The Gift of Loot Chapter 17: Chapter 17: The Reno Auction

Read chapter 17 of The Gift of Loot by Jack_Golightly on NovelPedia.

At ten-thirty the next morning, Thomas drove up to Stateline Park and found Zach sitting on a grassy rise, meditating. Parking, Thomas got out. He was already frazzled and ran a hand through his hair with a scowl. He hadn't even had time to take a shower that morning. "Hey, sorry I'm late. I had to get my nephews ready for school and drive them there, which was a whole thing. My brother wasn't..." He sighed. "He wasn't feeling up to it today." Derek had shut himself in his room, apparently not willing to deal with his three loud, obnoxious boys. Thomas had once again picked up the slack, though he'd told his brother in no uncertain terms that he wouldn't be around to do the same this afternoon. Derek had to handle the pickup after school, hand or no hand, and Ashton was not allowed to drive for him. Thomas hated taking that tone with his brother. Hated being stern with an injured man and telling him to get it together. But Derek had been stunned by the loss of his hand and was acting like his life was over. It was bad, but he had three kids to take care of and he had to pull it together. Thomas just wasn't sure if he had it in him to do it. Hopefully, there wouldn't be a need, and Thomas would find something that could help him in this auction. Oblivious to his spiraling thoughts, Zach opened his eyes, stretched, and said, "Oh, I didn't notice you were late," in a totally calm way. "Yeah, well, we still have plenty of time to make it to the auction," Thomas said, awkwardly. "Sweet." Standing, Zach walked to the car. Am I high-strung or is Zach just crazy calm? Thomas wondered. He suspected it was a little of both. The trip down the hill to the Nevada side wasn't anything Thomas hadn't done hundreds of times before. South Lake Tahoe was too small of a town to fit most big-box stores, so the locals took regular trips for major shopping. Zach was a decent conversationalist, though he did have a habit of flipping a small ball of fire around his knuckles as if it were a coin. They mostly kept to small talk, and of course, mana. "I was able to get some air whites last night to mix with my A-grade red," Zach commented. "But the whites were only level 1 D-grades, so I've got a long way to go. The mana inside is burning to get out, bro. You have no idea." Thomas glanced aside at him to make sure that little ball of fire remained in control. It was. "Why do you need air mixed with fire? Won't that, uh, fan the flames?" Zach cocked his head. "Nah, it's like the air cools it. The fire will sort of spin out of control if there's nothing anchoring it down, you know?" He shook his head. "To be honest, my mana doesn't affect me like that." "You sure? No new need to, like, heal people?" Thomas started to laugh because no, he was definitely not the doctor or nurse type— Then he stopped as he was hit with the fact he was currently headed to an auction he'd only heard about through word-of-mouth in a sketchy city he'd already been warned off about. All to find a way to fix his brother's hand. But there was nothing strange about that, right? Any other brother would do the same... right? He was driving straight to a situation that might somehow expose his Gift on the slim chance he might find a cure. "I don't know," Thomas admitted. Zach nodded as if that made perfect sense. When the announcement about the System integration came out a couple weeks ago, the American government had made a whole big deal about the economy continuing on as normal, with strict—and possibly unconstitutional—penalties to anyone who challenged that. Government threats aside, the roads were suspiciously clear in a way that reminded Thomas of the pandemic. On the plus side, they made good time. The auction was located at the downtown convention center, and they only hit a little traffic as they approached. "Looks like word of this shindig got out," Zach said mildly. That was an understatement. The sidewalk two blocks out from the convention center on either side