Mandar finally had figured out the clue and went to the ruins in Sweden. It took his men a while, but they finally found the box in the floor and opened it, giving the note to Mandar. “That blasted woman beat me to the clue!”, he yelled, “how did she do that?” He climbed back out of the room and stormed off to his waiting car. “Back to Stockholm,” said Mandar.

“Why not get just kill her?”, asked one of his men. “Because she is my wife, and the police would immediately look for me.” “Then get someone else to do it, like that PI,” said the man. “Hmm, you might have something there,” said Mandar, “for them to get in a fight would be normal and if she gets killed, they could not blame me for that, I like that idea.” He did not know that Jennifer and I had been kidnapped by Brenda.

Meanwhile… The ransom note said she wanted 25 million American dollars for our return. And she gave my team 5 days to give her an answer. They called Baldwin and told him the news. He told the team to stay there while he thought of something. He and I already had an agreement that he would not pay any ransom for me.

For any other team member, he could do what he wanted. Poor Muffin was so upset she would not eat. MC tried to cheer her up, but without success. Then Muffin spotted my phone on the desk and went over to make a call. I had taught her how to call certain people if necessary. But she wanted someone else. So, she looked over my contacts and found him.

“Hey Steve, how are you doing?”, said the voice. Meow,meow.=It not my human, it me, Muffin. I am so, so very sad. You so very nice man human Rock, me need your help. Bad Brenda woman take my human away and going to kill him, need your help. You please help little Muffin? Please? She sounded so sad that poor Rock was almost crying. “I must talk with Baldwin first little one, but I will help, you can count on that,” he said to Muffin.

She was much happier now and told MC she wants to eat. MC was jumping with excitement and brought her food over. Rock called Baldwin and asked if he could come and help, mentioning that Muffin had called him. Baldwin said yes. Rock was in Paris for a business trip, so he was able to quickly fly to Stockholm to join the team.

But first he called John, who also quickly flew to Stockholm. “Glad you could make it John,” said Rock. “No problem, I was not doing anything important anyway,” John said smiling. The whole team got together to talk things over, and John came up with an idea. John also found out where Brenda was staying by using a contact he had in the city.

The next morning Rock was walking down that street in front of the building where Brenda was staying. He stopped and started digging in the trash can out front. He was dressed in old torn clothes. “Hey Brenda, look at the big ape out there digging in the trash,” said one of her men. She looked out the window. “Go get that guy for me,” she said.

The man went out immediately and convinced Rock to come inside to meet Brenda. “You want ta see me?”, said Rock. “What is your name big fella,” she asked. “Name’s Reggie,” he said. “You are not Swedish, what are you doing here?”, she asked. “Came here for job, but when I come, there is no job, he tell me I too big,” said Reggie, “now I have no money to go back home. I work here and there, not much money though, so I still not go home.”

She told her man to leave the room. “You sure Brenda?”, he said. Reggie picks him up with one hand. “She say to leave, you deaf?”, said Reggie. “You can put him down Reggie,” she said laughing, “I think he gets the point.” So Reggie dropped him, and he left. “I will give you a job as my bodyguard,” she said, “you get a place to live, food and $5,000/month.”

“Good pay, okay, I take job”, he said. “Good, now, we will go find you a tailor for some new clothes, then I will take you to dinner,” she said, and off they went in her car. Not far away however and my team came along forcing her car over to the side of the road. Rock grabbed Brenda’s arm. “Outside now,” he said, and he pulled her out the door. “I should never trust men!”, she growled.

“Well, now we have you,” said Rock, “and your men have Steve and Kat. Your life for theirs, and the trade happens right now, if you want to live.” So, she called her men and told them to let us go, which they did amazingly fast. We came out of the building and a car was waiting for us, driven by Sigurbjorn. She was shocked when she saw us.

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.