The Elusive Treasure

Chapter Two

Enter the Lasers

The foursome were understandably tired and hungry from all the travel and work they had done that day, and decided to relax and discuss further developments over a meal. Reggie was becoming ever more skeptical.

"Who knows how many more steps might lie on this wild goose chase? Whatever's down there has lain undisturbed for over two hundred years, and this being a sand beach, I'm sure those who buried it knew what they were doing." The three boys nodded in quiet agreement.

"I'm sure another twenty-four hours won't matter too much," Twister added. "We'll have to observe absolute secrecy on this project. Uh, Otto, mind if I crash at your place tonight?"

"No problem at all, Twist," replied Otto.

Although the Rodriguez brothers were getting along better than earlier these days, Clio was visiting, and it was best that as few as possible knew about their plan.

The quartet entered the Shack. Unlike earlier today, Ray and Tito were inside, ready to take orders. The kids walked up to the counter.

"Aloha, little cuzzes." Tito greeted as they sat at the counter.

"Hey Tito." They chorused.

"Can we get the usual?" Otto asked.

"Of course. Coming right up." The chef replied as he went to work.

Ray blinked when he noticed the map in Sam's hands. "What's that you got there, Sammy?"

"Huh?" The blond asked, looking up. "Oh, sorry Raymundo. This is a map we found at the beach. It washed up on shore."

Ray raised an eyebrow. "A map?"

"Yeah! A treasure map!" Twister exclaimed. "We're gonna get the treasure and be rich!"

"TWISTER!" The rest of the group shouted, looking around cautiously. Luckily, the place was deserted. They sighed with relief.

The two adults raised an eyebrow at them.

"Okay..."

"Heh, heh..." The kids chuckled nervously as they relaxed.

"Sorry about that, Dad. We gotta be careful, ya know?" Otto said with a shrug.

"Can't let anybody know about our treasure." Twister added.

"What about us?" Ray asked with a smirk.

"Aren't you afraid we'll go for this treasure?" Tito supplied with his own smirk.

"Well, you see..." Reggie started. "That's the thing. You guys sorta need to know about this."

Again, the adults raised their eyebrows.

"Okay..." Ray said, warily. "Why?"

The group looked at each other with unsure glances before turning back to the adults.

"Well, the treasure," Otto began with a gulp, "is buried under the Shack."

Ray started laughing. "You kids are crazy if you think I'm going to let you destroy my restaurant looking for some treasure."

"Oh c'mon dad, if we do find a treasure then you'll be able to fix any damages we make and then some!" Otto pleaded.

Ray thought for a couple minutes. "Well, I guess it'll be alright. On one condition, it comes out of your allowances."

Otto and Reggie looked at each other, and then back at Ray. "Hey you guys said yourself, if you find the treasure, you'll have plenty of money anyway."

Otto and Reggie looked at each other again, silently agreeing to giving up part of their weekly allowance to pay for their treasure hunt.

"Okay." Reggie said. The boys cheered.

Later, that night...

Reggie was reading her Zine, lying on her bed, when Otto entered her room. It was late, but neither of them could sleep. Otto went by Reggie's bed and sat silently.

"What's eating you, Rocket Boy?" The older one asked.

"Reg, what if we don't find anything there? We won't have any money for ages, until we pay for the repairs!"

"I know. It's a risk." She sighed. "But so far, everything we've seen on that map has proved to be true; I mean all the landmarks are there: the beach, the inlet, the small bay where the marina is now there's even the low marshes where they built the sea park. So, it is definitely the shore.

"Yeah, but what if we don't find anything?" said Otto.

"Don't worry. Besides, if Sam is right, we might not need to make too much damage to the shack."

"Huh?" Otto raised a confused eyebrow.

"Sam has been analyzing the map, and according to him, the treasure, or whatever we are looking for, is buried right under the floor of the freezer. So, it would be a matter of removing a couple of square meters of concrete and dig until we reach the sand."

"Ugh! I hate digging!" moaned Otto.

"Well, we can always forget about all this, Otto. I'm sure Dad would be happy to hear that." Reggie smirked.

"No.... I won't leave my treasure there. I'll take that shovel and dig, until I find the treasure or reach China!" said Otto, his usual determination back.

"That's my lil bro!" Reg teased him, giving him a light pinch on his cheek.

"Hey!"

"We'd better go back to sleep, Otto. Tomorrow will be a very long day, and we'd better rest."

"Yeah. It will be funny spending our Sunday wrecking the Shack. Sleep well, sis!"

Otto left the room, closing the door behind him. Reggie sighed, and fell back to her bed.

'Whatever you say, Otto.' she thought.

----------------

Sammy was already at the beach bright and early the next day with a GPS monitor, a compass, and a tripod telescope, double-checking the measurements he'd derived. The pier, he knew, did not exist in the late eighteenth century, and he was somewhat relieved to find that his prediction had been off by a couple of meters. He'd brought with him a very strong army-surplus magnetometer that could pick up a dime under two meters of solid rock, so, if anything of interest was here, he'd be sure to find it.

He rested against the wall of the Shack's lower level, adjusted his gloves, picked a spot within the quadrangle he'd coned off, and began to dig. By the time the sun had crept over the eastern hills, he had already dug a hole deep enough to conceal him. He reached for the magnetometer, and carefully scanned the sand that surrounded him. A hit! And a fairly strong one at that. Twister, Otto, and Reggie heard their friend laugh with giddy ecstasy as they arrived.

"I think we're on to something. Over here." he bubbled as the others adjusted their gloves and took up shovels as they began to hack away at the sand.

The day dragged on as the group dug. The hot California sun beamed down upon them. Sweat dripped down their faces as they scooped the grainy material out of the hole, which became deeper and deeper as they toiled. As they continued their pursuit of riches, thoughts entered the kids' minds.

'Ugh! How much longer do we have dig!?!' Reggie grunted.

'Come on, come on! I want that money!' Otto seethed.

Minutes seemed like hours as they burrowed deeper into the earth

'Whew! Maybe we should've packed something to eat, or at least drink!' Sam wiped his forehead.

'I hope we find something this time. My arms are killing me!' Twister whined.

Finally, just as the sky started turning purple and the sun sank low, they hit something.

Reggie lifted the box out with her shovel. She picked the small lock and opened it up. No vial this time, just a folded up piece of notebook paper. Reggie unfolded it, the boys looked over her shoulder to read what it said.

Haha lame-o's! It looks like your too late!

The four stood in silence for a moment, then Twister took the paper out of Reggie's hand to take a closer look.

"You know...this looks a lot like Lars' writing...."

"Not to mention he misspelled 'you're.'" Sam commented.

"Lars..." Otto scowled.

Meanwhile…

Lars, Pi, Sputz, and Animal were on the other side of town, carrying a map.

"Dude, how did you find this?" Pi asked.

"I heard Rocket Dork telling his dad about it, and well, let's just say I have my ways...."

Lars and his cronies were walking slowly up the California Incline. The map indicated that the next clue was buried somewhere on the old forest the teens knew as "Lars' Mountain"

Lars was puffing heavily. Even though he had stopped smoking after the humiliation he received during their last hockey game with the kids, it was still kind of hard for him to keep his breath under certain conditions.

"Phew… I told you to bring your rice burner, Pi!!" -moaned Lars - "How much longer before we get there?"

"Just a couple hundred meters, boss. Then we'll take the bus to the forest. I'm sure we won't have any trouble finding that treasure!"

"Would you shattap, you moron? We don't want to be caught, or we'll have to share this treasure!" said Lars angrily.

The bus pulled by the sidewalk and the four teens hopped in. They didn't notice the small, frail-looking kid who was standing behind them.

'Treasure???' - thought Roderick 'What are those guys up to now?'

Roderick shrugged, unable to answer his own question, and continued walking downhill. He was planning to go to the Shack, get a hula-burger, and then try his luck in Mad Town. He was hoping to meet Otto and the guys there. He headed for the counter and sat on one of the stools. Raymundo turned to serve him.

"How are you today, Roderick?" asked Ray.

"Quite well, thank you," Rod answered. "Tell me, Mr. Rocket, have you seen Otto or Reggie today? Nobody answered at your house when I rang, and the other place they're likely to be at would be Mad Town. By the way, I think I'm up to a regular size Hula Burger today...medium well, no sauce. A la carte, with a large Diet Pepsi."

Raymundo couldn't help grinning. The boy's improving appetite was a definite good sign; it wasn't that long ago that he'd order a junior cheeseburger with nothing.

"Well," answered Ray, "the kids are downstairs on the sand, involved in...some sort of special project."

That only piqued the kid's interest further, given the idle comments made by the Lasers as he observed them quietly taking a trip somewhere.

Rod made a mental note to check up on the Ozone Street Irregulars after his skate session. He had read an article Otto had written in the last issue of the Zine about a new beginner-level trick he wanted to try. Well, if Otto called it beginner-level, it was probably advanced, but still he wanted to take a crack at it. He was lost in a fuel. TV sport video on the TV set while he waited for his burger.