I was watching on the monitor everything that was going on with the team. I could easily move from one person to the other and survey the whole scene. Annelie has done a fantastic job of putting this all together for me. “Rock, be careful,” I said, “those men are not standing out there 24 hours a day, that means there are replacements in the house.”

“Oh, right, forgot about that possibility,” he said, “but you are right. That makes this even worse for us.” “Yes, just hold off doing anything for a bit until I look around some more,” I told him. I then switched over to Astrid, she is our best sniper and she had climbed this very tall pine tree, all the way to the top. I am glad it was not a windy day. I doubt I could handle watching things sway back and forth. She was enjoying the view though she said.

“Let me survey the north perimeter, slowly,” I said. So she slowly moved along and I could see some of the guards that were posted just inside the trees. “Stop,” I said, “back up just a bit.” She did so. “What do you see down by those two guards?” I asked her. She looked through her binoculars. “Hey, that is a large machine gun,” she said, “that could cut us down very fast.”

“Look around the west perimeter and see if you can see another one,” I told her. “Yep, there it is, better hidden than the other one,” she said. Then she checked the east side and sure enough there was another one there. “That means there is one on your side too,” I said, “you just cannot see it.” I went to Leonardo who was also in a tree and asked if he could see a machine gun on the south perimeter.

“Yep, there it is,” he said, “those are dangerous, we would not have a chance if they use them. We will have to put them out of commission before anything else.” “Yes, that is true,” I said. Then I went back to Rock and told him what we found out. “Astrid found some machine guns, as did Leonardo,” I said, “big guns, so they will need to be stopped first before doing anything else. Wait just a bit until I call back.”

“Okay Steve,” he said, “that sure changes things for us.” I then called Baldwin to let him know about those machine guns. “That is not good news,” he said, “I do not really like this.” “I agree,” I said, “by the way, did you remember to send someone to meet Chung at the airport? His plane should be in.” “Yes, I am here myself,” he said, “I needed to get out and participate too, besides, I was just sitting there worrying about things anyway. Now I can worry even more.

Oh, here comes Chung now, with someone else.” We hung up, but hearing about someone being with Chung bothered me. Probably because of all that is going on right now. “Hi Chung,” said Baldwin, “did you have a good trip?” Chung said nothing, just handed a note to Baldwin. The note read, “Call off your team, or you will die, with the Chinese man. The Doctor.”

“Never!” said Baldwin to the man with Chung, “take him!” Baldwin’s bodyguards moved to take the man, but before they could grab him he put a knife in Chung’s back and he fell to the floor. The man pulled a gun too but was shot by a bodyguard. Then a loud shot rang across the room and Baldwin fell to the floor. Airport security tried to get the man but he shot the one and began to run.

Another bodyguard shot and the man fell. Good thing there were not many people around at the time. I was notified immediately and told that both Baldwin and Chung were still alive and were being brought to our hospital. I told Saranna and she got ready. Annelie and Sigurbjorn got ready to assist her. The doctor knew, but how? The only people that have left this hospital since our meeting was Baldwin, Mandar and our mystery visitor.

No one could have contacted him from here or we would know about it. However, one of our 3 top men may have inadvertently said something which was picked up by one of their men working for the doctor. I trust each of them, they would not deliberately be a traitor, but sometimes ‘walls have ears’. I called Mandar and told him what happened and warned him to be careful, the doctor might try to kill him too.

I then called our mystery visitor to tell him. He was very concerned about this news, as was Mandar. “Whatever you decide is okay with me Steve,” he said, “my men are volunteers, they knew this could be very dangerous.” “Mandar said we could just destroy the house,” I said, “which would be safer, but I would like to know what he is up to, it could be important.”

Sky was now very happy that I had her stay behind too, now she can help protect me. After all, the doctor would be after me too. What to do…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.