“I need ten loaves of bread,” he replied.
“Ten?”
“Yes, it is for my daughter.”
The woman nodded her understanding. “That is quite a lot, but we have more in the back. Would you care to inspect them?”
“I would.”
The woman came around the counter and locked the main door. Then she walked towards the back wall and lifted the carpet, revealing a trap door. “Go on,” she ordered, her alert eyes keeping watch. “We don’t have all day.”
Roswell didn’t need to be told twice. He approached the trap door and opened it. Before he headed down the stairs, he smiled at the woman and winked. “It is good to see you, too, Bertha.”
She cracked a rare smile. “Don’t try to flatter me, Agent R. It will do you no good. You best get down there before Kendrick has your head.”
As Roswell descended the stairs, the trap door was closed behind him. He arrived at the bottom stair and saw Caleb was sitting on a chair in a small corridor. A lone window sat high on the back wall, but it backed up to the alleyway so not much light entered.
Caleb gave him an exasperated look. “It is about time that you got here. You know how Kendrick feels about his agents being late.”
Roswell removed the pocket watch that was tucked into his waistcoat and glanced at the time. “I am ten minutes early.”
“That is not early enough,” Caleb asserted.
A door opened and a round-faced agent appeared. “Kendrick will see you two now,” he said, disappearing back into the room.
Caleb glanced at Roswell with an expression that seemed to say “I told you so” before he stepped into the side room.
Roswell followed suit and entered the hall that was filled with other agents. They barely spared him a glance as they worked at their desks.
Caleb arrived at Kendrick’s office and waited for Roswell to approach. “Try not to say anything stupid.” He softened his words with a smirk.
Roswell didn’t know if he should be offended or not, but he decided to just play along. “Just so you know, I do try to avoid saying stupid things.”
“Not often enough, if you ask me,” Caleb quipped as he opened the door.
Once they both entered the room, the tall, silver-haired spymaster looked up from his desk. His face was stern and he seemed to be scrutinizing them carefully as he took in their appearances. Age had started to take its toll on him with deepening wrinkles appearing around the edges of his face. “Did you discover anything last night?” he asked.
Roswell wasn’t surprised by Kendrick’s direct question. He wasn’t one for pleasantries. “We did,” he confirmed as he reached into his pocket to remove the slip of paper. “We were able to discover this code in Lord Chester’s top drawer.”
Kendrick held his hand out. “Give it here.”
Roswell extended it to the spymaster and took a step back.
After he reviewed the paper, Kendrick shouted, “Wilson!”
The door promptly opened and a short, stocky man with spectacles entered the room. “You yelled, sir?”
“Give this to the linguistics team and see if they can use this to crack any codes that we have intercepted,” Kendrick ordered.
Wilson accepted the paper before he exited just as quickly.
Kendrick gave them both an expectant look. “What else did you discover?”
Caleb spoke up. “We confirmed that Lord Chester is depositing large sums of money under the line item- ‘BB.’”
“Does ‘BB’ mean anything to you?” Kendrick asked.
“Not at this time,” Caleb replied.
