The Investigators, Inc. Mystery of Avina. Chapter 15. Heading North.

Baldwin’s experts told him that the bomb must have exploded before hitting the building considering how large the blast was. That means her design needs a bit of work yet which gives us a bit more time perhaps before she does something else. Baldwin let us move into his house while we replenished our gear and made plans for going after Avina. John would be helping us this time as a ‘freelance’ team member and Jake flew over to join us on this one too, also as a ‘freelance’ team member.

We are down 6 members at the moment, plus Storm. He wanted to stay with Angel since she is his human now and he is very worried about her. I told him it would be okay to stay with her, I also said it was very important to listen to the doctors and guard Angel too. That made him feel much better. While we were getting things ready I talked over some things with Baldwin.

We are also going to use one of his many yachts for this trip since flying in to Avina’s hideout would be impossible. Hopefully by boat we can sneak in quietly before she sees us coming. That will be very important since John told us this would not be an easy trip, Avina has a lot of people guarding her hideout. He was not sure of the exact number, but it is somewhere between 30 and 50 people. I hope it is closer to the lower figure.

Even though we know where to look for Avina it still may not be easy to find her hideout. We just know the general area, way up in northern Norway. There is a small town in the area but we cannot show up there, Avina likely has people watching the town for us or the police. We will pull into one of the fjords just before the fjord where she has her hideout. We picked up John and began our northward trek.

Soon after leaving England I got a call from Baldwin saying Cassie had died. “That is two for you Avina,” I said to myself, “but I will get you for this.” We continued up the coast and found the fjord we wanted and went along inside of its high rock walls. But there was no place for us to land and climb to the top, so we turned back and went in the fjord before that one. This one was good so we anchored the yacht and went ashore.

The crew of the yacht stayed behind with four of Baldwin’s men to help guard it. Four of Baldwin’s men came with us as well. Landing here means a lot more walking ahead of us. We walked for about 6 hours then decided to camp there and get an early start in the morning. We did so and were up at 3am to continue our hike. But we still quite far away and discovered her hideout at around 6pm.

We split up to check out the place from every side then met back at our starting point to talk over what we had seen. There were no guards along the north side which means she must have another way to watch for intruders on that side. But why the north side? We decided to come in from the east side once it got dark and it did not stay dark for very long at this time of the year. So we would have to move fast.

Just as it was getting dark we began to go in. Muffin and MC took care of two guards and the rest of us took care of 4 more guards with our sleeping darts. But before we got to the first building an alarm went off and a voice repeating “intruders on the east side, intruders on the east side…” Well, we have been spotted, so the real guns come out now.

There was a small airfield with a building large enough for a smaller plane. Bellamy and Benson headed over there and did find a plane inside so they went to work. Some of Avina’s men headed over to that building but we started shooting to get their attention to come after us. That was John, Jake, Sigurbjorn and myself. Jenny, Carine and Kristina went to another building which turned out to be a warehouse of explosives.

Well, they figured it was time for some fireworks and Kristina tossed an explosive of our own through a window from hopefully a safe distance, then they all turned and ran. Talk about fireworks! What a series of explosions! Then the plane and some bombs were blown up next by Bellamy and Benson. More guards kept coming out. Then Jake spotted their generator and he and John went over to cut the power off. Everything went dark and we all rushed inside.

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.

Coffee For Friday. #13 Country Pleasures, Part 2.

Good morning and a very Happy Friday to all of you! Many of you are already at the end of your Friday, some are closer to the beginning of the day with a lot of you in between. It is Friday. It is also a very beautiful, sunny and warm day here.

We did get a little rain overnight but not much and there was a lot of thunder around for a while but no rain with it. However, areas around us received rain. We did not really need more here anyway. Our lake and river levels continue to drop all the time, though we are still far from normal.

Male evening grosbeak with females in the background.

And fall is normally very wet in this area. I hope it will not be too rainy though. Country pleasures. They are all around us if we just look for them. You do not need to be in the country to find them either. All towns and cities seem to have parks or green spaces for people to enjoy. And you can find many country pleasures in those places. Such a beautiful day.

Two of my chipmunks.

The chipmunks are busy carrying away the peanuts and the sunflower seeds that I have been putting out for them too. Watching them chase each other around, they never really do much fighting, just chasing. Then watching them as those cheeks of theirs fill up so big and fat. They look so cute with their chubby cheeks. That is a country pleasure.

White Admiral butterfly.

Sitting out on the deck as a white admiral butterfly comes by and lands on a leaf. So absolutely beautiful. Seeing the sun shining on the bright orange daylilies making them shine. Looking for the wonderful wildflowers all along the path to the river. Those are more real country pleasures. Sitting by the river watching the water flow quickly past.

Daylilies in the sunshine.

Ducks sitting on logs and fallen trees. A female mallard swimming in a somewhat sheltered spot. The white pelicans across the river sitting on the rock along the shore sunning themselves, preening their feathers. These are more country pleasures. A little white-throated sparrow, sitting on a branch chirping away. That is another country pleasure.

Orange-belted Bumblebee at a hollyhock flower.

Watching a bumble bee getting covered with pollen as it goes after the sweet nectar of the hollyhocks. Talking with the squirrels that come by or ones I meet along the path to the river. Again, such beautiful country pleasures. The sun continues to shine and those green leaves are really glowing. We should enjoy our country pleasures and always be thankful for them. Time to go out and enjoy some of these beautiful country pleasures! Have a great Friday everyone and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2022 Steve McLeod.