“Well, we could try rushing the building,” suggested Rock, “there does not seem to be many men left.” “We might also lose someone in the fight,” I said, “it would be nice to do this and have everyone get out alive.” Meowr.=Maybe we use other door. “There is another door to get in?”, I ask Storm. Meowr.=I not just say that? He said to Muffin and MC. They giggle. “Okay, I get it,” I said, “now, about this other door, where is it?”

Meowr.=We go in falling down building over there. He points the way with his tail. “Okay, you lead the way Storm,” I said, “Rock, stay over here with Kara, Kira, Kristina, Carine, and Chung, wait 15 minutes and then get their attention and keep it for a while. Kat, the cats and I will go get the girls, then signal you when we are safely out of there.” So off we go around behind the buildings, but, there were 4 guards watching over their camels.

Meowr.=They use camel horses to come here, but human men stand in way we need to go. “Okay cats, your turn,” I tell them. Muffin and MC go ahead but off to the side a bit and get their attention. “Hey look, cats with backpacks,” said one man. The cats sit. Then two men start walking towards them and they quickly flip over and “Thwock!, Thwock!”, that is two down. Then Kat and I use our dart guns for the other two.

After that Storm shows us a secret way into the main building through a tunnel from the ruined building. Finally we are at a dead end. Almost 15 minutes. We are ready to push the stones that open the door. “Okay, now,” I said to Kat and the door swung open surprising Jennifer and Jessica. “Come quickly,” I said to them. We had to help Jessica as she was quite weak now from not eating or sleeping properly for days. When we got back outside we heard the shooting.

I told Kat and Jenny to help Jessica back to the others and told Storm to lead the way. Meowr?=You go after bad men that kill my mate? “Yes, Storm,” I said. Meowr.=Me go too, I want to help. “Are you sure you are strong enough?”, I ask him. Meowr.=Me ready. So the others went back while Storm and I went after Charles and Henry. They were busy packing some stuff together so they could leave. “Going someplace?”, I asked them. They turned and looked my way.

Storm screeched and ran, jumping on Henry! Charles pulled a gun but I shot first and he fell. Henry surrendered after being severely scratched. I put handcuffs on him but one of the men came in right then and shot Henry. “Thwock!”, and that man fell. He was the last of the men and Muffin had come back to help. We were soon on our way back to the pick up location and it was not long before we were on our way back home.

Meanwhile, back at the chateau…Annelie went down for supper but was unusually quiet. “What is wrong?”, asked Baldwin, “have you heard from Jake yet?” “Yes,” she said, “but he still has not found out who put the hits out. That disturbs me, he can always find out quickly who has a hit on who. But he did say that there were hits out for all of us girls, but not the guys and the sniper does things in order, never skips one, so the next one on the list is Kara.

We need to keep her alive until we find that guy, since he won’t kill anyone else until he kills her.” “How strange,” said Shirley, “sounds like the man is insane.” “No,” said Annelie, “but he says it is bad luck to skip anyone, just like it is bad luck to use the same gun twice.” Poor Aurela nearly choked on her food. “What is wrong dear?”, asked Shirley. “Oh, I am sorry,” she said, “it is just this talk about a sniper going around killing everyone, it kind of chills me.”

“Good thought,” said Baldwin, “it is not dinner conversation.” Just then Lajla Magnusson came in and joined them. “Hi Aurela,” she said, “never expected to see you here too, this is nice.” “Yeah, it is nice,” said Aurela smiling wide. “We shared the same ‘room’ in prison,” explained Lajla, “though I got out before Aurela.” “Yep, we became friends in there,” added Aurela. “Sure did,” remarked Lajla, “good friends. Did you join the team too?”

“I am just here for the night I guess,” said Aurela putting her head down a bit. “You can stay with us and work with us if you want,” said Baldwin. “I would like that,” said Aurela, “now I need to ask you something, do you know the name of this sniper?” “Well, he calls himself Stinger,” said Annelie. Aurela turned quite pale…

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.