One thing a sneak thief needs is ambition, and Sal and Gazel certainly don't come up short there. Sure, they're mainly just ripping off low profile places like out-of-the-way frontier museums... but they have big plans. So, when a hardly flawless break-in nets them a seemingly impossible call on a century-old phone, and the mysterious voice on the disconnected line tells them that if they steal his belt buckle while they're looting, they'll have a map to the stash of gold he hid - right before he died - well, the young thieves just can’t say no.

Soon, they’re scouring a field in eastern Kansas, and they even appear to hit the jackpot. But there’s a crazy snag to getting to it, and not only that, but they’ve got unexpected company on the way... and not the kind who like to share.

This second installment in the Ghost Phone novella series takes a dark turn away from the first, for while the stakes may not be quite as globe-menacing as what Time Weathers faced in The Professor’s Gambit, the dire forces at play in Threadcutters are at it for keeps. And in this grimly comic second installment in a series about phone calls from dead people, Sal and Gazel are decidedly in over their heads.