Benji Franklin: Kid Zillionaire: Money Troubles

by Bean, Raymond

  Toward the end of the week we were ready to run the first test. The sun had just set, and the island was completely dark. We had removed the old power grid and replaced it with all new wiring that connected to the hydrothermal plant on the rig.

  We all stood on the deck of the ship and waited for the engineer to give me the thumbs-up. When he did, I pressed a large green button in the engine room. It opened the pipe down at the mouth of the vent on the seafloor. Superhot water from the vent raced up the pipe, spinning the fans along the way. The plant buzzed with excitement. The needles on the control panels started to move. The entire rig actually vibrated as the combination of water, heat, and electricity zoomed through the system.

  The dark material from the vents started to pump out into the captain’s equipment. It washed the material and captured any gold or other precious metals. All the extra sand and rocks were simply pumped over the side to fall back to the bottom of the sea.

  After a few minutes the system was at full power. The lights from the houses and streetlights on the island blinked a few times and then came on for good. I thought the prime minister was going to cry.

  He hugged the captain and everyone cheered.

  It was a pretty amazing feeling. I was so happy to help the island and save it from the earthquakes that would have continued if we hadn’t stopped the captain from drilling. The whole atmosphere on the ship felt like one big party.

  Chapter 10

  Homeward

  The prime minister and the people on the island were thrilled. We’d managed to stop the earthquakes and settle the volcano. As a bonus, the new system provided free electrical power to the island. As a double bonus, the power plant was also a precious metal mine! The island was in way better shape than when we arrived.

  The next day they had a big festival to celebrate the end of the earthquakes and the beginning of a safe future. The prime minister invited Dad and me as guests of honor, but it was time to head home. We’d been gone for far too long. Mom was getting worried, and Mrs. Petty wasn’t very happy about how much school I’d missed.

  On the flight home I got a call from Sir Robert. “Hello, Benji,” he said. “Where are you?”

  “I wondered the same thing about you,” I said.

  “What do you mean, lad?” he asked.

  “I mean that you sent Dad and me to the middle of the Atlantic to handle the biggest challenge of my life, and then you went on vacation.”

  “I knew you’d be able to handle the task,” he said. “And even though I was on holiday, I knew what was going on with you the whole time.”

  “How? Did you hack into my computers too?”

  “Of course not. Sigmund kept me up to date every step of the way.”

  “He did? I don’t understand.”

  “We’re partners. He is very good at the mechanical aspects of things, but he doesn’t do a thing involving money unless he checks with me first. This solution of yours cost me a pretty penny.”

  I found it a little suspicious that Sir Robert would be mixed up with someone as dishonest as the captain, and that he’d keep it from me. I would have thought he would have told me earlier. It made me wonder what else he wasn’t telling me. I said goodbye and shut off my phone. I needed a break from everything. It felt good to be headed home.

  I was still thinking about Sir Robert as Dad and I reentered the atmosphere about an hour later. I was glad he had faith in me to solve the problem on my own, but I couldn’t help wondering if he knew what the captain was up to the whole time and simply sent me there to clean up the mess.

  We cruised to the harbor near our house and dropped the sub. The same people we’d waved to on the way out were there again. I wondered if they’d been so shocked the first time they saw me in my spaceship that they were frozen there and hadn’t left.

  We flew to the farm where Mom waited.

  We landed in the hangar. It felt so good to be home. Mom gave me a big hug and a kiss when I got out of the spaceship. “I can’t believe you’ve been gone so long!” she said.

  “I know,” Dad said. “It was a long trip. You would have been proud of your son.”

  “I’m always proud of him,” she said, pinching my cheeks.

  “He saved an entire island. Thanks to him, they don’t have to worry about earthquakes or how they’re going to power their island anymore.”

  Mom and Dad talked some more while I unloaded our luggage. Then I started unloading the gold. The captain had given me the two thousand ounces as part of my payment, as we agreed. It was so much gold I couldn’t believe it.

  “What is that?” Mom said as I hauled the massive amounts of gold from the ship.

  “It’s the gold from the mission. I have two thousand ounces here,” I said. “I figured we could sell it and put the money toward your farm.”

  Mom looked like her jaw might hit the floor. “Benji Franklin, you are an amazing boy. I might just start stitching you a cape,” she said.

  “A cape?” I asked.

  “A lot of superheroes wear them,” she said, giving me a hug.

  I didn’t think I was ready for a cape yet, but I had a feeling the idea might grow on me.

  Chapter 11

  Three Billion Is Bonkers

  Dad and I were out in the shop working on a robot he’d designed. It was a pretty cool idea, and he’d put a ton of time into it. As the robot moved, it created friction. The friction was used to create electricity, and the electricity was then used to continue powering the robot. You didn’t have to plug it in or use batteries. It just went on its own. He’d built it out of parts from an old computer, a metal garbage can, and a pair of Rollerblades.

  I was so focused on the robot that I hardly noticed the sound of a helicopter landing in the field behind the shop. I might not have even noticed it at all if it weren’t for all the dust it kicked up. Dust swirled through the doorway like a sandstorm. I was glad I was wearing a welding mask.

  Dad and I walked out of the shop without a word and looked at the copter coming to rest in the field. A year ago, I would have been shocked to see a helicopter landing on our property, but my life had become pretty exciting lately. I wasn’t really that surprised.

  The blades slowed and three men got out. One wore a fancy business suit and the other two wore all black. They all had on black sunglasses and looked like they were in the Secret Service or something.

  The two guys stayed close to the other guy as he walked toward Dad and me. It was like a scene out of an action movie, but if it were an action movie, he would have walked in slow motion.

  The blades on the copter had completely stopped by the time he reached us.

  “I’m looking for Benji Franklin,” he said, taking off his glasses.

  “I had a feeling you’d say that,” my dad said, pulling off his welding mask.

  “I’m Benji Franklin,” I said, leaving mine on.

  “I can’t believe you’re really a kid,” he said. He was pretty short, much shorter than Dad. He had a long white beard that didn’t seem to match the fancy suit.

  “I had a feeling you’d say that too,” Dad said.

  “Is there somewhere we can talk that’s more private?” he asked.

  I looked around. There wasn’t another soul in sight. The only other people were his two partners.

  “Don’t you trust your buddies over there?” I asked.

  “I don’t know who to trust these days,” he said.

  Dad waved for him to follow and walked back toward the workshop. The workshop and my house sit on property that has been in our family for generations. Most people would take one look at it and think it was a junkyard, but to me it was like buried treasure. Old car parts, pieces of boats and airplanes, and mysterious pieces of large equipment poked out from long, overgrown grass.

  There were half-finished proje
cts all over the workshop. Dad and I had been working, so it was even more of a mess than usual. I could tell Dad was trying to find something clean for the man to sit on but couldn’t.

  “I won’t take too much of your time. My name is Mark Crow,” the man said, clearly realizing there was nowhere for him to sit in his fancy suit. “I have a problem that I’d like solved as quietly as possible, and I’m told Benji might be the right person for the job.”

  I sat on one of the boxes a delivery guy had brought in earlier that morning. Mr. Crow sat on the one next to me. As I got comfortable, I realized I didn’t know what was in the boxes, but they had been sent from my school. They were pretty big. It made me wonder what was inside.

  “What’s the problem?” I asked.

  “Benji just finished a job,” Dad said before Mr. Crow could reply. “He has a tremendous amount of schoolwork to complete, and I don’t know that he’ll have the time for anything outside of his studies.”

  I shook my head to indicate that I disagreed. Although I had just returned from a job, I was ready to get back to work.

  “What’s the problem?” I asked Mr. Crow again.

  “It’s kind of complicated,” he said.

  “Complicated is kind of my thing.”

  “I represent a very small but powerful group of business people,” he explained. “Recently we’ve all been the victims of the same crime.”

  “What kind of crime?” I asked.

  I was feeling more like a superhero than ever. I imagined my dad as my loyal sidekick. He’s a little old for a sidekick, but what can you do?

  “Benji is more of a scientist than a detective,” Dad said.

  “I’ve been known to dabble in a little detective work from time to time,” I said, embracing my inner superhero.

  “A robbery,” he said, glancing over his shoulder.

  “Where’d the robbery take place?” I asked. “Also, you do know there’s no one out here watching us, right?”

  “You can never be too safe. And to answer your question about the location of the robbery, that’s the complicated part. It wasn’t one robbery. It was many large robberies that happened all at once. They’re probably taking place right now.”

  “I don’t get it,” Dad said.

  “We own some of the largest companies in the world. We own fast food chains, clothing companies, sporting goods stores, credit cards companies, car companies—you name it, and we probably own it,” he said.

  “Burger Slam?” I asked.

  “We own it.”

  “Game Revolution?” I asked.

  “We own that too, and most of the companies that make the games they sell.”

  “Jumbo’s Food Mart?” I asked.

  “Own it and most of the companies that supply the groceries for the stores. Like I said, if you’ve heard of it, one of us probably owns it. If you haven’t heard of it, we probably own it. That’s what makes what’s happened so unbelievable.”

  “I still don’t really understand,” I said.

  “Our digital transactions, when someone uses a credit card, are being hijacked.”

  “When you say hijacked . . . ?” Dad asked.

  “I mean that the charges are going through—customers are paying by using their credit cards—but the money doesn’t go into our accounts. It disappears,” said Mr. Crow.

  “How much money did you lose?” I asked.

  “So far, about three billion.”

  “You mean million?” I asked.

  “No, you heard me correctly. We’ve lost about three billion dollars,” he groaned.

  If I had long hair, it would have blown back. “Billion with a ‘b’ like the word bonkers?” I asked.

  “Billion with a ‘b’ like bananas,” he said.

  “WOW! That’s, well . . . berserk!” I joked.

  “No kidding. It’s a bit of a nightmare to be honest. We’re not sure what to do. We can’t stop taking credit cards or our customers will think something is wrong.”

  “But something is wrong,” I pointed out.

  “Yes, but they can’t know that. We have to conduct business as usual, but we’re losing a ton of money in the process.”

  “You should really talk with the police or the FBI,” Dad pointed out.

  “We would like to keep this as quiet as possible. If we involve law enforcement, the story be all over the news, and people might stop using our stores. We want this fixed quickly and quietly. We can’t have people thinking our stores aren’t safe to shop in.”

  “But they’re not safe to shop in,” I said.

  “That’s why I’m here talking to you. I need that fixed, and I need it fixed as quickly as possible.”

  “I’ll have to talk with Benji’s mother and his school about this before he can commit to helping you,” Dad said.

  “I completely understand, but we’ll need to know in the next twenty-four hours. Every second that passes could be more money lost. Also, if news of this spreads, we’ll have a major panic on our hands. So you can’t tell anyone.”

  Chapter 12

  Merci

  “There’s no way you can take on another job,” Mom said that night at dinner.

  “I know I’ve been super busy lately,” I pleaded, “but this is an amazing mission.”

  “You mean ‘job,’ Benji. You get so caught up in them that they really become full-time jobs.”

  “Remember, he likes to think of himself as a superhero. So he prefers it if we call them missions,” Dad said.

  I nodded. He was right. I’d gone from being a kid that invented a successful app to a guy that secretly solved the world’s problems. Why shouldn’t they be called missions? Calling them jobs sounded so chore-like that it just didn’t feel right.

  “How about we call them adventures?” Dad suggested.

  “It really doesn’t matter what we call them,” Mom said. “Benji needs to take a break for a while.”

  “Sir Robert thinks I should stop going to school for a while and focus on my missions and creating new apps,” I explained.

  Sir Robert had said it more than once, and I knew he’d mentioned it to Mom and Dad.

  “Sir Robert is not your mother,” said Mom.

  “He is a billionaire who’s traveled the world.” I said, knowing I was pushing it with my mom.

  “And as much as he’s helped you, I’m beginning to wonder if he has your best interests in mind. But we’re not talking about him right now. We’re talking about you, and you need to experience a regular childhood and a regular education.”

  “But Benji has a rocket ship, a submarine, and more money than we can keep track of,” Dad added. “I think the whole ‘regular childhood’ thing might be a stretch at this point.”

  “I realize that,” Mom said, “but I want him to have as regular a childhood as he can. I accept that you’re already wildly successful at a very young age, but that doesn’t mean you should stop learning and stop living like a regular kid.”

  “You always say to use my knowledge for the greater good, right?” I asked.

  “Yes,” she said.

  “Well, this man that stopped by today said there are thousands of people who have been robbed. They need my help.”

  “That sounds like a job for the police.”

  “He wants it done quietly,” Dad interrupted.

  “Isn’t there anyone else who can solve these problems? How come all these successful people are always coming to you to save the day?” Mom asked.

  “You know the answer to that question,” I said.

  “A superhero, huh?” she asked giving a slight smile.

  “I’m not like the rest of the kids, Mom.”

  “I realized that when you taught yourself French in kindergarten,” she said.

  “It does sound
like an interesting opportunity,” Dad added. Dad was funny. I could tell he was just as excited or even more than me, but he tried not to show it in front of Mom.

  “If you can figure out a way to solve this,” she paused, “mission, without missing any school, I’ll give you my permission.”

  “Merci,” I said.

  “You’re welcome,” she said, giving me a smile. “School comes first.”

  “Agreed,” I said.

  Of course, I had no idea how I was going to solve the heist without missing any school. School was very demanding, and I’d missed a lot of it lately. I knew I had a bunch of assignments piling up, but I didn’t know what was due and when. I’d have to get my nose back in the books and get caught up if Mom was ever going to let me work on the mission.

  Chapter 13

  I Get Your Point, But I Don’t Like It

  In the morning, my car picked me up earlier than usual. It was my first day back after my last mission, and I wanted to get on top of things.

  “How was your last mission, sir?” Mr. Kensington, my driver, asked.

  “It was a total adventure,” I said. “I got to use my submarine, and I was attacked by a giant squid. It was pretty awesome.”

  “A giant squid! Wow! You’re leading an exciting life these days,” he said. “Were you paid well?”

  “A few million dollars, and I’m part owner in a deep sea gold mine.”

  “Not bad for a week’s work,” Kensington said.

  “Not bad at all!” I agreed.

  He stopped in front of the school. “Let’s hope your good luck holds up when you meet with your principal.” I thanked him and walked into the school. I went straight to the principal’s office.

  She was on the phone, but hung up when she saw me coming. “Benji Franklin,” she said, “how nice of you to stop by and say hello.”