Treasure Hunters
title page for Treasure Hunters: Quest for the City of Gold

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Epub ISBN: 9781473536647

Version 1.0

Published by Young Arrow 2018

1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

Copyright © James Patterson 2018

Illustrations by Juliana Neufeld

Excerpt from Pottymouth and Stoopid © 2017 by James Patterson

Illustrations in excerpt by Stephen Gilpin

Cover art by Juliana Neufeld

Cover design by Catherine San Juan

Cover © Hachette Book Group, Inc.

James Patterson has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

This is a work of fiction. All characters and descriptions of events are the products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to actual persons is entirely coincidental

First published by Young Arrow in 2018

Young Arrow
The Penguin Random House Group Limited
20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London, SW1V 2SA

www.penguin.co.uk

Penguin logo

Young Arrow is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 9781784754327

CONTENTS

About the Book
About the Author
Also by James Patterson
Title Page
Dedication
Map
Quick Note from Bick Kidd
Part I: Pirate Treasure
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Part II: Treasure Pirates
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Sneak Peak of Pottymouth and Stoopid
Copyright
header image - Treasure Hunters: Quest for the City of Gold

BEFORE WE DIVE into our next adventure—and I mean literally dive, because it starts with Beck and me swimming for our lives—I just want to remind everybody that I, Bickford “Bick” Kidd, will be the one telling this tale.

My twin sister, Rebecca “Beck” Kidd, will be handling the drawings.

I’m the author, she’s the illustrator.

I’m the narrator, she’s the picture scribbler.

Fine. Beck says I’m also the stinky one and she’s the one who doesn’t smell like ancient cheese stuffed into gym socks.

Whatever.

It’s time to jump into the story.

And the shark-infested waters.

image missing

image missing

(with Chris Tebbetts)

This is the insane story of my first year at middle school, when I, Rafe Khatchadorian, took on a real-life bear (sort of), sold my soul to the school bully, and fell for the most popular girl in school. Come join me, if you dare …

image missing

(with Chris Tebbetts)

We’ve moved to the big city, where I’m going to a super-fancy art school. The first project is to create something based on our exciting lives. But my life is TOTALLY BORING. It’s time for Operation Get a Life.

image missing

(with Lisa Papademetriou)

So you’ve heard all about my big brother, Rafe, and now it’s time to set the record straight. (Almost) EVERYTHING he says is a Big, Fat Lie. And my book is 100 times better than Rafe’s. I’m Georgia, and it’s time for some payback … Khatchadorian style.

image missing

(with Chris Tebbetts)

I’m excited for a fun summer at camp—until I find out it’s a summer school camp. There’s no fun and games here, just a whole lotta trouble!

image missing

(with Julia Bergen)

Who would have thought that we—Rafe and Georgia—would ever agree on anything? That’s right—we’re writing a book together. And the best part? We want you to be part of the fun too!

image missing

(with Chris Tebbetts)

I’m in worse trouble than ever! I need to survive a gut-bustingly impossible outdoor excursion so I can return to school next year. But will I get through it in one piece?

image missing

(with Chris Tebbetts)

I’m heading back to the place it all began: Hills Village Middle School, but only if I take “special” classes … If that wasn’t bad enough, when I somehow land a place on the school football team, I find myself playing alongside none other than the biggest bully in school, Miller the Killer!

image missing

(with Chris Tebbetts)

It’s a dog-eat-dog world. When I started my own dog-walking empire, I didn’t think it could go so horribly wrong! Somehow, I always seem to end up in deep doo-doo …

image missing

(with Martin Chatterton)

I just won an all-expenses-paid trip of a lifetime to Australia. But here’s the bad news: I MIGHT NOT MAKE IT OUT ALIVE!

image missing

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

Join Jamie Grimm at middle school where he’s on an unforgettable mission to win the Planet’s Funniest Kid Comic Contest. Dealing with the school bully (who he also happens to live with) and coping with a disability are no trouble for Jamie when he has laughter on his side.

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

Heading to the national semi-finals, Jamie’s one step closer to achieving his dream! But will a sudden family health scare put his ambitions on hold?

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

Jamie’s heading to Hollywood for his biggest challenge yet. There’s only the small matter of the national finals and eight other laugh-a-minute competitors between him and the trophy—oh, and a hurricane!

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

Jamie has achieved his dream of becoming the Planet’s Funniest Kid Comic, and now the sky’s the limit! Enter a couple of TV executives with an offer for Jamie to star in his very own show …

image missing

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

The Kidds are not your normal family, traveling the world on crazy adventures to recover lost treasure. But when their parents disappear, Bick and his brother and sisters are thrown into the biggest (and most dangerous) treasure hunt of their lives. Evil pirates, tough guys and gangsters stand in their way, but can they work together to find their mom and dad?

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

Bick, Beck, Storm and Tommy are navigating their way down the Nile, from a hot and dusty Cairo to deep dark jungles, past some seriously bad guys along the way.

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

The Kidds are desperately trying to secure the ancient Chinese artefact that will buy their mother’s freedom from kidnapping pirates.

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

When the biggest heist in history takes place in Moscow, the Kidds rush in to save the day—but instead, they’re accused of being the thieves themselves!

image missing

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

Sammy is just your average kid … except he lives in a house full of robots! Most of the time it’s pretty cool. But then there’s E, the worst robot ever. He’s a know-it-all, thinks he’s Sammy’s brother, AND he’s about to go to the same school! Come see if Sammy ever manages to make any friends with a loser robot tagging along …

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

Sammy and E are finally making some friends at school. But disaster strikes when E malfunctions just in time to be upstaged by the super-cool new robot on the block.

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

When Sammy’s inventor mom becomes distracted by a top-secret project, the robots soon begin to fall into disrepair. Cue a robot revolution!

image missing

(with Chris Tebbetts)

Kenny is the life-saving, world-famous superhero otherwise known as Stainlezz Steel. He’s taken down General Zod twice, beaten Darth Vader at chess … and lives with his grandma. Okay, sometimes he gets a bit carried away. But G-ma really does need his help now—and he’s going to have to be a superhero to save the day.

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

With her irresistable urge to tell a joke in every situation—even when she really shouldn’t—twelve-year-old Jacky Ha-Ha loves to make people laugh. And cracking wise helps distract her from thinking about not-so-funny things in her life, like her mom serving in a dangerous, faraway war, and a dad who’s hardly ever home.

image missing

(with Chris Grabenstein)

Raised in a laboratory, Isaiah is extremely smart, but scared of everything. One day, he manages to escape and is forced to leave his family behind. All alone now, Isaiah has to quickly learn to survive in the dangerous outdoors.

image missing

David and his best friend Michael were tagged with awful nicknames in preschool. Fast-forward to seventh grade: ‘Pottymouth’ and ‘Stoopid’ are still stuck with the names. So how do they go about changing everyone’s minds? By turning their misery into megastardom on TV, of course!

image missing

Jimmy loves reading so much that he’s inspired to start a book company for kids—run by kids. It’s a big dream for a twelve-year-old boy—some would even say it’s laugh-out-loud ridiculous! But that doesn’t stop Jimmy from dreaming even bigger …

For Will Hunt who found his own treasure: reading

image missing
image missing
header image - Treasure Hunters: Quest for the City of Gold

OKAY, TO START, I have to admit that I’m seriously impressed by my twin sis Beck’s ability to draw that picture, because at the time, we were maybe ten seconds away from being chomped on by a family of hammerhead sharks.

(Beck says she drew that illustration later on, from memory, not while we were in the water. I’m doing the same thing with the storytelling. It’s hard to write or draw while you’re swimming for your life. The ink gets all runny and splotchy.)

Where were we?

Oh, right. In the ocean. Off the coast of Costa Rica. Being chased by hammerhead sharks as we swam our way to Cocos Island, a Costa Rican national park also known as “the Island of Sharks.”

(Yes, Beck, that should have been a hint as to what might be lurking beneath the waves.)

We furiously paddled our arms and kicked our legs and tried to outrun the swarm of hungry sea monsters. Good thing hammerheads have eyeballs where their ears should be. Maybe they couldn’t see us—swimming right in front of them.

Why weren’t we in a rowboat or a motorized raft?

Because Mom, Dad, and our big brother, Tommy, had taken all available landing craft when they decided to do a little treasure hunting on Cocos Island without me, Beck, or our big sister, Storm.

“You three need to stay with the ship,” Dad had said when they loaded up the boats. “There are secrets belowdecks in the Room you need to guard.”

Yes, whenever Dad talks about the Room, it sounds like he’s capitalizing it, because the Room is this super-secret high-security walk-in vault on our ship, the Lost. The Room is off-limits to all of us. It’s where Mom and Dad keep their rare and valuable treasure-hunting maps locked up behind the Door. The Door gets the capital-letter treatment, too, because it’s made out of three-inch-thick solid steel. It’s so heavy I sometimes wonder how the Lost can stay afloat with that much deadweight in its hull.

I was pretty sure Beck and I had remembered to double-check the lock on the Door to the Room before we jumped into the ocean. Pretty sure. We were kind of in a rush.

“How dare they go looking for the Treasure of Lima without us!” Beck had said as we prepared to dive in.

“Yeah,” I’d said. “How dare they!”

Yes, we sometimes think and say exactly the same stuff. It’s a twin thing.

So we jumped overboard and started swimming. Don’t forget, we Kidd kids have lived on the ocean most of our lives. We’re excellent swimmers and scuba divers. Except Storm. She doesn’t do water sports. Maybe because she has a photographic memory, which means that she never forgets that the ocean is full of scary creatures like, oh, hammerhead sharks!

But Beck and I were determined to join Mom, Dad, and Tommy on the island. Hey, we Kidd kids did pretty well treasure hunting on our own, without Mom or Dad. In fact, they were two of the treasures we’d recovered in our kids-only quests.

Now they were searching for buried treasure in the jungles of Cocos Island with just Tommy? Since when did the Kidd Family Treasure Hunters Inc. become a three-person operation instead of a six-person one?

Actually, it was dangerously close to becoming a four-person crew. Because the hungry hammerheads were much faster swimmers than me and Beck.

They were close and moving closer.

With a couple swift chomps of their jaws, they could definitely subtract two from six—permanently!

image missing
header image - Treasure Hunters: Quest for the City of Gold

I HEARD A rush of water behind me!

The hammerheads breathing down our butts had just thrown open their jaws. I could smell their stinky fish breath. I believe they had recently enjoyed the all-you-can-gobble shrimp buffet at the nearest coral-reef diner.

“So long, Beck!” I shouted, thrashing against the waves. “You’re the best twin I ever had!”

“I’m the only twin you ever had!” she shouted back.

“This is no time to get all technical, Rebecca. We’re both about to die!” As the storyteller of the family, I decided to wax poetic with my dying words. “I guess it’s only fitting that since we came into this world together, we should leave it together, too!”

“Oh, no, you’re not!” cried the heroic voice of our (you won’t believe this) big sister, Storm!

She zoomed between us and the hammerheads on a Jet Ski!

image missing

“Where’d you find a Jet Ski?” I hollered.

“Tommy had it stowed in a secret compartment in the bow of our ship!” Storm shouted back. “He might’ve forgotten that he told me about it, but I never did!”

The thing to remember about our big sister, Storm, is that she remembers everything. She’s also the smartest Kidd kid. So why was she doing something as dumb as attempting to herd sharks on a Jet Ski? Because that’s what we Kidds do. We look out for one another—even if we look ridiculous doing it.

“Whatever you do, Bick,” Storm shouted, “don’t pee! Sharks can smell human urine in the ocean.”

Great, I thought. Now she tells me.

Storm circled the sharks, churning up a white, foamy wake to fence them in. More or less.

“Swim to shore, you two,” she told us. “I’ll keep these bad boys busy. I brought along one of Dad’s golf clubs!”

As I frantically swam for the beach, I chanced a glance over my shoulder to see what Storm was doing with Dad’s driver, the biggest club from his bag.

She jabbed at all of the sharks who dared snap at her as she zipped around and around them in dizzying circles. That’s Shark-Attack Defense 101: Poke ’em in their gills.

Or their eyes!

“What are you looking at, M. C. Hammer-head?” Storm yelled at the lead shark.

One-handing the Jet Ski throttle, she used her free arm to line up the golf club’s head with the shark’s big, bulging eyeball as if it were sitting on a tee!

image missing

Storm faked like she was going to rear back with the driver. The alpha shark, who seemed dead set on eating us a moment earlier, turned tail and headed out to sea. Guess he didn’t want to see one of his eyeballs ending up on the seventeenth green. It would make for a messy putt. The other sharks took off with him.

A couple minutes later, Beck and I dragged ourselves ashore. We were exhausted but alive, barely able to catch our breath.

Yay, Storm!

When she landed her Jet Ski on the beach and hauled it up on the sand, Beck and I raced down to give her a huge hug. We were both sooooo lucky to be part of the most incredibly awesome family in the world!

“Thank you, Storm!” said Beck.

“You’re the best big sister we could ever have!” I added.

Storm didn’t seem to be quite as happy as Beck and me.

I could see her eyes darken as she narrowed them at us.

Yep. That’s why we call her Storm.

Like a thundercloud billowing up in the tropics, she can get very, very angry very, very quickly.

header image - Treasure Hunters: Quest for the City of Gold

MOM AND DAD told us to stay on board the Lost!” roared Storm. “It was a direct order. Stay on the ship, guard the Room.”

“But we’re treasure hunters!” I told her.

“So?”

“So we’re this close to the legendary Treasure of Lima and we’re supposed to just sit on the sidelines twiddling our thumbs while Mom, Dad, and Tommy have all the fun?”

“Yes,” said Storm, who can be as blunt as a hammer even when she’s nowhere near hammerhead sharks. She says exactly what she’s thinking, no matter what.

“But Mom and Dad need us,” said Beck.

“For what?”

“To help them figure out clues and junk!”

Storm raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Clues and junk?”

“You know,” said Beck. “Stuff.”

As you can probably tell, Beck’s talents are more visual than verbal. (Fine. She says my BO is extremely visual, too—it’s why she sometimes draws me with stink lines.)

“We have to help them,” I pleaded. “This island is teeming with treasure!”

Even though I was pretty sure Storm had already memorized the whole entire history of Cocos Island, I launched into a swashbuckling tale of pirates and plunder from days past.

“For centuries,” I proclaimed as dramatically as I could, “this island served as a buccaneers’ bank! One daring pirate captain buried three hundred and fifty tons of gold he stole off Spanish royal galleons! His crew had to dig a really, really big hole!

image missing

“Then,” I said, “there’s the treasure Mom and Dad and Tommy think they’ve found.” I took a long pause and sort of hoped there’d be an enormous thunderclap when I uttered my next words: “The long-lost Treasure of Lima!”

Dun-dun-dun!” quipped Beck.

“We’re talking a whole boatload of Incan gold and artifacts the Spaniards shipped from Peru to Mexico for safekeeping, way back in 1823.

image missing

“But, arrr!” I said in my best talk-like-a-pirate voice. “The captain of that ship got greedy, me hearties. He went rogue and slit the throats of the guards traveling with the Incan gold. He threw the dead bodies overboard and brought the treasure here to Cocos, where he hid it high in the craggy hills! The captain and his scurvy mates planned on lying low, then coming back to retrieve their treasure. But they were captured and tried for piracy, and their buried booty has never been found!”

“I’m fully aware of the historical significance of this island,” said Storm, who’s usually the one giving the history lectures. “But the true moral of your pirate story is that when teams don’t stick together and do what they’re supposed to do, everybody loses!”

“That’s exactly Bick’s point!” said Beck.

“It is?”

Since I hadn’t realized I’d been making a point, I couldn’t wait to hear what Beck would say next!

header image - Treasure Hunters: Quest for the City of Gold

MOM AND DAD might need Bick and me,” Beck told Storm, “to do our jobs on the team.”

“Riiiiight,” said Storm. “I almost forgot. You guys are in charge of junk and stuff.”

“No. The team needs us for crawling in tight spaces.”

“Huh?”

“Beck’s right,” I said. “She and I are the youngest and, therefore, the smallest and wiriest members of the family! Getting into tight spots is what we do best.”

Storm rolled her eyes. “Tell me about it.”

“It’s like you said, Storm,” added Beck. “If we don’t stick together, if everybody on our team doesn’t do exactly what they’re supposed to do, then we could lose the Treasure of Lima.”

Storm exhaled. Loudly. “But you two were supposed to stay on board the Lost with me and guard the Room. That was our job!”

“Only because Mom and Dad forgot they might need us to crawl into a cave!” I told her. “If I were a pirate, that’s where I would hide my treasure. Someplace so narrow, only someone our size could reach it.”

“Then how’d the pirates get it in there in the first place?” demanded Storm, because, let’s face it, she’s way more logical than me.

“Cabin boys,” said Beck.

“And monkeys,” I added. “Pirates always have monkeys riding on their shoulders. Unless they go with parrots instead.”

“Fine!” said Storm, sounding totally exasperated. “Whatever. Let’s go find Mom and Dad and Tommy!”

She trudged up toward the jungle.

image missing

Beck and I high-fived. We’d totally double-teamed our big sister into submission. It’s another twin thing.

Storm planned on using her photographic memory to lead us to the treasure site that Dad had pinpointed on a map in the Room. He had all sorts of rare maps in there. Some were so old, they even showed where you’d find sea serpents and other mysterious monsters.