“I’ve been going over all this stuff for what seems like forever and feel like I know it backwards and forwards.  But it’s been worth it, because now I think I can actually understand some of what has been happening for centuries, literally, to this gold.  But not specific details, yet.  Just a probable theory of what’s been going on.”

“And Sylvia, you can’t imagine what an amazing story this has been!”

“Based on what I could reconstruct, I think this all started with an incredible gold heist in 1855 or thereabouts, when a huge gold cache was taken by a small group from a master thief, who was also a criminal mastermind of some sort.  Then they moved the gold from where they’d originally kept it, in an effort to keep it away from this crime lord and his cronies.  And the gold just kept moving from then on, literally for centuries, with generations of people, working in pairs, I think, standing watch over this huge cache of gold.  Keeping it from falling into the hands of criminals.”

“The strangest thing about all of this is that instead of being steadily depleted over the generations, as you might have expected, I think the gold cache was actually being added to!”

Sylvia’s jaw dropped.

Bette had excitedly pointed to the rows of information referring to dates in 1924.  “It’s the only way much of the information sets will make sense.  Take these rows for example, Sylvia.  I bet the actual markings on the bullion that the rows refer to will show that the bullion bars bearing them were not part of the original 1855 cache, but comprise a different set of bullion bars that were added in 1924.”

“You may ask where?  Or how?  Well, I have other information that refers to events in 1924, from files I was … um… entrusted with.   The information covered activities of a kind of “trust” or organization based in Moscow that was supposed to be anti-Bolshevik.  It was a financial group, hence it assumed the structure of a “trust.”

“So I read up on information in the public library about what was going on in Europe and the US, and in Russia at that time.  I found out that Western powers were sending financial support to a “trust” institution that was supposed to be the core of opposition to the red Bolsheviks led by Stalin then in power in Russia.  But it turned out that this “trust” institution was really a “phantom” run by Stalin’s security apparatus, and the West’s support was being used to fund its foreign operations entirely, supporting hundreds of outposts and legations around the world, financing agents, taking care of logistics, you name it.”