All That Glitters

What do We Have Here?

John B's phone had kept blowing up with texts and calls from Kie and Pope. Mostly Kie. Sarah and him had finished up the tour not long after Ward kinda spooked him. He decided to hit up the Wreck since Kie was saying the gang was all there already and they were mad at him for leaving the hospital before they could see him.

Inside the Wreck, Kie was doing her usual. Following what her dad had told her to do for the day. JJ and Pope were idling towards the back. Playing a game of paper football.

John B sat down beside them.

Kie brought over some drinks and slammed her hand down on John B's shoulder.

"You're staying at Tannyhill? With Sarah Cameron?" Kie exclaimed.

John B shot JJ a glare. "Okay, look, the only reason I'm living there is because her dad bailed me out, right? And it's way better than foster care, which, by the way, was were I was about to go if Ward didn't—"

"Hey, so like, do you have a membership to the clubs now?"

"I don't know, Pope. I will tell you one thing though. Ward has got some crazy shit going on."

"How do you mean?"

"Well first off, he has the key."

"Like the key?" JJ asked.

"Yeah, and he acted kinda weird when Sarah brought it up."

"Look, you promised. You said you weren't with her." Kie's voice held notes of betrayal and viscosity in her throat.

"I—"

"Bro, just own it. She got you." JJ said before taking a large gulp from his cup. John B hid his face with his hand.

"If you wanna hang out with her, that's fine. But I'm letting you know right now that I'm not doing anything with Sarah."

"Do you guys see her here?" John B laid his hands flat on the table. "No, right. Okay. A little focus would be fantastic. We've got the map, right?" He met eyes with Pope who was busy unfolding the map.

"I mean yeah, but it's whack as shit cause the guy was ganja'd when he drew it." JJ pointed along where it said the coast was.

"It's cause the coast has changed, genius." Kie said.

Pope nodded with Kie. "Right so that means we just have to look for landmarks that haven't changed."

"The old forts?" John B suggested. "Uh... uh— "

"Battery Jasper." Kie pointed to it on the map. A unanimous hum of agreement fell amongst the Pogues.

"Am I still the only one concerned about Ward Cameron being the owner of the magical key?"

"JJ, not now. We can deal with it later. Let's find the gold first. Extract it, and then call it a win for the day. Then deal with Ward and his secrets." Pope patted JJ's arm. Reassuring him not to worry.

"I knew I didn't like that guy." JJ said as they all filed into the Twinkie. Kie hugged her dad goodbye for the day after cleaning up the table they had been using. Her dad huffed another warning at her before watching her saunter off after John B and the others.

Once at Battery Jasper, Pope compared some local road maps with the parcel map. Figuring the Stone wall on the parcel map was the closest they would get to actually locating the gold.

"The road splits ahead up here." He directed John B.

"Okay."

"You're gonna take a left." John B hung a very sharp left causing some of them to fly out of their seats. "Jesus, John B. Haven't you driven before?"