“I think it’s Inter and Napoli,” Matt replied. “I didn’t get the score before they cut to commercial, but I expect Inter to wipe the floor with those Neopolitans.”

  “Want to bet?”

  “You haven’t seen the score yet.”

  “I only have about eight hundred dollars to my name. I can’t bet that much. Five bucks?”

  “Sure.”

  Both of our eyes shot to my phone when it vibrated for real. I reached for it but Matt was faster, grabbing it and turning it to check the notification. My heart immediately started pounding, wondering if the scammer had actually replied.

  Chapter Eleven

  “It’s your mom,” Matt said, eying me suspiciously. “She wants to know how you’re feeling.”

  “Can I have my phone back?” I said, leaning across the table in an effort to grab it from him. I jammed my ribs into the edge of the table and jerked back, wincing in pain.

  “Why so jumpy?” Matt asked, sliding my phone across the table. “Are you that nervous about Levi?”

  “No. I just don’t think you should take another man’s phone.”

  “Yeah, right. We’ve both done it plenty of times before. What’s the real reason?”

  I picked up my phone and opened the text from Mom.

  Ben, I got some more info from the doctor. We can go over it later. How do you feel?

  “This is the last thing I want to think about right now,” I said, quickly writing her back.

  Same as this morning. All’s good. Out with Matt. We can catch up tomorrow.

  I closed her message, my gaze drifting to the one I had sent prior. Still no response to it. Total scam. Oh well.

  “Wait a minute,” Matt said, catching on. He shook his head. “You didn’t respond to that spam text, did you?”

  “Maybe,” I replied.

  “What? Ben…”

  “I didn’t see any harm in writing back. If they already hacked me then they already hacked me. And what if there’s something to it?”

  “We both know there isn’t anything to it. Not anything good, anyway.” He paused, his initial irate reaction settling. “I know you’re trying to ignore everything until tomorrow, but I have to say. This reeks of grasping at straws.”

  I stared at him and sighed. “Yeah, I guess it does.” The tears came to my eyes unbidden. Damn them. “Matt, I’m not ready to die. I’ve barely had a chance to live.”

  His eyes welled a little too. “I know.”

  It was all he said. All he had to say. At that moment, we could either both break down into a pair of bawling idiots or I could suck it up and shove it back. The scam text was just that. A scam. Of course I was disappointed, but I had to deal with things as they were, not how I wished they might be.

  I exhaled sharply and wiped at my eyes as nonchalantly as I could. Matt did the same. We sat back in silence, just kind of being there together for a few quiet, peaceful minutes.

  “You two have a spat?” Melissa said when she came back with our food. The sight of the burger immediately lifted my spirits. My stomach growled in approval.

  “No, just relaxing,” Matt said. “I think the rush from the fight just wore off, that’s all.”

  She put the food down in front of us, along with bottles of ketchup and mustard. “I want to hear more about this,” she said, sliding into the booth next to Matt.

  “Don’t you have work to do?” I asked, reaching for the burger.

  “Yeah. But you try to look out for me. I want to do the same for you.”

  “Thank you. There’s nothing you can do. Besides, it’s over.” I took a bite of the burger. One had never tasted better. I closed my eyes to focus my sense on my taste buds, enjoying every nuance of the combined flavors of beef, cheese, fried and breaded onion, and barbecue sauce. So good.

  When I opened my eyes a few seconds later, Melissa had left. Instead, a stubbled, square-jawed stranger in an overcoat, tweed suit, and pork pie hat stood next to the table, glaring down at me with sharp eyes. Matt still sat across from him, looking shell-shocked.

  I swallowed my bite of burger, embarrassed when I realized I had a bit of barbecue sauce on my chin. I moved to wipe it off with a napkin, only to have the stranger hold out a gilded handkerchief.

  “Uh, thanks,” I said. “But I think it’ll stain.”

  “Take it,” he urged, his hard voice not the kind anyone rejected.

  I took the handkerchief and wiped my chin, then folded it to put the mess on the inside and handed it back.

  “Keep it,” he said.

  “Who are you?” Matt finally asked.

  The man reached under his coat in a manner that suggested he might pull a gun as easily as the business card he actually produced. He dropped it between us on the table.

  Mr. Keep

  ss4sale.com

  My eyebrows went up. My heart pounded. My head whipped back to the man. I opened my mouth to speak before realizing I hadn’t given the guy an address or anything. Damn it, he did hack my phone. The scam must have given him access to my GPS and led him right to me.

  I suddenly felt lucky he had pulled the business card instead of a piece. More for Matt’s sake than mine.

  “What’s the matter?” Keep said. “You have brain damage or something?”

  It was an odd statement that caught me off-guard, and put me even more on-guard. “What? Uhh…”

  “You sent that scam text,” Matt said, not as intimidated by Keep as I was. “The one my friend shouldn’t have replied to.”

  “Shouldn’t have replied to?” Keep said. “Why not? You don’t want a starship?”

  “Huh?” I said, still trying to catch up.

  “All three of us know there isn’t any starship,” Matt pressed.

  “You think you know something, but you really don’t know anything, kid. Mind if I join you?”

  He didn’t wait for Matt to respond before sliding in where Melissa had been.

  “Wait a second, Dick Tracy,” I said, regaining my courage. “This is all really weird.”

  Keep snatched a french fry from my plate, eating half and waving the other end as he spoke. “What’s weird? I sent you a message, you responded, badabing badaboom. No tricks. No bullshit. It’s that simple.”

  “There’s nothing simple about it,” I said. “You can’t possibly have a functional starship.”

  “Keyword: functional,” Matt added.

  “Why not?”

  “Because if you had a functional starship, number one, it would belong to the government or SpaceX or something. And number two, you wouldn’t be advertising it in the most scammy way possible with a website that looks like it was built twenty years ago.”

  “You don’t like the web site? I thought it was concise.”

  “Not really my point.”

  “Well, how would you advertise a starship for sale then, fancy pants?”

  “I don’t know. I never really thought about it.”

  “Well, think about it now; I’ll wait.”

  Keep shoved the other half of the fry in his mouth, reaching for another one.

  “Do you mind?” I asked. “Those are my fries.”

  “Didn’t your mother ever teach you to share, or are you an only child or something?” Keep said, grabbing a few fries anyway.

  “Okay, if I had a functional starship, and this is all conjecture because it’s bullshit, I would probably go to the government first. Or maybe Gates or Bezos or Musk, or someone like that.”

  Keep whistled and shook his head. “Kid, you’re too naive. In case you didn’t get the hint, we’re trying to keep this transaction on the down low. Bringing it to some high profile rich guy is the opposite of that.”

  “Why are you keeping it on the down low?” I asked. “Assuming this isn’t some weird, intricate con job.”

  “Do you know what would happen if the Feds found out we had a working starship? They’d confiscate it toot sweet, and then start asking a lot of questions I really don’t want to answer.”

  “Like where you got a working starship?” Matt asked.

  “Bingo!” Keep said.

  “Where did you get a working starship?” I asked.

  Keep smiled. “Now you’re catching on, kid. That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it?” He shoved the fries into his mouth, speaking with them in there, his voice slightly muffled. “Before I answer it, I need to know if you’re serious about purchasing said starship.”

  “The web page didn’t say how much it cost,” I said.

  “It’s up for discussion.”

  “Well, if there’s any possible way that I could afford to buy a working starship, I would do it sight unseen. If I actually believed you. Why are you really here? What kind of con is this?”

  “No con. No scam. No tricks. Are you gonna eat that burger? Because you haven’t touched it since I got here.”

  He started reaching for it. I practically swatted his hand away. “I’m eating that burger,” I growled.

  “Sure kid,” he said, settling for another fry instead. “You seem serious about this to me.” He looked at Matt. “What about you?”

  “If this isn’t a scam, which I can’t even start to believe it isn’t, then yeah, I’m interested.”

  “Good. You two have names?”

  “Ben,” I said, my thumb pointing at me. “And he’s Matt.”

  “Ben and Matt. Pleasure meeting you.” He held out his hand. I took it, noticing how calloused it was when we shook. Matt accepted his handshake too. “Finish eating, I’ll be waiting outside.”

  “Waiting for what?” I asked.

  “Kid, you need to wise up a little or you aren’t going to last two seconds out there. Waiting to bring you to the ship. I don’t expect you to buy sight unseen. I’m not a crook.”

  He stood up, taking a few more fries from my plate before heading for the exit.

  Matt and I stared at one another in shocked silence for at least twenty seconds. Then Matt motioned to my burger with his head. “You should eat that.”

  “Yeah,” I replied, picking it up and holding it in front of my face. “You still think this is a scam?”

  “Yeah. I do.”

  “I’m going anyway.”

  “I know. I’m coming with you.”

  “You don’t have to. If anything happens to me, it’s not a big deal. I’m already a dead man walking. You have a lot more to lose.”

  “I’m coming with you,” Matt repeated. “Now shut up and eat your burger.”

  I nodded, bringing it closer to my lips before pausing again. “What if this isn’t a scam?”

  “Then I guess we’re going to have the adventure of a lifetime.”

  Chapter Twelve

  We left McRory’s twenty minutes later. Butterflies replaced the growling in my stomach, the burger satisfying but dulled by the nervous excitement around what might lie ahead. Matt and I hadn’t spoken a single word to one another while we ate, both of our minds filled with conflicting thoughts. On one hand, I could imagine Keep leading us to a large warehouse in the middle of nowhere, pushing open a large door to let the light in and revealing the coolest thing I had ever seen in real life. On the other, I could picture him driving us off into some secluded part of the woods, binding and gagging us, and shooting us both in the head execution style before burying our bodies. I was okay with that possibility for myself. But not for Matt. I would have tried harder to talk him out of coming, except I knew him well enough to know he would never acquiesce.

  Matt’s loyalty was his greatest strength and his biggest weakness. Although, I guess I was the same way.

  McRory’s parking lot wasn’t very big, and Mr. Keep was easy to find. He waited just outside the entrance, leaning up against the side of a stretch limousine, one hand in the pocket of his trousers, the other clutching a cigarette. He nodded when we spotted us, pulling a pocket watch out and checking the time.

  “Your stomachs feel okay?” he asked when we reached him. “Twenty minutes is a quick meal.”

  “If I hadn’t been so hungry, I don’t think I would have been able to eat at all,” I replied.

  “Nervous then?”

  “Yeah. Very.”

  “In a good way, I hope.”

  “Mixed.”

  “Because you think I’m going to drive you off into a secluded part of the woods, bind and gag you and shoot you in the head execution style.”

  “Who…are…you?” I stared at him, wondering if he had done something to my phone that allowed him to read my mind. But that was impossible, wasn’t it? As impossible as someone selling a fully functional starship to a pair of 21-year-olds.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know,” he answered, grinning as he straightened away from the car and took one last pull on his cigarette. Flicking the stub away, he opened the limo’s rear passenger door. “Let’s get this show on the road, shall we? I don’t have all night.”

  “If you don’t mind, we’ll follow you in my car,” Matt said.

  “If you don’t mind, I do mind,” Keep replied. “Sorry, kid. Like I said, I need to keep this venture on the down low. Which means obfuscating the exact location of the merchandise. Which means we all ride together in the back of the car. The windows are tinted on the inside so you won’t be able to see where we’re going.”

  “Until we reach the woods,” Matt quipped. He pulled out his phone. “GPS?”

  Keep dropped the watch, his hand whipping out to grab Matt’s phone just as the watch reached the end of the chain dangling from his hip. Matt’s cell quickly disappeared inside Keep’s coat. “Thank you.” He turned to me. “Yours too. No GPS.”

  I handed him my phone without complaint. “Just let me know if I get a text from Levi, okay?”

  “Levi? Who’s that? Your girlfriend?”

  “Not yet.”

  He smirked. “I get it. No GPS. No messages. Airplane mode only. Either get in the car now or lose your chance forever. I’m not showing the merchandise to every muggle with a simple curious streak.”

  “Did you just reference Harry Potter?” I asked. “Does that mean there’s magic involved?”

  “It’s a wonder I haven’t magically ditched you two already,” Keep answered. “Decision time, chads.”

  I ducked into the limo, moving to the soft leather seat across the back. Matt joined me there, while Keep took the rear-facing seat directly behind the driver, closing the door as he entered. I couldn’t see the chauffeur past the solid partition between us.

  Like he had said, the windows were nearly opaque on the inside, allowing just enough light through for the limo to feel less like a submarine than a car. Making out the landscape beyond the car was impossible.

  Keep tapped on the partition behind him. The car got underway.

  My heart continued pounding, my entire body shaking with nervous excitement. For as badly as the day had started, if this turned out to be half as cool as it seemed, it would make it all worth it.

  Well, maybe not all. Nothing could account for dying.

  “Wait!” I snapped. “I need to get something from Matt’s car.”

  “This is a non-stop flight, kid,” Keep replied.

  “Please? It’s important.”

  “I question that opinion.”

  “It’s medicine. I need it for my…allergies.” Keep squinted one eye at me, clearly not convinced I was being wholly honest. I didn’t want to tell him how sick I was, worried he would decide I didn’t make a good fit as a buyer.

  “Fine,” he decided, tapping on the partition again.

  “I’ll get it,” Matt said.

  The car stopped. Matt jumped out on the driver’s side and closed the door, vanishing from sight until he opened it again a half minute later, my bag of meds in hand. He tossed them to me and settled in the seat again.

  “Better?” Keep asked.

  “Much,” I replied, shoving the bag into the pocket of my hoodie. “Thank you.”

  “No more stops. No breaks. No questions until we get there. In fact, it’s probably better if you don’t say anything at all.”

  “How long will it take to get there?” I asked.

  Keep coughed softly and glared at me, reminding me I had just asked a question. Matt snorted, half grinning.

  “Right.” I sank down into the seat, glancing at Matt. We made eye contact, his wisp of a smile still tugging at his lips.

  This whole thing was crazy. Crazy enough a part of me wondered if I was still at the hospital office, the entire series of events since I had closed the door to Doctor Haines’ office taking place in my diseased head.

  I pinched myself as hard as I could, the pain enough to make my eyes water.

  “What are you doing?” Keep asked.

  “Making sure I’m not hallucinating,” I replied.

  He looked at me like I had two heads. “Kid, if this is your idea of a daydream, I think you need to set the bar a little higher.”

  Matt laughed. “Yeah. You could have at least conjured up a couple of girls, or made us rockstars or something. Instead, you gave yourself bruised ribs and a meeting with the door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman that time forgot.”

  Heat rushed to my face, and I barely registered Keep’s indignant look at Matt over the salesman comment.

  Wherever we were going, I couldn’t wait to get there.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Despite my excitement, the silent car ride put me to sleep. It didn’t help that the limo was essentially soundproof, with zero road or engine noise seeping into the rear compartment. It also didn’t help that Mr. Keep dozed off himself, lowering his pork pie hat over his face and snoring softly in the seat opposite Matt and me.

  I don’t think Matt slept at all, but I wasn’t awake to know for sure. He shook me some time later, and when I opened my eyes I realized the car had come to a stop. Keep was awake too, looking at his cellphone.

  “Ah, Sleeping Beauty awakens,” he said, glancing up at me. “Did you have a nice nap, kid?”

  “I guess so,” I replied. “Can I ask a question now?”

  “That counts as a question, you know. But I’m in a better mood, so shoot.”