Seeders: A Novel by A. J. Colucci Page A

you.”
    “Oh, look,” Monica said. “We’re being summoned by the queen.”
    Ginny reached them, out of breath and clutching her chest. “You all disappeared without a word. We have to figure out the riddle, don’t you see? This is extremely important.”
    Monica snorted. “I’m on vacation.”
    Ginny scrutinized their faces one at a time. Her chest rose and fell heavily beneath the robe. “I’ll give you five thousand American dollars,” she said. “Each.”
    It took a moment to register, and then Monica sputtered, “Are you shittin’ me?”
    Ginny winced. “No, I am not shitting you.”
    “Well, then, at your goddamn service, your majesty.”
    Ginny held up the riddle. “I think this beach is west of the woods, so it must be here.” She turned to one side of the black sand and then the other, from the weathered dock to a scattering of driftwood along the foamy shore.
    “You’re wrong,” Luke said. “This beach faces southeast. West is on the other side of the island, facing Canada.”
    She struck the paper with the back of her hand. “This is absolute bollocks. I can’t be bothered with it now.” She thrust the riddle at Monica. “You two figure it out. I’m going to have a short nap.”
    Ginny dropped her robe. She wore a skimpy turquoise bathing suit, full of bright sequins and hanging teardrop beads. It showed far more skin than either teen wanted to see.
    “Damn,” Monica said, wincing at her long cleavage.
    Luke shifted his gaze to the ocean, as if it were fascinating.
    The elderly woman squatted, spreading her robe in the sand. Her body was toned for her age, but heavily wrinkled and a few parts sagged. She didn’t seem to mind the cool air.
    “I thought you said more is less .”
    “Not on an island. Now you’re blocking my sun, kindly move.”
    “What about the five thousand dollars?”
    Ginny wiggled her bottom into the sand and faced the sunlight. “It’s yours if you can find the Crimson Star. That boyfriend of yours seems pretty clever. My money is on him.”
    Monica grabbed Luke by the wrist and led him to the old wooden dock.
    The warmth of her hand made his legs wobbly and he nearly fell onto the rotting platform next to her.
    She smoothed the paper flat on her knee against the breeze. “We’re going to find that diamond.”
    Luke looked at the riddle. “My grandfather had to be crazy when he wrote that. He jumped off those cliffs to his death.”
    “So?”
    “I don’t think these words mean squat. He was just a madman writing a bunch of nonsense. We’re not going to find it.”
    “And I’m not passing up five thousand dollars.” Monica squinted hard at the words. “ The goddess Hanus  … han … ham … ham-ass.”
    “What are you doing?”
    “ I don’t know . What does Hanus mean?”
    He shrugged. “If I had a computer, we could Google it.”
    “Let’s look for one in the house.”
    “There’s no Internet connection. We’ll have to wait until we get home and do a proper investigation.”
    “By then the old lady could hire a team of geniuses to crack the code.”
    He nodded, staring at his wrist and trying to remember the feel of her warm fingers.
    Monica sprang to her feet. “So we’re stuck on this crappy island for two weeks and we don’t get the money.”
    “We should go back to the house,” Luke said. “My mom was right; let’s forget about the riddle and check all the rooms. I’ll bet George just hid it somewhere and forgot.”
    *   *   *
    Jules spent the morning in the lab, searching through file cabinets. George kept meticulous notes on his research dating back to the 1960s. But Jules was looking for only one thing. George had told the lawyer he’d made a discovery that would change the world. It was something he’d worked on for the last few years, and he was very excited about it.
    George never got excited about anything that wasn’t truly remarkable, and as far as Jules knew there was only one discovery that could change