Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. The Major Case. Chapter 5. Betrayed.
Now we spend some time with the Major. He was in his office with Jeff and Antonio when Hal came in. “Hi Major,” he said, “Milt sure seemed surprised when I told him about that PI you hired.” “You told Milt about that?” asked Major. “Yeah,” he said, “I thought you would have told him already, but I guess not.” “Jeff, if I tell you something and then say not to tell anyone, what does that mean?” asked the Major.
“Simply means I do not tell anyone inside or outside the organization,” he answered, “in other words, tight lips.” “Right,” said the Major, “now Hal, did you forget that?” “Well, no,” he said somewhat nervously, “but Milt is your right hand around here, so I figured it would be okay to tell him.” “Antonio,” said Major, “is he right about that?”
“Nope, the tight lips means we tell no one,” he answered, “not even the closest person to you. That is your job alone.” “Thank you,” said Major, “did that slip your mind Hal?” “Um, no, not exactly, I mean,” he began, “but it is my first time doing that, right?” “First time?” asked Major, “and how do I know that Hal? As you know, we have had some bad luck recently, and from my experience, loose lips tend to get looser over time.”
“No, no, not me Major,” he said, very nervously now, “but we know it was Milt now, right?” “Maybe, maybe not,” said Major, “who did you send with Milt on this run?” “Um, Carver, he was here and said he did not mind going out again,” said Hal. “Well, you did that right,” said Major. He then sent a text to Carver which read, ‘Milt has betrayed, you know what to do, then you finish the run.’ Carver replied with one word, ‘Done.’
Meanwhile, “Why we stopping here Carver?” asked Milt. “Nice bunch of trees,” he replied. “Again?” asked Milt, “we just stopped a half hour ago. I will wait here.” “I am your guard, remember,” said Carver, “I cannot guard you if you stay here, so get going.” Off they went into the trees. A single shot rang through the forest and Carver returned to the car and continued.
A little later he called Major. “Got a call on Milt’s phone, guy said he planted a bomb on a boat and the PI would be blown to little pieces,” said Carver, “I just said, good and not to call again for now.” “Your voices do sound alike on the phone,” said Major, “you did good, there will be an extra bonus for you because of that.” Then the Major called me. “Hi Major,” I said cheerfully, “no one is around so it is safe to talk.”
“Good,” he said, “those people know about you, your wife and the other two girls, plus your cat, but none of the others. You will have to leave, but not with the boat, it has explosives on it and will explode 10 minutes after you start that engine.” “Hmm, that is not good,” I said, “how did they find out?” “Loose lips on our end Steve,” he said, “not your fault. But it will be too dangerous for you and Macey if you stay there. Can the rest of your team handle it without you?”
“This case will need some very precise timing to get Macey,” I said, “I could coordinate things from the main island I suppose. But my cats are trained to find explosives. I will let them look and find out if it really is exactly 10 minutes, or what the time might be. Then perhaps we can let them have their fireworks and blow us to pieces. Will you trust me on this Major?”
“Sure, but what you are thinking is too dangerous Steve,” he said, “you could end up getting yourselves killed.” “We will take that chance,” I said, “we knew the danger when we took the case. If their bomb looks too crude to trust it, then we will leave instead.” “Okay,” he said, “I just hope you know what you are doing.” Then the Major turned to Jeff and Antonio.
“Take loose lips out and lose him somewhere,” he said, “then come right back.” He then called Dave and Rico to come and see him right away. Back to us. Rock and Annelie came walking by and stopped to say hi. I told them what had taken place. “I do not like that idea Steve,” said Rock, “you should just go back to the main island.”
“I want to check that bomb first, so I need to borrow MC,” I said. MC and Muffin went racing out to the boat and began looking around. It did not take them long to find the bomb and it had a reliable timer on it which was set for 10 minutes. That is perfect, I hope…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 
Why is it always the right hand man??😳😳🤨🤨 Why can’t it be the left hand ma MN instead?????🤭
But at least you had some lead time to adjust your plan! It may even work out better this way!!😉😁
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Yes, hopefully it will work out okay. Though if we do it wrong, we will end up being fish food! And we have to make sure that no one sees us, and I mean no one! Word travels too fast, especially on a small island.🤔👩👩👩😼😼😼🕵️♂️
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Are you going to use scuba gear??😁 I knew that scuba training would come in handy at some point 😁😉
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No scuba gear, this has to look natural. Poor Muffin doesn’t like this idea though, she can’t swim! It will take some precise timing for this one to work without getting killed.😲👩👩👩😼😼😼🕵️♂️
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Who’s going to pick you up in the water??🤔 That will take someone away from the other team….😬😬😬
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No one is going to pick us up, we will be totally on our own. We can’t risk having someone see us being rescued. We will have to swim it, mostly underwater, to a safe spot.😲👩👩👩😼🕵️♂️
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That could be quite a swim 🏊♂️ 🤔 are you sure you’re up to that?😳😲 you haven’t even been exercising regularly 😒 how are you going to make it??
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Yes, likely it will be a long swim to get somewhere with no people around to see us. Steve exercises regularly, as do all the team members, it’s part of the rules. However, not everyone is a good long distant swimmer. I wonder if Sky is good with distance swimming? Perhaps I should ask.🤔👩👩👩🙀🕵️♂️
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It coukd be worth finding that out before hand…🙄 after all you don’t want your bride to drown on your honeymoon🤨🤨🙄
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Well, this isn’t our honeymoon, it’s just a pretend honeymoon. After all, there are two others with us! Um, yeah, she said there’s no problem if we don’t have to swim more than 30 feet. I think there’s going to be a problem. Muffin bit my feet 3 times already, each foot, when she found out. Crystal and Kristina can handle about 4 miles, maybe more. I will be closest to the engine, therefore the bomb too.🤔👩👩👩🙀🕵️♂️
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Your feet may be the least of your worries before this is over!!🤭🤭 Sky might be biting them also!!😂😂😂😂
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that’s providing we manage to survive the explosion. I don’t know how big that bomb is yet!😲👩👩👩🙀🕵️♂️
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I’m guessing it’s big enough to kill you and everyone on the boat 🚢🙄😏🤭😉
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Yes, but just big enough, or more than big enough? It makes a difference when trying to stay alive.🤔🕵️♂️
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I’m sure it does! But those who planted it didn’t expect you to live… so let’s just go with It being larger than necessary 🤔 🤨🤨🤨🤨🤨
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That might be the safest way to look at things, however, if we can stay aboard longer, that’s good. We want that explosion to block the view of our escape.🤔🙄🕵️♂️
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How about…. you set the throttle on the motor to a safe speed and all jump out of the boat and let it motor away before it blows up and no one will see you and you’ll be away from the explosion…😉
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Won’t work, the kidnappers might be watching from their island hideout, so we have to wait until the explosion is exploding!😲👩👩👩🙀🕵️♂️
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Is this going to be in broad daylight??😳😳
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Yep, sure is, I want those kidnappers to see it nice and clear so they think their plan worked. Then we have the upper hand! Hopefully.😲👩👩👩🙀🕵️♂️
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I sure hope it’s convincing 😬😬😬
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Yep, me too. If it doesn’t work, then we will have to leave, and I don’t want to do that with this case. I trust the team, but this is kind of a delicate case and needs all of us here.🤔🕵️♂️
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I hope you can swim fast enough to be able to get back to them in time to help out….
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We are not going back to them, we are heading into danger itself!😲👩👩👩🙀🕵️♂️
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Oh boy….😒😒😒😒
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I am really nervous about your plan ! 😳😲😯 ! Extremely dangerous ! 😳 …I know you will be careful ! Altho’ that maybe you need more help ! ❗️😼😼🕵️♂️👩👩🦰👨🦰 …hmmm 🤔
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I really do not like it either, but it is one way we can get in close without being seen by the kidnappers. Plus, if they think their plan worked, then they might get careless which will help us get Macey out more easily. We are planning to be very cautious and make sure we have enough time.🤔👩👩👩🙀🕵️♂️🔥
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This plan of yours, is based on the bomb doing precisely what they planned. Not a good thing to do. But if your plan works, it will definitely give you an advantage. Lots of coordination to get Macey off the island safely.
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It does have some risk involved, but our cases usually do. We are going to check that bomb carefully to make sure we can count on it blasting when it should. Yes indeed, this will give us a good advantage, and we need that to get Macey back safely.🤔👩👩👩🙀🕵️♂️🔥
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