Echoes of the Past

Chapter 2: The First breadcrumb

Uncovering history's secrets is not unlike following a trail of breadcrumbs that was progressively being blown away by the wind. A single missing crumb and the trail was lost forever. Until now, that had been the case of the Jackdaw. None of those who had searched for the ships wreck had been able to find a single breadcrumb. History had only retained a few vague testimonies. None very helpful. All anyone could know with any certainty is that, in 1728, Kenway left for a last voyage and returned six months later without his brig, refusing to tell anyone where he had been. Edward had tried for two years to find more about that mysterious voyage, but had been just has unlucky as his predecessors. However, Edward luck never ran out for very long.

A month ago, an interesting rumour had reached his ear. A journal dating, back to the year of the Jackdaw's disappearance had been found and sold to a private collector. Apparently, the journal was a travel logs and, while it made no mention of a name, the dates of departure and returned matched Kenway's last voyage. So far, no one seemed to have made the connection, but Edward knew he had to act quickly. It took a bit of digging, but he had managed to trace the buyer within a few weeks. It was none other than Steve Barnaby. Barnaby -better known the self-assigned nickname of "Stede" as he believed himself to be a descendent of the pirate Stede Bonnet himself, was an eccentric businessman and avid collector of colonial artefacts who had quickly became Edward most important client.

This new contract giving him the perfect opportunity to go see the journal for himself, Edward boarded the next plane out of Havana and, two flights, one bus ride and a taxi later, arrived at the Barnaby's main property in Connecticut. There, he was greeted with excessive enthusiasm by Barnaby. The man had always had a soft spot for Edward.

"Edward, what a pleasure to have you here!" babbled the middle age man happily. "It's always good to see you my dear friend." In reality, Edward and his client were not dear friends by any means (at least not by Edward's account). However, Barnaby fancied himself an important and well respected figure of the treasure hunting circles. He was, in fact neither of those things, but maintaining that illusion was good for business. It made the chubby millionaire feel important and much more likely to trust Edward's judgment without question.

"Stede!" smiled Edward as he fought not to roll his eyes at the self assigned nickname. "How is my favourite colleague?"

"Oh, you know me always busy. I wish my affaires allowed me more time to dedicate to my collection, but other then that I have nothing to complain about. Plus, I think my wife would divorce me if I start spending more than I already do on that..."

"Well it's nice to ear you are doing well!" interrupted Edward, before Barnaby began ranting again. "Actually, there is a reason why I flew all the way over here... I need a favour and only you can help me."

"Oh?" asked Barnaby with sparkling eyes.

"I heard you made quite the acquisition lately... a journal."

"Oh, the one I bought last month. You flew all the way here for that?" Barnaby seemed baffled.

"Well! I am doing a bit of research on 18Th century navigation techniques for Tatcher and I wanted to consult a few travel logs from that era. Plus, I figured it was the perfect opportunity to work with you my old mate," lied Edward. It wasn't a very good lie, but Barnaby was not known for his deduction skills and, as Edward expected, the businessman fell for it.

"Well, you know me always happy to help a fellow treasure hunter," said Barnaby with a smile. "The diary is in the library, I can take you there myself and give you a hand."

"Brilliant," said Edward with a forced smile. "But, you know me, I'm easily distracted, maybe it would be better is I did this on my own..."

"Oh... of course."