No. 16's Contest with the Beresfords

This flow follows the escalating contest between the Beresfords and a master of disguise, from intelligence protocols to abduction and capture.

increasingBearing stren­gth in each eventdecreasing

A Network Under Cover

A Network Under Cover Routine as Camouflage The agency receives legitimate clients while monitoring coded Russian correspondence. Its ordinary business gives foreign agents a reason to believe the office is genuine. Growing Suspicion The capture of several operatives alarms Moscow. Carter warns that a specialist may come to test the cover and identify the real Blunt.

The Warning Protocol

The Warning Protocol Two Passwords Carter gives the Beresfords a response to the number sixteen and a second phrase about Berlin. The words are meant to establish trust without revealing the whole operation. Surveillance Prepared A dictaphone and concealed personnel support the coming interview. The department hopes to turn the spy's test into a controlled encounter.

The Disguised Prince

The Disguised Prince A Successful Test The visitor presents himself as Prince Vladiroffsky and tests Tommy's knowledge. Tommy supplies the Berlin answer, and the visitor concludes that the agency has been warned. A Dangerous Confidence The apparent success encourages the operation to follow him. Yet the spy's quick recognition of betrayal suggests that he may still control the terms of the encounter.

The Hotel Switch

The Hotel Switch A Disappearing Couple The spy and Tuppence enter a suite but vanish before Carter's team reaches it. A bound American woman and a cut bolt turn the pursuit into a puzzle of altered identities. Decoy Costumes The missing nurse and invalid boy have been prepared as a false trail. The spy exploits the agents' expectation of a bearded man and a young woman to leave unchallenged.

The Hidden Prisoner

The Hidden Prisoner A Better Search Tommy recognizes that there was too little time for the elaborate escape he imagined. He searches the bed itself and finds Tuppence drugged beneath the bolster. The Spy Exposed The supposed victim is No. 16 in disguise. Tommy's solution reunites the couple and gives Carter the capture he had been seeking.

After the agency begins its covert work

Shortly before the final visitor arrives

At the agency, near the ending

After lunch at The Blitz Hotel

Minutes after Tommy revisits the suite