Heiress in Distress

•Chapter 9: Part 1•

•Word Count: 1,315

Shooting out of the bed, blanket haphazardly tossed to the side and sleep long forgotten, I immediately head for my study, an imaginary force pulling me.
I retrieve a pencil and a blank paper to begin the task of decoding, starting off by looking at the four boxes bearing the chemical compounds.
For the first time, I look intently at each box:

Box 1:
-Al2O3
-Cr2O3

Box 2:
-Li3N

Box 3:
-Ag2SO3
-NaCl
-Fe2O3

Box 4:
-BaO

It seems the riddle came in with an additional benefit, allowing me to look beyond the meaningless scribbles, thinking it might hold a meaning -a message perhaps.
My heart beats vigorously at the mere thought that my father might be sending me a message.
I can feel my shirt sticking to the entirety of my torso, the fabric already dampening.

Driven by the anticipation, my hands work on their own account, already drafting some answers.
What I figure at first, is that there's no particular relationship between the compounds in the same box, so each must be calculated individually.

I grab my chemistry textbook, where the periodic table is printed on the hardcover at the end of it.
I already know the compounds are balanced, so I try the first, obvious solution -the compounds' atomic number. It holds little relevance to chemistry compared to the compounds' atomic mass.

My father made sure I learned it, as he used it to create all abstruse puzzles meant to feed my intellect.

With the help of the periodic table, I gather the atomic numbers for the elements in the first compound and add them up, multiplying them according to their repetition.
I continue on, doing the same for each box, slightly discouraged at the impending road block.

1. Al2O3  = 50   •  Cr2O3 = 72
2. Li3N = 16
3. Ag2SO3 = 134  •  NaCl = 28  •  Fe2O3 = 76
4. BaO = 64

My mind suddenly goes blank, save the horde of question marks, at the ambiguous array of numbers.
Assembling them together, I have to ponder if it's a phone number ?

507216134287664

That's too lengthy a phone number; maybe they're two phone numbers ?
Yeah! That has to be it. When split up, the numbers defy the typical format.
They don't make two separate 10 digit numbers, which invalidates the whole possibility of a phone number for a solution.

Dates ? I go for the next option, already breaching my mind searching for events of any sort of importance.

5-07  •  21-6  •  13-4  •  28-7  •  6-6 ?
There's an extra 4.
5th of July, 21st of June, 13th of April, 28th of July, 6th of June ?

I rake my brain for something -anything- only to come up short, knowing well that none of these dates hold any significance. Not to me at least.

Realisation that it's not a date that my father is sending me, discourages me once again, and I'm slumped into a disappointed slouch on the chair.
If my father were to send a message like that he wouldn't have made it this complex.
I try my luck for the last time, knowing one more shot won't hurt.

Tapping down the numbers on a calculator, thinking how digital numbers sometimes resemble letters, in hopes of finding a worded message.

Again, nothing worth consideration.
Frustration must've summoned the headache back, because there's a stubborn pounding at my right temple now.

I abandon the whole project and check my clock, running my hands down my face.
It's already late. Tomorrow's my last day at the café, might as well make the best of it.