‘Dragon echolocation is made up of hundreds of ultrasonic sounds – clicks and calls and pulses – which, when recorded and slowed down, may imitate the rhythm and structure of many dragon tongues,’ Dr Seymour says. ‘And that is where our polyglots come in.’
‘I translate languages, not code,’ I say slowly. ‘I’m not qualified for this.’
‘Me neither,’ says Katherine, shaking her head.
‘Surely dragon echolocation is more similar to whale or bat echolocation than it is to spoken language?’ Gideon says.
‘But dragon echolocationisa language,’ Dr Seymour says patiently. ‘And it seems to be more sophisticated than the echolocation we have observed in other creatures. While the clicks they send out to locate objects in the air could be likened to the tapping of Morse code, the dragon’s ultrasonicsocial callssound almost verbal, and we believe they have complex meanings. Of course, thedragon code, as we refer to it, has nothing to do with man-made Morse, but those who are trained in Morse, those capable of solving complex puzzles and people with an ear for linguistics have the best chance at translating it successfully.’
‘So what’s my job?’ Gideon asks. ‘You want me to listen to recordings of dragon echolocation and tell you if they sound anything like the languages I know? I don’t speak any dragon tongues.’
I want to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.
‘You know as well as I do that all dragon tongues originate from human languages,’ Dr Seymour says. ‘And no, we don’t want you to simply listen to recordings.’ She looks up throughthe glass roof at the sky. ‘Dragons fly over Bletchley day and night. And, since glass is one of the few materials sonar travels through, we want you to listen in live.’
So I am to be a spy.
‘Around-the-clock surveillance would be ideal, but for now the four of you will take the morning shift and myself the afternoon one,’ Dr Seymour says. ‘We believe you’ll work faster together and with a common purpose.’
‘To learn to speak dragon code,’ Katherine says with a defeated sigh.
I try to stay calm as the panic rises inside me. At least Sophie has some experience in coded meanings, but me? I speak languages that are made up of grammar and structure and the alphabet. Not clicks and calls. How am I going to translate ultrasonic batlike sounds into words on a page?
‘Is this what we’ll use?’ I ask Dr Seymour, pointing to the device in front of me and the one next to it.
Dr Seymour nods. ‘These two are loquisonus machines – the most recent echolocation detection devices.’ She points towards the tall black machines that line the wall behind us. ‘The reperisonus machines over there are used to store the recordings made by their smaller but much more impressive sisters.’
Her hand settles on one of the smaller devices. ‘We have the only loquisonus machines in Britannia here at Bletchley. They’re portable, meaning they can detect echolocation anywhere we take them.’ She reaches for the one in front of me and flicks the switch. ‘And their functions can be reversed, meaning they can emit sound as well as record it. In otherwords, they can be used, theoretically, to communicate via echolocation.’
I lean closer to the loquisonus machine and feel a jolt of anticipation. If what Dr Seymour is saying is true, then it could be used to talk to dragons miles away …
‘It’s all very new technology,’ Dr Seymour says, ‘and, as we haven’t been able to decipher many of the dragon echolocation calls yet, we haven’t been able to play them back as a means of communication.’
‘Wouldn’t the dragons hear, if you did?’ Sophie asks.
I imagine the rebels flying over Bletchley and picking up echolocation calls – it would give our location away immediately.
Dr Seymour smiles. ‘That’s why we have blockers. You may have seen them outside. They’re large rubber sheets that block outgoing sonar, so no echolocation calls can accidentally be emitted from the glasshouse and attract dragon attention. It’s a bit like a one-way mirror – we can see out, but they can’t see in.’ Dr Seymour leans forward on her stool. ‘It iscrucialthat none of the dragons guarding Bletchley Park learn of the codebreaking going on inside the glasshouse.’
I think of Yndrir and the sharp spikes on his face, the strength of his tail. What would he do if he knew what he was protecting?
‘Why don’t they want us to know about echolocation?’ Sophie asks. ‘If bats and whales use it, it’s not like the dragons own it.’
‘The government believes the dragons want to use it as a war weapon, in the event that humans ever turn against them, but …’
‘But you don’t think so,’ I say quietly.
Dr Seymour looks nervously at the door, but doesn’t reply.
I sit back, my mind spinning. The DDAD is deciphering dragon echolocation, something the dragons of Britannia – and therefore the Dragon Queen – don’t want to happen. So what would they do if they found out? And why is Wyvernmire risking Queen Ignacia’s support to get this dragon code? Is it really that important?
‘The recordings you make in here are likely to be of echolocation calls made by passing dragons,’ says Dr Seymour. ‘But, when we take the loquisonus machines with us on field trips throughout Bletchley Park, you’ll mostly be recording communication between our patrol dragons. In that case, it’s important to note down which patrol dragon you are listening to.’
‘Why?’ I ask. ‘Isn’t the whole point of this to spy on therebeldragons?’
‘There’s more to it than that,’ Dr Seymour replies. ‘The point is to learn how to speak echolocation – it doesn’t matter which dragons we learn it from. As with any area of study, it’s always useful to have as much information as possible. It would be interesting to compare, for example, where the particular dragons we hear using echolocation come from.’
She holds up a book. ‘Here is a photogram book of the different dragons you may meet around Bletchley. You’ll have to memorise their names.’
