The starting paragraph framed things pretty much perfectly - I missed the header with the date, and immediatly thought upon reading the descriptions, "Huh, this must be 1792."
The conversations that follow and certainly odd, and Temple Franklin hasn't given indications that he's unprepared to hear what Scott has to say. . . although I suspect that's largely a narrative device to split up Franklin and Abraham later on in the story. If Huard gets his hands on the eye, which has somehow made it from Vienna to London to New York, whoever is talking to Scott from behind the scenes is bound to take it from him. And if Franklin has any of his grandfather's ability, keeping him away would be imperative to their designs.
I also see a link between Huard's London accent and the route of the eye to America, but that's shapes in clouds at this point. Huard couldn't know, making it more likely that Huard is related to someone who dragged the eye overseas rather than that he brought it himself, which just didn't happen. And that would tie into the final comments in the update relative to Huard's unwitting complicity in the caper. Maybe Scott and Vampirella connived to make sure that the son or grandson of whoever brought the eye across the ocean would be the one to give it back to them.
The conversations that follow and certainly odd, and Temple Franklin hasn't given indications that he's unprepared to hear what Scott has to say. . . although I suspect that's largely a narrative device to split up Franklin and Abraham later on in the story. If Huard gets his hands on the eye, which has somehow made it from Vienna to London to New York, whoever is talking to Scott from behind the scenes is bound to take it from him. And if Franklin has any of his grandfather's ability, keeping him away would be imperative to their designs.
I also see a link between Huard's London accent and the route of the eye to America, but that's shapes in clouds at this point. Huard couldn't know, making it more likely that Huard is related to someone who dragged the eye overseas rather than that he brought it himself, which just didn't happen. And that would tie into the final comments in the update relative to Huard's unwitting complicity in the caper. Maybe Scott and Vampirella connived to make sure that the son or grandson of whoever brought the eye across the ocean would be the one to give it back to them.