I know some of the team were disappointed I did not pick them to go along, but I just want a small team this time. I am not giving Avina another chance to kill all of us at the same time. If we fail, then Kat has the remaining team members to come and help us. I have the 3 cats, Rock, Jennifer, Sigubjorn, Kristina and Tracy. Plus we will be meeting John here and I am sure he will want to join us.

We booked into a hotel and soon John was knocking on the door. I thought he was wearing a disguise, but, he informed me it was all real. He came in using a cane and had a very bad limp, his leg and hip had been badly injured and he said he was in a lot of pain all the time. He had numerous scars on his arms from the many cuts he received as well. And some burned areas he mentioned.

John is quite an amazing man, too bad we are not on the same side exactly, though I think John is changing more all the time. “I can take you up to her hideaway,” he said, “I have been up that way a couple of times to check the place out and see if my informant was correct and it sure seems like he was.” “How did you manage to get around?”, I asked him.

“Well, down here it is not hard to hire people to help me out, everyone it seems is looking for some extra cash in this area,” he said, “that is why Avina was able to hire her security force so easily. But something she does not know is that most of them are not going to stand around and get killed for her. They will run away if someone comes after them with some good weapons. All they have is a handgun, six bullets, that is it.”

“That is good to know,” I said, “and we have come well equipped for this one.” “Where is the rest of your team?”, he asked. “This is it, we are doing things differently this time,” I said, “less people will be harder to find for her and no chance to kill us all at once.” “Good idea,” said John, “when do we leave?” “Early in the morning,” I said, “so you will have to stay here in the hotel tonight.”

I got him a room and Rock went with him to get his things from a rooming house he was staying at. John really should not be getting himself involved, but I know he wants to do this after what Avina and Toledo did to him. We did leave early, we wanted to be there before daylight and get our digging done while it was still dark.

There was a spot we could dig and not be seen by their cameras, though I doubt those cameras could see this far anyway. John was watching the gate, we had given him the right weapons to stop any vehicles from leaving this hideaway that Avina has here in the hills. The grass was long, not long enough to hide people, but the cats could move through it unseen.

Once close enough then I called John and let him know he can start. The sun was just beginning to rise but was still behind the trees. Perfect. John began shooting at the gate guards with his automatic weapons and tossed a grenade at the gate blowing it right off the posts. Then the cats fired at the cameras on the side of the house smashing three of them. But we were at the back of the house.

Guards came out the front of the house and John kept them busy. There was indeed a blind spot at the back so we went over to the spot he told us about and sure enough, under a little soil and grass was an old door. Rock opened that without any difficulty and in we went to the basement and up the stairs to the kitchen which was unoccupied. That got us into the main part of the house.

“Thwock! Thwock!” Two more guards down. We went into a large room obviously used for planning. Avina was just heading for a side door. I yelled at her to stop. She turned, with hands up, to surrender. I wanted to shoot, but Sigurbjorn put her hand on mine, so I put my gun down.

I was not watching, however, and forgot that Avina liked to keep a knife down her back which she could reach easily as she lowered her hands. She grabbed that knife behind her head but Storm spotted it and meowed loudly, “she have knife!” Muffin was on her back and “Thwock!” Avina fell to the floor. At that close range she was killed instantly. But where was Toledo?

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.