A secret code embedded in the text of a court ruling in the case of Dan
Brown's bestseller "The Da Vinci Code" has been cracked, but far from
revealing an ancient conspiracy it is simply an obscure reference to a
Royal Navy admiral.
Nearly a month ago, British High Court Justice Peter Smith, who handed
down a ruling that Brown had not plagiarized his book, had embedded his
own secret message in his judgment by italicizing letters scattered
throughout the 71-page document.
In Brown's book, a secret code reveals an ancient conspiracy to hide
facts about Jesus Christ.
The judge's own code briefly caused a wave of amused speculation when
it was discovered by a lawyer this week.
But the lawyer, Dan Tench, cracked it after a day of puzzling. The
judge's code was based on the Fibonacci sequence, a mathematical
progression discussed in the book.
"After much trial and error, we found a
formula which fitted," wrote Tench, who had nothing to do with the Brown
case but discovered the italicized letters when studying the ruling.
The judge's secret message was: "Jackie Fisher, who are you?
Dreadnought," Tench wrote in the Guardian newspaper.
Judge Smith is known as a navy buff, and
Fisher was a Royal Navy admiral who developed the idea for a giant
battleship called the HMS Dreadnought in the early 20th century.
Tench wrote that the judge had e-mailed him to confirm he had guessed
the secret code right.
The judge later confirmed the existence of the code, and revealed that
the Fibonacci sequence was indeed the secret to its solution.
"The message reveals a significant but now overlooked event that
occurred virtually 100 years ago," he said in a
statement.
(Agencies)
