“Okay you three,” said Sky, “do not let your feelings get in the way here. This man told Bridgette that he works for Mandar, so until we prove otherwise we have to assume he is telling the truth.” “Perhaps that is the reason for the “M” name that he uses,” said Angel, “though it does seem hard to understand.” “I will call Mandar and find out what is going on,” said Sky.

So she did, and a man answered the phone which was odd since this was supposed to be Mandar’s phone number, not his company. “I would like to speak with Mr. M, this is urgent, please let him know it is Sky calling,” she said. “I do not care if the sky is falling miss,” said the man, “and I do not know of any Mr. M.” Then he hung up. Sky was furious! “This seems to prove that M might just be right,” said Sky, “why would Mr. M. change his number without telling us and then not talk with us.”

“Hmm, that is not so good,” said Rock, “though I still do not understand why he would change so suddenly. It makes no sense.” Sky then phoned Baldwin and let him know what Bridgette had said and what happened when she called Mandar. “I will get in touch with Mandar myself,” he said. “I am sorry,” said the same man, “but Mr. Mandar is in a very important business meeting and cannot be disturbed for 2 weeks.”

“You tell Mandar that if he wants that contract from me, he better get in touch with me today!” said Baldwin. “I will give him your message at the first opportunity,” said the man, and he hung up. But there was no return call that day. The next day Angel decided to try and call Mandar. She knew they desperately needed help and Mandar was the obvious one who could help them.

“I would like to speak with Mandar please,” she began, “tell him Angel is calling and it is extremely important.” “Oh, you again,” said the man, “look Angel in the sky, Mr. Mandar is not available for two weeks, so stop calling.” He then hung up. “Two weeks??” she said, “we cannot wait 2 weeks.” “I guess we cannot count on Mandar anymore,” said Tracy. “That is so sad,” said Sky, “we had gotten to be good friends too and now he turns on us!”

“And to think we got him that nice little cat too,” said Astrid. Meow,meow.=Yep, she nice cat too, now she have bad human. Meow.=Yep, make me mad that we find her for him. Meowr.=Should have kept her here with us. “Okay everyone,” said Sky, “I am upset too, but we have more important things to do right now, like finding Steve and the others. There must be some clues around, we need to check that tunnel in the basement and check that old jail again too. Perhaps they left something behind that would help us.”

“All we found on that dead man was a card from a restaurant in London, a phone number that no longer works and a blank piece of paper,” said Astrid. “Let me see that paper,” said Macey. She looked it over closely holding it up to the light. Then she went back to her room for a minute, followed by Astrid and Angel. They all came back smiling.

“It has the name of a hotel in London on it,” said Macey, “makeup is handy for many things.” “It certainly brought out that faint marking on the paper anyway,” said Angel. “Hmm, it is a long shot, but perhaps they stayed there,” said Sky, “and, perhaps they are still there.” Meanwhile, “Any phone calls today Craig?” asked Bob. “Yeah, if you count crank calls by women,” he said shaking his head, “why do I get the weird ones?” “What were they saying?” asked Bob.

“I cannot really remember, but both wanted to talk with Mandar,” he said, “one said the sky was calling and then the other said she was an angel calling.” Bob just looked at him. “Did you look at that list over there,” said Bob, “the one that lists important people that you put through to Mandar right away?” “Oh, I meant to do that,” he said, “but never got around to it.”

“Well, look at it now, right now,” said Bob, getting rather angry.” Craig did so and saw that Baldwin, Kristina, Sky, and Angel were the top 4 on the list. “Oh, guess I made a little mistake there,” he laughed. Bob was not laughing however. “Get Mandar on the phone and tell him that Sky needs him to call immediately, that it is urgent,” said Bob, “no, wait, I will do it myself.”

He did so and told Mandar what Craig had done. “Pay Craig for his time,” said Mandar, “then fire him.” Bob was more than happy to do so. Meanwhile, I opened my eyes, but I was in a dark room so it was hard to see. It was also cold and damp. I was chained to the wall and so were the girls, all except Annelie. I remember hearing something break, then a cloudy mist, and now we are here. But how did that happen? We are all awake now so I take the opportunity to speak with the girls. I hear footsteps…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.