"Well, if it isn't Jake the junkman, out scavenging bright and early again?"The morning sun already blazed hot over the cracked pavement, and Jake Carter wiped a bead of sweat from his brow before it could sting his eyes. He was headed for the gated community across the avenue to pick up scrap, old appliances, busted electronics, whatever people were throwing out. His younger sister was starting middle school soon, and he'd promised her a few new outfits before the first day.Their parents had died a few years back, leaving just the two of them. The scrap business wasn't much, but it kept food on the table and a roof, however leaky, over their heads.A knot of young men lounged near the corner, cigarettes dangling from their lips, and one of them called out something snide as Jake passed. A few pairs of eyes tracked him with open contempt.Jake kept his head down and said nothing. He knew these guys, small-time troublemakers who ruled this stretch of the neighborhood, a part of town

Jake did the math in his head three separate times, and each time the number came back just as absurd.Twenty thousand dollars. He wouldn't have recycled this for anything in the world. When he cracked open the outer shell of caked mud, he found a small tin buried inside, and packed within it was an assortment of gold and silver jewelry, the mud had just been a disguise wrapped around the real prize.He never in his life expected to stumble into a windfall like this. If it weren't for the system, he'd probably have tossed the whole lump into the scrap pile without a second look and sold it off for pennies.He had no idea whose copper wire collection this had been smuggled into, but wherever that person was, they were going to be kicking themselves eventually. For now, though, it was his.Jake grabbed an old backpack, shook the dried mud off the jewelry, and packed it all inside. He wanted this converted into cash today. Nothing mattered more right now than turning treasure into money

The sky had barely started to lighten the next morning when Jake dragged himself out of bed.Same as always, he started by tidying the small yard and tossing a load of laundry in, though now that he actually had a washing machine, that chore took a fraction of the time it used to.Once he'd finished up, Jake headed for the commercial strip on Sunrise Avenue. It wasn't far, a fifteen-minute walk got him there.A decent-sized storefront came into view. It had been a phone repair shop before, and the previous tenant had even left the glass display counters behind.Foot traffic looked solid, the block sat right up against a large residential complex.Even at seven-thirty in the morning, there were already plenty of people out jogging or walking dogs along the street. A handful of phone shops and other small businesses dotted the block, several of them already open for the morning rush.Jake wandered over to a neighboring shop owner to make small talk and, while he was at it, casually aske

"The thief's up ahead!" Jake snapped, irritation creeping into his voice.The young officer froze, completely thrown.At that exact moment, the middle-aged woman chasing from further back finally caught up enough to shout, "He's not the thief! Those two in the ski masks up ahead, that's who you want!"The officer stood there stunned, but Jake had no time to spare on her confusion. He scrambled back to his feet and took off running.He wasn't slow, and he closed the gap steadily, though it still took some real distance to catch up."You little punk, you're asking to get hurt!" one of the thieves finally snapped, skidding to a stop and turning to throw a punch at Jake.Jake had already braced for it. One kick sent the guy crashing down.The second one lunged in too, only to get dropped just as easily by a single punch.By then the officer had finally caught up, and she wasted no time slapping cuffs on both men where they lay.Only now did Jake get a proper look at her. She turned out to

"Recycle."Jake aimed the command at the pile of scrapped appliances in front of him. A wave of light swept through, the pile vanished, and his points counter started climbing fast.It shot past nine hundred almost instantly.Might as well round it up over a thousand, Jake thought, rubbing his nose. He had a mild streak of perfectionism, and stopping on an awkward number like nine hundred and something bugged him more than he cared to admit.Let's clean out everything else in the house too.He made up his mind and started feeding old wine bottles and other junk lying around into the system. The points return on genuinely useless trash was pathetically small, though.Still a dozen or so points short. Jake eyed his battered old cart sitting in the yard and hit recycle on it without a second thought.Still not quite there...He was just a hair under a thousand points. Jake scratched his head, dug through every drawer and cabinet in the house, and fed anything remotely disposable into the