Interlude [h.s]

thirty-two

She knows who her father was. She remembers his morals. He despised the government. There's no way he'd work for it. Then why did he have that book? Why was he so obsessed with it? Was it about the poems at all, or was he passionate about the secrets hidden between its pages?

She can't go back to the Revolution without the answers she needs.

"Tell me everything."

Alouette sighs, covering her face with her hands. "I think it's about my father."

Nathan seems to be taken aback. "Your father?"

"I recently discovered the President uses a... book, to communicate with his secret service," she reveals, "which makes little sense in itself. Why use a book? I mean, there must be better ways."

"It might be easier to disguise the messages and it could allow to create more complex codes that won't be easily detectable," Nathan says with a shrug. "I can't think of what would happen if one of those copies was swapped with a normal one, though..."

"I don't think there are normal copies around. The book they use is very old and not particularly well known, it hasn't been printed in a very, very long time. I have reasons to believe there can't be more than a very small number of copies around. Not more than twenty for sure."

"How do you know that?"

"Because I have one of those copies." She looks down, frowning. "My father used to be obsessed with that book. He's the one that told me how rare it is."

"Is it the book I brought here for you?"

"It is, which leaves me with a bigger question." She takes a deep breath before voicing her fear. "Why did he have it?"

"You believe there's something under?"

"I'm almost sure there is," Alouette says with a nod. "When my father passed away, he didn't leave me or Amina money, or any kind of thing. He didn't leave us anything, but that book. He'd always known I don't care much for poetry, so why did he go through the trouble of leaving that one to me especially?" She shakes her head and turns her back to Nathan, not wanting him to see the sheer desperation that she knows is in her eyes. "I know I'm being irrational and foolish, but I can't help but think, what if he was trying to tell me something? Like a signal of some kind? There's a weird sentence at the end of the book and one page is missing, I may be reading too much into it, but—"

Nathan's hand lands on her shoulder. "That might not be true," he stated. "I didn't get to know your father personally, but I know he was a very smart man. He led the Revolution for years and built it into what it is now. He was no stranger to codes. In fact, the Revolution survives on codes as well. That's the only way to keep it a secret."

"Something doesn't add up, Nathan," she whispers, facing him again. "I can feel something's up, and I think the key to figuring it out is in this Palace."

Nathan gives her a smile. "I've always appreciated those that follow orders, but you know what I appreciate more? Those who build their own path," he tells her. "I'll help you. What are you planning on doing?"

Alouette takes a moment to collect all her information on the matter. "As I've told you, there's one page missing. I'd never noticed it before because I usually don't pay attention to page numbers, but... there's a poem missing there. Someone ripped the page away on purpose."

"Did they try to get rid of a poem or something written on it?"

"I don't know, but I think that if I could find out what poem was there, I'd find some clarity," she admits. "I just don't know how to do that."