Chapter 14: 014 Money Talks

For six hours, I sat there and answered questions. Not about my disappearance, though. It was about my life in general before I had been taken. I actually surprised myself by being able to answer a lot of them. A few were just ridiculous and I laughed, as did Jenny. Questions about the last thing I ate (a hot dog with the works) and who my grade one teacher was (Mrs. MacKinnon).

Of course, as soon as I said that, he asked me what all of my teachers were. I named more than half of them, including the principal of the grade school, and that kind of impressed him. Yes, he checked. Government employment records were child's play for the man and he easily accessed them, along with my own employment record. He didn't ask why I had been fired from my last after-school job (I didn't show up after my kidnapping) and asked about my duties instead.

It was gruelling and it was also worth the effort. I knew I was winning him over, and then came the very crucial question that I had been waiting for all day.

“Did you obtain anything of value while you were kidnapped for ten years?” The man asked. “You said that they took everything that they believed was valuable from you, which means they didn't take what you thought was valuable.”

Jenny took in a sharp breath and looked at me with worry on her face. This was what I had told her about before we came in and she begged me to not do it. Do not bribe the government. It just wasn't done. Not legally, anyway.

“I knew you would catch that.” I said and reached into my pocket. The security guard tensed up and the man held a hand up to stop him. I pretended to take a coin out of my pocket, which was actually from my inventory, and placed one of the gold crown coins on the desk. The man sat there and stared at it. I didn't move or say anything, and neither did anyone else.

After two solid minutes of staring at it, he reached out to take it and stopped. “Can I pick it up?”

“Yes.” I said. “It's practically solid gold with only a touch of other metal to stop it from being soft.”

“How do you know that?” The man asked and picked up the coin.

“I bit it to see if it was fake, of course.”

Jenny stared at me like I was crazy to try and bite a coin, and I smiled at her.

“Did you know it's illegal to mint your own coins inside the borders of this country?”

“I'll swear on any bible or religious item you have that the coin wasn't minted here or in any country recognized by the United States government, past or present.”

Jenny gasped and the man's eyes took on a hard glint.

“Any gold found on our soil is rightfully the property of the government.” The man said, a bit sternly.

“I didn't find it, dig for it, dove for it, or in any way procured it within the borders of this country.” I responded.

Jenny almost started crying. She managed to stop herself before she let her emotions get away from her. There weren't that many countries in the world that the United States didn't recognize as legitimate and those countries were not nice places to be. Her hand gripped mine tightly.

“What does the writing say?” The man asked.

“One Crown, King Lasham's Kingdom, First Minting, Year 926.” I said. I had been tempted to joke like I had with Jenny, then decided that no humor would be appreciated when dealing with a government official when it came to money. Especially about what they would consider 'fake' money.

“How many of these do you have?” The man asked and turned the coin over in his hands.

“I refuse to answer on the grounds that I am currently a dead citizen and it can be confiscated without penalties.”

The man had a frown for a moment, then he went back to his normal face. “You have my word that nothing you show me will be taken from you or out of this office, without you present.”

I had to smile at the wording. “You could lock me up and keep me with it.”

The man gave me a stern look for a second, then smiled. “Fair enough. I'll tell you something that I don't normally tell people and you show me some of what you have.”

I nodded and the man turned the computer screen to show me the body heat outlines of myself and my sister. “Son of a bitch.” I said and laughed.

“What is it?” Jenny asked.

“If my brain is working and I remember the idea properly, it's technically a lie detector that runs on body heat.”

“Correct. It's not infallible, just like the pulse regulation version; but, both work on the same concept. When someone's lying, their heart speeds up for a second and a corresponding amount of body heat will increase in certain areas.” The man said and turned his computer monitor back around. “So, show me some of the coins you have.”

“Do you like magic?” I asked and held a hand out for the coin.

The man raised his eyebrows.

“You told me to show you some of what I can do.” I said and he nodded as he handed me the coin. I closed my hand and put it into inventory, then opened my hand to show it was gone. I closed my hand and had it return, then I turned my hand over and clapped the coin onto the desk. I raised my hand and dropped a new coin as I did to make a stack of ten.

I spread them out into a neat circle, then did the same thing with each coin and raised my hand above each, dropping a coin to make a stack of ten. The man, the security guy, and Jenny stared in rapt attention as I left ten stacks of ten, or a hundred coins, on the desk. Each one was worth about three grand, so the neat circular stack was worth a whopping three hundred thousand dollars.

“Oh, my god.” Jenny whispered.

“That's only some of what you have.” The man said, his face completely blank.

I took one of the coins and handed it to him. “Go ahead and have it tested, tracked, researched, and whatever else you want to do with it.” I said and the man took it.

His eyes never left the stacks, though.

“Let me just remove this distraction.” I said and cupped my hands above the stacks, then I dropped my hands as if the stacks weren't there (I stored the money) and my hands slapped the table. The security guy and and Jenny jumped at the sound. The man just stared at the spot.

“How the hell did you do that?!?” Jenny asked.

“No comment.” I said. I wanted to say 'magic'; but, I kind of knew that was a lie. It was my inventory, a god-given ability, and I was sure it wasn't magic. Or quite magic. In any case, I didn't want to take the chance it would come out as a lie.

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“Can you do that trick with anything else?” The man asked.

“If it's small enough to fit in my hand? Sure.” I said.

The man took out a box of paperclips and handed them to me. I opened the box and took out a handful, took my time tucking them into my closed fist so that they couldn't be seen, then opened my hand to show that they were gone. I closed my hand and opened it to show one paper clip, made it disappear, then made a stack.

They didn't stack well, so I stopped at five, spread the five out and made small piles on them. I slapped my hands on the stacks as I stored them and slapped the desk. I cupped my hands together after that and took the paperclips from inventory, then dumped the paperclips onto the desk.

“Jesus.” The security guy said.

“My hands are a little sweaty, so you probably can't use those paperclips for actual paper now.” I said. “They'll probably rust after a little while, too.”

The man just sat there and didn't say anything. He stared at me and I stared right back. I knew he was wondering what else I could do with the trick and I didn't bother offering to do it again.

“Please wait here.” The man said and nodded to the security guy, then he left the office.

“That. Was. Amazing!” Jenny said. “Where did you learn to do that?”

“I've picked up a few odd tricks and skills while I was away.” I shrugged.

“You have to tell me all about them!” Jenny said.

“Ahhh... no.” I said with a chuckle.

“Damon!” Jenny frowned at me.

“You have to let me keep some secrets, Jenny.” I said and she scowled. “I am not telling you some of the things I had to go through to get back to you.”

“Damon.” Jenny said in a mean voice.

“No, Jenny. There are just some things that I can't tell you, just like there are things you've been through that you won't tell me.” I said. “I'm not the same man I was when I was taken and you are definitely not the little sister I left behind.”

“We've both grown up.” Jenny said in a normal tone, then she took my hand. “I can handle whatever you did, Damon. I can.”

I huffed a laugh. “I don't want to handle it on my own, let alone let you.”

“You can trust me.” Jenny said.

“I know I can.” I said and turned her hand over and rubbed the back of it. “I might... one day... be able to tell you everything.”

Jenny scoffed. “You don't mean...”

“I mean everything I can without grossing you out or disgusting you.” I said and then smiled. “Like when I visited a madam that ran a brothel...”

“No! No no no!” Jenny pulled her hand back and covered her ears. “No! My brother would never...”

“Ten years, Jenny. I've been gone for ten years from the people I loved.” I said.

Jenny sighed and uncovered her ears. “You're right. I guess I don't want to know some things.”

I nodded and held a hand out to her.

Jenny looked at it and I could see her wondering what I had done with it.

“That and more.” I said with a grin and wiggled my fingers.

“Damon!” Jenny exclaimed and blushed deeply.

The guard let out a bark of laughter, caught himself, and coughed to cover it up. “Excuse me.” He said and stepped out of the room, then started laughing before the door even closed.

Ten minutes later, the man handling my case came back with another man that looked very stern and like his expression never changed from that position. He also had several things in his hands that looked like jeweller equipment. The two security guards came in as well.

“Please show this gentleman your trick and stop before you slap the table.” The man handling my case said and waved for the second man to sit at the desk.

I did the trick again, to everyone's fascination, and didn't slap them when I had ten stacks of ten coins. I didn't stop there, though. I knew the man was there to examine the validity of the coins and if any of them were fakes, so I moved each of the ten stacks out and spread them into their own circular patterns and then added ten coins on each of those, which made a wonderfully large display of a thousand glittering gold coins. The grand total, just over three million dollars.

“Jesus Christ!” One of the security guards said loudly.

“I need my whole department.” The stern man said and left the office at a fast walk before anyone could stop him.

“Good lord, Damon.” Jenny said with a sigh. “They are never going to let us leave.”

I winked at her and sat back in the chair as I crossed my arms. All I had to do now was wait.

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