The attorney looked up.
“What?”
“There may be another box.”
That night, Dileia returned to the farm and drove toward the north barn with the retired mechanic.
The building was older than the farmhouse.
Weathered boards covered its walls.
Its roof sagged slightly near the eastern corner.
And the old grain scale sat beneath a narrow awning.
Dileia remembered playing there as a child.
Walter used to tell her not to place her fingers beneath the weighing platform.
He also joked that the scale knew more secrets than the county courthouse.
At the time, she thought he was being silly.
Now she wondered whether he had been telling her something.
The retired mechanic brought a flashlight.
Dileia crouched beside the scale.
She examined the wooden frame.
Then found a small metal latch beneath the rear support.
It had been painted over.
She scraped away the old paint.
Lifted the latch.
And discovered a concealed compartment.
Inside was a black waterproof case.
Her breath caught.
The mechanic leaned closer.
“Well, I'll be damned.”
Dileia carefully removed the case.
The rubber seals were still intact.
She carried it into the barn.
Placed it on a workbench.
Then opened it.
Inside were several notebooks, a sealed envelope, copies of laboratory agreements, and a small bundle of photographs.
She recognized her father's handwriting immediately.
Her hands began trembling.
The top notebook bore a simple label.
Ashford Root Project — Master Cultivation Record.
Beneath it was another.
Do not separate the crop from the land without reviewing this file.
Dileia stared.
Then looked toward the mechanic.
He whispered, “Walter, what were you hiding?”
She opened the first notebook.
And discovered that her father had been preparing for the possibility that somebody would try to buy the farm before understanding the research.
He had documented the cultivated strain's development.
Recorded the source of the original plant population.
Listed the locations of the most important parent-stock plots.
And preserved correspondence establishing which organizations had received samples under limited research agreements.
The Helvetic predecessor laboratory was among them.
But the most remarkable discovery appeared in the final section.
Walter had written a detailed explanation of why he refused to grant broad exclusive control of the crop to any single company.
He believed the material might eventually help agricultural producers manage water more effectively.
But he feared that a powerful investor could acquire the only established planting stock, restrict access, and turn a potentially useful agricultural resource into an expensive monopoly.
His words were clear.
The crop has value only if the people who need it can eventually use it. I did not spend twenty years studying water retention so one land company could charge desperate farmers whatever it wants.