[WP] 11:11 pm. Winter. A dog trainer can't understand why their most well-behaved dog is acting so anxious and panicked. Over and over, the dog slaps its paws on a string of Pet Speech Buttons: "NO/OUTSIDE/BAD/AFRAID", and does everything it can to keep you from approaching the front door...
*****
The Sheriff was off with my little intruder, but I'd have a few things to worry about in the barn before I could head over there for the debriefing on how the interrogation went. Access to that information was a perk of being friends with the Sheriff, and I was sure that with the skills he possessed and the power and tools at his disposal, he'd have the man singing like a bird in an hour, maximum.
Meanwhile, I had to look around the barn properly, especially where the horses were kept. There went some missing links and loose ends I had discovered when I went back to look there, and that made me rethink the whole issue and wonder if I could get the answer to the question of what their mission was in this land.
The first hint was that it was always the barn. I didn't border looking properly at the barn when Thrasher went missing, since I assumed it was poor maintenance of the bolts that had made him ze the opportunity when the lock gave way to bolt off. I didn't remember that the day he vanished, I had drunk a little too much, and slept heavily, so I did not detect or hear anything. Anything could have happened within that window I was passed out, and that wasn't a good thing.
It was after I thought about this morning I realized that the first time, they came to the barn and Thrasher's barn in particular. Because something was there which I didn't know about. It was likely that they didn't get to it the first time because Thrasher had gone crazy and bled, causing them to run away too, seeing as I could be awake any time soon.
And then again, the day before, I was awake and alert and managed to stop them. So the question was: what were they looking for, and how valuable was it to them. There were even more questions, like how the hell did they know that whatever they were looking for was in my barn? Was there any information about my barn that was unknown to me which they held?
I kept on thinking and thinking about the whole thing, then I went into the barn and got Thrasher out. Under all the straw, was the shovel, and turning away most of the straw, I saw that a put was being dug. They hadn't gone up to a foot deep, but they had started.
What if what they were looking for was that close to the surface? I could think about the prospect of losing what I did not even know had. There were risks and worries, and I had a lot to think about while I called Al.
Al had to sniff out the ground and knew in there was something worth finding, if there was any. That was the first step to sorting the whole thing out. Getting Al, I asked him to sniff out the ground, and he sniffed at it before pawing at that dugout area insistently. I got the shovel and got digging, my vigour increasing as I considered the prospect of finding something.
Finally, Instruct a hard surface, and my heart began to beat. I had gone through a few of the books in the library which talked about this barn, and nothing had mentioned the existence e of a strange metal box, which was what was in the from bf, and I pulled it out.
It was heavy, had a considerable weight to it and the box was strong, probably reinforced and made out of a material that did not rust or tarnish. It had a combination lock, but then something occured to mind.
A tattoo my father had given me when I was just eight, that he said was very important. Later, when I was 19, I thought and thought about the tattoo and asked him about it, and he told me he did not know about the why, but it was a tradition. The reason may have lost in the transfer of information, but if the situation ever came up, I would know what to do.
7825.
Rolling it to those numbers, I heard the characteristic click that told me that told me the combination I put in was correct. Exhaling deeply, I opened the box.
And fell back.
Gold, a lot of it. Refined, processed cut into thin blocks, thwy filled the strong box. I stared in awe at the treasure.
"Beautiful isn't it?"
I jumped when I heard the voice, tryung to pull out my gun in my strap when I saw that my assailants already had their guns drawn.
"Put your arms up where we can see them. You've caused us just enough trouble for me to shoot you here and now, and I'll have no problems doing that, just so you know."
I surrendered as they took the guns from my strap.
"We'll be taking this off your hands, thank you. I just knew that you were going to get curious about this, and try to investigate. Just decided to bide my time and harvest it when it was all ready for me."
"Who the hell are you?"
"An overnight - or overafternoon - millionaire," the man in front said, laughing.
*****
TO BE CONTINUED
