Steve`s Country
For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
The Investigators, Inc. Mountain Cabin Mystery. Chapter 16. Chop Chop.
“No,” I said to Sigurbjorn, “she will not let us go, and we do not have the gold to give her anyway. She will kill you and us.” “Yes, I guess you are right,” she answered, “that would be how my sister thinks.” Rossana came over to us while the shooting had stopped. “Perhaps we could get around behind them,” said Sigurbjorn, “my sister will not be with the other men, she will be far behind them where it is safe, possibly with 1 or 2 trusted bodyguards with her.”
“That would make sense,” said Rossana, “but remember, we must take her alive if possible, so if she surrenders then we arrest her.” I looked at Sigurbjorn. “I will go along with that,” she said, “though I do not think it is the best way.” “Okay,” I said, “you, Rossana, Muffin and MC will go. But, if it cannot be done safely, you come back, both of you, and that is an order.” We were to give them 15 minutes, then start shooting to divert the attention of the men out front of Q.
Sigurbjorn was right, Svala was off by herself, well behind her men, and 2 bodyguards with her. Time was up so we began to shoot and they returned fire. Muffin and MC moved in close enough to handle the bodyguards and, “Thwock, Thwock!”. Both men fell to the ground. Svala turned ready to shoot but she saw that Sigurbjorn and Rossana had their guns on her already, so she tossed her gun and put her hands on her head saying she surrendered.
Rossana identified herself as the police and told her to keep her hands where they were. “I do not trust her Rossana,” said Sigurbjorn, “that was much too easy.” “We must arrest her though,” said Rossana. So they both started walking towards her. Once they were close enough Svala jumped into action kicking Rossana twice with amazing speed, then kicking Sigurbjorn on her knee knocking her to the ground. Then Svala hit Rossana twice but Sigurbjorn then kicked her knee even while she was still on the ground.
Both those girls knew how to fight having taken the same lessons, so they were quite equally matched. And now both had bad knees to deal with. Both cats kept trying to get in position to take down Svala, but the two girls were moving around much too fast, kicking, hitting, throwing each other. Then Svala managed to pick up a small club she had and hit Sigurbjorn on the shoulder.
She groaned loudly but managed a hard kick to Svala knocking her against a large boulder. Then Svala pulled a gun to shoot Sigurbjorn. Rossana found her gun on the ground and aimed for Svala. But, “Thwock, Thwock!” and Svala fell. Back to us…Meowr!=Chop chop coming. “Okay Storm, now it is your turn, go!”, I said to him. Off he went and shot his marking bombs, 4 of them, which produced plumes of red smoke.
Suddenly there was a roar as one of the helicopters was overhead and fired its machine guns at the smoked area. The remaining men came running out with hands in the air. I called up to the helicopter to stop firing. The second one had already lowered 3 stretchers, Rock and Benson quickly transferring the bodies over to be raised to the chopper.
Muffin and MC were back jumping up and down, meow,meow!=Oh, big chop chops! Meow.=Job done, no prisoner, others hurt though. Rock and Benson rounded up the 5 remaining men and made sure they had no weapons. Sigurbjorn and Rossana came limping back slowly. Mriya and Jenny went to help them. “Well,” I began to say. “It was the cats who got Svala,” said Sigurbjorn crying.
“After a fight she surprised us with a gun,” said Rossana, “I had to grab mine from the ground and was about to shoot, but the cats were quicker.” Both cats went over to Sigurbjorn. Meow,meow.=We can’t not let sister shoot our Sigurbjorn. Meow.=That right, you precious now to us. Meow,meow.=Yep, you our family now and we love you.
Sigurbjorn picked them up and hugged them for a long time. Rock and Benson made sure the other men were safely on the other helicopter and chained in place for the police who would be waiting for them. We rested for a while then made our way back to the resort. Still some things to do there to wrap up this case and I sure hope that Paul and Beth are ready to cooperate. But someone was still watching from far away. “You won this time PI, but we will meet another day, I promise,” she said to herself.
To Be Continued.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Solitude On My Deck. #9
Good morning everyone and Happy Saturday! Do you ever get one of those days? Or perhaps a whole week? You know, when things just do not go quite right. Like finally getting a couple of extra days off and you end up getting the flu on those days. Or other plans that you had made needed to be canceled at the last minute due to circumstances, whatever they might be.
Perhaps just a bunch of little things keep going wrong day after day and you are almost ready to bang your head on the wall in frustration. Or, no matter what you do, people complain. Then there is solitude. Sitting on my deck enjoying a cup of coffee in the morning without worrying about the bear. I think my new neighbor’s dog is helping to keep the bear away, which is nice.
If he would obey me a bit more than he does I would take him with me for walks to the river. Unfortunately he does not like being on a leash. That stops things right there. Too bad really. He would be good company on my walks and I would be able to go more often. Oh well. Walks to the river. Just the thought brings solitude. Walking along that winding path, up and down hills. Walking through tall green grass, and across granite “sidewalks”. Hillsides strewn with boulders of all sizes.
Thick underbrush and more open areas under towering pines. Some parts of the trail are packed with mud, other parts are covered with a thick mat of pine needles. Along the way the birds are singing, mostly high in the trees, but some are lower in smaller trees and bushes. Squirrels scampering across the path in different locations, sometimes getting too close to another squirrels territory and the chattering begins. All along the way are many different insects, especially dragonflies and butterflies.
Some dragonflies, like the chalk-fronted corporal, are very friendly and often sit on my shoulder as I walk along, then quickly dart after a fly or mosquito and back onto my shoulder to munch lunch. I love to look up at the tall pines overhead, what a view it would be from up there. But I enjoy the view just looking up.
Sometimes, here and there along the path, there are spruce trees that are actually taller than the pines. They are huge trees. I can just imagine an excited squirrel at the top of one, eyes popping out as he sees all the spruce cones which will provide it with a lot of seeds for the winter. Then there is my little friend Scramble, I like to give him treats of peanuts whenever I go past his place, which is not very often this year.
Then finally getting to the river to watch the ducks and pelicans and whatever else might be around. All of this is true solitude. Beautiful solitude. Monday will be our next sunny day, so hopefully I can get down to the river again. I never get tired of that walk, always something new to see or hear. Have a most wonderful Saturday everyone and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2022 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 