been lucky. If the shipment had appeared to be deficient on arrival at the Exhibition it would have been difficult to establish that the theft had occurred in the US. We might then have been accused of carelessness in our handling of the consignment. I think it would be in our best interests to examine the company’s crates before they leave the ship, which arrived in Liverpool earlier this week. Fortunately the current dock-workers’s strike has delayed unloading so we should have time to commission a full check of the cargo before it lands. If anything is amiss, then we will be able to assure Mr Kaiser that the issue arose before the crates reached us. I am aware of the sensitivities in this matter. With the display of the Koh-i-Noor at its heart, the India Pavilion is very dear to both the Prince and Her Majesty the Queen. It would be most embarrassing if its principal sponsor, Herr Kaiser, should feel that we are not affording him every assistance in his own endeavours. With my very best wishes, Babbage.