Coinworld [Book Three]

by Benjamin Laskin

  “All the coins here have a story, haven’t they?”

  “An island full of misfits and characters,” Ned said boastingly.

  “It’s a lovely island too.”

  “Not as nice as The Six’s bullion base though, right?”

  “Oh, I don’t know about that. I’ll admit that if I had to be held prisoner for years, I couldn’t think of a more idyllic place than Coin Castle was, but of what I’ve seen of Coin Island so far, it certainly has its charms.”

  “Winter isn’t one of them,” Ned said, “unless you enjoy sledding.”

  “I saw some of the coins sledding down Mount Cashmore. It looked like so much fun!”

  “It is…for about a week or two. Not months.”

  “Well, month after month of near perfect weather can get old too. You know, I actually feel a little sorry for The Six. He had a lovely base, and well… What do you think he’ll do now that it lies in ashes?”

  “We haven’t seen how bad the damage is yet, but now that he knows we know where he lives, I doubt he’ll rebuild there.”

  “He’s going to be furious,” Franny said, concerned. “I got to know him over the time I was there, and although he treated me well, The Six has quite the temper. Not only is he going to blame you for the burning down of his bullion base, but I think he’ll be just as angry that he fell for your ruse. Ned, I fear that The Six won’t rest until he finds Coin Island.”

  “Your fear is well-founded, but don’t worry. He’s going to be too busy to do much about it for a while. He’ll have to find a new base, and then build it up. That takes time. Also, he’ll assume we’ll be spying on him, so he’ll have to do so stealthily, and that will slow him down too.”

  “But his army is intact,” Franny said. “And it’s very big and well-trained. Much bigger than what you have here.”

  “This isn’t our only base, Franny.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know. That’s good.”

  “But you’re right, they are excellent soldiers, and they’ve been training a lot longer than we have. Deirdre thinks The Six is going to start recruiting more coins, and I agree. That too will take time.”

  “But eventually…”

  “Yes, eventually he’ll come for us. I’ll be powwowing with the chief, Deirdre, and some of the others soon. We’re not going to be sitting ducks, Franny. That I can assure you.”

  “Boy, I never dreamed that something so small as a coin could be part of something so…big.”

  “Tell me about it,” Ned said.

  “No, you tell me, Mr. Four. What is this destiny I’ve heard about, and why is The Six so interested in you?”

  “I was hoping you could tell me. He never said?”

  “To be honest, I didn’t understand much of what he talked about. He was very…esoteric.”

  “Well, don’t worry. Deirdre will debrief you in time. She’s really good at that esoteric business.”

  “Debrief me? Will it hurt?”

  Ned chuckled. “Ask you a lot of questions and try to jog your memory, that’s all. You might know some things you didn’t think were important at the time. Stuff like that.”

  “I’ll help in whatever way I can,” Franny said. “But, Ned, are you really supposed to save the world? I mean, the whole world?”

  “The chief believes so, yeah.”

  “But maybe he’s wrong. Maybe it’s all just…I don’t know. Something he dreamed up.”

  “Well, if he’s dreaming it all up, then he has a pretty vivid imagination, because so far a lot of it has come to pass.”

  “But what are you supposed to save Coinworld from? I don’t understand.”

  “Extinction, Franny. The end of Coinworld.”

  “But the humans would never get rid of us. They need us as much as we need them!”

  “Less and less, I’m afraid,” Ned said. “The humans have devised many new ways to carry out commerce, and they come up with newer ones all the time, it seems.”

  “But you said the whole world, Coinworld and the human world too?”

  Ned shrugged, uncertain. “Maybe.”

  “But if the humans have new and better ways to conduct business and no longer need us, why would they be at risk?”

  “We don’t know yet. The pieces are still coming together.”

  “So we still have time,” Franny said.

  “Don’t worry your pretty head. The world isn’t ending tomorrow, or even a year from tomorrow.”

  “How much time do we have, Ned?”

  “That depends on the humans.”

  “I’m sure they don’t want the world to end either.”

  “Of course not, but that doesn’t mean they won’t sometimes behave in ways that are irrational. I needn’t remind you of their long and blood-soaked history.”

  “I’m a Peace Dollar. I commemorate the ending of one such disaster.”

  Ned smiled bleakly. “You do, but a lot of good such a commemoration did, right? Less than twenty years after you were minted, the humans were right back at it again, even bigger and nastier than before. And still, there were many more wars after that one.”

  Franny sighed.

  “Hey, it’s not your fault, Franny.”

  “I know—it just makes me feel all the more futile. So, the chief’s vision tells of another, even bigger war in the future?”

  “He hasn’t mentioned one yet, but war isn’t the only way for a civilization to end. Most have collapsed by their own weight. The wars typically come later, after what once made that civilization great had already crumbled.”

  “And this is what the chief sees in his visions?”

  “I don’t know, but the poor guy seems to only get gloomier and gloomier as the years pass.”

  “But what does The Six have to do with any of this? He’s a coin like us. Surely he doesn’t want the world to end either. The only thing he seems to want is Ned Nickel, The Four.”

  Ned grinned. “Maybe I should feel flattered.”

  “You know,” Franny said, “The Six has a chief too.”

  “He does? An Indian nickel like Iron Tail?”

  “I don’t know, but I don’t think so. I overheard him talking to Dominique Double Eagle a couple of times, and they mentioned a coin they called ‘The Vision Master.’”

  “That’s just the sort of thing Deirdre will want to hear about,” Ned said. “And the chief too.”

  “I didn’t hear much, and what I did hear made little sense to me,” Franny confessed.

  “Everything will help.”

  “Why don’t you have visions, Ned? After all, you’re The Four, and we’re all here because of you.”

  “Because I’m not descended from the great Coinim,” he answered.

  “So if this Vision Master is for real, that means he’s descended from them?”

  “That would be my guess. I’ll have to ask the chief. The chief has the annoying habit of not telling me everything he knows.”

  “Why wouldn’t he?”

  Ned shrugged. “Partially because I think he doesn’t want the rest of us to worry, and partially because his visions come in fragments, and so he prefers to wait until he has most of the pieces.”

  “It sounds complicated,” Franny said.

  “The guy’s under a lot of pressure. He doesn’t talk about it, but I think the visions give him a headache. He always seems a little drained after he’s had one. I can usually tell when he’s had a vision if I’m around at the time. The others don’t notice, but I do.”

  “Maybe you should tell someone. Maybe it’s dangerous for him.”

  “Deirdre knows,” Ned said reassuringly. “I told her to keep it under her Phrygian cap.”

  “Do you know what’s under that man’s cap?” Franny asked, nodding across the channel towards Hugh Stewards.

  “The Hugh is a curious fellow,” Ned said. “Cody Quarter has been keeping tabs on him for a long time now, but the man only gets more mysterious by the year.”

  “How so? He
looks normal to me.”

  “Better than normal. When we first encountered The Hugh, he had to limp about with a cane. His dog was equally crippled.”

  “And they’re not anymore?”

  “Spry as a couple of teenagers,” Ned answered.

  “Why? What happened to them?”

  “We happened to them.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “They entered Coinworld, Franny. They became believers.”

  “So that’s what it is,” Franny said, more to herself than to Ned.

  “That’s what what is?”

  “The old man. The Six’s benefactor. You have The Hugh, and Nicolai Nickel has the old man, Harold Auden.”

  “He was a cripple too?”

  “Not that I’m aware, but I became friendly with some of the coins who guarded over me there, and they told me that Mr. Auden used to act a lot older than he does today. That’s why they call him the old man, because he seemed really old when they first knew him. Slowly he seemed to get younger.”

  “So it’s not just Coin Island,” Ned said. “Interesting. Did the coins have an explanation?”

  “They assumed that it was on account of The Six. They believe The Six has some kind of occult powers, and that he used them to reward the old man for allowing them to live in his garden.”

  “That wouldn’t explain The Hugh,” Ned said.

  “Maybe The Four has occult powers?” Franny said with a half-teasing lift of her eyebrow.

  “I’m just a four-cent nickel, Franny. I can’t even pull a rabbit out of my Monticello mansion.”

  “No, you can do much more than that, Ned.”

  “Nothing magical, I can assure you.”

  “So, what accounts for people like The Hugh and Mr. Auden?”

  “We’re not sure, but Deirdre and the chief think it has something to do with the powers of belief and imagination, and the human subconscious.”

  “That’s heavy,” Franny said. “I don’t even know what that means.”

  “I can’t really say we do either, but after you learn to animate and tap into your inner wampum, you’ll understand a little better.”

  Franny glanced back at Hugh Stewards. The man was standing now and rummaging through his knapsack. He pulled out three colorful, cylindrical containers of different lengths and a Styrofoam lid from a small ice chest. The Hugh cradled them in his arms and tramped with the items across the thin layer of snow to the edge of the lake. He set them down and returned to his rucksack. Shadow trotted beside him and let out a yap.

  “What’s he doing?” Franny asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  24

  beached promise

  The Hugh grabbed a ball of green twine from the knapsack and stuffed it into the pocket of his peacoat. Then he lifted out two parts of a fishing pole. He fitted the pieces together and stomped back to the lake.

  “He’s going fishing?” Franny asked.

  A voice from behind them said, “If he is, he’s not going to have much luck.”

  Startled, Franny gasped.

  “Cody,” Ned greeted with a smile.

  Franny giggled in embarrassment. “For a moment I thought it was the snowcoin talking.”

  “Stranger things have happened on this island,” Cody said bucking up beside them.

  “What’s your pal up to?” Ned asked the quarter.

  “I’m not sure. I was watching him from atop Mount Cashmore and flew down here for a better look. I have a hunch what he might be up to, but it doesn’t include fish.”

  “I heard there are lots of fish around here,” Franny said. “Sea monsters.”

  “Plenty of those, yeah,” Cody said, “but unless he plans to harpoon them with the tip of his pole, or club them on the head with its end, he’s going home empty-handed.”

  “Huh?”

  “No tackle and no reel.”

  The three coins observed The Hugh as he kneeled and went about his preparations. Shadow looked on, head cocked and tail wagging.

  The man placed the three canisters on top of the Styrofoam lid, and then withdrawing the ball of twine from his pocket, he unwound it by wrapping it around the cylinders. He cut the string with a penknife and battened them down. The Hugh reached inside his coat and unfolded a piece of paper. He dipped his hand back in again and came out with a silver tack, which he used to pin the paper to the Styrofoam lid.

  The Hugh set the raft on top of the water. Satisfied with its stability, he picked up the fishing pole and stood.

  He gazed across the narrow channel to Coin Island. It looked as still and peaceful as it always did in winter.

  “I’m a man of my word, gang,” he said. “I hope this helps.”

  He set the tip of the fishing pole on the center of the lid and guided the raft across the channel towards the southernmost point of the island. Doing so required the entire length of the pole and his outstretched arm, but it was enough to beach the raft. With a few careful pokes of his rod, he nudged the Styrofoam lid safely ashore.

  Hugh Stewards wondered how long the raft would remain beached there, and whether the coins would even know what to do with his gifts. But at the very least his conscience was appeased, and that felt good.

  He didn’t wait around to see what might happen. He knew the coins wouldn’t come out if he was standing there.

  The Hugh slapped his thigh and moved off. “Let’s go home, Shadow.”

  He gathered his things and stuffed them into his rucksack.

  Shadow glanced back at Coin Island. Tail wagging, he yapped once at the island, and then trotted after his master.

  Once the coast was clear, Ned and Cody bucked out to the odd-looking raft.

  Coin lookouts had alerted the island to The Hugh and his dog’s threatening presence, and the island was already mobilizing in stage two alert.

  Camille Quarter and some fellow eagle-backed coins taxied Chief Iron Tail, Brave Two Loons, Leo Lincoln, and Deirdre Dime south to investigate The Hugh’s strange behavior. The coins ringed the raft and exchanged looks of puzzlement.

  Ned and Cody hopped onto the raft and examined the three canisters. They smiled knowingly.

  “Two Loons and Leo are going to have a lot of fun with these,” Cody said.

  “Leo,” Ned called down, “get a work crew up here to cut these ropes and roll off these cans.”

  Leo Lincoln rounded up a team that included two buffalo nickels. The bison chewed through the twine, and then he, Ned, Cody, and a dozen pennies positioned themselves behind the cans and rolled them from the raft.

  The coins stared nonplussed at the three different-sized canisters. Only Ned and Cody were still smiling.

  “Hey, boss,” a penny asked Leo, “what are we supposed to do with these giant things?”

  Leo frowned, uncertain. “Dunno, but I suppose I’ll think of something.”

  “I’m sure you will,” Cody said.

  “Well, what is it?” the chief asked.

  Deirdre Dime read the labels on the cans and answered with a smile, “Something that will keep Two Loons and Leo busy all spring and summer.”

  “The best of human technology, Leo,” Cody announced. “Tinkertoys, Lincoln Logs, and Play-Doh!”

  Leo’s eyes widened. “Oh, wow.” He turned to Cody and sniffled, teary-eyed. “For me?”

  “That’s right, buddy,” Cody said. “From the Hugh to you.”

  “How’d he know?”

  “A little bird must have told him,” Ned answered. He winked at Cody.

  Deirdre said, “What does the note say?”

  Ned read aloud the note The Hugh had pinned to the Styrofoam lid.

  “Thank you for reminding me that imagination and belief are the building blocks of miracles.

  —Yours faithfully, Hugh and Shadow”

  25

  destiny turns on a dime

  Grand Canyon Bullion Base — Four days after Operation Jackpot

  Pete, Lenny the penny, and Sadie Silve
r Dollar arrived at the Grand Canyon Bullion Base before sunup. They slipped unseen into Darla Dime’s office, where she and Kipp Quarter were in the middle of a powwow.

  Darla greeted the coins with, “I’m not talking to you, Pete Penny.”

  “Aw, come on, Darla,” Pete rejoined. “You aren’t still mad at me, are you? I told you it wasn’t my idea. It was Ned’s.”

  “I’m not talking to him either.”

  Kipp laughed.

  “Shut up, Kipp Quarter,” Darla snapped. “You were in on this too. I’m especially not talking to you!” Darla huffed and added, “Boy coins stink.”

  Pete said, “Of course I wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t. I was under orders.”

  “You could have let me known you were all right,” Darla insisted. “There were ways. I’m not stupid. You don’t let your girl think you died, unless you are a heartless little penny!”

  “Your girl?” Pete repeated, stunned.

  Lenny said, “Stud, Wheatman! You’re a stud! I’m running out of note paper!”

  Darla blushed, and then threw back her shoulders. The only way through her embarrassment was to double down with boldness.

  “That’s right, Pete Penny, your girl. And you don’t treat your girl like that.”

  Pete blinked, dumbstruck. He never had a girl before. He never even imagined he could have a girl. He always assumed that he was too beat, banged up, and ugly for any girl to like him, especially a beautiful Mercury dime like Darla. Sure, she was always nice to him, but Darla was bubbly nice to everyone, he thought.

  “What’s the matter, penny?” Darla snipped. “Cat got your tongue?”

  Pete nodded dumbly.

  “Darla,” Kipp said, “I told you that we had no choice. The mission was too big and too important. We wanted to tell you, but with Damian Dime skulking about we couldn’t risk it. The entire mission depended upon Damian believing Operation Jackpot was all about Reno. If he got whiff of Pete Penny still being alive, he’d have smelled a rat, and become suspicious.”

  Sadie Silver Dollar said diplomatically, “For what it’s worth, Darcie, ma’am, you know now, so everything is hunky-dory and peachy keen with tutti-frutti on top!”