Lucky Draw

by Mark Stone

  “Months?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “That doesn’t make any sense—”

  “Shut your mouth, thief!” Oliver shouted. “Why should I believe anything you have to say? I know who the stowaway is. I know who snuck onto my ship, and I know you knew her before you boarded. You destroyed the integrity of my ship. You poked holes into its safety once, and I have no doubt you did it a second time. You set all of this up, didn’t you? You made everything look like Russians were doing this, Russians who no one aside from you and the people you brought on my ship ever saw. What did you give Scott to convince him to lie for you, and how stupid did he feel when you turned on him?”

  “Turned on him?” I asked, my heart racing and my eyes wide. “You think I took Scott?”

  “I think you killed him,” Oliver said. “I think you wanted him out of the way so he wouldn’t win the tournament. You didn’t want him to ruin your chance, but when all of that happened, when we decided to dock here instead of moving forward with the tournament, you decided to steal what you wanted. That’s why you came to me, arguing about the decision to dock here. You wanted to win your chance after having Scott taken off the board, and when you saw you couldn’t do that, you decided to steal what you wanted. And I’d bet dollars to dolphins you used that bitch of a reporter to do it.”

  “What did you do to Random?” I asked, my hands tensing into fists as a sheen of sweat started across my forehead.

  Oliver’s eyes narrowed. “I . . .” He looked over at the men behind him. “She’s back on the boat. Go get her.” He held his hand out to stop Maxwell. “You stay here with me. We’re going to teach this thief a lesson.”

  Damn. What had I just done? I had inadvertently given away Random’s position after asking her to go back there in the first place. My eyes cut over to Charlotte. She nodded at me and rushed out the back. We didn’t need to speak. She knew what I wanted her to do, what Random needed her to do. She’d have to try and warn the woman about the people coming for her. Though that seemed like a fool’s errand, it was the only one we had before us. Besides, I was going to make quick work of Oliver, and if it came down to it, Maxwell, and then I’d be there myself to fix this.

  “Now, I will give you one chance to give me back what is mine,” Oliver sneered. “If you do that, I will let you walk away from here. If not, my friend here is going to break your legs, and then we’ll find my item and take it back anyway. The choice is yours.”

  “The item,” I said, taking in everything he had said and realizing there could only be one thing he was talking about. “The Linchpin. You think I stole the Linchpin?” I shook my head. “My God, really? A walking punchline like you is the one who set all of this up in the first place? You’re the one selling off the key to nuclear launch codes to the highest bidder?”

  I looked over at Maxwell, intending to read his face. He was a good soldier. So, I doubted he asked many questions when given a mission. Still, even soldiers needed to believe in what they were fighting for, and I knew in my heart that a guy like Maxwell would have never knowingly fought for something like this. On cue, I saw a flash of something like horror pass across his vision. There it was.

  “That’s what this is, Max,” I said, taking a step closer. “He’s got you working to benefit terrorists, to undermine the safety of the entire world. That’s what you’re doing here today.”

  “Don’t listen to him,” Oliver said. “He’s a thief, and thieves can also be liars. Take him down, break him until he tells me what I want to know.”

  “What did he steal?” Maxwell asked, looking over at Oliver. I could see how much this was hurting him, the idea of disobeying orders, of even questioning a superior officer, as it were. Still, it of course had to be done.

  “What did you say?” Oliver asked.

  “If it’s not what he’s saying, then what did Mr. Lucky actually steal?” the man asked.

  Oliver rolled his eyes. “You try to give people a leg up, you try to help them out by giving them a job and giving them purpose, and this is how they repay you.” He pulled something out of his coat pocket. Quickly, I saw it was a gun, but I was too late. “Never mind. I’ll do it myself.” Before I had time to react, Oliver pulled the trigger. The gun fired, a bullet slamming straight into Maxwell’s chest. It sent him falling to the ground, his eyes closed and his body still.

  “You son of a bitch!” I screamed, starting toward the man. Oliver turned the gun on me quickly, though, stopping me in my tracks.

  “I should have just started this way, but I really did want to give you the opportunity to walk out of here. I figured Maxwell would just rough you up a little, break a few bones, maybe punch out a few teeth, and you’d come to your senses and hand over the Linchpin. I see now that I was giving you too much credit. I see now that I’m going to have to go about this a different way, a much more lethal way.”

  “What the hell is any of this even about?” I asked, shaking my head, my hands still balled into fists. “Why would you do this?”

  “The same reason anyone does anything,” Oliver said.

  “For money?” I asked, my face turning down in a disgusted scowl.

  “No. Not for money, you twit,” he said, almost screaming. “For love! For the thing that I love!”

  “Who the hell do you love, and why would it involve something like this?” I asked, honestly confused.

  “Not who,” he spat back at me. “There is no who. Do you know how much that ship means to me? When I had nothing and no one, it became my home. It became my world. When I started working on the Diamond Mine, my mother had just died. I had nothing, no experience, not even a place to live. But the owners took me in, they gave me a job and a home, made me someone again. I worked my way up. I thought that, one day, the place might actually be mine, that my home might actually belong to me. But then they just sold it out from under me to that stupid woman and her stupid Star company.” He shook his head hard. “That’s when I realized that the only thing that mattered to any of them was money, and that if I wanted my home to ever really be mine, I was going to have to pay dearly for it.” He took a step toward me, his eyes flashing with rage. “That’s why, when I got ahold of the Linchpin through one of our more unscrupulous guests, I took advantage of it. I made it a feeding frenzy, a tournament. That way, not only would I make more money than I ever could with a single buyer, but I’d drive more business to the Diamond Mine. So, when I do take it over, it’ll be in better shape than ever.” He shrugged. “And that’ll happen, regardless of whether you want it to or not. I’m going to shoot you in the head, Mr. Lucky. And once I watch you bleed out on the floor, I’m going to search this place until I find the Linchpin.”

  “I don’t have the Linchpin, you dick,” I answered, glaring at the man with eyes that were tired but not necessarily afraid.

  “And if after you’re a corpse in this place, I see that you’re right, I’ll kill both the women who came with you aboard my ship. I’m sure one of them has it,” he said.

  “They don’t!” I argued as the wheels in my head started turning. Oliver had said a few things that struck me as odd, and I was trying to make sense of them and see if they might be able to lead me to whoever actually had the Linchpin now that it had vanished. “None of us has the stupid—”

  As I was speaking, lights shone into the room, brightening everything. Turning back quickly, I saw the culprit. A pair of headlights shone through the full glass wall. My heart jumped as I realized what was happening. Tearing up the beach, a car was rushing toward us, and it didn’t look like it was going to stop anytime soon.

  I leapt to the side a split second before I heard the crunch and shattering of glass. A rush of heat filled the room, and looking over, I saw a large brown car idling in the living room, sitting on top of rubble that used to be the wet bar, where I had just been standing.

  Looking around, I saw Oliver dazed and on the floor. He still had the gun in his hand, which meant I had precious few seconds to do what I neede
d to. I leapt up and pushed through the dizziness that made the world seem like it was spinning.

  Running over, I kicked the gun out of his hand. Then, because I would be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little angry at the dude, I leveled a kick into his gut. Then another. Then, for good measure, one more.

  Taking a deep breath and watching the man squirm on the floor, I had to stop myself from spitting on him. Then, turning my attention to Maxwell, I looked over to find the man with his eyes open.

  “Are you okay?” the former soldier asked.

  “It seems like I should be asking you that question,” I said.

  Slowly, the man lifted his shirt to reveal a bulletproof vest.

  “See?” I muttered, a smile spreading across my face. “I knew you were the type of guy I’d be friends with.”

  “Did I kill anyone?” a familiar voice asked. Looking over at the car, I saw Charlotte stepping out of it, her hair a mess and a worried look on her face.

  “Why’d you do that?” I balked. “I mean, thank you, but why?”

  “Because you told me to,” she said.

  “I told you to drive a car through the back wall of a bungalow? When did I do that? And where did you even get a car?” My voice was high and fast.

  “I hotwired it,” she explained. “I’m not completely helpless, you now. And you shot me a look.”

  “Of course, I did,” I said. “A look that told you to go help Random, not to ram through here like you were Vin Diesel or something.”

  “Oh.” Charlotte shuffled. “Well, I obviously misunderstood, didn’t I?”

  “Obviously,” I said. “But you did help me out, and just in time. Random is back at the ship, and she’s in trouble. More than that, the Linchpin is gone, and as strange as it may seem, I think I know who has it. We need to move quickly, but first, I need to be sure.”

  Turning back to Oliver, I picked him up by the collar. “The woman who bought the Diamond Mine, who was she?”

  “I don’t know her name,” he answered weakly, nearly crying as he looked up at me.

  “Don’t lie to me!” I warned.

  “I’m not lying. I swear!” he said, practically shaking.

  “Her company, the Star one, what’s it called?” I asked. I thought I knew the answer. In fact, I was sure of it. Still, if I was right, it would mean all of this had been a lie. It would mean I had been duped since the very beginning.

  “Second Star to the Right,” he said, swallowing hard as he confirmed my suspicion.

  “My God,” I muttered as all the pieces clicked together in my head. I punched Oliver hard enough to knock him unconscious and then let him fall to the floor.

  “Wait,” Charlotte said, narrowing her eyes. “Why does that sound familiar?”

  “Because you probably heard it in a movie before, or a book,” I said. “That’s how you get to Neverland.”

  “Peter Pan?” Charlotte asked, her eyes wide. “You mean like the book Wendy’s father was obsessed with?” Charlotte’s hand went to her mouth. “Is she involved in this? John, what the hell is going on?”

  “I think she is,” I answered. “And I don’t think she’s the only one. I think this goes deeper than I ever imagined.” I blinked hard and looked over at Charlotte and then at Maxwell, who was getting up. “I need the both of you to do something for me.”

  “What do you need?” Maxwell asked.

  “Random is back at the ship and in trouble. I need the both of you to get there quickly and help her out. Can you do that?” I asked.

  “Absolutely,” Maxwell said, nodding hard.

  “You want me to do that?” Charlotte asked. “You want me to run toward trouble for once?”

  “I do,” I said, looking at her meaningfully. “Like you said, you’re not helpless.”

  She grinned at me. “And you? What are you gonna do?”

  “I’ve gotta get back to Bonita Springs before it’s too late,” I answered. “Which means I’m gonna have to get a boat.”

  26

  As I pulled the brown car Charlotte had hotwired out of the room she had crashed and pulled it toward the pier, I lamented my surroundings. It wasn’t that Cabbage Key wasn’t beautiful. To the contrary. This place was the most gorgeous, natural area I had ever seen in my life.

  As I drove down the beach in the large car, which I’ll admit wasn’t the most normal thing in the world to do, I saw all sorts of happy people darting out of the way in confusion and terror. Sure, their faces were morphed into masks of horror when they saw me barreling toward them, but seconds before that, they had just been having the times of their lives doing things like fishing at sunset, strolling the beach with their loved ones, or walking toward sprawling nature trails.

  It was obvious to me that Cabbage Key was an amazing place to vacation, and assuming I managed to survive the night without going to jail or dooming the world to nuclear winter, I’d have to make a point of actually planning one.

  Screeching to a halt in front of the pier, I ran out to the first boat I saw with a motor on the back. It was a small trawler painted blue, and a tired-looking man with a white beard and a pair of sunglasses looked to be preparing to tie it up.

  “Don’t do that!” I yelled, slamming the door to the car and running onto the pier. “Don’t tie that boat up.”

  “Are you one of those ‘rights for fish’ people? Because, honestly, dude, I don’t have time for it tonight,” the older man said. “I get it, the fish have feelings and everything. I’ve still gotta support my kids, you know?”

  “I–no. That’s not what I’m here for, though honestly, it sounds like you’ve had a really rough day too,” I said. “I want to buy your boat.”

  “My boat?” the old man balked. “My boat’s not for sale. Didn’t you hear what I said about having to feed my kids, bud?”

  “I did,” I said. “But it’s really important that I get this boat right now, like probably more important than you’d think. How do you feel about me giving you a million dollars for it?”

  “What?” the man asked, his eyes going wide. “This old trawler was barely worth one hundred and fifty grand when I bought it new. I’m not gonna let you give me—”

  “Two million,” I said. “But you have to give it to me right now. There’s no time for you to clear it out.”

  “You’re going to give me two million dollars for a used boat and a couple of pairs of old boots in the back?” the old man asked.

  “If you’re quick about it, I am,” I answered. “Oh, and I need to make a call on your phone.

  The old man pulled out his phone. “You can just have the damn thing. Other than my kids, if I’ve got two million dollars, there ain’t a person in the damn world I want to talk to, anyway.”

  “Great. Give me your banking number,” I said. A few seconds later, and the old dude was two million dollars richer while I was the proud owner of an old boat, a couple of pairs of boots, and a phone that wasn’t much to look at but had service out here, which was all I needed it for.

  “I can’t believe this is happening,” the old man said, tears in his eyes. “How can I ever thank you?”

  “You don’t have to thank me,” I answered. “It’s still cheaper than a poker game.”

  “What?” the old man asked.

  “Nothing,” I said. “I hope you and your family have the best of luck with it.”

  Turning, I pulled the boat out into the Gulf and started toward Bonita Springs. I needed to get there quickly, but more than that, I needed to have somebody on the ground making sure things didn’t go to hell in the meantime.

  “Davey,” I said the instant my best friend answered the phone. “Remember how you said you wished you could help me out with all of this? Well, have I got news for you.”

  27

  “You look like hell, LJ,” Davey said, looking me up and down as I walked from the pier in Bonita Springs where I tied my newly-acquired boat and went toward the car where Davey was standing.


  “I’ve been ripping through the Gulf like the devil himself was behind me. So, I didn’t really have time to get all prettied up for you. Sorry about that,” I muttered, shaking my head as I climbed into Davey’s car.

  “And you smell like fish,” Davey said, making a disgusted looking face as he got in the driver’s seat.

  “This is Florida,” I answered. “Half the damn state smells like fish. It’s part of the charm.” I shook my head, slamming the door. “Now, let’s go. You did what I asked?”

  “Hell, yeah,” Davey said. “Keeping an eye on a hot chick for two hours? It’s kind of what I was doing anyway. Still, it’s nice to be useful.” He shrugged at me. “Whose boat is that, anyway?”

  “Mine,” I muttered. “I’m thinking of naming it two million dollars, ’cause that’s what it cost me.”

  “Chump change for the likes of you,” Davey said. “Though, I think I have a better name.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “I’ve got an idea,” Davey said. “We’ll finish saving the world and then I’ll tell you.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I said. “So, tell me, you’ve been keeping an eye on Wendy since I called you. Where did she go?”

  “That’s the thing,” Davey answered, smiling from ear to ear. “You’re not going to believe it.”

  “You’re right. I don’t believe it,” I said, stepping out of the car and into the parking lot of the area Davey had tracked Wendy to. I couldn’t believe where I was standing. It was like everything had gone full-circle right back to this moment. “A truck stop. She came to a truck stop.”

  The sprawling place was just like a thousand others I’d frequented during my tenure on the road. It was just like the one I’d gone to the day I met Charlotte, the day I went from being John Lucky to being Lucky John. It only seemed fitting that it would end here somehow, even if it was a touch comical.