“What do you mean I cannot come along?”, asked Kat on the way home. “Sorry, but I want to keep you safe,” I said, “and you do need some time to heal, they beat you worse than I thought Mandar would allow.” “Well, I did kick him rather hard,” she said, “that is probably why.” “That would do it, I guess,” I said, “and I am leaving Carine and Angel behind to look after you, plus Storm, he can sense danger a long ways off.

And do not worry, we have Baudry and Kaarina from our test course to come along with us. Plus Baldwin is sending two of his security people that also want to join our team, a man named Conrad from Germany, and a man from Japan, I do not his name yet.” “Okay,” she said, “since you have extra help then I will stay behind.” We just stopped briefly at home then off to the airport.

Baldwin was there with his two men, the jet was ready to go. We were to fly off to Norway again, way up north to Harstad/Narvik, the largest airport that can handle a jet this size. From there we fly a smaller plane to Sorkjosen which is our destination, or close to it anyway. Baldwin booked our rooms for us at a hotel, although Kat arranged with him for my room. She wanted me safe, so I had a room with my “wife”, Jennifer, and my “sister”, Sigurbjorn.

Our room had a separate bedroom for the newlyweds. It was a very nice, spacious room too. The girls enjoyed the bedroom while I slept in the bed in the main room with Muffin and MC. They would not allow the cats in the dining room, so we had our meals sent up to our room. The cats were a bit upset about it though, they grumbled the whole time they were eating their pancakes.

We were soon off in our rented vans looking for the treasure, or more likely, another clue. I am really having doubts about the existence of any treasure. But, we will keep looking. The fact that Brenda and Mandar are looking for it too does give me a bit of hope that it might actually exist. But only a bit. We came back by late afternoon, tired from walking all over and finding nothing. Oddly, no evidence of Mandar yet.

We left very early the next morning and went a different direction this time. At the end of the road was a log cabin, unused for a long time, so we went inside to look around. There was an old picture on the wall with something written on the back in Norwegian. “It says, this is Treasure Rock,” said Sigurbjorn, “15 minutes to the north.” Off we went and at about 12 minutes we began to look for this strange looking rock.

“Over there,” said Jenny pointing to the right. Sure enough, there sat a rock that looked very much like a treasure chest. We went over to it and looked all around but we found nothing. “Could it be underneath the rock?” asked Conrad. “It looks to weigh about a thousand pounds,” I said, “so I doubt it.” The cats were busy sniffing all around the rock. Meow,meow!=Here, dig here!

The guys began to dig and about a foot down they hit some metal. Soon up came a heavy metal box, locked. But Baudry broke the lock off with his axe and inside was…another note. Sigh. I took it out and looked at, then handed it to Sigurbjorn. Suddenly shots rang out all around us! “Hands on top of your heads!”, yelled a familiar voice.

But it was not Mandar, it was Brenda! She and about 20 men with guns came in closer. “I will take that,” said Brenda. I told Sigurbjorn to give it to her. “I do not like being played for a fool,” she said, “now you will pay for what you did!” Two men came in closer to me, ready to shoot when she told them to do so. But, more shots and those two men fell to the ground.

“My dear Brenda,” said Mandar, “you have so much to learn.” “Mandar!”, she gasped, “I thought you were dead!” “Many people had that same thought,” he said, “but Mandar does not die so easily. Now, the note is mine.” Then one of his men went over to take it from Brenda. She gave it to him with a growl. He then had all of her men put down their guns and his men tied them up, all together, including Brenda.

“This is humiliating,” she yelled. “I quite agree, which is why I had my men do it that way,” he said smiling, “and now, my good man, I will let you go free as you let me go free. From here we are now even, is that understood?” “Yes, it is quite plain,” I said. “Good, if we meet again I cannot promise I will be so agreeable,” he said.

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.