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Well, if it's open for a rewrite, perhaps something like:

It was hopeless.  Maude and Agnes had cracked top-secret
messages during World War II, but even Bletchley Park's
finest cryptographers were mystified by the enigmatic "008".

At the risk of dissecting frogs, I think it telegraphs the context and
puts the punchline where it belongs: at the end.  It also breaks well
into three lines.

Ben