Looking for a solution (Patreon)

Jennifer Sherwood/Shadowvixen leaned back in the leather armchair and scowled at the desktop in front of her. Scattered across it was the fruits of her labor. The results of 3 days of research and experimentation. She didn't have much to show for her work.

      Copious sheets of paper covered in writing and equations, some crumpled others not, were strewn across the desk. Stacks of books concerning cryptography, language, and mathematics jockeyed with an adding machine and an abacus for precious space on the desktop. 

     The vixen closed her eyes practiced the breathing exercises she'd learned from her judo instructor. Relaxing her mind she opened her eyes and once again confronted the puzzle before her.  As a result of one of her recent operations she'd come into possession of some encrypted documents intended for agents of the Kaiser operating in New York City.  

     Unfortunately this haul had not included the key to the cypher that confronted her. Shadowvixen's network of  underground contacts had not been very helpful in this endeavor. Cautiously she'd tried her several of her social connections as a publisher and the socialite Jennifer Sherwood with only minimal success.  

     The secret nature of the documents and the means by which she'd acquired them constrained her from reaching out to several local professors she was friends with. She didn't want to deal with the questions that would undoubtedly be asked about how she'd come into possession of these documents, and why she had not turned them over to the US Government. 

     Jennifer folded her arms and placed them behind her head. She'd heard rumors one evening from a very, very drunk US Naval Attache assigned to London that the Brits had, in great secrecy, assembled a crack team cryptographers. Their existence however was a very closely guarded secret. Room 40 or something was supposedly their name. Link  They were apparently experts at reading the High Sea Fleet's dispatches, but there was absolutely no way she could reach out to them for aid. 

      The vixen sighed. No. If she was going to get to the bottom of this puzzle she'd have to be the one to do it. Rising from the chair she did some stretches and then wander off to get herself another cup of tea.

      A patron reward for RebelSqurl.