Oliver hurried out of the room and down the corridors. Of course, he immediately found that he was lost. He just couldnt remember all the twists and turns of the factory, all the staircases and rooms coming off of rooms. Where had the library been?

He felt like he was just running in circles, when at last he saw Horatio. The snoozy bloodhound seemed to be the only thing that stayed in one place in the whole factory, and once again he worked out where he needed to go in relation to the spot where the dog was dozing.

At last, he found the library. And there was the book Odontodactylus scyllarus, sticking out from the shelf from where Armando had removed then replaced it, like some clue from the universe.

Oliver snatched it up and began reading as quickly as he could. The passage on circular polarization was dense and difficult for even Oliver to fully decipher, but the important thing was that it was all about altering perception. Just like how the eye needed to be deceived into thinking it was looking at nothing in order to achieve invisibility, changing the circular motion of an electromagnetic wave just enough would create the same effect.

He sat back, feeling giddy from the revelation. But his joy was short-lived. Even if he invented electromagnetic-wave-disrupting spectacles, theyd need to be worn by the person viewing the coat in order to work, since the process only worked in the way the eyes processed the information.

Unless… unless there was a way of creating a sort of current that ran along the surface of the coat, one that pulsed out electromagnetic waves that were already circularly polarized!

That was it!

Oliver jumped to his feet, his mind working a mile a minute as he hurried back to his room. Even though he got lost several times on the way it didnt matter because his mind was so busy frantically sorting through the theory, unmuddling the puzzle pieces in his mind.

At last he returned to his desk, snatching up the coat. Hed already been halfway there with his design. He already knew the wires would be needed to create the electromagnetic wave, hed just failed to make the link between how disrupting them could trick the eye of the beholder.

Though the final step was theoretically complicated, in practical terms it just involved hooking up two opposing currents. After his periscope test, preparing a motherboard for a simple current was now remarkably simple for Oliver. Then it was just a case of tweaking everything until the currents were in perfect oppositional sync.

As dawn gave way to morning, Oliver finished his task. He sat back and admired his handiwork. With the thinner wire hed only been able to sew a small square of fabric. But this time he was absolutely certain hed done it, that hed solved the mystery of invisibility.