Back with us on the desert…”We need to get Chung in to look at Angel,” I said, “I think she has been poisoned. Unfortunately they will be watching carefully all around the ruins right now.” “How about a diversion?”, asked Rock, “I can take Carine and Kara over to the other side and open fire at that main building you pointed out.” “Hmm, could be dangerous,” I said, “but it might be the best way, otherwise we would have to wait for nightfall, and that might be too late.”

So off they went and soon Rock was shooting at the building being used as their headquarters. The guards around the ruins began to shoot back so we knew where they all were located. Chung and I went down and quickly entered the first room, then followed down to the hidden room inside the tunnel. Chung immediately went to work with Angel. “Now, how do we get Jennifer and Jessica?”, asked Kat.

“That is not going to be easy,” I admitted, “they will not likely be drawn out of that building, it is likely the way to an old tomb filled with treasure.” Meowr?=What is tomb and treasure? Meow,meow.=Tomb is place where king is buried with lots of gold and other things worth lots of money. Meowr.=Oh, maybe I know where tomb place is. “Where is that?”, I ask him. Meowr.=Follow me. He goes to the wall and says to push on two stones, about 3 feet apart, so Muffin helps out and pushes on one stone while Storm pushes on the other.

A door opens and we go down another tunnel, turn to the right and ends. Storm says to push on two more stones which I do this time and another door opens into a room that is obviously the tomb of the king, filled with a lot of gold and other things. Meowr=My mate and me come here sometimes, nice quiet place away from bad people. He put his head down again. He always gets sad talking about his mate. I’m getting kind of mad about it.

“We will get those men that killed your mate,” I said. Meowr.=He called Henry, brother to Charles. We go back out to the other room. “How is she Chung?”, I ask him. “She will be fine, might take some days though,” he said, “but we need to take her from here soon.” Hmm, and we also need to get Jenny and Jessica. Carine and Kara come and join us. “Rock will be here shortly,” said Carine. Sure enough he did show up. Now, how do we get the girls out of that main building?

Meanwhile, back at the chateau…Annelie was by herself for a while waiting for supper, constantly checking her laptop as she usually does, when Jake called her again. “Hey girl, got more news for you, but you’re not going to like it,” he began, “all you girls are on a hit list and this is the order of the hits, write it down, this is important.” “Okay,” said Annelie, “give it to me.”

“Okay, Candace, Meja, Kara, Kira, Kristina, Carine, Angel, Lajla, you, Jennifer, Kat,” he said, “the first two are done, Kara is next, protect her at all cost, keep her alive and everyone stays alive.” “Why is that?”, she asked, “won’t he just go for the next on the list?” “Not this guy, he is known as “the Stinger”, and he always follows a list in order,” said Jake, “he says it is bad luck to change the order and he never does. Plus he is a sniper, he will always be a long ways off when he does the job, no one in that car killed Candace, she was shot from somewhere else”.

“How about a church belltower?”, she asked. “Yep, that would be perfect for him,” said Jake, “and he only uses a gun once, again he considers it bad luck to use it twice for a hit, so he leaves it behind with a note which always says, “the sting of death”. No one has a photo of him either and he never has face to face contact with the person who hires him, always done through a third party. You said only Baldwin knew when the new girls would come, think about that, what about his wife?”

“But her daughter is on the list, and they have a good relationship,” said Annelie. “But maybe Baldwin pays too much attention to the daughter,” said Jake. “No more than the rest of us,” answered Annelie. “And you are all on the list, maybe this new wife is a jealous type and wants Baldwin to herself total like,” said Jake, “that is why none of the guys are on the list, they are not a problem to her. I am just saying, seems like it must be Baldwin or his wife. I will keep digging, but keep Kara alive if you can.” He hangs up and Annelie sits there trying to digest this news.

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.