Atdtda28: Not to mention field-coefficients, 799-801

[Paul Nightingale]

Cyprian "[b]ack on the Trieste station" and making the acquaintance of "a
newly-arrived cryptographer": his return, therefore, to a situation altered
by the presence of Bevis. In Venice, there is "light in the sky all night"
(798); here, gaslight "remain[s] on through the long day" (799). In Venice,
no one can 'read' what has happened; here, Cyprian "can't read ... all these
little circles". If the previous section recalls 55.8, one is reminded of
"the figure walking through the aftermath" who might or might not be "some
transfigured version of the shaman Magyakan" (785); here, Bevis appears, to
Cyprian, a "crypto wizard" (799) who has tapped into an "event, whatever it
was ..." etc (800), which of course isn't "the Event", even if the use of
the term will necessarily allude to it. On 795 Miles advises Padzhitnoff to
use "some kind of encryption service"; here Bevis works alone deciphering
'intercepts' (ref both wiretapping and mathematics, given the number of
times since 779 that the narrative has revisited the "heavenwide blast of
light").

Theign's appearance allows Bevis to say he is "working on Italian ciphers"
(800), spying on "our allies", apparently for the benefit of German
intelligence: "... they're not supposed to be allies". Prompted by Cyprian's
"no more than idle curiosity", this is apparently the first time Bevis ("Oh
I say ... I never thought of that") that Bevis has realised what he is
doing: the 'disinterested' quest for knowledge enjoys a political update.
Bevis' "warren partially below street level" (799) is one in which the
passage of time goes unnoticed, just as the cryptographer works oblivious to
prevailing political realities, or history even. Off to supper, exposed
finally to events in the outside world, Bevis "stand[s] stricken" (801),
while Cyprian's response to the sky (earlier, Bevis: "I say Latewood, if you
could see the look on your face ...", 799) is offered metaphorically, the
narrative attempting to adequately represent his bewilderment, the mystery
something "that a cryptanalyst could explain" (801).