Several men arrive with guns and unlock us from our prison. Then they take us upstairs to a large bedroom with a pile of clothes on the bed. “There is a bathroom over there,” said one man, “the clothes are from your chateau. Clean up, dinner in one hour, we do not tolerate being late.” Then they all left, but they locked the door as they did. Likely they left guards outside the door too. We all showered and got dressed in clean clothes. Surprisingly there was clothes to fit everyone.

And we were ready with 15 minutes to spare. Not bad. It will be interesting to meet this mysterious M and find out what he wants. Obviously he does not intend to kill us, at least not right away. That means he wants us to do something for him, something that he cannot do, and that intrigues me. It would seem he can do a lot considering he got into our chateau and captured all of us without a fight. I have a quick, but very quiet talk with the girls.

We need to be very friendly, and they need to be very polite, whether they want to or not. No matter what M does or says. That might not be an easy task, but they all said they would follow my lead. The same man arrived with the others and their guns and took us into a large dining room with a huge table, and an equally huge chair at the head of the table. The man seated us and left. The guards remained however.

Then the man returned with a very large man, obviously this must be M. He must weigh about 500 pounds. I have never seen such a large man. When he got to the table we all stood up and said good evening to him. He was all smiles and told us to sit down. We then had quite a feast, and M could certainly eat! He did say that he enjoyed eating more than anything. That was quite obvious. We just talked about normal things during dinner, he said we would talk business afterward.

So he does want us to work for him. I wonder what? Meanwhile, Baldwin called for some help since it was impossible to get hold of Mandar, and Baldwin was quite angry with him right now. He even stopped 3 contracts he had with Mandar which quickly caused problems for some of Baldwin’s projects. “I am glad you could get here so quickly John,” said Baldwin, “we have a huge problem right now.” He then went on to explain things to John and how both Bridgette and Annelie had been beaten so badly.

“That is messages from this M,” said John, “they are warnings not to follow or get involved. Otherwise Steve and the girls would meet a similar fate, only they would be beaten far worse, possibly being killed.” “But we cannot just sit back and do nothing,” said Baldwin, “Steve and the girls might be dead already.” “What about their transmitters?” asked John. “The new ones are not quite ready,” said Baldwin, “and the old ones have been removed already since they were not working properly anyway.”

“Hmm, that is bad,” said John, “I am going to ask around and see what I can find out. I just do not understand why Mandar turned against you like that, however, it just makes no sense at all.” “Do not even mention his name around here anymore,” said Baldwin. Back at the hotel. The team looked up that hotel and restaurant but M had left already and they were all very happy that he did.

Unfortunately they did not learn anything that would help them. Back they went to the hotel rather discouraged. Then Rock took some of the girls and went back to the old jail to see if they could find something more. But again, they found nothing. This was not going good. Meanwhile Mandar had told his men to find Craig and bring him back. So he soon had men spread out all through London.

It was Bob and Stewart that finally found him, right at 4pm. He was walking casually through a small park and he suddenly stopped by a bench and reached underneath, bringing out a large envelope. “Well, well,” said Bob, “that looks like payoff money.” Poor Craig was not sure what to do. Stewart pulled a gun while Bob took the envelope from Craig. It had £10,000 in it.

“Very nice,” said Bob, “now we go back to see Mandar.” “Wait,” said Craig, “if you let me go I will split the money with you.” “I have it all and you want me to split it with you?” asked Bob, “we go see Mandar.” “Sky, please let me call daddy,” said Macey, “he might be able to help, and we sure need it.” “Okay,” she said, “we do need some help…”

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.