"I guess that's what the writer meant when he said without the map this note is useless."
"Must be," Tommy agreed. "And what's with the hole here in the middle of the page?"
Offset by a few inches from the parchment's center was a little hole poked into the note.
"I guess it degraded with time. Weak spot in the material?"
"Maybe," Tommy said. "But usually when something deteriorates, it's a lot less uniform. This almost looks like it was done on purpose."
They stared at the parchment for another minute, analyzing every inch of it to make sure they hadn't missed anything. The espresso machine at the bar squealed as the barista made another cappuccino. The door swung open, letting a short burst of cold air into the warm shop. Sean's and Tommy's eyes shifted immediately to the entrance. A blonde woman in a parka stood in the doorway, looking up at the menu.
"This is great reading and all, but we still have nothing to go on," Sean said.
"I know. It would be helpful if we knew who this Knight person was."
Sean pulled out his phone and tapped his search engine app. The Wi-Fi in the coffee shop was free and anonymous. It was highly doubtful anyone would be tracing his search, especially from a temporary phone. That didn't mean he wasn't aware of everything going on around him. Every twitch, every sound, every subtle movement passed through Sean's sensory field.
He typed the keywords into the bar and then hit the search button. It only took a second for the first results to start filling his screen.
"Internet is so fast here," Tommy said. "I wish we had the gigabit fiber in Atlanta."
"Fastest in the world," Sean said with a hint of pride. He scrolled down until he saw a promising link and tapped it.
"So, you searched for Knight and Andrews' Raiders?"
"Mmhmm. Maybe we can see a list of the guys in his unit. If so, we should be able to track down this Knight character."
The website on the screen featured a historical account of the Great Locomotive Chase. It talked about how Andrews and his men infiltrated Atlanta, blending in with the Southerners until the day they stole the train. Sean skipped through all that until he found a chart with a list of several names. One of them was James Andrews.
"There," Tommy said, pointing at one name in the left column.
"That's gotta be him," Sean said. "William Knight."
"Says he was one of the ones who escaped."
"Yep. The question is, where did he go?"
"On it," Tommy said as he whipped out his phone and started searching while Sean continued to read.
"It's crazy how all this happened right in our backyard," Sean said. He hit the back button and tapped on one of the other links, continuing to search for more information about Knight and the Raiders.
"Yep. Lot of history around us from Atlanta to Chattanooga. Pretty amazing." Something caught Tommy's attention, and he held up his screen for Sean to see. "This says Knight is buried in Stryker, Ohio. Must be where he's from."
"Good. Keep looking into that. I'm trying to see if I can find anything about Seward and Knight."
They continued staring at their phones for the next 10 minutes, occasionally scrolling down a page or starting a new search. Patrons of the coffee shop came and went, none paying any attention to the two men buried in their devices.
"Any luck?" Tommy asked, rubbing his eyes.
"No," Sean said. "Nothing. You'd think that one of the heroes of the Civil War would have a picture with the president or something. I can understand maybe nothing with Seward, but come on. College football teams get to meet the president at the White House. You'd think there'd be something about Knight and his comrades with the president."
"Maybe it was too much of a hassle to get them there. Photographs were still in their infancy back then. If there was one taken, there's a good chance it's been lost for a long time. That or people who contribute to the internet haven't thought about putting it up yet." Tommy's theory was probably correct. The internet was full of useful information, but all of it was uploaded by human hands, which meant there were still tons of information out there just sitting around in archives, vaults, and probably waste bins.
"I doubt there are a lot of searches for William Knight with William Seward in the images function," Sean said.
The two continued looking through dozens of web pages for another twenty minutes before Tommy stopped and looked up from his phone.
"I can't find a thing. When you were in Auburn, you didn't see anything like a map in the museum, did you?"
Sean thought about it for a moment. He'd been to the Seward museum several times while he was working on the project. And he'd seen lots of maps. There were a couple on display, but he hadn't thought anything of it at the time.
"Yes, there were a few."
"Any of Alaska?"
Sean lowered his head, giving Tommy a look of haughty derision. "Obviously. The Alaska Purchase was kind of his signature thing in history."
Tommy just stared at him.
"Sorry. Yes, there were maps of Alaska."
"And were any, say, the size of this parchment paper?"
Sean ran through his memory banks, searching for an image of a map that would have been that size. As strong as his memory was, he didn't recall enough details to warrant a firm answer.
He shook his head. "Sorry, man. I know there were some maps there in the museum, but I can't remember the sizes of them. I know there was one or two that probably could be that size. I just didn't pay enough attention to them to really remember. I guess I was too focused on other things." He eyed his friend with suspicion. "Why? What's in your head?"
Tommy moved the parchment around and stared at the center of the note. "I'm just wondering. This message says Knight took a map and was supposed to meet Seward with it. That's kind of a strange decision to make."
"Not if you assume those soldiers knew he was interested in Alaska. More likely, their orders were to deliver it to Seward in person."
"Right. So, for a second, let's assume that the map Knight took Seward had similar letters as these in the bottom corner."
"Would make sense," Sean said, following his friend's logic. "Then the letters could be combined to make a coherent message. I'm guessing there are more vowels on the map than on this thing."
Tommy agreed with a nod. "Yes, and I'm betting there's something else about this document and the Seward map."
"I'm enthralled."
Tommy ignored the barb. "What if this parchment fits over top of the map and that hole points to the exact location?"
He waited to hear his friend lambaste the notion, but the insults never came. Sean leaned back and crossed his arms, staring with new eyes at the parchment. Slowly, his head began to rock back and forth.
"Yes. I think that is exactly their intention," he said. "It makes perfect sense."
"Really?"
"Absolutely. That hole could be like the X that marks the spot on a treasure map. And the letters must be a name of a mountain, a river, some sort of way point they could identify."
The two went silent for a second.
They continued gazing at the parchment for a moment and then simultaneously looked up at each other.
"We need that map," they said together.
"How much cash you have on you?" Sean asked.
"Few hundred bucks. You?"
"About the same."
"That should be enough to get us up to New York, but after that we'll have to wash dishes to get anywhere else. Or shovel snow."
Sean raised an eyebrow. "Won't be a problem."
"Really? You don't mind doing a little manual labor to get some travel cash?"
A snort escaped Sean's nose. "No, dummy. I keep an extra stash of money, passports, that sort of thing in my condo here in the south side. I'll have more than enough to get us where we need to go. That is, if you can accept driving in a car all the way to western New York. I know you've grown accustomed to the plush life of flying around in your private jet."