Ten is a mystery short story by Isaac Asimov.
Part of the Union Club series, it was first published in the August 1986 issue of Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Summary[]
In the Union Club, a debate about language and universal concepts prompts Griswold to recount a tragic tale from World War II. In the summer of 1942, a highly effective French agent named Denise was captured by the Gestapo just as her English contact, a man named Charney, arrived for a meeting. As she was taken away, she managed to signal to Charney by holding up both hands with all ten fingers outstretched. Interpreting this as the number ten, Charney risked his escape to radio this number to London before fleeing France. However, the pre-arranged phrase for "ten" in their codebook, "Grandfather has fixed the roof", held no apparent significance for the imminent Allied commando raid on Dieppe. The raid proceeded and was a catastrophic failure, with half the force killed or captured. For decades, Charney was haunted by the belief that he had either misinterpreted a mere gesture of supplication or failed to understand a vital message.
Years later, Charney confided in Griswold, still tormented by the memory. Griswold questioned the assumption that the signal meant "ten." He realized that the agent, being French, would naturally think of the number as dix. While "ten" is just a number, dix can be read as a Roman numeral: DIX, which translates to 509 (D for 500, IX for 9). Griswold had Charney look up the phrase for 509 in his old codebook. It read: "The reapers are ready, the scythes are sharp, the wheat will be mown"—a clear warning that the Germans were prepared and waiting at Dieppe. This was the crucial message the agent had died trying to send.
Griswold deduced that the agent had used a brilliantly simple method to signal a three-digit number under extreme duress. By holding up ten fingers to represent the word dix, she invoked the Roman numeral system to communicate the code 509. The linguistic difference between the English "ten" and the French dix was the key to the puzzle. Charney's understandable but fatal misinterpretation, based on his own language, led to the disaster, a truth that only deepened his lifelong guilt.
Characters[]
- Griswold
- Club Member (the narrator)
- Baranov
- Jennings
- Charney
- Denise
- The Gestapo Agents
Historical Figures Mentioned[]
- Hitler
- Rommel
See Also[]
List of short stories by Isaac Asimov