"Mike, watch out", cried Ellie pulling her companion's arm. The large, covered box swayed dangerously close to the two children as the crane lumbered into position. "The real world is more important than your 'social media' you know," she added, "particularly when it's about to hit you in the face!" Mike wrenched his arm away and looked up from his phone to meet Ellie's serious eyes.

"Sorry" he said, "were you going to hit me in the face?" "I should have," huffed Ellie, "I can't think what could be more interesting than watching the Bombe find a new home. Remember we were specially invited, so you should be paying attention!" "I'm excited too", said Mike, "that's why I'm chirping about it to my coterie. A working replica of the Bombe here in Manchester! Hang on. I want to get a mo-pic of the big reveal."

Mike concentrated as he aimed his camera at the box, his finger hovering over the record button. Dozens of people in overalls were bustling about checking that the box was exactly aligned with the tape marks on the floor. Mike shuffled forwards to get a better view, but somehow managed to catch his foot on a stray cable, flapped his arms wildly, tripped over the security barrier and fell straight onto the box which swung into the wall with a crash. There was a stunned silence and then a quiet metallic hiss as a coloured cylinder slipped out from underneath the cover and bounced, once, twice, three times before it cracked open right in front of where Mike was sprawled on the floor.

"You clumsy idiot", screamed one of the overalled workers, "what have you done? Specially invited or not, if that drum has been damaged you'll have to pay for a new one."

"Sorry," apologised Mike, "I didn't mean to".

"Hmm," was the response, "Luckily for you, this cover seems to have been designed to come off rather easily ... unusual. Anyway, I can just pop it back on. No harm done ... this time, but pay more attention to what you are doing please." As the worker disappeared under the cover to reinsert the drum, Ellie noticed a scrap of paper lying on the floor by Mike's hand.

"Psst", she stage-whispered, "Mike, grab that piece of paper!"

FLASH!

"That was quite a fall. Are you hurt?" asked a energetic woman wielding an enormous camera. "You're Mike aren't you or is it %MikeDrop? I'm a big fan of your chirps. Brilliant, incisive, witty,..."

"and who exactly are you," interrupted Ellie testily.

"Oh sorry," apologised the woman. "I've got a card here somewhere." She searched through her many pockets and triumphantly pulled out a tea-stained business card.

"Noma de Plume," read Ellie. "Investigative Reporter"

"That's right," said Noma. "I work for the Manchester Examiner and I'm always on the look out for stories about science, maths and codes. It's really exciting to see Turing's Bombe back in Manchester where it belongs. You're lucky it was a bouncing Bombe rather than a smashing Bombe Mike."

"But the Bombe doesn't really have anything to do with Manchester," said Ellie", "It was part of Turing's work in Bletchley Park. The only reason it's here is because the National Computer Museum is being renovated and it needed a temporary home."

"Oh, how fascinating?" said Noma. "Tell me more. Mike, what do you think?"

"Errr", said Mike. "Well, actually I think it's time for the unveiling"

The trio turned back towards the covered box which was now safely on solid ground. As Mike readied his camera again, Ellie pulled him backwards and propelled him towards the exit. "Quick, while she's distracted", she hissed to Mike.

"I thought you were interested in watching the Bombe find its new home," Mike hissed back.

"I was, but now I'm much more interested in the piece of paper that fell out of the drum."

Once they were outside, Mike let the paper fall from his coat sleeve into his hand and both children stared at it.

"It looks like a coded message and it looks old," said Ellie, her eyes sparkling.

"Here we go again," said Mike. "Looks like I'll have plenty to chirp about."

Below is the scrap of paper that Ellie spotted on the floor. It contains a secret message. Once you have found the message, you should enter the 17th word.

Alan Turing Cryptography Competition 2020 is organised by the The Department of Mathematics at The University of Manchester.
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