CH 68

It happened so fast that there was no time for proper recognition. Annette’s hand relaxed in surprise. The scissors fell with a plop onto the bedding.

As if time had stopped for an instant, both of them stood still and looked at each other.

Annette blinked quickly. In the stillness, Heiner’s unsteady breathing was clearly audible. His face, like a stone statue stuffed in its place, was completely crumbled.

“Heiner, what…….”

Annette, bewildered, called his name involuntarily.

His gray eyes, which had been shaking madly, rolled slowly downward. The black pupils were slightly constricted.

Heiner’s gaze touched the clothes on Annette’s lap. All of a sudden, the strength drained from his grip.

Annette pulled her freed wrist toward her chest. Heiner staggered back a step. He slumped a little with an anxious face.

“I—you–.”

“….”

“You again…”

The breathless voice quieted as if engulfed in flames. The air that had been standing still gradually sank.

Heiner roughly rubbed his face and sighed, not knowing whether to be relieved or annoyed. He looked again at the scissors that had dropped on the bed.

“…where did the scissors come from?”

“I asked for them. I was trying to sort through the stitches…..”

“You’ll have to tell me about that.”

It was a ridiculous idea to visit the busy Commander-in-Chief to ask for a pair of scissors. Annette mumbled in a small voice.

“…I know what you’re worried about, but I don’t intend to do that anymore.”

“I don’t know.”

Heiner replied stiffly and picked up the briefcase and books that had fallen to the floor. Annette placed the scissors and clothing on one side of the bed.

“What are you doing here?” (A)

“Take it.” (H)

Annette inadvertently hugged what he handed her. Upon checking, she found several novels.

“Why this…”

“Read it.”

“Uh, yes.”

“I got you a book because you’re bored.” (H)

He used to always say things like that. Annette smiled gratefully, thinking nothing had changed in the past or now despite everything was different.

“I really don’t mind, though.” (A)

“And there’s one thing I’d like to ask you.” (H)

“What is it?” (A)

After hesitating for a moment, Heiner took out some sheets of paper from the briefcase. They were music notes written  with a pen. He held them out to Annette.

“Do you by any chance know what this song is?” (H)

“A song……?”

“Even those who are quite well versed in music say they don’t know what song it is.”

It was a somewhat outlandish question, but Annette accepted the sheet music without further inquiry. It was certainly an unfamiliar combination of tones.

After examining the sheet music several times, she tilted her head with a vague expression.

“Hmm, in my opinion, this part seems to be a new, previously reported version of Vladimir’s Symphony No. 101……”

“Newly pre-reported?”

“Yes, but I see that it was borrowed from other pieces besides Vladimir’s. So it’s hard to tell what exactly the song is.

It’s a little strange to combine notes that don’t suit each other, even though his music is quite good.”

“Could you perhaps go into a little more detail on the oddities?”

Heiner’s face stiffened. Annette hesitated, nervous for some reason.

“I haven’t looked at the sheet music for a long time…………”

“You can look at it slowly, so if there’s any part that takes a little longer, please tell me all about it.”

Annette tried to examine the sheet music again with a narrowed brow, but had no idea what exactly it was that she was looking for.

“Your Excellency, I understand that this is classified, but ……”

Annette looked at him with a troubled look.

“Please tell me exactly what you want to know. Do you want to find the technically weird part or the musically weird part?”

“I want both.”

“Technically it might be wrong, but musically it might be permissible. If you think about it that way, the limits are endless. What is the odd point, exactly?”

Heiner was silent for a moment at her question. He stared at the sheet music as if he was trying to figure something out, and then he softly opened his mouth.

“…A few days ago, an Armanian liaison plane crashed nearby. This music sheet belonged to the pilot of that plane.”

Annette’s eyes grew wide. Armania was an ally of France. It was widely expected that they would dispatch their troops along with France as an Axis power.

“Other documents had been obtained separately, and the chiefs of staff said they could find nothing odd in this note and that it seemed to be an ordinary one…….. I wanted to ask you just to be sure before I destroyed it.”

Annette looked at the paper again with a nervous expression. It was harder than she thought it would be. Besides, she wondered if she would be able to find what others couldn’t.

She was totally skeptical, but that didn’t mean she could take it lightly. Annette’s fingers traced the notes.

“Have you tried mapping the notes to the alphabet?”

“I tried, but it didn’t fit.”

“I see. Hmmm, there are a few notes that stand out in the middle. It seems quite familiar.”

Annette tilted her head and murmured. Overall, there was nothing suspicious about it, but there were parts that made her question why it was notated this way.

In particular, the repeated motive of F-G-A bothered her a bit. After looking at that part for a long time, her brow narrowed.

Annette quickly opened a drawer and pulled out a notebook and pen. Mumbling along the way, she wrote down one note after another.

Heiner, who had been observing this closely, crossed his arms and said,

“I’ve tried to deal with the note forms, too.”

“Wait a minute.”

Interrupting him, Annette busily moved her pen. Eventually she transcribed all the notes on the sheet music to her notebook.

Annette read it carefully from the beginning and indicated several places with her pen. Then she showed him her notebook.

“…… names vary from country to country. The notation is also a little different. One of them, which is almost dead now, is called the Norman style.”

“Norman? Are you referring to the peoples who settled in Portsman?”

“Yes. My piano teacher once studied in Portsman, and I learned a little bit of the Norman style from her.”

Annette continued, pointing to the sound form marked “FGA”.

“This is a motive that appears repeatedly in the score, and if you read it according to the international notation, which Padania also follows, this is correct. However, if you read this in Norman style, it is ……”

Their gazes met up close. Annette’s lips moved slowly.

“Pa, Sal, La.”

“…”

“…will go.”

Heiner, who had been standing rigidly for some time, snatched the notebook. He read the phonetic form on the paper with a hard face.

Pasala was a coral island located in the Black Sea. It was a key frontline location connecting supply ships in the southern region, and it was an important place enough to be called the land version of the Allied aircraft carrier.

“… Did you find anything else?”

“Right now well ….. I don’t know, maybe there’s something more hidden. By the way, the Norman formula uses “s” for flats. A flats are As and B flats are Bs…..There might be a contrast in this way.”

“Try to decipher it. Perhaps there is a way to hide passwords here with numbers instead of letters?”

“Numbers ……?”

Annette, who was pondering while biting her lower lip, shook her head.

“I’m not sure I understand that much. I’ll take some time and think about it some more.”

“Very well. I will give you a written copy of the score sometime tomorrow, so please give it some more thought…you’ve been very helpful.

“That’s good to hear.”

“I am sorry, but we will be extending the term of your position release. The travel ban will also be extended for the time being.”

“What……? Now, wait a minute.

“Let’s have breakfast together tomorrow. Then get some rest.”

It was not that she did not understand this order, since she had suddenly learned of the classified information that had leaked out of Armania. But in any case, it was an unfair problem for her.

“How long is the position release period? When will I be moved?”

Despite Annette’s question, Heiner put the sheet music in an envelope without reply, then gathered up the scissors and clothing that lay on the bed.

“Why are you taking those with you? I didn’t even finish it………”

“I’ll do it and return it tomorrow morning.”

“It’s outrageous. Please!”

Heiner moved on without even pretending to hear her. It was ridiculous, and without being able to say anything more, she sat down on the bed in a daze.

As he was about to open the door, Heiner half turned his head and said softly,

“…Good night, Annette.”