Benji Franklin: Kid Zillionaire: Money Troubles: 2 Read online

  “I can’t believe I’m saying this, Cindy,” I said, “but I’m glad you called.”

  “She just saved our lives, Benji,” Dad said.

  “Let’s not be overly dramatic,” I said. “She helped, sure, but . . .”

  “I think what you’re trying to say is thank you, Benji,” she said.

  “I think she’s right,” Dad added.

  “Thanks,” I said reluctantly.

  “You’re welcome,” she said. “I guess you’re not the only genius at our school.”

  “Wait a minute,” I said, taking a better look at Cindy on the screen. “Where are you?”

  “I’m in your ‘storage’ closet,” she said, smirking.

  Chapter 6

  Security Glitch

  I should have known the second I answered the call that she was in my office because she was sitting at my desk, but I was so distracted by the giant squid I totally blanked on it. When it was clear that the squid was gone, I said, “How do you know about my storage closet?”

  “I followed you the other day after you answered that call,” Cindy explained. “You disappeared so quickly it didn’t make sense. I knew you had to have sneaked away somewhere.”

  “But the only way to open that room is by hand print recognition,” I explained.

  “I wouldn’t say the only way,” she said. “But how I got in here isn’t important. The important thing is that I’ve found your hideout, and now I’m going to tell the principal, and you’ll finally get in trouble.”

  “I hate to break it to you, Cindy, but Mrs. Petty knows about my office. You can tell her if you like, but she’ll just want to know how you got inside when I have top-of-the line security protecting it. That’s breaking and entering.”

  “The last time I checked,” Cindy replied, “the school was public property. Why should you be able to have your own office?”

  “I told you already. I’m kind of like a superhero. I need a super-cool hideout.”

  “I’m telling,” she said and hung up.

  “What was that all about?” Dad asked.

  “I wish I knew,” I said.

  “You have a secret office at school?” Just as he finished saying the words, the water vibrated and the ground shook violently. It was as if the whole seafloor had been lifted up and shaken. We didn’t really feel the earthquake in the submarine as much as we saw the seafloor vibrating.

  “We need to get back to the island,” I said. “Saunders, what happened?”

  “It appears there was another earthquake.”

  “That’s what I thought. Hey, why are you letting Cindy hack into my computer?” I asked.

  “I tried to stop her, sir, but she’s quite clever.”

  I hit the turbo jets, and we were back to the island in minutes. The prime minister was already there to meet us at the dock. We climbed in his jeep. Dad sat in the front, and I sat in the back. We drove into the night. The island was so dark it reminded me of the bottom of the ocean. The sky was cloudy, and there wasn’t a star in the sky. The only sound was the sound of the breeze as we rolled along. I had completely lost track of time while we were in the sub. It must have been the middle of the night.

  “The lights are out again?” I asked.

  “We can’t keep the power up and running with all the vibrations from the earthquakes. I don’t even want to think about what would happen to the island if the volcano erupted.”

  “Maybe I should take a closer look?”

  “As you wish,” he said.

  I’d never seen a volcano in real life before, and as we began our climb up the mountainside, I got my first glimpse. Gray smoke puffed from the top and stood out somehow against the pitch-black sky. It reminded me of the hydrothermal vents on the seafloor.

  We were driving along a narrow winding road leading up to the top of the volcano when the ground started to shake. The prime minister pulled the jeep over to the side of the road, and we waited for the shaking to pass. It was pretty scary. I felt like a bug on the window of a windshield trying to hold on for dear life. My heart raced like crazy.

  “We had two more big quakes just before you arrived this evening. They were bigger than the one we’re having now.”

  While he was talking, the vibrations got worse. The jeep bounced so hard I thought it might slide right off the road.

  “It’s not safe to go any farther, but you get the picture, Mr. Franklins. If this volcano erupts, the town below is in terrible danger.”

  We drove slowly down the road that lead up to the volcano. I knew it was possible that the earthquakes and the volcano smoking were caused by something natural, but I had a feeling something else was going on.

  As we drove around the island, I noticed people seemed to be outside everywhere we went, even though it was super late.

  “They’re afraid to sleep inside,” the prime minister said, “afraid their house will collapse on them in the night. It’s safer to sleep outside.”

  None of us said anything on the drive to the prime minister’s house. Earlier I had felt excited to be staying at the home of a leader of a country, but now, all those people sleeping outside made me feel kind of guilty.

  I was so tired, though, that as soon as I hit the pillow, I fell into a deep sleep and dreamed of volcanoes, earthquakes, hydrothermal vents, and giant squid. My mind kept picturing the vents. The sub’s computer had recorded the temperature of the water coming out of the vents at close to 750 degrees. It was a steady flow of hot water, and I knew, even in my dream, that there was some kind of use for all that energy.

  In the morning I woke to the bed vibrating like crazy. The house felt like it was being shaken by an invisible giant. If I didn’t know that the house could collapse on me any moment, it would have been kind of fun.

  Dad ran rushed in and fell on the floor because it was shaking so much. “Benji, are you okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m just waking up,” I said.

  “This is the third one this morning,” he explained. “You slept through the other two.”

  I couldn’t believe I had slept through two earthquakes!

  “Also, your phone has been ringing all morning. You might want to check it.” The vibrations stopped, and Dad sat at the end of the bed holding his head.

  I checked to see who had called. I was hoping it was Sir Robert. I secretly wanted him to come to the island and help me out. I was feeling a little overwhelmed by all the pressure to find a solution. It wasn’t Sir Robert, though. It was Cindy. She’d called three times, and the phone was ringing again.

  Chapter 7

  Zillionaire55

  I almost didn’t answer, but I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing anything important at school.

  “Why haven’t you answered your phone?” she asked.

  “Good morning to you too,” I said.

  “It’s the middle of the night here,” she explained. “We’re in different time zones.”

  “What’s so important that you had to wake me up, and you’re up in the middle of the night?”

  “I think I know why the island is having all the earthquakes,” she said. “It’s that captain.”

  “How do you know about the captain?” I asked.

  “Come on, Benji. You’re supposed to be the genius, aren’t you?”

  I thought for a second.

  Cindy had access to my office.

  “My office?” I asked.

  “Yep, I’m not there now, of course, but I have remote access from my house.”

  “How’d you do that?”

  “You need to be more creative with your passwords,” Cindy said. “I mean, zillionaire wasn’t very difficult to guess. You couldn’t have worked in a few capital letters or gone with something like zillionaire55? It lacks imagination.”

  I couldn’t believe w
hat she was saying. Did she have access to my emails, my texts, my phone?

  “You can’t just hack into my stuff like that!” I said.

  “I admit, it wasn’t very nice of me,” Cindy responded. “But as you’ve already pointed out, I’m not always that nice. But that’s not what’s important right now, Benji. I did a little research on that captain. His name is Sigmund Norway.”

  “And?” I asked.

  “He’s not a sea captain,” she explained. “He’s also not a scientist. He’s from the northern Yukon of Alaska and owns a company that drills deep into the earth to take samples for miners, so they know if there’s gold in the ground before they mine.”

  It hit me all at once. The reason for the earthquakes and the volcano. “He’s drilling into the seafloor and causing the earthquakes,” I said.

  “I think so,” said Cindy. “He left that part out when he talked to you.”

  “How did you know that?” I asked.

  “Thanks to the technology in your office, I have access to the cameras on your sub. He showed you the robots that are vacuuming the seafloor, but I bet he’s drilling somewhere down there too.”

  I was furious at Cindy, but I was also thankful for her help. There was something strange about the captain all along that I just couldn’t figure out.

  “Is that everything?” I asked.

  “Yes, school has been pretty slow. You haven’t missed much.”

  “We really should get going before there’s another quake,” Dad said.

  “Benji,” Cindy said, “I can log out of your system if you want. I was just so amazed when you told me where you and your dad are and what you’re doing. I couldn’t resist.”

  I thought for a moment and said, “It’s okay. I probably would have done the same thing if I was in your situation, and I’m going to need all the help I can get. Just don’t eat all my candy!” I warned.

  “I’m not making any promises,” she said.

  Chapter 8

  The Drill

  If someone had told me before I left on the mission that I’d be asking Cindy for help, I’d have never believed it. But if what she had said about the captain was true, it might just help me stop the earthquakes.

  Dad and I rode back to the docks with the prime minister. “I think you should come with us, sir,” I said to the prime minister. “I have new information about what might be causing the earthquakes.”

  “Let’s go,” he said. “I’ve been dying to check out your sub since the moment you gentlemen arrived.”

  On the way out to the captain’s ship, I explained to the prime minister what Cindy had said. She even sent me a link to the captain’s website. Right on the home page of the site was a picture of him operating a giant drill, giving a thumbs up.

  Minutes later, we arrived at his ship and docked. The captain was on the deck checking the gold in his wash plant. He shut off the engine as we came aboard and threw a cover over the gold on the table. He didn’t look very happy to see the prime minister.

  “Hello, Mr. Prime Minister,” he said.

  “Hello, Sigmund,” the prime minister said.

  The captain’s face went white. “How do you know my name is Sigmund?”

  “We know a lot more than that,” I said. “We know that you own a drilling company.”

  “So?”

  “So,” the prime minister said, “I gave you permission to map the seafloor, but I’m getting the feeling that you are up to far more than that.”

  “He’s mining the seafloor because it’s loaded with gold and other precious metals,” I said.

  “I planned on sharing the profits with the island,” the captain said.

  “Are you drilling into the seafloor?” I asked. “Because if you are, that could be the cause of the earthquakes.”

  “Of course not,” he said.

  “Think carefully,” the prime minister said. “If I find out you’re lying and putting the people of my island at risk, I will have you arrested.”

  The captain paused for a long moment and then said, “Let’s head back down. There’s something you should see.”

  We all climbed aboard my sub and made the descent to the bottom. The captain guided us to a section of the seafloor he hadn’t shown us before. A massive machine rested there. It looked like an underwater skyscraper. It soared so high up into the darkness that even with my lights on full power I couldn’t see the top.

  “This is my drill. I’ve been getting so much gold on the seafloor that I decided to drill down in hopes there would be even more.”

  “Why didn’t you stop when you started causing the earthquakes?” I asked.

  “They didn’t happen every time I drilled. I figured that if I kept trying I might find spots that didn’t cause the earthquakes, but it’s been hard to predict.”

  “You realize that if the volcano on the island erupts, people could be killed?” Dad said.

  They kept talking, but I couldn’t hear their words anymore. As I looked out at the massive drill and the hydrothermal vents puffing black material, an idea started to take shape. It swirled in my mind all at once—the hydrothermal vents, the superhot water, the power problems on the island, the gold. I didn’t know how much time had passed, but after a while Dad said, “Benji, are you listening to us?” and I snapped out of my daydream.

  “I have a solution to the problems,” I said.

  “Which problems?” the prime minister asked.

  “All of them,” I said.

  I hopped on my computer to work out the plan. The prime minister and the captain were arguing, but I’d stopped listening. I was in the zone. I put together my materials list and started working out pricing. Dad steered the sub back to the surface.

  15,000 meters of heat-resistant piping

  $2,878,000

  500 steel fans

  $434,000

  Expanded wash plant

  $654,000

  20 miles of high voltage electrical cable and wiring

  $1,327,000

  Steel platform

  $2,898,000

  3 barges with crews

  $1,750,000

  Total cost for project

  $9,941,000

  20% consulting fee

  $1,988,200

  Total Amount Due

  $11,929,200

  *Nonrefundable deposit: 2,000 ounces of gold

  Chapter 9

  The Plan

  When we reached the surface, I had the whole plan worked out. I printed the bill and handed it to the captain.

  “What’s this?” he asked.

  “You called me here to find a solution to your problem. I’ve solved it, and if the prime minister agrees, we should be able to keep you out of jail.”

  “He wouldn’t really have me arrested,” he said nervously.

  “Yes, I would,” the prime minister said. “You lied to the people of my island, mined the seafloor, and drilled illegally! I intend to have you arrested unless Benji can convince me otherwise.”

  “My plan does a few things,” I said. “First, the captain agrees to stop drilling. It’s the cause of the earthquakes, and once the drilling stops, hopefully the earthquakes will too.” I looked at the captain.

  “Agreed,” he said.

  “Second, we’ll place heat-resistant piping over the hydrothermal vents. As the superhot water moves up through the pipe, it will turn hundreds of fans in the pipes. The energy from the turning fans and the intense heat will generate electricity on a large barge. We’ll wire the electricity to the island. You�
�ll have more electricity than you can imagine.” I looked at the prime minister.

  “I like the sound of that,” he said.

  “Third, the black material that flows out of the hydrothermal vents is loaded with gold and other valuable metals. It’ll be run through a wash plant at the surface, mined safely without any drilling or vacuuming.” I took a breath. “The captain will have to share the profits he makes from the metals with the island. Of course, I’ll take 20 percent as a fee.” They all looked at me in disbelief.

  “You figured all this out just now when we were underwater?” the captain asked.

  “I started getting the idea last night while I slept, but it fully formed at the seafloor.”

  “Who is paying for such an expensive project?” the prime minister asked.

  “He is,” I said, pointing at the captain.

  He looked like he might faint. “Why am I paying for this?” he asked.

  “You were the one who started the whole thing,” I told him. “You’re the reason for the earthquakes and the power outages. The least you can do is help fix the problem.”

  “I’ll have to run it by my business partner,” he said.

  “I didn’t realize you have a business partner. I thought you were out here all on your own.” I asked.

  “I am, but I have a partner too.”

  “Get your partner on the phone,” the prime minister said. “And make sure he understands that if you don’t do this, you’re headed to jail.”

  “I hear you loud and clear,” the captain said.

  After a short phone call, the captain hung up and said, “We agree to the terms. My partner is going to work on getting the materials. Things should start arriving tomorrow.”

  That night, I was so excited I could hardly sleep. The next day the materials started to come, and a massive crew of construction workers and engineers arrived on the scene. They worked around the clock for almost a week straight.