“I see you're a man of caution. I like that. Yes, it is very old. This village dates back to the Iron Age. The original Dodson manor, beyond those trees where you can't see goes back to the seventeenth century. I have no children to pass the property along to and couldn't afford to maintain the old ark in any case, so I turned it over to the National Trust and retained this cottage. It rests on a foundation placed here at the time of Augustus Caesar; I could show you the Roman numerals carved in the cellar stones. The house itself is one of four that have occupied the site for over two thousand years. The present structure dates back to the fourteen hundreds, just about the time your country was being discovered.”

“I'm not sure I understand what this has to do with my question.”

Dodson leaned forward like an Oxford don instructing a dim student. “This country doesn't think in terms of decades or even centuries, as in America, but in millennia. Eighty years is a mere tick of the clock. There are powerful families who could still be embarrassed by the revelations in my grandfather's papers.”

Zavala nodded. “I respect your wishes and won't press you, but is there anything that you can tell me?”

Dodson's eyes twinkled with merriment. “I'm prepared I to tell you everything you want to know, young man.”

“Pardon?” Zavala had hoped to excavate a few nuggets and hadn't expected Dodson to offer him the whole gold mine.

After Mr. Perlmutter called, I gave this matter a great deal of thought. In my grandfather's will, he left his papers to Guildhall, to be made available to the public at the end of the century. Even I had never seen them. They were in my father's possession and became my responsibility after his death. They were being held by the law firm that handled my grandfather's will, and I didn't get around to actually reading them until they were at the library. I pulled them back after I came across my grandfather's narrative explaining his part in all this. Now, however, I've decided to honor his wishes, despite the consequences. Damn the torpedoes. Full speed ahead."

“Admiral Farragut at the battle of Mobile Bay."

“You're something of a naval historian yourself.”

“It's hard not to be in my business.”

“Which brings up a question of my own. Exactly what is NUMA's interest in this matter?”

“One of our survey ships found the wreck of an old freighter named the Odessa Star in the Black Sea.”

Dodson sat back in his chair and shook his head. “The Odessa Star. So that’s what happened to her. Father thought she was caught in one of the dreadful storms that can plague those bloody waters.”