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CHAPTER NINE: PARANOIA
The Pogues stared at the screen, their happy grins slowly fading with disenchantment. They watched as the drone revealed the Merchant ship, but there was no sign of gold.
It was the one thing Emma looked out for this entire boat ride. And the fact that there was nothing... God, that made her blood boil. So did it with everyone else. But she wanted to believe that somehow it was buried deep. Somehow it was there, that this wasn't a fantasy like Pope had anticipated it to be.
John B sighed, his face falling. "It's not there," he spoke to Kiara and walked to the opposite side of the boat, losing hope. "Just pull the drone up."
"Maybe they hid it... or something?" Emma tried to say. She was trying to convince herself so badly that it wasn't all a delusion. It couldn't be. "Or maybe it's somewhere else?"
"Look, we can do another pass. We can go back down." Pope was also, just like Emma, trying to cling onto his last bit of hope.
John B ran a hand through his hair, regretting everything they'd done in the past few days.
"Guys, we've been through it three times. There's nothing there!" JJ objected from the driver's cabin, steering the wheel.
Kiara was furious. She glared at JJ and she shouted, "Shut up!"
"What? It's true!" The boy was confused.
"The gold could be buried. We don't know." Kiara spoke, trying to think of something.
"If it was there, it would've been found on the metal detector, okay?" John B told her. He completely lost faith in finding it. "Somebody beat us to it."
"It can't be gone." Emma muttered under her breath as she sat down, staring at the water. "Nobody beat us to it. If they did, we would've known. It could've been announced on the news or—"
"Just stop it, Emma." John B cut her off, knowing she was just trying to pull something out of her sleeve. "It's gone."
She didn't know how to answer. She knew it was out there, somewhere. Maybe their father got it wrong. After all, it couldn't be this easy. A treasure hunt that's existed for centuries on this very island, being found by teenagers so easily in just a few days, couldn't be realistic. They just didn't look hard enough. That's what her gut feeling was telling her.
And she always trusted it.
★ ★ ★
The Routledge siblings were dropped off by their friends on the dock in front of their house. They both walked quietly, both disappointed, inside their house.
