"Not much better," said Wolfe. He laughed. "I'm afraid you don't quite have this-"
"Of course!" Benjamin erased the B and wrote in an A. Now the line read:
"Jeremy was new to all this," Benjamin explained. "He forgot he'd shifted the A to the zero triangle, which isn't in the pyramid proper. Franklin had a special notation in those cases, but I guess Jeremy didn't know that, and…"
"Yes, yes, very interesting," said Wolfe, taking the paper from Benjamin. "Well, I suggest we don't wait until morning. Let's go and try this on Fletcher's computer right now."
Benjamin nodded, but as Wolfe retrieved his shoes and put them on, then moved to the door, Benjamin hadn't yet risen from the bed.
"Benjamin?" Wolfe prodded.
"It's just strange," he said.
"That someone as precise as Dr. Fletcher would make such a mistake?"
"No, not that. It's just very odd that Jeremy would choose this code, from all possible codes."
"Think where you are, Benjamin," Wolfe answered. "There's a cryptologist here, a Dr. Karl Bennett, one of the best in the field. I'm sure Fletcher was resourceful enough to seek him out and find out whatever he needed to know about codes."
"Perhaps." Benjamin shook his head. "But it's still strange. Franklin scholars had discovered these numbered codes in his correspondence and some of his business papers, and they'd assumed it was based on the Masonic code. But they'd never been able to decipher it before, until a particular letter was unearthed just last year."
"And who unearthed it?" Wolfe asked.
Benjamin looked up at him. "I did."
"What?"
"I wrote a paper about it. That discovery was responsible for my appointment at the Library of Congress."
"So in other words," said Wolfe, remaining in the doorway, "Fletcher knew that quite probably the only person who would be able to recognize this and decode it would be one Benjamin Franklin Wainwright."
Benjamin looked up at him, not quite comprehending.
"Isn't it obvious, Benjamin?" He smiled broadly. "He didn't leave this for himself. He knew the password. He left it for you."
Wolfe came over to the chair, put his hand on Benjamin's shoulder.
"That's what I meant when I said Fletcher had leaked information, just not yet. He intended to leak something, that much is clear. To you."