The Call (The Magnificent 12 1)

Rose did not seem offended. She opened a leather case on her lap. “We don’t have a lot of time.” She pulled out two small blue notebooks and handed one to Mack and the other to Stefan.

Mack read the embossed cover. He flipped it open to a picture of him. “This is a passport.”

“Yes,” Rose said. “It is. You’ll notice we’ve given you a different name. You are now Mack Standerfield. And you,” she said to Stefan, “are Stefan Standerfield, age twenty-one.”

“Excellent,” Stefan said, breaking into a grin. “I can drive!”

“Minors aren’t allowed to travel unaccompanied,” Rose explained. “Stefan will be your adult older brother.”

“Um, whoa. Hold up,” Mack said.

Rose ignored him other than to purse her perfect red lips disapprovingly. “You have a flight to catch. We are running late.”

“Hey. I’m not flying anywhere!” Mack said. “I’m going home to kick the golem out of my bedroom and call the FBI or whatever and tell them what’s happening.”

Rose shrugged. “Then your family will die.”

“Stop that, okay?” Mack said.

Rose handed him a credit card. The name on it was Mack Standerfield. “Don’t lose this,” she said. “Or this.” She handed each of them an iPhone.

“Is your number on here?” Stefan asked with a leer.

“I’m a little old for you,” Rose said witheringly.

Stefan grinned. “I don’t mind.”

Rose turned pointedly away from Stefan and gave Mack all her attention. “I’ve already provided a phone to your golem so he can text you if need be.”

“He can text?”

“Of course he can text. He’s a golem,” Rose said, “not an adult. Now: money. You have a limited budget. You can spend all of it, but once you do, it’s gone. If you waste it, you’ll have nothing. And remember, you have a long, long way to go.”

Mack considered pointing out again that he had no intention of going anywhere. But it was starting to dawn on him that he probably was going. The thing about his mom and dad being killed, that had a realness to it. Nine Iron was an old goof, maybe, but his snakes had been real enough, and that slow-moving blade was sharp enough, too.

And then there were the big giant bug things.

He snapped out of his reveries when he heard the kind of words that tend to snap people out of reveries.

“Did you just say ‘one million dollars’?”

“It’s not as much as it sounds. You will be paying for air travel, rooms, and food, and all of that is expensive. You may also need to pay bribes. You may find the need to hire assassins. There will almost certainly be medical expenses.”

“Medical expenses?” Mack gulped.

Rose closed her leather case, set it aside, and leaned toward him. She smelled of something citrus and yet seductive.

“I haven’t been told what all this is about,” Rose said. “Not all the details. I only know that the funds come from a Swiss bank account that was first opened in the year 1259.”

“That’s a long time ago.”

“The gold that was used to open the account was in a small strongbox that survives to this day. That strongbox is from an era long, long before even the year 1259. We’re talking golden crowns from Ur, rubies from ancient Egypt, diamonds from the empire of Ashoka the Great. Wealth from the four corners of the earth.”

“Wow!”

“At one time the contents of that strongbox were worth almost a billion dollars.” Rose sighed and sat back. “Unfortunately, the bank used some of that money to invest in shopping malls and hedge funds. So now, all that’s left is one million, seven thousand, eight dollars.”

“What happened to the seven thousand eight dollars?” Mack asked suspiciously.