“I wonder what kind of cat he is?” asked Angel. “He’s a margay, a small wild cat from central and south American jungles,” I answered, “he is definitely out of his element here in the desert.” Meowr?=How come your human know about me? Meow,meow.=My human love cats and know lots about all wild cats. Meowr.=Oh, then he must be very nice human people too. Meow.=Yep, he is. Both cats smile at him.

“How do you feel now little one,” I ask him. Meowr.=Me hungry again. So Angel gave him more food and water and I fed the other two as well. By morning there was a storm raging outside so that we could not see more than 10 feet at best, no possibility of walking anywhere today. But it gives our new friend another day to rest and eat. “I need a name for you,” said Angel, “how about Storm? After all, you are a strong little cat and we are having a sandstorm right now.”

Meowr.=Oh, me like name, first time I have name. I get food and soon be strong again too. “Okay,” laughed Angel, “food coming up.” The storm kept up all day and into the night with the wind finally stopping about 1am. Finally it was nice and quiet for sleeping and perhaps in the morning we can make our journey to wherever we are going.

Meanwhile, back at the chateau…”Carine, come here, we have a problem,” called Candace. “What is it?”, Carine asked. “I was following the jet which had been circling over this area, then it dropped down to 5,000 feet,” she explained, “then there was a short emergency call from the plane, which is automatically sent and then the jet just disappeared from radar.” “That would mean the jet likely crashed,” said Carine, “but it should still send a signal. But the others should send a signal too, if they are alive.”

The girls looked at each other. “We will need to contact Baldwin,” said Carine. “How?, we don’t know where they are,” answered Candace. “Steve told me before they left, since he was the only one to know,” said Carine, “he felt we should know in case of problems.” “Good, then you call Baldwin and tell him,” said Candace. So she did. Poor Baldwin, he was drinking coffee when he got the news and spit it out as usual hitting Shirley across the small table from him.

“My dress,” she said. “What do you mean it just disappeared, that cannot happen, that jet is set to do everything automatically,” he yelled. “Baldwin, we are in a restaurant,” she whispered to him. “Oh, yeah, forgot,” he said a bit embarrassed. Soon they were on their way home again and arrived that night. He had a team of people trying to track that jet and checking with airports all along the way just in case problems had been reported. But nothing.

The jet had completely disappeared. So Baldwin sent out several others to fly high over the area and take pictures to see if they could find a crash site. At least they knew the approximate location of where we would be. Back to us…However, the storm had nearly covered the jet completely with sand, just a small part of one side was showing and fortunately that is where the door was located. We went outside in the morning to see what had taken place.

“That is a lot of sand on the jet,” said Ken, “we will never get it out of there. Plus sand will have entered everywhere inside the engines and everything else.” “Yes, you are right,” I said, “and when they come looking for us, they will not see anything down here. But we do not want it falling into the wrong hands either.” “That is what I was thinking too,” said Ken, “better to destroy it now. That would also leave wreckage around for the cameras to pick up, if they spot it before the next sandstorm.”

“They will likely be out looking for us later today,” I told him, “so we will take whatever we can carry easily and then destroy the jet.” So that is what we did. Ken had to do it manually so he told us to get over behind one of the dunes for safety. He would have enough time to get away. There was a huge explosion and debris was scattered over a large area. We all looked, then Ken waved from behind a small dune, he was okay! So we set off on our hike to the ruins that Jessica had located. I hope Storm would be able to find his way back there, the landscape had changed a bit during that storm yesterday.

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.