Codes are broke not by solitary individuals but by groups people trading pieces of things they have learned and noticed and collected, little glittering bits of numbers and other useful items they have stored up in their heads like magpies, things they remember while looking over one another's shoulders, pointing out patterns that turn out to be they key that unlocks the code.
-- Mundy (Introduction paragraph 2)

Importance: This quote captures the humility and collectivity of code-breaking. Mundy aptly describes the code-breaking organism as a giant brain, a living, breathing, shared memory (22). Not only does her sentence structure capture the long and sometimes tedious process of code-breaking, it also speaks to the collective nature of the job. The magpie simile brings about images of birds on a wire, shoulder to shoulder in camaraderie. Also, the magpie can be seen collecting all sorts of small bits as it forages for food: insects, seeds, or berries, just...