Alex Archer - Swordsmans Legacy (Rogue Angel Series #15)  

Iowa, 1978

Jack and Toby Lambert had been inseparable until the day Toby collapsed after baseball practice. Twelve hours later in the hospital, Jack clung to his seven-year-old twins hand. Tobys skin was a funny yellow color. He couldnt speak, but his eyelids did flutter when Jack spoke.

Not far from the bed, behind a curtain, Jack heard a doctor announce to his parents that Tobys liver had failed. He called it something like acute. Toby would need a transplant. Jacks parents were instructed not to be too hopeful, for the waiting list was long, and there werent a lot of donors out there.

Pressing his face against the hard hospital mattress beside his brothers prone body, Jack sobbed quietly. He didnt want his parents to hear. They had enough to worry about.

He and Toby had planned a raid on Nasty Black Georges awful gang of four tonight. The entire neighborhoodboasting seven boys under the age of tenregularly organized pirate raids and booty captures. Jack and Toby wore the monikers Mad Bloody Jack and Evil Gentleman Tobias proudly. No one stood in their way when they came a-pirating. Their plunder was piled high at the bottom of Evil Gentleman Tobiass closet. Dirty Joe still fumed about his pillaged Atari.

If his parents had money, they could buy a new liver for Toby.

Jack knew that wasnt possible. His mom had been putting on a skirt and jacket every morning before he and Toby left for school. She was looking for work, they both knew, because dads job was cutting back the fat. Whatever that meant.

Ill help you, Jack whispered. His brother had not moved since his collapse. Mad Bloody Jack will plunder a real treasure so we can buy you a new liver. I promise, Toby.

M AD B LOODY J ACK KNEW just the landlubbing wreck of a ship to raid. Hidden in the tower at the center of the playground gym, he and Tobyer, Evil Gentleman Tobiashad kept a keen eye over the goings-on across the street from the city park using their plundered telescope.

The purple house with the gray shutters and wild hedges always kept its curtains pulled shut. The craziest stream of traffic steadily pulled up the driveway, and then away. Some visitors were there less than five minutes. Toby timed them on his Capn Crunch watch.

Pirate Silly Ned had once said his mother was always calling the cops on that LSD house. They did nasty things, and shouldnt be in this neighborhood.

LSD was a drug. Jack had looked that up in the encyclopedia on the bottom shelf in his dads office. It made people see visions and act funny. And people paid a lot of money for it. It was also illegal.

Putting two and two together, Mad Bloody Jack decided where there was LSD, there had to be money.

He eyed the purple house through the telescope. The sun had risen an hour earlier. Jack should be in school. But he knew the purple house would be quiet until at least noon, so he had to act now. Tobys life depended on it.

Skipping across the street, Mad Bloody Jack insinuated himself behind the freestanding purple garage, which was where hed seen most of the visitors go when they stopped. Tramping a patch of dandelions, he pressed his body flat against the wall. A good pirate should practice stealthhed learned that word from last weeks spelling test. The window on this side of the garage was blocked with black paper. He checked and saw it was the same on the other side.

A thick steel padlock secured the door, but the wood was old and warped. Mad Bloody Jack was able to slide a finger under the crack at the bottom. And there, under some kind of rug, he felt something cold and metal.

A key.

I DONT KNOW where he could have gotten this. Jacks mother choked on her astonishment and clung even tighter to her husbands arm.

Her son had dumped out a pillowcase on the floor in the bathroom attached to Tobys hospital room. Plunder, hed muttered, and then had gaily announced the family now had enough money to buy Toby a new liver. He dashed to his brothers side.

Jacks father toed the pile of rubber-banded bills. Hundred-dollar bills. There must be tens of thousands here.

We cant

Of course not. Ill ring the police, he said and instructed his wife to remain in the bathroom and keep an eye on the money.

A PIRATE NEVER GAVE UP the location of his best plunder. Never. But when two police officers escorted Jacks mother from the hospital room where theyd been questioning Jack and his father, Mad Bloody Jack became irate.

Dont touch my mother! he shouted.

Theyre not going to hurt her, Jack, his father reassured. Though I dont know where theyre taking her. You have to tell us where you got the money. Please, Jack, to keep your mother safe.

In a rush of fear and utter exhaustion, Mad Bloody Jack gave the details of his raid. He didnt take it all. There had been too much to carry. Now would they please let his mother go and get to ordering that new liver for his brother?

Toby died three days later. The police had confiscated the money. Jack had been inconsolable. Hed done it. He had found a means to save his brothers life. And the adultstheyd done nothing! What was wrong with them? Didnt they want to save Toby?

It was never that simple, his father said. Keith Lamberts face was drawn and his sigh chilled across Jacks shoulders.