Reality Gold

by Tiffany Brooks

“Please.”

  We leaned in for a huddle.

  “We’re just supposed to vote for someone?” Maren asked.

  “How about this? AJ solved the khipu, so if not for him, we would have lost,” I said. “Let’s make him the High Priest.”

  “Agreed,” Oscar said quickly. Maddie nodded, and Maren shrugged.

  London made it official. “AJ is our High Priest,” she announced.

  Joaquin called AJ forward and placed a necklace with a huge gold pendant around his neck.

  “AJ, you are the High Priest tonight.”

  AJ folded his arms across his chest and gave a self-­assured nod. “Cool.”

  “You have tremendous power here at the Apu Council. I know you are familiar with the Incan traditions, so you know about their belief that human sacrifices were both necessary and honorable.”

  “Yes,” AJ said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to throw myself off the top of Black Rock or anything.”

  “We wouldn’t ask you to do that,” Joaquin said, giving a half smile. “But we are going to ask you to make a choice. You see, you can decide which team has to vote a member off. And not simply one member. Tonight, you may decide to vote up to three players off.”

  Everyone gasped. Taylor screamed. “Three? That’s insane. Why three people?”

  “I didn’t say it had to be three people,” Joaquin said. “I said the High Priest has the option of choosing three.”

  “And I can choose which team votes people out?” AJ asked. “My team or Sol?”

  “You may.”

  “This is effed up,” Maren called. “Why would anyone choose their own team to vote out?”

  Joaquin ignored her and continued. “The decision is the High Priest’s to make. Tonight, AJ, the honor is yours.”

  Both sides were buzzing.

  AJ finally spoke. “This will be an easy decision.”

  “So you’ve made your choice?”

  “Yes, but do I choose the players, too?”

  “No, once you choose the team and the number of players to be sacrificed, there will be a team vote that will determine which players are voted out.”

  “Got it. I choose Huaca.”

  If Joaquin seemed surprised, he didn’t show it. He paused to let the news sink in.

  “Huaca?” Annika jumped up. “Wait, no!”

  “Dude, what? Don’t you mean Sol?” That was from Sean.

  “Just to be clear,” Joaquin said to AJ, “you are choosing your own team to send up to three players home.”

  “Yes, my own team. And I choose three players.”

  “This is your fault,” Annika screamed at me. “I would have said you, because you’d saved us from jumping, but you told us to pick AJ!”

  I felt as if I’d been slapped. What had I done? She was right; it was my fault AJ was High Priest. I easily could have let myself be nominated, but I’d been so worried about looking selfish, I’d cut that idea off before anyone could even suggest it.

  Team Sol was erupting into cheers, and their side of the logs turned into a blur of arms and legs and long hair as they all hugged each other. Alex looked stunned. Chloe and Taylor were crying with relief.

  “All right, all right. Everyone calm down please. Team Sol, AJ has just given you a gift. But at what price? AJ, I imagine your team would like to hear the reasoning behind your decision.”

  It was obvious why Joaquin had gotten the job. He was so calm, so good at making you feel like he was a friend.

  “Look, guys, we’ve only got five challenges,” AJ said. “We don’t need ten people to win them. There are two big prizes at stake here—a million dollars for winning the game, and two hundred and fifty thousand for finding the treasure. I know that’s a lot of money, but not when it’s split between ten of us. Cutting the team back is the logical decision.”

  “Are you kidding me right now?” London asked. Half the team was standing, the other half was sitting in shock. AJ faced us pretty stoically considering the hostility directed his way.

  “Listen,” Lucas said, motioning the team in. “We gotta vote this clown out. That will show him what a dumb decision it was. Are you guys with me? Come on. AJ is the obvious choice to vote out.”

  Lucas ran a hand through his sweaty hair. He looked worried.

  “But he’s so smart,” Maddie objected. “He was the only one who knew what to do. It would have taken us forever to figure the khipu out.”

  I felt sick. “Don’t you remember? Joaquin said that the High Priest has immunity. Or protection, whatever he called it,” I reminded them. “So even if we wanted to, we can’t vote AJ off.”

  “Well, making him boss was the mistake of the century,” London said. “Thanks, Riley. God! Honestly, I’d like to push both of you off the top of Black Rock.”

  I tried to catch Maren’s eye. Was our partnership even firm? Panic rose inside my chest. Not yet, not now. I wasn’t ready. Leaving now would be a huge embarrassment.

  “At this point, I’d like to ask Team Sol to return back to camp. The rest of Apu Council will be for Team Huaca only,” Joaquin announced.

  The Sol players didn’t need to be told twice. Nearly all of them immediately ran out of the Council, yelling and laughing the whole way. Deb would get lots of good reaction shots, that was for sure.

  “Piggyback? Hop on,” Cody offered Alex. “Night, y’all,” he said to us.

  Alex saluted as they left. “May the best seven win!”

  I was filled with dread as they all left. There was no way I’d make it. Even if Maren and I honored our agreement, the two of us would probably be the two with the highest votes. Ugh. I saw Porter’s red shorts in the crowd and felt a flicker of annoyance that I even cared. He obviously wasn’t interested in me anyway, so what was I thinking?

  But then I saw him fall to the back of the group. He turned toward me, and for a second, our eyes met. I felt something stirring that had been buried for a long time—hope. It was enough to remind me that I had a lot riding on this show. I had to stay. My future depended on it.

  I made a decision and turned back to my teammates. “If you don’t vote me out, I’ll tell you where the buckle was found,” I blurted out.

  “You know where?” Sean asked. “How do we know you aren’t just saying that?”

  “I brought some pictures with me. There’s one with the buckle, and I have notes from an article about where it was found. I’ll show you. Why would I lie? If I am, you’ll just vote me out next, so . . .”

  AJ had returned to his seat and I didn’t like the way he was staring at me. Showing my hand could backfire. Even if the other players voted to keep me around, AJ might decide he didn’t want any competition looking for the gold.

  “Well, well. Look at that,” he said. “It appears someone here knows a bit more about the treasure than previously let on.”

  “I did a little homework,” I told him defensively. I wanted to look knowledgeable enough to get some votes from everyone else, but not expert enough for AJ to see me as a threat. “Like you said, we were told the challenges would be related to the island’s history so I wanted to be prepared.”

  Joaquin called for our attention. “Team Huaca, it’s time to vote,” he said. “Unfortunately, that means that for three of you, these are your last few minutes on the island.”

  He passed around a bag of gold marbles and instructed us to each take three. The altar held nine gold vases in a row each marked with our names, and one-by-one we were to approach and drop our marbles into the jars of who we wanted to vote off.

  “You’ll notice there is no jar for AJ, your High Priest,” Joaquin reminded us.

  My whole body was shaking when it was my turn at the altar. What if I didn’t make it past tonight? I didn’t know how I could face anyone back home. My marbles went into the jars for Annika, Os
car, and Rachel. I hoped enough of my teammates agreed with me.

  None of us made eye contact while we waited for the results. Speaking was forbidden, but I doubt any of us would have tried even without that directive. Even Joaquin, normally so jovial, was stern and serious when he returned after counting the votes.

  He dramatically tipped over the first jar. Nothing fell out.

  “Maddie, zero votes,” he said. “Congratulations, Maddie. You received the fewest votes, and you are safe tonight.”

  As nervous as I was for myself, I was glad for her.

  Joaquin moved to the next jar. One marble rolled out. “Sean, one vote.”

  London was next—she got three votes. Lucas got two. I was getting more and more nervous. None of them had gotten very many votes.

  “Maren.” She got three marbles, which shocked me. I had thought she’d get more. That didn’t bode well for my own chances.

  “Riley,” Joaquin said, lifting my jar. Two marbles rolled out and I nearly cried out of relief. I had mentally prepared myself to see a pile of marbles, so two wasn’t bad at all. My last-minute stunt offering information on the buckle must have paid off.

  And when Joaquin moved to the next three jars, it became obvious pretty quickly that I’d be safe. In the end, Rachel got five votes, Annika got six, and Oscar got seven.

  “Rachel, Annika, and Oscar,” Joaquin said, “I’m sorry, but your time with us is over.”

  The three exiles approached the altar for a short goodbye ritual and then were escorted somewhere out of view to do their exit interviews.

  “Tomorrow you and I are going to have a little chat,” AJ said to me as we filed out of the Council. “I’m verrrrrryy curious how much you know about the treasure.”

  I’d bought myself some time by offering to trade information on the buckle for votes, but at what price? I wondered. Now that I’d exposed my knowledge of the gold, I might have made myself a target.

  Question time: careless mistake or necessary chess move?

  I hoped it was the latter.

  11

  Waking up in a room with seven other girls reminded me that it had been years since I’d had any type of group sleepover. When you’re with people day and night you learn things about them, and it turns out London talks in her sleep, Willa likes to use the bathroom during the night, and Maren is not a morning person.

  “No talking before coffee,” she’d told Taylor, who’d foolishly tried to start the day with an overly cheery rise-and-shine camp song. “Not one word. Not even a whisper.”

  After breakfast, Phil sent the teams off to their respective huts. Now that I knew how important player interaction was, I understood why our clubhouse had so many bells and whistles. Designed to make us feel comfortable, there were bright colors and beachy accents everywhere: shells, painted driftwood signs, and tiki torches. It wasn’t a traditional building—it only had three walls, but that was enough to give a certain amount of privacy, and since the open-air side was facing the water, we had an amazing view. The floor was made of a thick netting, which kept our toes in the sand but provided enough of a stable base for the couches, beanbag poufs, and game table.

  I’d brought my notebook from the safe, and I sat on the floor with all the pictures and articles I’d brought that had to do with the discovery of the old Spanish buckle. “Anyone who wants to see where the buckle was found, this is your chance.”

  Everyone came over to look except AJ. He was keeping his distance. No one really wanted to talk to him anyway, so it worked out fine.

  “We’re right here.” On the map, I pointed to the banana-shaped beach. “And the buckle was discovered on the other side of the island, not too far, down on the left-hand tip. Right here, above the eagle’s head.”

  As promised, I had a magazine article that corroborated the location, and Sean, Lucas, Maddie, and London packed some water and snacks and took off to try their luck. Perfect. That was far enough out of the way that they wouldn’t see where I was headed—straight north, to the base of Black Rock.

  AJ found his voice when the four other players had cleared out. “Are you going to tell me where you learned all that?” he asked. “Or just make me guess?”

  “Share your notes and I’ll tell you,” I said.

  “And join our partnership,” Maren added quickly.

  “It’s funny that you guys think you have to convince me,” AJ said. “I just watched Riley send our competition to the wrong place but even better, they thanked her. Heck yeah, I want a partnership.”

  Maren and I looked at each other and nodded. When she handed AJ the pile of papers she’d taken from his bag, his reaction was not unlike a toddler reunited with a lost blankie.

  He hugged the Cipher to his chest. “Buddy, I missed you!”

  Maren looked on skeptically. Her T-shirt this morning read Shhh! Nobody Cares.

  “If you know about the Cipher, you must know about Smokey Joe, right?” I asked AJ. He nodded.

  A few months ago, I’d found a website with the unlikely and unwieldy name of Smokey Joe’s: Seek and Ye Shall Find. Gun to my head, I’d never be able to remember how I’d found it. I’d gone down one treasure hunter’s rabbit hole after another, until Smokey and his followers revealed themselves. Most treasure hunt communities online were filled with weirdos endlessly debating signs and symbols, and Smokey’s had its fair share of those, but it was a little different. It was password protected for one thing, and to get access I’d had to provide my email address and answer a number of identity verification questions. While some of Smokey’s theories bordered on insanity—he covered Area 51 and Atlantis, too—there was plenty of solid information exchanged in the map-reading forum, things that I’d later corroborated with my father, back when we were still talking.

  “I haven’t been to that site in a long time, though. All anyone ever wanted to talk about was that buckle. I don’t know why people think it means anything more than some Spaniard in the 1600s went to take a leak in the bushes and forgot his belt.”

  “There was better info in the general map-reading forum,” I told him. “The discussions weren’t specific to Black Rock, but most of the clues used on the Spanish maps are universal.”

  “Makes sense. Oh, wait, now I get it. You were the one posting about coming here.”

  I shook my head in confusion. “What?”

  “Someone said they were going to the island and wanted to know what to do with the treasure if they found it. Where to sell it on the sly, since it would be illegal to be here without a permit. Asking if there are brokers who would fence the gold for them.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “That wasn’t you?” AJ looked surprised. He didn’t know me, so of course he wouldn’t know it, but selling the treasure on the dark web was nearly the exact opposite of what I planned to do. If I found the gold, I’d be screaming the news from the top of Black Rock and handing it over to the government immediately. It was their treasure. Credit was what I wanted, not money.

  “I thought you said you hadn’t been to the website in a long time,” I pointed out.

  “I haven’t. This was probably a year ago. Maybe more.” Understanding crossed his face. “Oh, I see. That is weird. No one was supposed to have been here before this show started. The government closed off this island after that guy got killed.”

  Ouch. That guy. “I knew him,” I said, and then I found myself saying the words I had planned to keep to myself the entire time. “Miles Kroger. And I was here two years ago, right before he died. He showed me where he thought the treasure was located.”

  I tried not to think about how Miles would have disapproved of how quickly I’d shared that information. Rohan was right. It was easy to sell yourself out, once you felt you had no other choice.

  AJ slapped his forehead. Literally slapped it. “Miles Kroger? You knew him? Where was he
looking?”

  “North. Straight up from the marker—same cave system I think you found.”

  “I knew it!” AJ said. “I freaking knew it.”

  He did a crazy move—a jump in the air with a midair scissor kick—that I hoped never to have to witness again.

  “Anyway.” I kept on with the explanation. “Miles was sure the caves had collapsed so long ago that no one even realized they’d been there in the first place.”

  AJ brought the energy down a level, but even when he was calm, he was always in motion. He paced back and forth, walking two steps and then reversing, like a malfunctioning wind-up toy. “Wow, this is big. Really big. We’ve got to go up there. Now. Right now. He might have been killed because he found something. I need to know exactly where he was.”

  “I can show you where he was when I was here, but he searched for another couple of weeks after that.”

  AJ waved it off. “It’s a start. I can cut off a big area knowing which areas he’d already gone through.”

  Maren was staring at me. “What a coincidence. You were here on this random island in the middle of nowhere, and then you just happened to jump in on a reality show being filmed in the same spot?”

  “Not a coincidence at all. That’s how I heard about this show. Deb knew—”

  “Yeah, yeah,” AJ broke in. “We can cover all that later. Right now we need to pick up our five pieces of wood so we can get that out of the way and spend the rest of the day searching at Black Rock.”

  As it turned out, the Sol team had already taken care of wood duty, so we took the beach cleanup shift. It was a little awkward, because most of their players were on the beach, too. The girls were spreading out towels in front of their hut for tanning, while Murch yelled insults at us he and Justin threw a football around. Their team was a lot less treasure focused. Maybe after seeing the marker yesterday they’d all realized how difficult a search would be.

  Phil came down to the waterline to inspect our effort. “Wassup, guys?” he asked. Phil and Murch had the same body shape, big and mushy, but Murch had a bully mentality that brought out a hardness not there in Phil. Essentially, Phil was Murch in twenty years, after life had sanded him down a bit and taken away the sharp edges.