2012/1a.plaintext

   1 My Dear Charles,
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   3 I have decyphered the first section of my Uncle’s will and I am deeply saddened and perplexed by it. I had hoped that it would explain the sad circumstances of his death and allow me to remember him with the affection I recall from my childhood. Of course I knew that Tiberius had been engaged in secret government work prior to the War, but I had refused to believe that he could have had anything to do with those foul new weapons that so scarred my generation. I am not sure that I want to read the rest of his letter to me. Before I read it I could not have accepted that he had collaborated with the enemy, but I had not realized that he was acquainted with Hahn, a fact I read with distaste, and his claim to have maintained that relationship at the request of the government is the worst sort of self-justification.
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   5 I am puzzled by Tiberius’s strange instruction that I should decypher the document. It seems a trivializing, if not to say frivolous, request. It is hard to square this with the suicide note of a traitor, but perhaps I have been here on Malta for too long. It is many years since I spent time in the company of friends or relatives and, though I find the solitude consoling, it makes me a poor judge of character.
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   7 I am sorry to say that I am ashamed of my Uncle and I have decided not to continue with this unpleasant game. I will have nothing more to do with him, but I see no need to add to the embarrassment of his friends and family and I would ask you to maintain the greatest discretion in your communications concerning this disappointing document, as I have done in encrypting this letter.
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   9 Yours sincerely,
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  11 Nicholas