After Mr. Copeland had driven off back to the city, our team leaders held their meeting. They included Aari, Rock, John and Mac in this meeting, after Sky brought them over. They didn’t want them driving over in case someone was watching the chateau. Anyway, Kat valued their contributions since they knew a lot more about these kinds of criminals than she did. Jazzy was also included, along with Hannah. While they were having the meeting Mandar phoned to see how things were going.

Sky soon brought him to join the meeting as well. Mandar told them they should demand talking to one of us each day to make sure we are okay. Kat had already thought of that, but she was told we were being held in an area with no phone service or electricity, so contact was not possible. “Hmm, I don’t really like that part,” said Mandar, “but I guess we don’t have much choice, do we?” “No choice at all,” said Kat, “but I’m sure they know that if we can get their friends out of that prison, then we can find them easily enough if they try to double cross us.”

“If they hurt my little Steffie,” said Misty, “I will kill them with my bare hands!” Misty was quite upset by what happened. Just then they got a phone call from Mr. Copeland and he told Kat that he just found out that his friends had been transferred to a different prison, which will make things a bit more difficult. Kat told him that if he tried to cross them, he and his friends would not like the outcome. He said they all understood that and we would be returned at the same time as they received their friends.

Tracy, who had been in that first prison for a couple of years knew about this other prison and she agreed, it will be much tougher getting those men out of there. Cristy then looked up that prison and got a detailed floor plan of it for the team. While she was doing that, Akila was checking on the status of those men they were going to rescue from the prison. Hopefully she can find out which cells the men are in, that will make things easier to get them out.

Actually, it’s more of a necessity for getting them out, they can’t just go walking around the prison looking for the men, it would take too long, even with the ghosts helping. “Sky, remember that Mr. Copeland said Steve and the others had been put to sleep for their journey,” said Kat, “so make sure you hold hands with Angel at all times. When Steve wakes up, he will call you, so you need to be ready.” “Here we go again,” said Sky, sighing, “we can’t hold hands all the time. How do we sleep, how do we shower?” “You’re ghosts,” said Misty, “you don’t need to do those things right now, do you?”

“Well, it is still nice to do,” said Sky, “I like showers.” “And I like sleeping,” said Friskie. “Yes, me too,” said Jennifer, “to both of those things.” Misty sighed even louder. “This is an emergency,” said Misty, “do without!” Jennifer walks over to Misty. “Are you giving orders to Leader 1?” she asked. “Yes!” she replied emphatically, “Well, I mean, sort of anyway, like a suggestion sort of thing anyway, or something.” “I understand Misty,” said Jennifer, “we’ll get them all back, including Steffie. Think how Friskie feels right now.”

Misty looks over at Friskie who was crying and she shuffled over to her slowly and sat beside her, putting her arm around her. “Don’t worry Friskie,” said Misty, “we’ll get Steffie back for you.” Then Tracy handcuffed Sky and Angel together. “Hey, me too!” said Jennifer. Sky sighed nice and loud. Then Tracy pulled Friskie over and handcuffed her to Jennifer while Nakedra handcuffed Kitty to Angel. “Hey, wait a minute!” yelled Sky, “You can’t do that!”

Meanwhile we return to us. We are presently on a small jet flying somewhere, though who knows where. The windows were all blocked so we could not see out. We all had some kind of backpack strapped to us, all except Steffie. I didn’t like that thought, it could mean we are going somewhere and she is not. But, where are we going? None of us knew if this was still the same day or was it tomorrow already. We could have been sleeping for a long time, or it might have been just an hour or two. We don’t have any way to tell time right now.

I was about to call Sky when one of the pilots came back to us to talk. “We are soon reaching the destination where you people will be staying for a few days,” he said, “unfortunately there is no airport, which is why you are all wearing parachutes. We have already dropped in all the supplies you will need for your stay at our finest hotel. Sorry Steve, you will have to hold onto your daughter while taking the elevator down to the hotel. We didn’t have a parachute for her.” “Could you possibly strap her to me somehow?” I asked.

“Hey, I could do that,” he said, and he used duct tape to strap her onto me. That wasn’t quite what I had in mind, but I’m sure it will work. He then went back to the front and closed the door. He came back shortly with another man before I had a chance to call Sky. We were told to behave while the first man untied us, then we were taken to the door which the second man opened. Both of them then began to push us out the door! Hmm, now would be a good time to call Sky, so I did. I certainly didn’t expect what happened. Sky arrived with Angel, Jennifer, Friskie, Kitty and… Misty!

I’m not sure how Sky managed that and they were falling around me with Misty screaming that we’re all gonna die! Poor Kitty, Misty was clinging to her tightly and screaming in her ear! “Just don’t think about the ‘splat’ as we hit the ground Misty!” I yelled out to her. Poor Misty, she screamed even louder when I said that. Maybe I should say, poor Kitty. All of the parachutes opened nicely, although we were a bit close together, so it will be tricky for landing. “Actually Misty, I think it’s more of a splat squish when we hit the ground!” I yelled.

“You made her faint!” yelled Kitty. “Good, that will make it easier for you to land,” I called out, “just hold onto her tight!” I knew the ghosts would have no trouble landing without parachutes, but Misty is not a ghost, so hopefully Kitty can give her a gentle landing. We were soon on the ground and everyone was safe. But there was certainly no hotel, or anything else for as far as we could see. Just barren, dry, inhospitable ground. Not even any clumps of grass showing. No trees, no water.

Just flat, barren, parched ground. But, over to our right was some kind of rocky area, so after picking up our parachutes, we headed in that direction. I had asked Sky to take us back home, but she reminded me that she can’t do that since we moved too far away from where I called her. And not knowing where we are doesn’t help either. It’s handy to have this information to travel back and forth. It would have been better to wait until we landed. Bad time to remind myself…

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.