Chapter 4 - DR. VALE'S LEDGER
Eliza took the ledger to Professor Henry Bell at Greyhaven Technical College.
He was sixty-two, half deaf, permanently stained with ink, and deeply suspicious of anyone who arrived carrying mysterious glowing powder.
He examined the samples.
Then went silent.
“What?”
“Eliza…”
“What is it?”
“This is not ordinary mineral powder.”
He explained slowly.
Ambrose Vale had been experimenting with phosphorescent compounds and early electrical storage systems.
The cylinders were prototypes.
Dangerous in some forms.
Potentially revolutionary in others.
Not treasure in the simple sense.
Technology.
Patents.
Industrial value.
The ledger contained experimental formulas and drawings that could transform portable electrical systems.
Rail signaling.
Mining lamps.
Naval equipment.
Emergency lighting.
Professor Bell turned pages carefully.
“If this works the way he believed, companies will kill for it.”
Eliza laughed nervously.
“Please don’t say kill.”
Bell stopped.
“Someone broke into your ship?”
“Yes.”
He closed the ledger.
“Then stop carrying this around.”
They copied the most important pages.
Original ledger in a bank vault.
Copies in two separate locations.
Eliza was learning quickly.
Then Bell found something hidden in the back cover.
A folded letter.
To whomever finds this:
Charles cannot have the work.
Eliza stared.
Bell continued reading.
Ambrose accused his own son of secretly selling company research to a foreign industrial syndicate.
He had taken the prototypes aboard Morning Star to keep them out of Charles’s hands.
Then one final sentence:
If the ship returns without me, assume I was betrayed by someone aboard.
Eliza felt cold.
May you like
Charles had not merely lost his father.
He might know why Ambrose never came home.
