AURORA HAD always loved the sky, especially the stars. She was more of a night person, and always wished she was named after a star. Her mother chose the name Aurora, it had something to do with her great-great-great nan. Her nickname, Rory, came from JJ (of course) and the girl found it tolerable.
After the escape from Midsummers, the Pogues had camped out in the forest, not to far from the Château. John B and Pope had made a fire, which they all gathered around to warm themselves up.
"Hey, guys." Pope said, breaking the silence, my dad's already gonna kill me. So what's this mandatory meeting about?"
JJ instantly looked at John B, "You might as well tell him, man, before we're gaffed."
"How come JJ knows?" Rory questioned, as she continued to stargaze, "Out of everyone."
John B hesitated, "Just listen. You ready for this?"
"Yeah." Kie prompted, as she gave John B a worried look.
John B took a breath, "So, the gold never went down with the Royal Merchant."
"Here we go again with this." Pope rolled his eyes in annoyance, as Rory smirked to herself.
JJ interrupted excitedly, "Wait, hear him out."
"It's been here the whole time." John B smirked, "It's on the Island."
"Are you serious?" Kie questioned, "Oh my God."
"I'd like to voice my skepticism." Pope deadpanned.
John B cleared his throat, "I'm sure you would, Pope, but can I please present you with my evidence, sir?"
Pope sighed, "Proceed."
"Alright, in my backpack, I have a letter from Denmark Tanny." John B explained, "He was a slave that survived the Royal Merchant wreck. Check this out..."
John B passed around a folded up letter from his pocket, which Kiara started to read. He continued,
"Okay, slaves weren't mentioned as crew members on the ship, but my dad, he found the complete manifest. That was his big discovery." He paused, "So, Tanny used the gold from the Merchant to buy his freedom. After that, he brought his farm because, drum roll please, that farm is... TannyHill Plantation."
"TannyHill?" Kie questioned in surprise.
"Yeah. So, after that, he used the money to free even more slaves, and then he sold a shit-ton of rice, which pushed off the white-planters, and then they decide to lynch him." John B explained, "So, on the day they were coming to get him, he writes his letter to his son as a farewell, and in the last line of that letter he leaves a coded message about where to find the Gold."
"Where?" Kiara questioned, as she passed the letter to Pope.
"Harvest the wheat in parcel nine, near the water." John B replied, "Except, there's no wheat. You see, wheat is code for gold."
"Holy shit." Pope smiled.
"All we need is an original survey map of the property, and we've found the gold." John B exclaimed.
"Okay, so this might have a small chance of being actually true." Pope replied excitedly.
Kie added, "Dude, it's like King Tut!"
"So, what's the plan?" Pope questioned curiously.
John B nodded, "Right. So, Sarah Cameron's coming tonight. She'll bring an original survey map-"
