The Rats of Finance

By Andrew Connan

It's time for another Flash Travelers adventure for Sam and his friends - Randolph Coyote the Third, a humongous coyote who can talk and fly, and Bobbie Bear, an android who can navigate through the flashes that are doorways to other worlds. Sam faces a really big problem: His dad has lost his job, and can't make the mortgage payments. Worse yet

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dogs Breath Press LLC
• Release date: Apr 22, 2022
• ISBN: 9780996836258

Book preview

The Rats of Finance

Book 2 in the Flash Travelers Series

Andrew Connan

Published by Dogs Breath Press, LLC

www.AndrewConnan.com

The Rats of Finance

Book 2 in the Flash Travelers Series

Copyright © 2020 Andrew Connan

eBook ISBN: 978-0-9968362-5-8

All rights reserved, including but not limited to the right to reproduce or electronically store this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever without written permission from the publisher.

This is a work of fiction.

See also: www.AndrewConnan.com

This book is dedicated to my mom, Gloria Connan, who read stories to me when I was little.

Contents

Foreword

If you haven’t read Beyond the Rainbow Flash, the first book in the Flash Travelers series, you might find the information below will make reading this book more fun.

Sam Foster – The central character in the Flash Travelers story series. Sam is an ordinary boy who has no super powers, no magical abilities, is not big, is not strong, and is not brave. However, Sam is smart and adventuresome, and dares to join his friends Randolph Coyote the Third and Bobbie Bear on a series of flash adventures where he learns how to overcome his fears to help his family and friends.

Randolph Coyote the Third – A humongous, flying, talking coyote. Randolph is a loyal friend and takes Sam and Bobbie Bear on his back as he flies them through these flash adventures. He is also very impulsive, takes risks, and often gets himself and his friends in trouble. Sometimes he’s also very lucky.

Bobbie Bear – A talking android in the shape of a teddy bear. Bobbie is very careful and likes to think things through before taking action. She is also an expert navigator, able to find flashes and guide her friends through them into new adventures.

Flashes – Portals to many different worlds. Flashes occur very high in the sky, and are the size and shape of a small coin. You can only find them if you, like Bobbie Bear, can do special navigational math.

Pixy Pollen – A material that is essential for moving from one flash to another. If you sprinkle some white pixy pollen on yourself or whatever vehicle you are using, everyone and everything will shrink to a size small enough to fit through a flash. Once you’ve navigated through the flash, you must use black pixy pollen to get back to normal size.

Captain Pumpkin – In our Flash Travelers’ first adventure, Beyond the Rainbow Flash, Captain Pumpkin had been split in two by the evil Mr. Bland and imprisoned on Thunder Mountain for 200 years. Our Flash Travelers – Sam, Randolph and Bobbie Bear – succeeded in freeing him and putting his two selves, Captain Pump and Captain Kin, back together. This earned them the gratitude of Captain Pumpkin and the hatred of Mr. Bland.

Mr. Bland – An evil businessman, who can fly on wings made of contracts and uses his pen as a weapon. Mr. Bland made his fortune by stealing other people’s possessions, is not to be trusted, and holds grudges.

Introduction

Four hundred years ago, somewhere in the Caribbean, the Esperanza, a 32-gun square-rigged Spanish treasure ship hopelessly overloaded with gold, wallowed her way toward Spain. She was also hopelessly under-manned. She had too few sailors to work the sails and guns at the same time.

The Fearless was an eight-gun square-rigged English privateer overloaded with Englishmen crazy for gold.

After a brief battle, the men of the Fearless subdued the men of the Esperanza and locked the Spaniards in the Esperanza’s forecastle.

They moved gold from the Esperanza to the Fearless until the Spanish ship was seaworthy.

Both ships now needed to be sailed to England.

Harry Woods and his three teenage sons were the only ones to volunteer for the Fearless. Most of the Englishmen wanted to be on the Esperanza since she held the most gold.

After much grumbling, six men were assigned and went on board the smaller ship. With a crew of ten the Fearless set out for England.

Harry Woods, now Captain Harry Woods, sailed in the direction of England until the little ship was well over the horizon and out of the sight of the Spanish ship. He hove-to and called the crew together for a talk.

"As you all know, the Fearless has been at sea for over three years and is in need of repairs to her hull and rigging. Crossing the wide ocean, with its mountainous storms, is perilous enough in a sound vessel, but trying it in our ship as she is now is just plain foolishness. Besides, we have little food and less water. We will sail to an island I know. It is out of the way and not on any map, at least not yet. We’ll fill our water casks and larder, make repairs, and then head out to sea, home to England, and our share of the prize money!"

The men cheered.

As for the gold we have on board, every ounce belongs to the king. The moment our sails appear on the horizon, no matter what English port we land at, the king’s men will row out to meet us and weigh the gold out most carefully before giving each of us our share. The sooner we finish repairs the sooner we can get to England and each of us get his share.

The men cheered again and set to work. They worked hard for three weeks. One of their jobs was to melt down all of the gold and recast it in the form of coins in the hopes that this would muddy the waters enough to confuse the king’s men.

During that time, Woods and his sons often went inland to hunt, which gave them the chance to find what they were looking for, a spot that was defined by something that wouldn’t change over time. They finally found it, a hill between a river and a bay with an enormous white and tan boulder at the top. The part of the rock that was above ground was about 40 feet long and five feet high.

When they had finished the work of fixing the ship, restocking the larder, and recasting the gold, Woods told them that, for that night only, they could eat and drink as much as they wanted. He gave them a cask of rum and permission to drink the entire cask if they desired.

As for Woods, he and his sons would be in his cabin catching up on sleep, as they would get very little when they were at sea.

Woods neglected to mention that he had added a slow acting poison to the cask he gave to his six hired men.

At first, when they began drinking, they were a jolly group, singing and telling jokes and stories. But as they drank more and more, old jealousies and resentments bubbled to the surface, the knives came out, and they