The old man had only a few minutes left to live. The priest, who had just performed the last rites, left as three young women entered the room. From his bed, the old man saw them and cracked a smile. In a weak voice he started to speak as the trio stood beside his bed.

"Gwendolyn, Giana and Grace. You are the only three members of my family left, so I can trust you with my last secret. The others, as you know, are either dead or imprisoned. You managed to keep out of jail as well as stay alive. Therefore, you are worthy successors. I'll tell you this last secret, which is the secret of my wealth and success as a godfather."

He coughed a few times, then continued. The three girls listened intense.

"I have always invested the money I got in new technologies. Where others remained skeptical and even hostile towards new developments, ideas and technologies, I listened and welcomed them. No matter how weird or far-fetched the new machines might seem, as long as the engineer's or scientist's arguments and blueprints where convincing, I invested in their development. That is why I could stay out of the hands of the cops, and never had to appear before court. Using unknown gadgets and sophisticated inventions, every job I did, every robbery and theft, was a success."

The old man remained silent for a while, as if he saw his life passing before his mind's eye. Then he spoke again.

"Now, the last ten years I have been sponsoring a young inventor. He lives in a secret hideout in the Rockies, and his invention is now finished. I am gone soon, but you, you are young. In the desk next to me, you find papers with additional information as well as a map to his place. It also contained a password he and I agreed upon so he will know it is I who sent you. Use his invention well, don't shame our name...".

The old man started to breathe heavy, three times, four times, five times. "Use it welllll...", he said faintly.

Then, he died.

The girls started to sob. Although their grandfather had been old and sickly for a while, they hoped he would still remain among them for a long time. But now he was gone.

Gwendolyn, or Gwen as she was usually called, Giana and Grace where cousins. The reason their parents were either dead or in jail, as was most of their kin, was that they belonged to a family of organized criminals. The few other family members that remained in freedom never wanted to get involved in the "business". They broke of all contact with the rest of the family and lived a "normal" life.

But Gwen, Giana and Grace were criminals. "Mobsters" some would call them, but they where not of Italian descent. They were American, and their home was New York City. Having grown up among people to whom breaking the law was normal and commonplace, they had little regard for rules and morals themselves, safe the codes of honor of their family.

Being 23 years of age each, give or take a few months, they grew up together and were educated by private teachers. They didn't only learn the usual subjects like reading, writing and arithmetic, but also how to pick locks, crack safes, computer hacking and all the other things one needed to know to "pull off a job." The trio were close, and quickly formed a team. Because their first names started with the letter G, they called themselves "The Goblin Gang".

After having let their tears run freely for a few minutes, Gwendolyn opened the desk's drawer. In it, she found a pile of sheets. Putting them in her handbag, not in the mood to read them, she and her two cousins continued their mourning.


One week later, after the burial, Gwendolyn read the papers. Her cousins were out, taking care of a few things, which  the death of a relative brings with it. The young criminal was curious. What had grandpa been investing in?

The papers told about an inventor, who had designed a device that could revolutionize crime. It was so secret that no one knew about it, not even the government, save the trio's grandfather. It's working was described in detail, and although Gwendolyn was quite skeptic at first, she quickly became interested and even excited. If such a thing really existed! Yes, grandpa had been quite eccentric, but he unerringly always had invested in those technologies that seemed science fiction but really worked. When her two cousins finally returned she could hardly contain her excitement.

"We'll be WHAT?" Giana asked, after Gwen had explained everything.

"Now, this time grandpa has clearly been hoodwinked. Giants don't exist," Grace said.

"Now, I don't think so," Gwen replied. "Grandpa never made a wrong investment."

"Yeah, but this is different," Giana said. "A portal that will turn us into giants and teleport us wherever we want on Earth? Yeah, right."

"Well, we know where the inventor lives. In the Rocky Mountains, the exact coordinates are here," Gwen said, pointing at a small map which was included in their late grandfathers' papers.
"I suggest we go there and check things out. If grandpa has been tricked, we'll shoot the bastard and return."

"All right, I'll ready the plane," Grace said, who was a capable pilot.

"No, wait. Grandpa also wrote we have to take a lot of luggage with us. I don't know why, but he wrote it even a couple of times," Gwen said.

Grace and Giana exchanged looks. What was this all about? Giana shrugged her shoulders and all three of them went packing.

Two hours later, the three cousins were on their way to the Rockies.