continuation 01

The bridge is derezzing behind me. No time. No time!

ZIIIPP.

It’s my worst nightmare.

—–

“He should’ve stayed, you know. We would have gotten him some linden plants around here. He didn’t even ask.”

“Shush, Jeffrie. I’m reading. The book is being written again.”

—–

Of course the treasure is here, fools, escaped prisoner Casey One Hole thought from his perch while staring toward the simulation. One comes with a snowy peak, one doesn’t, duhh. And now it’s all mine to find since the Klancaster Dixons are out of the picture.

He peers upwards. Hmmm, snowy from a distance, but even higher up close. Artificial rock on top.

And between the decoy treasure and this peak is that treehouse over there — an actual house in a tree. Perhaps that’s where it is. Simple as that.

“I don’t *need* the treasure,” he says to himself while descending toward it. “But I certainly *want* it.”