I turned back to the computer screen for a moment. “No one is exactly sure, but supposedly there is a complete copy of a novel written by Sir Francis Bacon called New Atlantis. Also several manuscripts of Shakespeare’s plays—except they’re in Bacon’s handwriting. In other words, they’re proof that Sir Francis Bacon—not Shakespeare—wrote Shakespeare.” I looked up at him. My heart was pounding in my chest. What if this were true?

“What else?” he said. “You have a funny look on your face.”

I hesitated. “I also came across some pretty wacky theories about what else might be in that vault.”

“I’m all ears.”

He was going to look at me as if I’d grown another head when I told him. “Supposedly there might be secret codes and documents, including a formula for alchemy—turning lead to gold—and that anyone who is able to decipher the documents will have superhuman vision that will allow them to enter the presence of the Superior Gods. Whoever they are.”

“If you say so.” He looked as if he was trying not to laugh.

“I know,” I said. “It sounds nuts, doesn’t it?”

He grinned. “Sounds like the kind of thing your father would be looking for. Or the plot of another Indiana Jones movie.”

It did.

“The most reasonable—and consistent—theories by people who believe the vault existed claim it definitely contained a copy of New Atlantis as well as manuscripts proving Bacon was the author of several of Shakespeare’s plays,” I said. “Bacon died before New Atlantis was published and the novel was never finished, or at least that’s what everyone thought. Supposedly, though, he did finish it and the vault contains the only copy in existence.”

“Why is that such a big deal?”

“Because Bacon describes a Utopia that’s actually a blueprint for America. It’s the organizational plans for our government, along with instructions for the type of democracy he thought the United States should become. It also happens to be taken directly from the beliefs and ideals of the Freemasons.”

“If that’s true, then the conspiracy theories about the Masons secretly plotting to control the American government when it was first established are correct, right? And that Francis Bacon was not only behind the plans for setting it up, but the plan for our government was masterminded in England?”

“I guess so,” I said. “If it is true, I can see why, as a Freemason, Prescott would be so interested in locating those documents. Leland, too—although his interest would be more for historical reasons.”

“And if Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare,” Quinn said, “that would be a bombshell. Those documents would be worth a fortune.”

“Wouldn’t they?” I nodded. “At least now I understand what Prescott told me.”

“What’s that?”

“That there are people who don’t want these documents ever to be discovered.”