Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 106839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106839 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 534(@200wpm)___ 427(@250wpm)___ 356(@300wpm)
I already know he’s gonna agree to my plan because Collin told me that he’s looking for protection. Now, we understand that we do not have all the facts here. And there is something pretty serious going on between the Trinity towns and Blackberry Hill. Probably something dark that comes with undesirable consequences should one stray from the agreed-upon stipulations.
That’s why, when we came back, Jim Bob wanted us to run security. Not because he thinks someone’s gonna shoot up the Revival or anything as dramatic as that, but because there’s paperwork involved here. Contracts and commitments.
And it seems to me that certain people are finished with these contracts and commitments and would like to move on while other certain people are standing in the way of that growth and progression.
So Jim Bob is in.
Most of the town is, as well. But of course they have questions. As they should. Because this isn’t some small act of rebellion we’re doing here. This is us against the US government.
A secret branch of the US government that they are desperate to keep under wraps, which makes the whole thing even more dangerous.
But… we kinda got them by the balls.
They were sloppy once upon a time. They were using that old mine on our property for something or other, and then… I dunno. Probably funding got cut and they closed it down.
But see, secret projects come with all kinds of sticky consequences. For one, people are desperate to shut up about them ’cause most of the time they’re illegal. And for two, once they get forgotten by the small number of people who actually knew about them in the first place, they get forgotten by everyone.
They forgot about our little mine and what they were hiding inside it.
Oh, someone remembered—after the fact. Because Charlie fuckin’ Beaufort sure did get curious about that place. And that’s why he sent Sawyer Martin in to check things out.
“What kind of diagrams?” Lecter, Rosie’s brother, is asking. “I mean, how is this helpful? And that’s my nephew’s life you’re playing around with, Amon! Rosie?” He looks at her. “Are you on board with this?”
Rosie only knows what I said here in the tent tonight and nothing else because I only wanted to explain once. So my head turns to her, just like everyone else’s. We’re standing a few paces apart, so she walks over to me and hooks her arm into mine to signal our solidarity. Then she nods. “I am one hundred percent behind this plan and I hope y’all are as well. Because I want my boy back and this is how we’re gonna do it.”
There’s more muttering after that. A few more people start asking Jim Bob about consequences, and he does his best to explain how badly they need us. As in Edge. As in Collin, but me too. I don’t have his reputation, but I am most certainly my own force of nature.
Finally, Jim Bob turns to us and nods. “We’re in.”
I step to the front of the stage again and scan the crowd, giving them all one more serious once-over. “All right, then. Everyone meet us at the Edge compound in thirty minutes. You tell your families to bring one bag and that’s it.”
They stare at me for a few moments and I think this is when the seriousness of the situation finally sets in. Because Disciple, West Virginia, is about to declare war on the US government.
It’s a pretty dumb idea considering they’ve got all the weapons one can dream up, plus plenty more we haven’t even imagined yet.
But we found our Goonies treasure.
And our treasure is a map.
Rosie and I arrive back at Edge to a big commotion. Ryan’s doing something with a bulldozer, and Nash has got a clipboard and has the men all lined up in formation in front of the mess hall. And Collin is standing on his porch with Lowyn when we pull up, smiling.
We get out and I walk over to his house, just staring up at him. “What the hell are you smiling about?”
He chuckles as Lowyn hops down the steps and hooks her arm into Rosie’s, heading into our house so Rosie can collect her things. “I just think it’s kinda funny, don’t you?”
I smile too. “That they left this place, forgot about it, and then that blowhard Charlie Beaufort practically hand-delivered it right to us a hundred years later?”
“It’s fate, Amon.”
“Maybe, but”—I nod my head to the driveway, which is filling up with trucks and cars from Disciple—“ruining my life is one thing. Ruining theirs…” I shake my head. “I’m worried.”
Collin comes down the steps, nodding as well. “Well, then I guess we should make sure they’re all safe. Come on.”
By the time we get to the church, people are already filling it up. Ryan has finished piling dirt up against the sides of the building—which was already reinforced with steel back when we first moved in, but he insisted that a little more dirt never made something less safe. So now the church has a berm of earth all the way around it that goes all the way up to the top of the stained-glass windows.