CHAPTER SIX

Sunday, September 25th

Just after 11:00 AM, Kandice got out of the shower to the sound of her phone ringing. The missed-call notification popped up—it had been Lance.

A couple seconds later, a text came in.

 

Lance: It's done. Come over when you get this.

 

Her excitement level neared that of learning to be an oboroten. Life had gone from dangerous and repetitive, to dangerous and unpredictable. It was time to see if they could actually make gold, and how much the batch created.

Though excited, she took her time picking out clothes. It wasn't important she rushed to get there. Thirty minutes later, with jeans and a shirt on, her hair in a ponytail, she finished applying her lip-gloss.

When she stepped outside her front door, her upstairs neighbor was on the stairwell.

He said, "Hi."

Kandice locked her door, "Hi," she said without glancing at him.

Is it too much to ask to live in peace and not talk to my neighbors?

After only a few days, it was clear her next place would need to be a house. Now that she knew meeting the council was in her immediate future, it left her extended future more confusing. Moving around all the time like Lance and Slava wasn't appealing, but deep down she knew it would end up happening.

The neighbor followed her into the parking lot. Kandice started her moped and sped away before he had time to approach. He may not have followed with her in mind, but regardless, it made her uncomfortable. She knew she could take him in a fight, but the last thing she wanted was to draw attention to herself.

When she got to Lance's, he wasted no time showing her to the garage. Slava was hammering away at what looked like a giant chunk of gold. The ringing sound bounced off the garage walls, amplifying itself. Sparks flew in the air, and the lump kept rolling into itself. Kandice's mouth fell open.

"Is..." she started, still in shock. "Is that all gold?"

"No," Lance laughed a little at her reaction. "The outside looks like gold, but it's only the core that's pure. Most of it is random metals, tinted a gold color."

"Oh," The disappointment lingered in her tone.

"Take over," Slava handed Lance the hammer.

Lance used the back end of the hammer to pry open a crack in the chunk of metal. He then put a screwdriver into the crack and whacked it with all his might. The plastic handle broke off, but the metal split apart, revealing the gold core. Kandice could tell the difference as the inside was a deeper color. There were ripples in the outside metal that made it appear water like.

Lance used the metal part of the screwdriver—the last part left—to start hammering out chunks of gold with care.

"It's very soft," he said. "It's like cutting butter straight out of the fridge."

Kandice laughed at the thought. "How much is there?"

"Not sure yet. At least a Kilo."

Kandice tried to do the math in her head. "So about two-and-a-half pounds?"

"Something like that," he said. "Regardless, it's more than enough to get you a car, and pay the hackers."

"Let me call Blake."

"See if he can help sell this, too. We all need to sell it at different places."

Kandice dialed Blake's number. It went to voicemail, so she left a message. "Blake, call me when you get this. We're ready to-"

She stopped talking because Lance was waving his hands, telling her to stop.

"Just call me," she hung up.

"Don't talk about gold on the phone," Lance said. "Ever!"

"Why?"

"It's one of those keywords that will cause people to look into us. Gold is used as currency by drug dealers and gun runners. So, it's best not to talk about it."

"Oh, Okay."

* * *

IT WAS AROUND 5:00 PM when Blake got to Lance's. He'd woken up late, but called Kandice first thing. Lance and Slava had finished digging out the pure gold from the giant chunk of metals. It weighed in at just under three pounds. Lance mentioned it was one of their better batches.

Slava divided up the gold into one ounce segments and used a leather seal that morphed them to look like a coin he kept on him. The front had a royal lion with a pronged tail, and the back had a two-headed eagle with a sword in its talons.

When Blake sat down in the living room, Slava divided up the coins. They each got eleven, except for Slava, who kept twelve.

"The plan is to sell these at pawn shops and cash-for-gold places," Lance said. "We have to spread out and hit all surrounding cities. Only two shops per city and two coins per shop. This will prevent raising too much suspicion."

Kandice and Blake both nodded in agreement.

"Slava will sell north, I'll go way south," he said. "Blake, you go west, and Kandice east. The key is to be confident. Tell them they're coins from your parents, or grandparent's collection, and that you need the money for school. You want to sell, not pawn. You should accept nothing less than $1,250 a coin. That's well under value. Any questions?"

"When do we sell them?" Blake asked.

"Tomorrow," Lance said. "We should all meet back here before dinner. I'll take the cash and convert it into prepaid credit cards. I'll give you what you need for your Bitcoins, Blake."

"Can I keep one?" Blake asked. "They're really awesome looking."

Kandice could tell Lance was thinking about it.

"Sure," he said. "We can spare one. But that would cover your finder's fee."

"Damn," Blake said. "Well, that's fair."

They hung out for a few more hours, talking about how they were getting close to taking down the mayor. Lance and Slava made their best dinner yet. Between the four of them, they finished a bottle of vodka, though Blake and Kandice both paced themselves. Kandice never got drunk, and Blake seemed fine—his speech never became sloppy at least.

It was well past 10:00 PM when they called it a night. A good sleep would be important for tomorrow.

"I'll try to nap," Blake said, "I've only been up a few hours, but regardless I'll sell the coins tomorrow."

Kandice followed behind him until they hit the main road. He went left, and she right.