The Lost Journal

by Chris Blewitt

  Kohler and Pierce exchanged puzzled looks. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean, that book is only the first clue in finding out the real prize your boss is searching for. Frankly, it’s what my boss was searching for too.”

  “What do you suggest?” Kohler asked.

  “We work together,” Max said.

  “Ahh, now we gotta work with these incompetent Yanks?” Evan said.

  “Quiet,” Max said. He pointed at the book. “If you take that book back to Castle and there’s nothing there, he’s gonna keep sending you on a wild goose chase.”

  Kohler stretched his neck from side to side before responding. “So now what?”

  “We’ll split up. You guys take off and we’ll watch both places, here and the kid’s place. They gotta stay somewhere for the night, although I doubt it’s either one of these places. So, use your connections and get a tail on all credit card purchases in the next twenty four hours. I bet they find a hotel and shack up there for the night. If you find out which one, we got ‘em.”

  “I’m keeping the book though,” Kohler said.

  “Deal.” Max reached forward and shook the reluctant hand of the man with the book.

  CHAPTER 13

  The sun had disappeared from the horizon, but the last quarter of the sky had a pinkish hue that mesmerized those looking west. Contrails of exhaust from jetliners crisscrossed each other like they were playing a game of tag, their plumes expanding as they went further toward their destinations. Seth looked up at them through the front windshield of Madison’s car and wished he was on one of those planes right now. He’d scoop up his granddad and take him with him, Madison too, he hoped. Where to go? Endless possibilities. Couldn’t go to Florida to see his father, they’d track him there. Tahiti?

  “Where to?” Madison asked. She breezed through stop signs and anticipated green lights as she made her way onto Interstate 476, going north toward Valley Forge. They couldn’t go there now; any attractions in the park would be closed. “Seth!”

  “Oh, sorry,” Seth said, crashing back to reality after his brief Tahitian excursion. “I still can’t figure out who those other people were.”

  “They had British accents too. And that man who jumped on my car! Geez. What the hell do they want?”

  “Beats me, but we gotta find out.” For the first few minutes after their escape, they summarized the events and knew that the knowledge they had was valuable.

  “Where are we going?” she asked.

  “Well, we can’t go to your place or my place. I was thinking my granddad’s abandoned house but they found me there before so that’s out. We could stay at a friend’s place,” he said it almost as a question.

  She thought for a moment before saying, “I don’t want to get anyone else involved in this, let alone get hurt.”

  “Then it’s a hotel.”

  “Okay,” she said, “which one?”

  “I want to be there as soon as Valley Forge Park opens tomorrow morning so let’s stay somewhere close. Go to the Radisson, it’s right near the park. Take I-76 all the way to King of Prussia and it’s right off Route 23.”

  The journey to the Radisson in rush hour traffic took about thirty minutes. Seth relayed his thoughts about his research paper on Valley Forge to Madison. Washington had chosen Valley Forge as an interim position for the winter of 1777. It was perched high on a hill and the Schuylkill River was nearby, both helping their defense. He led 12,000 men into the area and they built over one thousand log cabins to help them stave off winter’s fury. Still, almost 2000 men died of typhoid, jaundice, pneumonia and dysentery.

  “Were there any women in the camp?” Madison asked.

  “Sure, wives, children, mothers and sisters were there. Only a couple hundred of them, but they provided laundry, cooking and even nursing services. They were even scavengers of some sort. After a minor battle, they would run out to the battlefield and try to take whatever was on the dead soldiers’ body and bring it back to the camp. Some even got killed doing it.”

  “How long were the soldiers there?”

  “They left when summer arrived, sometime in June. But to this day, it is considered a monumental victory of morale in the war. They suffered through a very harsh winter and Washington instilled in his men that if they could survive that, they could survive anything.”

  “So where are we going to find whatever it is that’s hidden?”

  “I have some ideas, but the park is huge. It’s over three thousand acres.”

  “We’ll never find it,” Madison said.

  “Well, most of it is just grass and trees, walking and biking paths too. You’re right, if it’s buried in the ground, it will be almost impossible to find. We need to look for something that has endured the test of time.”

  Madison pulled into the parking lot of the Radisson and they got out and walked to the front desk. A tall skinny man with a light gray suit stood standing behind the chest-high counter. His gold nameplate said his name was William.

  “Hello and welcome to the Radisson,” the man said. “How can I help you?”

  Seth spoke first, “Yes we need a room for,” he caught himself and said, “ah, two rooms.”

  Madison grabbed his hand and said to William, “One room is fine.”

  William smiled before typing on the computer on the desk. “We have a room available with one king-sized bed. Will that be okay?”

  “Yes,” Madison said, “that will be fine.”

  Seth smiled and pulled out his credit card. They got the room key from William and walked toward the elevators and room 416.

  “We need to eat something,” Seth said. “Where should we go?”

  Madison locked arms with him and smiled. Room service.”

  <><><><><>

  Jonathon Castle’s cell phone rang in his office. He was sitting at his desk and his assistant, Kim, sat across from him taking notes, her glasses creeping down her nose. Castle looked at the caller ID and got up from his chair.

  “Excuse me,” he said. He walked around his desk to the far corner and said, “Yes?”

  “We ran into the people from the UK,” the man on the other end said. It was Kohler.

  “And?” Castle asked, trying not to give too much away to his assistant.

  “We got the book.”

  “Excellent! What about the two who had it?”

  “That’s the thing. The guy sorta gave it to us.”

  “What? You didn’t have to…” Castle searched for the words, “take it?”

  “No,” Kohler stated. “We went through the book and there’s not much here. Couple of drawings but I couldn’t make anything out of it.”

  “I see,” Castle said.

  “We think the kid knows something or else he wouldn’t have handed it over so easy.”

  “Where are they?”

  “We just got a hit. We put a trail on their credit card and they checked into the Radisson near King of Prussia. We got them under surveillance.”

  “Great,” Castle said. “Keep me posted. I’ll call you later.” He ended the call and smiled. He had the book. Better yet, maybe the kid found what he was looking for after all and that would soon be his as well. Things were looking up.

  It was getting late and he figured they were the last two people on this floor. He put the phone in his pocket and walked behind Kim, still sitting in front of his desk. He put his hands on her shoulders and started gently massaging.

  Kim was not taken off guard. She eased into the massage, gently rolling her neck in small circles. No words were spoken and soon Kim got up from her chair, locked his office door and moved over to the leather sofa against the wall, grabbing his hand as she walked. Castle unbuttoned his shirt with his left hand and she unbuttoned her white blouse with her right hand. She turned to face him, looking up in his eyes. Then she undid his pants as he undid her skirt, both falling to the floor. In no time they were fully undressed and he was on top of her, crashing onto the couch.
r />   “Oh Kim,” Castle said, whispering into her ear.

  Kim whispered right back, “Oh Mr. Vice-President.”

  CHAPTER 14

  Morning came quickly for Seth and Madison. Both were exhausted from the previous day’s activities. Coffee was brought to their room at eight o’clock along with two bagels and cream cheese. They made two quick phone calls. Seth called his granddad to let him know they’d be by later, and Madison called work to say she wouldn’t be in again. They showered, redressed in the same clothes and headed out the door, breakfast in hand.

  It was a bright, crisp spring morning and the cool breeze was refreshing. Madison drove the short distance to the entrance of Valley Forge Park and parked the car in the lot near the Visitor’s Center. It opened at nine and they wanted to be the first customers through the doors.

  They walked up a concrete path toward the glass building that seemed to be sitting inside the side of a hill. Joggers and bikers breezed by them on the wide trail that encircled the park.

  “Hi folks,” a small elderly man said standing behind the counter.

  Seth grabbed a map from the counter stand and asked the man, “Hi. We’re curious to know what exists here in the park that existed back in Washington’s day?”

  “What do you mean son?”

  Seth cleared his throat and clarified. “I’m wondering what buildings or structures are still standing and unchanged after two hundred and some odd years.”

  “Oh,” the man said as he grabbed the map from Seth’s hands and opened it. “Here we are,” he pointed at the map, “The oldest buildings are The Stevens House right here and Varnum’s Quarter’s over here. Down here you got Knox’s Quarters, and then up here you have Washington’s Quarters. Plus a few huts still remain and they are scattered around the whole park.”

  Seth and Madison looked at each other. They knew where to look first. Seth folded the map back, thanked the man, grabbed Madison’s hand and exited the Center.

  “Washington’s Quarters,” he said.

  “Got to be,” she replied.

  They walked back to Madison’s car and noticed another car sitting on the other side of the parking lot. Seth could tell the car was idling because there was gray smoke coming from the exhaust pipe on the back of the car.

  “They followed us,” he said, looking away, searching for a plan. “We can’t walk there, too easy to follow us. We have to lose them. Get in.”

  They climbed in the car and Madison pulled out and found Route 23. She accelerated and turned onto the outer drive. She drove the opposite way of Washington’s Quarters, hoping to lead them astray. Madison glanced in the rearview mirror; the car turned out and wasn’t far behind.

  “Shit, they’re behind us. How’d they find us?”

  Seth peered in his mirror and confirmed it. “Get on route 252, then take 202 South. We can loop around and try to lose them.”

  Madison did as Seth suggested, and after four miles, she didn’t see the car behind them anymore. What she also didn’t see was the red flashing light that was mounted under her car that was tracking her every turn.

  <><><><><>

  Vice-President Jonathon Castle was cruising toward the mid-way point of his third year of his first term in office. He’d lost the Republican Primary to the current President, Richard Bowe, but it was so close, they both agreed they would win the election in a landslide if they were running mates. This was not all that common but the voters swarmed to the polls and pulled the lever for Bowe/Castle.

  Although he welcomed the idea of being VP, Castle was still upset that he didn’t sleep in the White House. Instead, he sat a few miles away in his home office in the U.S. Naval Observatory. After carousing with his assistant Kim the night before, he retired to the third floor, took a shower, and then crawled into bed with his wife, who barely noticed him. He figured she probably knew something was going on, but he didn’t give a damn. She was not going to ruin his political career. Doing so, she would say goodbye to all of the fancy corporate dinners at the White House, the private jets all over the world and the endless campaign money that flooded in.

  That morning he was preparing for a meeting in his office when his private cell phone rang and he saw that it was Kohler. Another update.

  Castle spoke first, “What’ve you got?”

  “They spent the night in the hotel then made their way to Valley Forge Park first thing.”

  “Valley Forge?” Castle asked inquisitively.

  “Yeah, they stopped at the Visitor’s Center then I think they made us. They drove around for fifteen minutes trying to lose us.”

  “Dammit Kohler!” Castle snapped.

  “Don’t worry sir,” Kohler said calmly. “We put a bug on their car in the parking lot of the hotel last night. They’re not going anywhere without us knowing it.”

  “Where’s the other three jerk-offs from the UK?”

  “They are stationed at the two houses.”

  “Good,” Castle said. “Keep them guessing. I will handle Bannister. Keep your distance from Layton and the girl too. I don’t want him to make you again and not pursue what I want.”

  “Okay,” Kohler responded.

  “Where are they now?”

  “They drove around in circles for a little bit and we let them go. We got the laptop up right now and they’re close to the park again. Looks like they’re headed toward a building. Zoom in right there,” Kohler said to his partner who was holding the laptop. “Yep, looks like they just parked near a building called Washington’s Quarters. What is that?”

  “That, Agent Kohler, means they’re close. Keep me posted.” Castle ended the call and looked out the window of his office with a smile on his face. They’re close, he thought.

  CHAPTER 15

  General George Washington, although living with his thousands of men, did not sleep in a tent or a wooden hut at Valley Forge. He had a traditional brick house that he shared at the time with his wife Martha. It was originally built for Isaac Potts, operator of the family grist mill in the mid to late 1700’s. It wasn’t until 1972 that it was declared a National Landmark. Seth finished reading the pamphlet and stared at the house in front of them

  It looked to be a typical farmhouse, even to this day. It was a two-story building with three windows on the top and two on the bottom, along with a door positioned awkwardly on the left side. Around that corner of the house and sitting back was an additional one-story building that to Seth looked like a small barn or workshop. The overhang between the two structures connected them so one would not get rained or snowed upon while walking between the two buildings.

  Seth looked in every direction and didn’t see the car that had followed them. There were only a few other people here at this hour, but he could see a school bus pulling into the lot.

  “Let’s go,” he said to Madison. “This place will be crawling with little kids in a few minutes.”

  “Not a bad distraction,” Madison said softly.

  They walked up to the main door and were greeted by an elderly woman with long hair, a tattered but flowing gown and glasses perched on the end of her nose. She looked like the character they saw yesterday impersonating Betsy Ross.

  “Greetings, please, please, come in. I am Martha Washington and welcome to my humble abode.” She raised her arm out to the side and let them walk in.

  Seth and Madison walked through the doorway, Seth almost bumping his head. Everything seemed very small and cramped. They were ushered to their right and followed another older couple on a tour of the house. They saw the kitchen, Washington’s study, and various bedrooms. Interestingly, to make the home seem more real, there were the General’s uniforms, boots, socks, and other clothes strewn about over chairs in the bedroom. It was almost like Washington had just come back from battle.

  “Excuse me,” Seth asked. “Did any of Washington’s relatives ever come to his house here at Valley Forge?”

  “Well not during the war. No, it was too dangerous.” M
artha replied.

  “What about after the war?”

  “I couldn’t say for sure, but there would be no record of anyone visiting. There’d be no reason to and the place was given to another family. Why do you ask?”

  “Just curious is all.”

  <><><><><>

  March 14th, 1800

  Bushrod was tired from his long journey to Philadelphia. He hadn’t bothered to stay the night, as he wanted to get the document hidden safely away in his uncle’s house at Valley Forge. It was nearing dark and he was lost. His horse, Willow, stopped to take a drink from the rainwater that started to accumulate in small puddles on the trail.

  They were both cold as the rain started to come down harder. He heard movement to his right through the thicket of trees. Riding horseback in the dark was dangerous enough. He didn’t need wild animals or something worse to keep him from his mission. Bushrod pulled on the reigns to get Willow to start moving again. Reluctantly, the horse did as commanded and they trotted through the woods.

  Bushrod heard the noise again to his right. It sounded like someone or something was following them. It was more than one animal or one person. There were at least two of them. Bushrod kicked his heels at Willow and they picked up their pace. Just then, two men came running out of the woods toward Bushrod. One held a slingshot and the other a handful of large stones. The man pulled back on the slingshot and released a large stone at the head of Bushrod. He saw it in the nick of time and ducked, and the stone grazed the back of his head.

  He raced through the trees and heard the men laughing behind him as he pulled away. Willow went full stride for another fifteen minutes before Bushrod willed him to a stop. He recognized where he was, near the banks of the Delaware River. They were in the complete opposite direction of Valley Forge. He thought about it and decided to forgo the trip to his uncle’s quarters, promising to leave the document there on his next visit to Philadelphia. So instead, he made the long journey back home. The document was still in his possession.