The Investigators, Inc. The Kidnapping Case. Chapter 2. Arrested.

Well, this is certainly an interesting predicament we are in right now. There are presently 26 from the Investigators on board this jet, and we have been kidnapped…by someone. But who? Our pilot, who is working with the kidnappers, and I suppose the copilot is as well, will not tell us anything. He just told us not to do anything rash or he would blow up the plane, so we will assume that he can do that and just wait, calmly until we land somewhere. Meanwhile, back at the chateau.

Aari and Rock, along with Carine and a couple of the guys had arrived and Kat asked Rock how to track our plane. Rock gave some instructions to Trixie and soon they were tracking us. Not long after, our pilot said we would be landing in one hour and 12 minutes. I told that to Kat and Trixie soon figured out where we might be landing. We are already inside Russia and there is only one larger town that might have an airport that would accommodate our jet. We also have two Russian women with us, Sapphire and Aurora.

Although we have given them both new identities, I’m sure the authorities here will figure out their real identities quickly enough. That could be a big problem for them, and I guess for us too, since we have helped them escape. This could land all of us in prison for a long time. That’s not a problem for some of us, but it would be for others. And they will not likely keep us together for very long, but they will probably split us up so we can’t help each other. I need to stop thinking so much.

I wonder if this is related in some way to that Christmas tree? I do remember all about that now, so does Sherry. Misty said she had a solution to the problem for why we couldn’t remember. I should have kept my mouth shut, but no, I had to ask how. She said to give her my hand and I willingly obeyed, which was my second mistake. I was soon flying through the air and landed on my back on the hard floor. Good thing I’m a ghost, or whatever, or she might have killed me.

My memory of our visit did return though, so I could hardly be angry with her. Sherry was not in the room at the time so Misty told her the same thing and Sherry shrugged and held Misty’s hand and was soon on her back on the floor, moaning. Misty then left the room and returned quickly with donuts. Amazing how quickly Sherry was standing and munching on a donut. I then communicated something with Kat, then with Sky. Sky was soon gone and when ready I called for her. She returned with a very surprised Rock.

It should be noted that when Sky went back home, she took Sapphire and Aurora with her to keep them safe. I thought perhaps we might need Rock to fly this jet out of here. None of this is making any sense though and I certainly hope these people were not expecting to find Sapphire and Aurora, or they might take out their anger on the other girls. But, with 5 ghosts and me, we should be able to keep the girls safe. I hope so anyway. I communicated with the other ghosts that our main priority was keeping the girls safe and staying together.

That pilot is punctual, we were landing at the one hour and 13 minute time, just one minute late. It was a rather short runway though and the jet went past the end of the runway and onto some very rough ground and ripping some of the wheels off the jet and we kind of skidded a bit further until we came to a sudden stop. “Must have hit something,” said Rock casually, “guess we won’t be flying out of here.” We waited a bit but our pilot did not come out and he would not answer either, so I told Rock to open the door, which he did, with a big crash!

Our pilot was dead, so was the copilot, yet there was not a mark on them. The girls had been looking out the windows for our welcoming committee, but no one showed up. We picked up our backpacks, guns and a few other things, then went outside. Still no one was around. This is all very strange indeed. The small airport building was empty, though not locked. “It doesn’t look like it has been used in years,” said Jennifer. “I agree with that,” said Misty. I asked Kat how far it was to this town that we were supposed to be at. She said about 5km, which produced a groan from everyone.

Then Kristina looked around the side of the building. “Hey everyone, transportation awaits!” she exclaimed. Sure enough, there were several, fairly new vans parked there, with keys and full tanks of gas. Misty reminded me it’s called petrol. “Gasoline,” I said. “Petrol,” she said frowning at me. “Petrol,” I said in return. “Gasoline!” she exclaimed. “Okay, you win, it’s gasoline,” I said. “Ha!” she said smiling. Then it hit her and she turned, shuffling away mumbling, “he did it again.”

Jennifer told me to go apologize to Misty, and I could tell she meant it, so I did. Misty returned very happy now. “Okay, we have transportation,” said Jennifer, “where do we go?” “Um, not sure, but I guess we go to town,” I said, “if no one stops us then we will just keep going to the border. Kat said it’s about a 6 hour drive, depending on the quality of the road.” “This does not make any sense at all,” she said. “True,” I said, “and it started with a glass Christmas tree.” As we drove away there was a large explosion and our jet was in flames, what was left of it anyway.

“Sienna might not be too happy about losing that expensive jet,” said Jennifer. “She does sometimes get upset about such minor details,” I agreed, “but I’m sure you won’t have any trouble explaining it to her.” I’m sure that was the loudest sigh I ever heard from Jennifer. We were soon driving through the town. “Oooo, a ghost town,” said Astrid. “That wasn’t funny,” said Jennifer. That got Misty and Cristy laughing, loud and long.

“To think I came so close to saying I was going to stay home with the kids today,” said Jennifer, sighing once more. About half an hour outside of this deserted town we came to a road block. There was a large military truck across the road and what looked like about a hundred soldiers and police officers. We had that lead van so Jennifer stopped and opened the window as a soldier came to our van.

He ordered us to get out and we were under arrest for destroying our jet and trying to leave the country with state secrets. Guess we should have checked these vans. Astrid was translating for us since she knew Russian fluently. “Now what Steve?” asked Jennifer. “Well, we can’t let them arrest us,” I said, “or they will split us up, which will make things difficult. But, what can we do?”

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.