Part 7
"Looks like animal skin. How old is it?"
"At least 200 years." Ben answered.
"Really? You sure?"
"Pretty darn."
"Now, if this thing is invisible ink, how do we look at it?" Riley asked.
"Throw it in the oven." Mr. Gates said.
"Yeah let's not." Anne said.
"Higher sulfate inks can only be brought out with heat." He stated.
"But this…"
"Is very old. We can't risk compromising the map." Ben finished.
"You need a reagent."
"Dad, it's really late. Why don't you get some rest?" Ben told him. His father walked into the living room.
"I'm fine."
"Anne go get your arm cleaned up."
"I wanna see this first."
"Anne." he said sternly.
"Ben." She mocked.
"Fine. So…" he grabbed a lemon slice and held it over the paper. Abigail grabbed his wrist to stop him.
"You can't do that."
"But it has to be done."
"Then somebody trained to handle antique documents is gonna do it."
"Okay." Ben consented.
"Now, if there is an invisible message, it will probably be marked by a symbol in the upper right hand corner." Abigail told nobody in particular.
"That's right." Ben said. Anne could tell that he was impressed.
"I am so getting fired for this." Abigail murmured.
Nothing.
"I told you." Their father said from the doorway. "You need heat." Ben and Abigail leaned towards the paper and breathed. A Templar symbol appeared in the corner.
"Wow…" Anne breathed.
"We need more juice."
"We need more heat."
Ben and Abigail left the room.
"Get your cut cleaned!" Ben yelled from the kitchen.
Anne looked over at Riley and sighed.
"Can you help me?"
"It doesn't look like a map." Riley commented from the other side of the table. As Ben and Abigail worked on the map, he worked on patching up Anne's arm. But being preoccupied by the map, he couldn't see that Anne was blushing at the contact. "Are those latitudes and longitudes?" Riley asked.
"We need the Silence Dogood letters." Ben said.
"That's the key?" Abigail asked.
"The key in Silence undetected. Dad, can we have the letters now?" Ben asked.
"Will someone please explain to me what these magic numbers are?" Riley asked, exasperated.
"It's an Ottendorf cipher." Anne said.
"Right."
"Okay." Riley paused. "What's an Ottendorf cipher?"
"Each of these numbers corresponds to a word in the key." Anne began.
"In this case the Silence Dogood letters. So, it's like that page number of the key text, the line on the page, and the letter in that line. So Dad, where are the letters?" Ben asked.
"You know, it's just by sheer happenstance that his grandfather…" Mr. Gates said.
"Dad." Ben said firmly.
"…even found the letters. They were in an antique desk."
"Dad, where are the letters?" Anne asked.
"I don't have them."
"What?" She asked calmly.
"I don't have them."
"Where are they?" Ben asked.
"I donated them to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia."
"Time to go." Ben said.
"After all this time, nobody knew it was on the back." Abigail whispered.
"The back of what?"
"No!" Ben and Anne cried as he reached for the Declaration.
"Oh my god. Oh my god!"
"I know." Ben groaned.
"Oh my god! What have you done? This is…This is…"
"I know!" Anne snapped.
"This is the Declaration of Independence." He groaned.
"And it's very delicate." Abigail told him, taking the document away from him.
"You stole it?" He asked harshly.
"Dad, I can explain, but I don't have time. It was necessary. You saw the cipher." Ben protested.
"And that will lead to another clue. And that will lead to another clue. And that's all you'll ever find. There is no treasure. I wasted 20 years of my life, and now you've destroyed yours AND your sister's! And you pulled me into this."
"Well, we can't have that, can we?" Ben replied.