The Investigators, Inc. The Kidnapping Case. Chapter 7. Now We Walk.

I certainly didn’t expect to see Papa Levi here, he is rather far from home. “I just knew it had to be you, Steve,” he said, “no one else around has a large, trained army of women. And, no one else would be stupid enough to enter Russia and help a Captain escape his country with stolen military secrets.” “Well, Levi,” I said, “you are both right and wrong. I did not come to help a Captain or any other officer escape with stolen military secrets, that definitely would not be a wise thing to do.

But, you are right about the other thing, I do have a large, and well trained, army of women. And you have made a big mistake stopping us like this. G-girls, it’s time to show these men what hot really means! And I think we need Courage to take on this group!” That’s when Jennifer, Sky and Kristina came out, along with Courage. Papa Levi’s men were quickly dropping their guns and that’s when the rest of the girls came running out, except Kitty who stayed with Yana and Anya.

Oh yes, Rock got involved in the fight as well, as did I, but we were already outside. When Papa Levi realized his men were not doing well in this fight, he decided to run, so I jumped onto the wagon and shot some electricity at his car which drained it’s power completely, stopping the car immediately. We then went back to our motorhome, once the fighting was over, and Rock backed up this big machine for a short distance, then turned it around in a small roadway that led into some trees.

Back at the highway the barricade was gone, which I figured it would be and we were once again heading toward our city of destination. However, I’m sure that Papa Levi will contact the authorities to let them know what we are driving now. Aari didn’t agree though. He thought that Papa Levi was likely wanting the reward that is presently on our heads, plus the prestige of catching some international criminals, meaning us I suppose. He might be right about that, it would fit with Papa Levi’s way of thinking. But it seems odd that he would have heard about us already and had time to travel here with so many men.

Perhaps he is here for another purpose and when he heard about what happened, he decided on getting in on the action. Kind of odd that the report said a Captain was involved and not a Colonel. However, Yana told us it is more of an embarrassment to have a Colonel involved, so they made it a Captain instead, and they needed to make it more interesting by saying there was a theft of military secrets so people would be more willing to turn us in.

Speaking of turning us in, there is getting to be a lot more traffic on this highway the further south we go and that is not good. More traffic means more chances of someone calling the police when they see any large motorhome, that is, if Papa Levi does give that information to the authorities. In about an hour we heard another news report and sure enough, they are now looking for a large motorhome. That is not good. Driving this big thing on the highway is not out of the ordinary, but driving it down country roads really makes it stand out.

So, we need some new transportation once again. It wasn’t much further on and there was a large transport truck parked alongside the highway, so we stopped behind it. The driver was having a nap, which gave me an idea. We put the original owners of the motorhome into their seats at the front once again, so it will look like they stopped for a nap and we took the truck, driver and all. We put him in the back with the rest of us, their was lots of room since the cargo only occupied about a third of that big trailer.

Of course there were no windows in that big box, but we had nice, battery powered lamps in our backpacks which gave us all the light we needed. Rock drove this big rig and his “wife” Astrid, with her sister Anya joined him. Fortunately, due to the drug we use, that last couple from the motorhome won’t remember anything except that they were heading for this city where we are also going. They will just figure they had stopped for a rest.

After about half an hour in this big truck, Rock called back and told me the authorities were now looking for us in this truck. Apparently, some observant motorist had noticed us climbing into the back of this truck. This is definitely not good news for us, so we have to get out of here quickly and I told Rock to stop so that we could do so. We were going through a forested area right now, so there was good hiding for us, at least temporarily. Then Misty had an idea, try and get another truck to stop and pretend we are changing trucks, but instead we run off to the trees using the truck as a shield so no one will see us.

Hmm, it just might work and it didn’t take long for another truck to come along, though not as big as the first one. However, that’s okay, since we don’t plan on getting in the back anyway. We waved for it to stop and the driver did, and while Astrid was talking with him, the rest of us pretended to climb in the back after Rock raised the back. After everyone was in the treed area I called to Astrid and she came running to the back.

Then the three of us ran for the trees as the truck pulled away. We had a radio with us, so we listened to the news every half hour and sure enough, someone had seen us change trucks. Good, that will keep the authorities busy for a while. I went over to Misty and gave her a hug, thanking her for a great idea. She had a huge smile on her face after that, not sure why though. “Misty was certainly happy with the praise you gave her,” said Jennifer, smiling, “so nice that you thought of it yourself as well.”

She then gave me a hug. Sometimes I do things right. We have been walking all this time too, not just standing still. Misty also suggested it might be wise to walk the rest of the way since it is forested now right to the sea. Although we would have some open area once we get to the sea and change course to that city. And when we get to the city we have another problem. The authorities know we are going there, likely guessing we want the airport so we can fly out of here, so they will be watching and waiting for us.

That last part will not be easy. Plus, walking all this way will take us a long time and we don’t have enough food to last the whole trip, something that Rock mentioned to me, once or twice. Another problem is that Yana doesn’t have hiking shoes since she was not planning on coming with us and there is no way she could walk that far in her regular shoes. Jennifer then reminded me that the ghosts don’t need to wear shoes, so perhaps one of them have the same size that Yana wears.

We then checked it out and both Sky and Angel wore the same size shoe as Yana. Sky suggested Angel loan her shoes to Yana and then join us as Courage. “How do we explain the loss of Angel?” I asked. “Questions, always questions,” she said, shaking her head. It took both Jennifer and I, with Angel, to convince Yana to wear Angels shoes and that Angel can walk barefoot with no problem.

Soon we were back on our way, walking through the forest. It reminded me of our first time doing this, except there are more of us this time and that makes things more awkward. For one thing, we will need a lot more food for this journey which will take us 4 or 5 days to complete and…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.