The device resembled a cigar made of hollow lead. The man began to assemble it. A circular disk of copper divided the device into two chambers. The man pulled a vial of liquid out of his pocket. He took the cap off the vial. He fetched a test tube from his other pocket and took the cap off that, too. Dora recognized the pungent odor of sulfuric acid. The other vial smelled almost the same --- but not quite. Could it be another kind of acid?
Her assailant poured one vial of acid into one chamber of the cigar-like device. He emptied the second acid into the other chamber. He sealed them with wax plugs. He lifted the device up to eye level and examined it nose-to-nose. His grin broke out into a full smile.
He took out a white linen handkerchief embroidered with a “V” and wiped off the chambers. He must have lifted the expensive handkerchief out of Vanderbilt's bag on the pier in New York. That must be what she spied during the incident at the luggage conveyor belt!
The man continued to stand over the table playing with another cigar-like device. He poured acid from a vial into one side of the apparatus. He poured another acid into the other side.
Liquid from one side splashed up against the liquid from the other. A huge flame shot straight up toward the ceiling. The table caught fire. The kidnapper quickly fetched a basin of water from the bathroom. He did it again and again until the tabletop only smoldered. Smoke curled toward the ceiling in a single, wispy thread.
This passage was lifted from Key to Lawrence, the first of the Edward Ware thrillers that takes place during the Great War. The novel begins with a bang as the Lusitania sinks due to German saboteurs aboard. In real life several such saboteurs were apprehended by Captain Turner and put in the brig as prisoners of war to be turned over to the government upon arriving in Liverpool. The ship never docked. It is assumed that the prisoners perished during the sinking.
Perhaps one was never apprehended and created the mysterious second explosion that helped to sink the ship. That is the premise of my thriller.