Burning Midnight

by Will McIntosh

  Hunter was back to staring into space, the wheels turning.

  “My parents would never let me go,” Mandy said.

  Dom stuck out his tongue, made a raspberry sound. “Mine either. No way.”

  “I could go,” Hunter said. “If I had a thousand dollars.” She looked from Mandy to Dom. “What do you say? You bankroll me, you get a cut of the second Gold if I find it.”

  “Hang on,” Sully said. “Let’s not get greedy. We don’t need the other one.”

  Hunter gave him a calm, easy smile. “You really want to stop now, Cherry Red? Honestly?” She took the Gold out of Sully’s hand, held it for a heartbeat, then set it on his dresser.

  It leaned toward the west, then went still.

  “If all it takes to find the other Gold is following whichever way this one points, do you really want to sell it and let the new owner fetch the other?” Her eyes were bright, her dimples prominent. “I know you better than that.”

  “That’s easy for you to say,” Sully said. “You don’t have a mom to stop you at the door.”

  Her smile wavered. “Lucky me.”

  Sully kicked himself, realizing what a dumb thing he’d just said. “Sorry.”

  Hunter shrugged, shook her head. No big thing.

  All they had to do was go whichever direction the Gold pointed. It sounded simple enough. “What if this other Gold really is in Russia? What are we going to do, hop on a plane?”

  “What if it’s in Jersey?” Hunter asked. “We won’t know unless we try.”

  Would his mother let him go? She was unhappy when he came in late from hunting, let alone a trip that could last for days. But that was before he found the Gold, which was going to change her life as much as his. Hadn’t he earned a little slack? Plus in less than a year he’d be eighteen; he’d be a legal adult, able to book a flight to Timbuktu if he wanted, and stay as long as he liked.

  He looked at Dom. “If we did this, could you bankroll us?”

  “I’ve got nine hundred in the bank. If I kick that in, and I come, what do I get?”

  Sully stifled a laugh. “No way your old man’s going to let you come.”

  “Who says I’m going to ask him?” Dom tilted his head. “What would my cut be?”

  “If you come and we find it, you get an even cut,” Sully said.

  Hunter clapped her hands to her temples. “Are you out of your mind? For nine hundred dollars? More like five percent.”

  Dom nodded. “She’s right. You guys dove in all those tanks and found the Gold; I’d be ripping you off if I got the same as you.” He looked at Hunter. “Ten percent?”

  She nodded. “That’s fine. I ain’t greedy.”

  Sully stepped close to Hunter, so their faces were only a few inches apart. “Come on. We’re already set for life with the first.”

  Hunter squinted, shook her head slowly. “You’re a soft touch, Yonkers. You know that?” She turned to Dom. “Fifteen percent.”

  “I want in, too,” Mandy said. “I’ll match Dom’s nine hundred.”

  Sully nodded. The polar-opposites idea had been Mandy’s, so it seemed only fair.

  Hunter looked like she’d just swallowed a bug. “Fine. But just to be clear: if we find nothing, you get nothing. This Gold belongs to me and Sully, sixty-forty. Period.”

  “Yeah, of course,” Dom said.

  Mandy nodded. “Agreed.”

  “I feel like we should be forming a circle and stacking our hands like the Fantastic Four,” Sully said.

  “Yeah, let’s skip that,” Hunter said. “When do we leave?”

  They looked at each other.

  “Tomorrow?” Mandy suggested. “Tomorrow’s Sunday. That’s one less day of school we’ll miss.”

  “How are you going to get your parents to sign off on this?” Sully asked. “The way you talk about them, they barely let you go to the bathroom alone.”

  Mandy gave him a sly smile. “I’m going to bribe my brother at Virginia Tech to say I’m coming for a visit. There’s going to be some huge educational enrichment thing going on at Virginia Tech this week. I haven’t made it up yet, but it’s going be an opportunity my folks wouldn’t dream of letting me miss.”

  Dom shook his head. “My folks would never buy that. They know I have no interest in educational enrichment.” He frowned, looked at Mandy. “I thought you didn’t trust marbles.”

  Mandy shrugged. “I don’t. This isn’t about burning them, it’s about selling them. I don’t think Sully or my aunt are wrong for selling them, or that people are wrong to collect them, I just think it’s a big mistake for people to actually burn them.”

  “Why shouldn’t people burn them?” Hunter asked.

  Mandy gave Hunter an Isn’t it obvious? look. “No one knows where they came from, what they’re made of, who hid them, or how they do what they do. It’s like a stranger walking up to you on the street, handing you a pill, and saying, ‘Here, swallow this.’ And you swallow it.”

  “Or it’s like watching someone pluck a berry you don’t recognize off a tree and eat it,” Hunter countered. “Then when it doesn’t poison them, you know it’s safe to eat.”

  Sully didn’t want to have this debate. He’d heard both sides a thousand times, in class, on the news, everywhere. No one ever changed anyone’s mind.

  He clapped his hands. “Okay. Tomorrow, nine a.m., here.”

  “Load up on snacks and drinks, because we ain’t stopping till we find that Gold,” Hunter said.

  CHAPTER 19

  Sully snagged the edge of the M&M’s bag sitting behind the gearshift and dragged the bag into the backseat. He poured a generous pile into his palm.

  Hunter’s open palm appeared under his nose. Sully filled it with M&M’s, tossed the bag back up front.

  Disclosure blasted from the speakers. Dom bobbed his head to the beat, driving with one hand, the other holding a bottle of Rage.

  They passed a green sign: DAYTON 86 MILES.

  “Ooh, the new Emma Watson movie comes out Friday,” Mandy said from the front. She was messing with her phone. “A paranoid thriller. I love paranoid thrillers.”

  “Really? I would have pegged you as a Lord of the Rings girl,” Dom said.

  Mandy looked up from her phone. “I am not a geek. I hate fantasy. Except Harry Potter, because Emma Watson was in that. Don’t stereotype me because I’m Asian and studious.”

  “What do your parents do for a living, again?” Dom asked.

  Mandy heaved a big sigh. “Yes, my father’s a neurologist, my mother’s a dermatologist. I know—the high-achieving Asian family. It fits the stereotype. I’m also six foot one and gay.”

  “You tell him,” Hunter said.

  “Hey, stop ganging up on me,” Dom said. He nudged Mandy’s shoulder. “So you think Emma Watson’s hot?”

  “Hell yes.”

  “She’s kind of skinny, though. Not much boobage.”

  “Boobs are nice,” Mandy agreed.

  “Do your parents know you’re gay?” Dom asked.

  It took Mandy a moment to answer. “They know, but we never talk about it. They’ve always been cool with the idea of gay people, but somehow me being gay makes them turn red and stammer.”

  Dom pulled his phone from his pocket, checked it, cursed. “My father.”

  He put the phone to his ear. “Hey, Dad.” In the rearview mirror, Sully saw Dom roll his eyes. “I told you, I’m running away from home to seek my fortune.”

  Dom’s father was shouting so loudly Sully could hear him from the backseat.

  “I already told you: I can’t say.”

  More shouting.

  “Fine. You do that. Yeah, I’m grounded till I’m eighteen. Got it. If this pans out, you won’t have to wait till I’m eighteen to get rid of me.”

  Louder shouting.

  “Well, thanks, Dad. I appreciate your support.”

  He disconnected. “If we don’t find that other Gold, I’m dead when we get back.”

 
; This entire trip felt dreamlike to Sully. Not only what they were after, but being on his own with his friends, with Hunter, driving across states he’d never set foot in before.

  He took the Gold out of Hunter’s pack and set it in his lap. Whenever it was out of sight, Sully started doubting its existence. He knew it was real, but there was a part of him that just couldn’t grasp it.

  “Hey, Dom,” he said. “What are you going to do with your share if we find it?”

  Dom turned the music down. “First I’m going to move out, get my own place. Then I’m going to drop out of school and open my own business. Screw school—I want to get started with my life.”

  “What sort of business?” Mandy asked.

  “I have no idea,” Dom said, laughing. “No clue. I’ll tell you when I figure it out. Maybe a gym.”

  “How about you, Mandy?” Sully asked.

  She thought for a moment. “I’ll probably put most of the money in the bank. There’s nothing I’m dying to spend it on right now.” She propped a foot on the dash. “Mostly I came because I didn’t want to miss out, you know?” She looked at Dom, who nodded. “Don’t get me wrong—the money would be awesome. I didn’t want to miss the adventure, to have you guys come back and hear stories about everything you did.”

  She put a hand on Dom’s shoulder, pointed at a sign for a rest area. “Why don’t we see if we’re still heading in the right direction?”

  As Dom turned on the signal, Mandy went on. “Ever since I was little, my parents worried about me getting hurt. I swear, if they could, they’d make me wear a helmet and kneepads to school in case I trip. I miss out on a lot of things because they’re so worried about me. I didn’t want to miss out on this. Whether or not we find the matching Gold, we’re going to remember this for the rest of our lives.”

  “Yeah,” Hunter said. “That’s right.”

  Dom pulled into the rest area. “It’s not just about the money for me, either. The Gold is gonna be big news. If we find the match, it’ll be even bigger. I want to be part of that news. Then when people hear the name Cucuzza, they’ll think about the Golds, not my uncle shooting up a museum.”

  Mandy didn’t react, so Sully assumed Dom must have come clean at some point about his relationship to the infamous Tony Cucuzza.

  “What about you, Hunter?” Sully asked as they pulled to a stop.

  “First thing I’m going to do is fly to Korea and give my Korean mom half.”

  “Half?” Dom said.

  “Half. She was the only one who helped me. I was a kid, filthy, hungry. Everyone else just looked right through me like I wasn’t there, or handed me a couple of dollars and walked away. After that, I’ll take my half and live like a queen. Like two queens.”

  —

  Exhausted from sixteen hours of driving, they checked into a Fairfield Inn with an indoor pool outside Springfield, Missouri.

  As soon as they got to their room, Hunter took out the Gold and tested it on the dresser. It rolled about an eighth of a revolution before coming to a stop.

  Mandy set a carpenter’s level on the dresser. “It’s level. The pull is definitely getting stronger.”

  Sully checked the compass they’d bought at a truck stop in Pennsylvania. The roll was pointing them west–southwest. He checked the big foldout map of the United States they’d also picked up. They weren’t heading toward California; more like New Mexico, and beyond that, Mexico.

  Beyond that was the Pacific Ocean.

  —

  Sully nudged Hunter’s sneaker. “Come on. Come swim.”

  Hunter looked up. “I don’t ever want to swim again. I got my fill in the towers.” She reached beside her lounge chair and picked up a bottle of water.

  He held out a hand to her. “Please? We’ll stay in the shallow end.”

  “I don’t have a bathing suit. Plus I’m not leaving my backpack.”

  “You can swim in that.” She was wearing shorts and a T-shirt.

  Hunter’s smile faded. “Sully, no. I’m not taking my shoes off.”

  Sully wanted to tell her it was no big deal, that no one would be looking at her feet, and even if they did, no one would care.

  There were a lot of things he wanted to tell her, once there was time. He wanted to tell her he thought about her more than he thought about the Gold.

  They hadn’t talked about that moment on his couch. Sully had no idea where they stood, whether they were together in Hunter’s mind, or if that kiss was just a momentary thing that had sprung out of the emotions she’d been feeling.

  “Okay.” He leaned in to kiss her cheek. To Sully’s surprise, Hunter turned her head so their lips met. She kissed him softly, tenderly, her lips sliding along his.

  As they parted she looked away, smiling. “Don’t let that go to your head, Yonkers.”

  He leaned back in his lounge chair and closed his eyes, smiling. “Your foot doesn’t seem to slow you down much. You don’t limp at all. Your balance is great.”

  “It took some getting used to, but I barely notice it now. If you think about it, some people lose their whole leg below the knee and can still run. What’s a couple of toes compared to that?”

  Sully’s phone vibrated. He retrieved it from beside him and checked the message.

  A little birdie told me you found something. Let’s talk.

  It was from Holliday.

  Sully jumped out of the chair. “No. Oh, no.”

  He turned his phone so Hunter could see the message.

  She leaped to her feet, stuck two fingers in her mouth, and whistled sharply. Dom and Mandy, who were bobbing around in the deep end, looked her way.

  “We gotta go. Now.”

  Sully collected their stuff. Dom and Mandy dripped on the carpet in the motel’s hallway as they rushed back to their room to dress and check out. On the way, Sully filled them in. He didn’t see how Holliday could track them to the hotel, since they’d paid cash, but he wasn’t taking any chances.

  —

  Mandy and Hunter were both bent over their phones as Dom pulled out of the Fairfield Inn parking lot.

  “There’s an entire discussion thread on MarbleMadness about the Gold,” Mandy said. “No one knows who started the rumors. A lot of people think it’s a hoax.”

  “I don’t see anything in the news yet,” Hunter said.

  Even if it got into the news, Sully couldn’t see how that was a problem unless someone reported who actually had it. What they didn’t need was for their names and photos to be published before they found the other Gold, assuming their Gold really was leading them to its match.

  Sully checked his phone, found another text from Holliday.

  How much do you want?

  He read it out loud.

  “How did he hear about it?” Dom asked. “Who knows, besides us?”

  “My mom,” Sully said. He dialed her number.

  “Sully? Is everything all right?”

  Sully moved the phone away from his ear. “Everything’s fine, Mom. We’re still on the road. We think we’re closing in.” More or less.

  “Where are you?”

  Sully debated admitting they were almost halfway across the country, decided it would be a mistake.

  “Maryland.” That seemed a good compromise.

  “Maryland? Oh, my God. Sully, I’m not sure this was a good idea. Mr. Cucuzza is out of his mind. When I said you could go, I didn’t know Dom didn’t have his parents’ permission.”

  Sully squeezed his eyes closed. “Mr. Cucuzza called you.” Of course he did.

  “I just told you, yes. He’s ready to string Dom up.”

  “Did you tell him about the Gold?”

  There was a pause, because his mother had promised not to tell a soul. “What was I supposed to tell him? That I let you take off on your own and miss school for no reason?”

  “No, I understand.” There was no point in making her feel bad about it. “Look, Mom, can I call you later? We’re about to stop for break
fast.”

  “Sully, this was a bad idea. Come home.”

  “Mom, no. We’re close. We’ll probably find it today. You know how much money we’re talking about.”

  “We have more than we’ll ever need from the one.”

  “What about Dom, though? If we find the second one, Dom gets a share. If we turn around now, he gets nothing.” Sully neglected to mention the quarter of a million dollars he intended to give Dom, since that wouldn’t help his case.

  “Nice deflection,” Dom muttered from up front. Sully’s mom loved Dom.

  Mom sighed. “One more day. I want you back here by tomorrow night at the latest. And be careful. All of you.”

  Sully assured his mom they would.

  “Now we know where the leak came from,” he said as he disconnected.

  “Is there any way Holliday can find us?” Dom asked.

  Sully had watched a lot of thrillers where people used high-tech means to track people, but those were movies, and usually it was the police or the CIA that were doing the tracking.

  Mandy tapped away on her phone in the front seat. Sully leaned forward and looked over her shoulder.

  “Theoretically, he could track us through our phones. We need to take the batteries out and stop using them.” Mandy looked at the ceiling. “The GPS. The car’s location could be tracked from it.”

  Hunter unbuckled her seat belt. “Here, I can fix that.” She crawled halfway into the front, between Dom’s and Hunter’s seats, her phone in her left hand.

  Dom glanced at her. “What are you doing?”

  Hunter brought her phone down on the GPS unit, shattering the screen. She hit it again, and again, caving the whole thing in as Dom made pained sounds.

  Finally, she crawled back into her seat. “There. I owe you a GPS. As soon as I’m a millionaire I’ll buy you a new one. Connected to a really nice car.”

  “Works for me,” Dom said.

  “Are we being too paranoid?” Sully asked.

  “Maybe,” Mandy said. “But given the circumstances, I think that’s appropriate.”

  No one argued with her.