This is crazy, we have not really finished our case in the desert and we are on a new case. This time however, it is a case for survival. The desert mystery is in the hands of local authorities in that country, so we cannot participate now unless asked by their government. We will ever find out anything more? Probably not. But we did rescue Jessica and that was the main thing for us anyway.

Plus we added Storm to our team. Muffin and MC have been training him and he is learning very fast. He can sniff out drugs and bombs better than both of the cats and that will be very beneficial. Right now Baldwin and I are taking Jessica to the airport, she is looking forward to returning home and relaxing for a while. I did ask her to join our team but she kindly refused. She said it would be to stressful for her.

I can understand that. Soon she was flying back home and Baldwin and I were on our way back to the chateau. “I am kind of worried about this sniper,” Baldwin said, “the girls cannot leave the chateau.” “Well, most of them are safe,” I said, “it is just Kristina that is next on the list, so we have to watch her closely.” “But what if he decides to change his pattern,” said Baldwin, “just to get at the girls more quickly.”

“Yes, I have thought about that,” I answered, “this is a long list for someone in his business and usually they do not like to stay around too long, too easy to get caught then. But that is why we need to go on the offensive right now. We have to find him quickly before he decides to change his way of doing things.” “How do we attempt that one?”, he asked. “The best way is to cut off his flow of money,” I said, “if we can find out who hired him, then we can stop his payments. He will not work for nothing.”

“You make it sound easy, but even with Jake helping we still do not know who hired him,” Baldwin reminded me. “Well, now that we know who he is, maybe that will help,” I said, “whoever hired him must have a lot of money, and that person must live close by since Stinger likes to be paid in cash by a third party.” “The problem is, there really are not many people with that kind of money close to where we live,” Baldwin added.

“That is true, kind of narrows things down,” I said, “unless he changed the way he is getting paid. But that could mean a greater possibility that he would change the way he handles a list too.” We sat quiet the rest of the way. Meanwhile at the chateau…

“Okay Aurela, here are three men, are any of them Stinger?”, asked Annelie. Aurela came over to look, “that is the Stinger, on the right. I would know him anywhere, those cold eyes, like he is not alive.” “Yep, that is him alright,” said Annelie. “Is this a test to see if I am telling the truth?”, asked Aurela. “Oh, do not worry, I would do this with anyone,” said Annelie, “we just have to be totally sure in something like this.”

“Yes, that does make sense,” said Aurela with a smile. “Hey Jake, look at your mail,” said Annelie. “Whoa, cool girl, we have a photo of our man at last,” replied Jake, “I know a lot of people that would like to have this picture.” “Then get it out to them Jake,” said Annelie, “we want this guy, any way we can get him.” “I will share the money with you girl,” said Jake happily.

“Keep it Jake, just help us get this guy, and please keep looking for whoever hired him,” she added. “Seems to me I already did that girl,” he said, “still not convinced?” “Not yet, just does not add up somehow,” she answered, “so keep looking, please.” “Shall do girl, don’t worry,” he said and hung up. Well, it has been 3 days now since Jessica left and we are all getting a bit jumpy, which is not good. Finally I told the girls and Rock to go outside for some exercise and sunshine, that might help a bit.

Aurela and Lajla were fitting in nicely with the team and Baldwin has a couple men ready to join us too, both are pilots which is good, that is something we do need. They still have to pass a couple more tests yet. Plus there are two other women that have expressed a desire to join our team, but we will see. Just then Jennifer came running in. “Kristina has been shot!”, she yelled…

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.