Josephine Routledge is the twin sister to John B Routledge. Their dad goes missing during the search for the famous shipwreck, the Royal Merchant. The twins and their friends, JJ, Pope, and Kiara, come across the sunken boat that holds a clue to the...
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JJ and I shared a log by the fire as John B started the debriefing at Rixon's. He had taken off his uniform and returned to his normal JJ self, snapback on his head and everything. I leaned my head on his shoulder as Pope dumped more wood on the fire.
"Hey, guys. So, like, my dad's already gonna kill me. So what's this mandatory meeting about?"
John B did finger guns towards JJ and I. JJ threw his arm around my shoulders.
"Might as well tell him, man, before we're gaffed."
I rolled my eyes.
"You ready for this?"
"Yeah."
"So," John B started, sounding all mysterious. "The gold never went down with the Royal Merchant."
"Oh, my God. Here we go again with this."
"Hey, Pope, just shut up and hear him out, okay?" I said, laughing and throwing a small stick at his leg.
"It's been here the whole time. It's on the island."
Kiara looked to me for any giveaways that John B was pulling her leg.
"Are you serious?"
I gave her an excited nod.
"Oh, my God."
"I'd like to voice my skepticism."
"Of course you would, Pope. You wouldn't be you if you didn't."
Pope glared at me.
"Before you do, can I please preset you with my evidence, sir?"
"Proceed."
"Alright, so, in my backpack, I have a letter from Denmark Tanny."
"Who the hell's that?"
John B turned to Kiara.
"Denmark Tanny was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck. Check this out."
He unfolded the piece of paper he produced from his backpack and handed it to Kiara.
"Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but our dad, he found the complete manifest. That was his big discovery. So, Tanny used the gold from the Merchant to buy his freedom."
Kiara whistled, gaining my attention, and passed the letter to me. I passed it to JJ who leaned us both to the right to pass it on to Pope.
"After that, he bought his farm. Drumroll, please, because that farm is..." the four of us slap our legs, and I leaned over to JJ.
"This feels like we're at a summer camp camp fire or something."
