plane was heading toward Barcelona, Spain, for a refuel, then a short hop over the Mediterranean to Cairo. Jeff Thompson’s jury-rigged tracking device had worked wonders, allowing them to track Vilocek and his men all the way to Egypt. The only problem was that they weren’t sure how much battery life was left in the phone. Or if Agent Beka had figured out that he’d been duped and led them on a wild-goose chase around the globe.
Cole had been up for hours after their briefing, reading through the pages of the journal. He’d painstakingly copied down the texts written in invisible ink into another notebook, and when he’d finished the entire journal, Whittenfield had come in with an entire box of his father’s journals and notebooks. Cole spent the rest of the night and into the following morning translating those.
Most of the journals were empty, just research regarding other projects and assignments Whittenfield, Sr., worked on over the course of his long career. Most of it had nothing to do with the strange substance that had consumed his son’s professional life, but it made for fascinating reading nonetheless. Cole read about defense contracts and weapons developments that had never seen the light of day, mostly due to a lack of financial backing. In some cases, however, the projects had been fully funded and the research and consequent prototyping had been completely successful. These projects — about 40 percent, by Cole’s best guess — were simply abandoned for economic or political reasons: the end of a major war, change in administration, et cetera. It seemed like most of Whittenfield Sr.’s work was groundbreaking and cutting-edge for its time, but it had, for the most part, been all but forgotten.
Some of the journals, however, did have references to the mysterious substance. Apparently it was a crystalline solid — like a piece of quartz, the almost perfectly translucent crystal mineral that was found inside geodes and used for things like jewelry and industrial and commercial products. One journal, dated April 1946, described the mineral:
…The substance appears similar in structure to the common mineral quartz. It is solid, sharp at the edges. In the presence of natural and artificial light the rock emits an almost bluish glow, faint but bright enough to be noticeable. It is this particular element of the mineral, though we do not at this time know what it is, that we believe to be the variable that creates the mysterious properties we’ve experienced.
As well, it is through the extraction and attempted duplication of this substance that we have continued the study of the mineral’s properties. Last month, Dr. Enko Vilocek stole the original artifact and disappeared with it. Half of my team left with him, and I am now struggling to recreate my experiments with the duplicate substance, though the properties are not nearly as powerful…
The earlier journals had no mention of the rock, nor did they have any bluish hidden ink at all. Cole explained this to Whittenfield, who had a theory as to why.
“Well, assuming your ability to read this ‘invisible ink’ is related to whatever sort of tests and injections Vilocek subjected you to, I’d wager that it’s also related to whatever they’ve found within that rock. Remember, Vilocek also has had a ‘duplicate synthetic’ copy of the original, and he’s had the original in his possession for many years.”
“So whatever it is that causes this rock to emanate the bluish glow is also what your father extracted from the original mineral,” Cole asked.
“Exactly — and he somehow managed to transfer that property into a liquid — his ‘invisible ink,’ except that instead of being visible in light, he made the ink only visible in the presence of the mineral. Knowing that whoever would find the crystal later would want to know more about it and therefore search for his journals, he made sure that they would have to have
Cole had been up for hours after their briefing, reading through the pages of the journal. He’d painstakingly copied down the texts written in invisible ink into another notebook, and when he’d finished the entire journal, Whittenfield had come in with an entire box of his father’s journals and notebooks. Cole spent the rest of the night and into the following morning translating those.
Most of the journals were empty, just research regarding other projects and assignments Whittenfield, Sr., worked on over the course of his long career. Most of it had nothing to do with the strange substance that had consumed his son’s professional life, but it made for fascinating reading nonetheless. Cole read about defense contracts and weapons developments that had never seen the light of day, mostly due to a lack of financial backing. In some cases, however, the projects had been fully funded and the research and consequent prototyping had been completely successful. These projects — about 40 percent, by Cole’s best guess — were simply abandoned for economic or political reasons: the end of a major war, change in administration, et cetera. It seemed like most of Whittenfield Sr.’s work was groundbreaking and cutting-edge for its time, but it had, for the most part, been all but forgotten.
Some of the journals, however, did have references to the mysterious substance. Apparently it was a crystalline solid — like a piece of quartz, the almost perfectly translucent crystal mineral that was found inside geodes and used for things like jewelry and industrial and commercial products. One journal, dated April 1946, described the mineral:
…The substance appears similar in structure to the common mineral quartz. It is solid, sharp at the edges. In the presence of natural and artificial light the rock emits an almost bluish glow, faint but bright enough to be noticeable. It is this particular element of the mineral, though we do not at this time know what it is, that we believe to be the variable that creates the mysterious properties we’ve experienced.
As well, it is through the extraction and attempted duplication of this substance that we have continued the study of the mineral’s properties. Last month, Dr. Enko Vilocek stole the original artifact and disappeared with it. Half of my team left with him, and I am now struggling to recreate my experiments with the duplicate substance, though the properties are not nearly as powerful…
The earlier journals had no mention of the rock, nor did they have any bluish hidden ink at all. Cole explained this to Whittenfield, who had a theory as to why.
“Well, assuming your ability to read this ‘invisible ink’ is related to whatever sort of tests and injections Vilocek subjected you to, I’d wager that it’s also related to whatever they’ve found within that rock. Remember, Vilocek also has had a ‘duplicate synthetic’ copy of the original, and he’s had the original in his possession for many years.”
“So whatever it is that causes this rock to emanate the bluish glow is also what your father extracted from the original mineral,” Cole asked.
“Exactly — and he somehow managed to transfer that property into a liquid — his ‘invisible ink,’ except that instead of being visible in light, he made the ink only visible in the presence of the mineral. Knowing that whoever would find the crystal later would want to know more about it and therefore search for his journals, he made sure that they would have to have
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