The students were called to secret meetings where they learned that the U.S. Navy was inviting them to embark on a field called “cryptanalysis,” a word, it was soon made clear to them, they were never to utter outside the confines of the gatherings. They were being offered a training course in code breaking and, if they passed, would proceed to Washington after graduation, to take jobs with the Navy as civilians. Sworn to secrecy, the women were forbidden from telling anybody what they were doing: not their friends, not their parents, not their family, not their roommates. They were not to let
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