▌Chapter 9 ─ Reagent ▌

      ━━━━━ CLARA AND ABIGAIL stood next to Ben ready to handle the document if need be as both were trained to do so. Riley stood next to Clara, as Ben placed the Delectation of Independence down on the table.

"Looks like animal skin." Patrick announced, peering around the corner. Clara smiled briefly, still looking down at the document. "How old is it?"

"At least 200 years." Ben replied, looking at him.

"Really? You sure?" He continued to pester the four of them, while Clara examined the Declaration of Independence.

"Pretty darn." Ben simply responded.

"Now if this thing's in invisible ink, how do we look at it?" Riley asked the three, clearly not knowing the answer to his question.

"Throw it in the oven." Patrick told them, walking closer.

"No!" Abigail, Clara, and Riley exclaimed looking at Patrick.

"Ferrous sulfate inks can only be brought out with heat." Patrick advised them.

"Yes, but this..." Abigail went on to tell him.

"It's very old. This is very old, and we can't risk compromising the map." Ben replied, staring at his father.

"You need a reagent." Patrick said, turning to walk away from them.

"Dad, it's really late. Why don't you get some rest?" Ben asked him.

"I'm fine." Patrick said from another room.

Ben looked at Clara who only smiled at him, she knew they really wouldn't be able to get him out of the way while they looked for the map.

"Lemons." Ben called out, Clara watched as Riley picked up the cut lemons and handed them over to Ben.

He took the bowel in his hand and picked up a single slice of lemon, moving it over to the map. Both Clara and Abigail exchanged a look with each other, knowing that wasn't the right way to go.

"You can't do that." Abigail uttered.

"But it has to be done." Ben told her.

"Then someone who is trained to handle antique documents is gonna do it. That is both Clara and I." Abigail said, staring at Ben.

"Okay," Ben replied.

Ben nodded his head, handing the lemon over to Abigail. She briefly looked at Clara who shook her head.

"Now, if there is a secret message, it'll probably be marked by a symbol in the upper right-hand corner." Clara explained, as Abigail leaned over to grab a swab to lather it in lemon juice.

Ben couldn't help but smile at her, "that's right." He replied.

"I am so getting fired for this."

They all placed their eyes on the document as Abigail began to spread the swab across the right-hand corner. She then removed her hand and they waited for something to appear. Clara sighed, feeling disappointed in trusting Ben again.

She couldn't believe that it hadn't worked, and for the first time in a long time she felt that the clues Ben had found were right. Ben looked over at her, while Riley and Abigail released a sigh. Ben looked back at Abigail as she looked at him.

"I told you. You need heat." Patrick announced, staring at the four.

Clara watched Ben and Abigail lean closer to the document. They both exhaled releasing heat onto the document. Slowly but surely the mark started to appear at the top of the document. Clara couldn't help but smile.

"See?"

"We need more juice." Ben announced looking between Abigail and Clara.

"We need more heat." Abigail replied.

Ben and Clara left the room, Ben went to get more lemons while Clara went to find a hair dryer. Opening one of the drawers in the main bathroom she found what she had been looking for. With a smile on her face, she walked out of the bathroom and headed back into the room.

Plugging it in she held onto it while Abigail placed the juice onto the document itself. As she did that Clara moved the hair dryer down the document while Ben wrote down all the numbers that appeared.

"That's not a map. Is it?" Riley asked, leaning forward slightly.

"More clues. What a surprise." Patrick called out, Abigail looked at him for a brief moment then placed her eyes back on the document.

"Are those latitudes and longitudes?" Riley proceeded to ask them.

"That's why we need the Silence Dogood letters." Ben explained to both Riley and Abigail.

"That's the key?" Abigail asked him.

"Yeah. "They key in Silence undetected." Dad, can we have the letters now?"

"Will somebody please explain to me what these magic numbers are?"

Clara turned off the hair dryer looking over at Riley, "it's an Ottendorf cipher." She simply replied.

"That's right." Patrick said, praising her.

"Oh, ok. What's an Ottendorf cipher?"

"They're just codes." Patrick answered, looking at Riley.

Ben moved his hand over to the numbers, "each of these three numbers corresponds to a word in a key." Ben told him.

"Usually a random book or a newspaper article." Abigail said.

"In this case, the Silence Dogood letters." Clara added, looking at Riley as he took in the information.

"So it's like the page number of the key text, the line on the page, and the letter in that line. So, dad, where are these letters?" Ben asked, looking over at his father.

"You know, it's just by sheer happenstance that his grandfather..."

"Dad."

"...even found them. They were in an antique desk from the press room..."

"Dad."

"...of The New England Courant. That's a newspaper."

"Dad, where are the letters?" Ben proceeded to ask him.

"I don't have them, son." Patrick replied.

"What?"

"I don't have them." He repeated himself.

Clara watched as Ben fell back into the seat pulling the glove off with his teeth. She sighed, this only met that they were going to have to go somewhere else and find the next clue. It made things more difficult than they needed to be.

"Where are they?" Ben questioned his dad.

"I donated them to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia." Patrick answered.

"Time to go."

Ben stood up from the chair, walking away from them.

"I still can't believe it. All this time no one knew what was on the back." Abigail said, looking over at Clara.

"The back of what?" Patrick asked walking forward to lift the document up.

Everyone reacted trying to get him not to touch the document with his hands. "No!" Ben shouted looking at his dad.

"Oh, my god. Oh, my god." He breathed out, looking at Clara and Abigail.

"I know." Ben said.

"Oh, my god. What have you done? This is... this is... this is..."

"I know!"

"...the Declaration of Independence." Patrick said, looking at it.

Abigail placed her gloved hand on the document looking at Ben's father.

"Yes. And it's very delicate." Abigail told him.

"You stole it?" He proceeded to ask them.

Riley pointed to both Clara and Ben, Clara looked at him and smacked his hand causing him to react and feel sad that she had done that. Patrick looked at Riley, then at Clara and then at his son.

"Dad, I can explain, but I don't have time. It was necessary. And you saw the cipher." Ben said, walking over to his dad.

"And that will lead to another clue, and that will lead to another clue! There is no treasure. I wasted 20 years of my life. And now you've destroyed yours. You destroyed your relationship with Clara because of this. And you pulled me into all this." Patrick told him.

"Well, we can't have that."