Page 113 - KCMAGAZINE 20230717

get that? That psycho - and swiped it across a slot on the door. The door clicked open.
Glowing with relief, she pushed it all the way open and strided in.

Hundreds of crates. Filled with seeds. All sorts of them. Even plants that people
thought had gone extinct. She quickly found what she wanted. She took out a plastic bag
and filled it with sunflower seeds. They felt soothing to the touch. Her eyes watered.

“Where did you get all these?” She spun around and demanded.

“Take what you want and get out of here,” he slurred. She knelt down and held the
knife to his neck. “Okay, okay,” he babbled. “We collected them, alright? Before the tides

rolled in, me and a couple others figured out a way to get crazy rich before anyone else
did. Down here. We kept all these seeds, smuggled them past the Tubes and stored them
in different places-”
The Seed Thief “You mean there are more vaults like this?” she swung her arm towards the vault.

“There’s gotta be a million seeds in there. You’re telling me this is just one of them?”
Written by Lim Le Herng
“We got a whole team on it,” he shrugged. “We offered farmers and distributors a

He awoke to find himself gagged and tied to a chair. dirty great deal of money for all the seeds they got.”

In front of him stood a young woman, not looking more than twenty, with a knife “But… why?”
in her hand.
He glared at the woman. “Aren’t you inquisitive,” then he remembered the knife.

“Shh, shh, I’m not gonna hurt you,” she waved the knife casually. “If you tell me “Same reason everyone’s been doing anything at all since money was invented.”
where you keep the seeds.” She ripped away the gag - he choked and his eyes watered.
He tried to scream, but he felt the coldness of the blade brushing against his throat. “Uh- “Wh- You’re gonna sell them,” she said as realisation dawned on her face. “One
uh.” day people will start missing how things used to be on the surface, and then you’re
gonna make… billions out of these seeds.”

“The vault. It’s in the vault,” he croaked. “I can show you-”
“Yup,” he grinned gleefully, forgetting temporarily that he was in captivity. “We

“Tell me where it is,” she snarled. really thought far ahead.”

“In the basement. Th-There’s an elevator in the hallway to the backyard.” She frowned. “But these seeds. You must’ve collected them before the soil dried
out.”

The woman dragged him and the chair all the way to the elevator. “Won’t risk

untying me”, he cursed under his breath. A sneer cracked his face. “Oh, yes, we did. We dried out the soil-” His glee faded. “I
shouldn’t be telling you this.”

She pressed “B” and waited as the elevator whirled. Soon they found themselves
standing in front of the vault door. The woman took out his key card - how did she She raised her eyebrows, waving the knife. “Oh, I think you should.”

Image Source: https://images.pexels.com/photos/8903120/pexels-photo-8903120.jpeg He groaned.
109 110