“We go back and join the others,” added Galyna. Muffin went over to apologize to everyone for the way she acted. “Steve, may I speak with you privately?”, asked Galyna. “Sure,” I said, “let’s sit on the bench in front of the store.” Galyna then told me what had happened to Muffin. “That is what Carine said too,” I said, “once she could think properly again.” “Who knows about all of our fears?”, asked Galyna. “Well, aside from myself, there is Kat, Jennifer and Annelie,” I told her, “Baldwin did not want to know, he said it would likely give him nightmares.”

“It is possible that someone has hacked into our files too,” Galyna added. “We use the best security possible, the same one that Baldwin’s corporation uses,” I said. “No system is foolproof,” she said, “and if it has been hacked, then we are in big trouble.” I call Storm to come over. He came running over and onto my lap right away. He really enjoys when I let him become involved like this.

I put in a call to Annelie. “How do you contact Annelie when there is no internet out here?”, asked Galyna, very puzzled. “It is quite simple really, though I do not understand it myself,” I said, “you will have to ask Annelie to explain it to you, I do not think I could!” She just laughed. Meanwhile, back at the chateau…they were having a snack of donuts and tea when my call came through. There are no words, just symbols that each contain a message.

Annelie nearly choked and ran to her laptop. “What is wrong?”, asked Baldwin. “Someone has hacked our team files and has discovered all of our worst fears,” she told him, “and undoubtedly a lot more, but I deleted everything just in case they have not copied it yet.” “But that is the same security I use,” said Baldwin with his eyes wide open. “I would suggest you change to something else immediately just in case,” she said, “or they could hack you too.”

He was on the phone right away calling his office. “Get it done,” he yelled, “as in yesterday!” “Is Steve sure that we were hacked?”, asked Baldwin after everything was done. “Well, it is either that or we have a traitor in our midst,” she said, “and I sure hope that is not the case.” “Yes,” agreed Baldwin, “that is something we do not need right now.” Then Annelie called Jake to see if he had found out any news.

“Hey girl, I was just thinking about calling you, got something for you,” he said. “Okay, give it to me,” she said, “it looks like our team files have been hacked by someone and they are already using that info against us.” “That’s bad girl, I hope you got rid of it all,” he said. “Yep, and I put on our false info just in case they have not copied the real files yet,” she said, “now, what do you have for me.” “That could be the work of someone named Mel, who could be that Melinda you mentioned,” he began, “she can do most anything with a computer.

Now, Melinda, Maggie, Val, Sam, Mark and Mike all went to high school together and have loosely kept in touch over the years. Then they all ended up in Australia a couple years ago, except Melinda who just showed up recently. Word is that she is indeed Mel who makes herself a lot of money with her “talents”. There is something going on there that is big, but it is not the mine, it is the town itself, or possibly under the town, not sure which.

But that might be something to look into. Now something else, Maggie and Val were working on a way to kind of brainwash people with a machine they came up with, using people’s fears to either make the people do things, or just make them go crazy so they are useless. Oh, and Maggie is not deaf, she just uses that so she can listen in to conversations. Tell Steve to be extra careful, those 3 ladies are big trouble.”

“Thanks Jake, that is big news,” said Annelie, ” I will let Steve know right away.” “I’ll be back in touch,” said Jake and he hung up. Back to us again… Annelie got the info to me right away. “This is not good,” I said and I called everyone together to tell them the news. “I think it is time to send most of you back home,” I said, “sometimes a smaller team can work better.”

“And you will be one of those leaving,” Kat said to me, “with all the times you have been drugged, if they got hold of you, that could finish you for good.” “Kat is right Steve,” added Galyna, “you should leave.” Everyone echoed that. Just then Muffin collapsed. Meow!=It Muffin thump thump! Jennifer started massaging her heart right away and it began beating again.

“Muffin needs to go as well, plus MC to be with her,” said Kat, “and Carine too.” “And Storm to help protect Muffin,” said Angel. “Jennifer and Galyna go along for protection too,” said Kat, “the rest of us will stay for a short time to see what we can come up with.” The helicopter arrived to take us back and just as we cleared the trees it exploded, crashing to the ground!

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.