Jak Phoenix: Paid in Full (A Short Story), Page 4

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  It didn’t take long for them to shoot around to the other side of the planet, especially with their heightened anticipation of money. One of the planet’s largest ocean bodies streaked by underneath them as they moved closer to their destination. Jak was having trouble calming his nerves and tried to dream of what he was going to waste his exorbitant amount of money on.

  “Jak, I think something’s wrong.”

  Of course there was. Jak snapped out of his worried trance and said, “I was just waiting for you to say that. What is it?”

  “That,” said Baxter, pointing toward the monochrome readout displaying the coordinates, clicking down in a blur as they neared their target.

  “What?”

  “We’re going to be there in less than a minute and I don’t see our money. Just a lot of water.”

  “I don’t suppose there’ll be some little tiny island with a crate of money on it.” Jak tossed off the comment while he looked through his pockets for the coordinates. “We’ve definitely typed the numbers in right.”

  Jak grabbed on to the controls and pulled back on the creaky accelerator, slowing the ship and the scrolling numbers on the gauge. The numbers crept to zero as they reached the exact given coordinates. Their ship hovered above the calm sea while Jak started to boil.

  “What do you think?”

  “I think we’ve been screwed,” said Jak. “Throw in the course back to the prince’s office. He’s not getting away this easily.”