The Bird That Sang Bass, also known as Riddled With Clues, is a mystery short story by Isaac Asimov.
Part of the Union Club series, it was first published in the July 1983 issue of Gallery magazine.
Summary[]
At the Union Club, Griswold begins to recount an unusual Cold War case that, he explains, once reached the highest levels of Western intelligence. A Soviet agent operating in the United States was suspected of attempting to smuggle secret microfilm back to the USSR. However, the evidence was elusive, no physical transmission had been detected, and the suspect had so far evaded every trap.
To discover his method, Western intelligence planted one of their own agents in the spy’s household, disguised as an ordinary servant. The undercover man’s job was simple: observe everything and, if possible, communicate any clue through a harmless conversation that would not alert the enemy.
During one such exchange, the servant told the Russian a silly-sounding American joke that revolved around the phrase “elephant-bird.” The code seemed meaningless to everyone involved, except Griswold.
As Griswold explains to the assembled club members, the servant’s “joke” was actually a deliberately planted clue for his superiors. The term “elephant-bird” combined the ideas of large and flight, hinting that the microfilm was hidden within an elephant-themed souvenir bird figurine—a trinket innocently carried by the spy as a gift. When the figurine was examined, the concealed film was found inside.
Griswold concludes the tale by noting that the brilliance of the operation lay in its layered misdirection: an absurd joke masking a precise signal, a servant pretending ignorance, and a spy undone by the one man who could “read a riddle as a code.”
Characters[]
- Griswold
- Club Member (the narrator)
- Jennings
- Baranov
- Soviet Agent
- Undercover Agent (servant)
- Intelligence Officials
See Also[]
List of short stories by Isaac Asimov