Chapter 1: The Index

It's January 17, 1917.4am.Whitehall.Room 40. The most important room in the British Empire, hidden in plain sight forty feet from the Admiralty boardroom, staffed by classicists and clergymen and women who have been told their job is to file and not to think.The genius in the bathtub.The spymaster who terrifies everyone he encounters.And the woman who runs the Index, is paid less than the man who polishes the floor, and who is quietly, methodically, furiously better at this job than anyone in the building knows.She sees it first. Traces the pattern before anyone else in the room. And will certainly not be mentioned in any report.Welcome to Crossed Wires - the story of the hidden heroes who saved our world from itself.