“They found out about my drug shipments,” shouted John, “even the ones by truck! That means they found that little rat we left behind.” “I told you we should have brought her too,” said Dr. Brodsky, “she would have made a wonderful person for my experiments.” “Yeah, yeah,” said John, “but now we have to hurry, Steve’s team will be on us soon enough, so we have to get out of here.” “These things take time John,” said Dr. Brodsky, “you cannot rush something so great as this.” John just paces back and forth for a couple of hours.

“There we go,” said the doctor, “that should be enough for this first part, but it will not be enough to make him commit suicide. But he will have no memory of anything and eventually that will cause him to go absolutely crazy.” “That is good enough for me,” said John, “at least he will not be in my way anymore and I can watch him go crazy, that will be a joy in itself. Now we go to Paris, drop off Steve, then down to Panama for a while,” said John. “Go where you like,” said the doctor, “but I must pack up my equipment first.”

“Forget that, you can get more of this junk,” said John. “Junk?”, said the doctor, “this is all valuable equipment. I will not leave without it.” So John picks me up and heads for the door carrying me. “Fine,” said John, “then stay here with your junk.” Then he turned and shot the doctor just before climbing the stairs to get outside. He put me in the car and headed for the airport. He already had false ID ready for me and I was awake by the time we arrived at the airport. “Feeling better Andy?”, asked John. “Oh my, is that my name?”, I asked in return. “Haha, that is what you get falling down the stairs,” said John, “you better see a doctor when we get home.” “I think you must be right,” I said, “I don’t remember a thing.”

Meanwhile… “Maybe we should stop and pick up Chung,” said Baldwin, “it might be good to have him around.” “Good idea,” said Kat, “we will likely need all the help we can get.” Chung was at the airport waiting for them and once refueled, off they went. Soon they were landing in Gdansk and Baldwin rented a couple of cars so they could drive out to that abandoned building. Annelie was following everything closely on her laptop, just in case my signal returned. They drove out to the spot where my signal was last seen and found the abandoned building easily enough.

They walked all around but saw nothing until, “hey, a door in the floor!”, yelled Rock. It was locked however so Rock jumped on this steel door until finally it gave way. They went down with Rock in the lead and entered the doctor’s lab. He was sitting on a chair, John had only grazed him with that one shot. Rock picked the doctor up and demanded to know where I was. The doctor laughed hysterically, “you are much too late, it is already done, your friend is no better than a walking tree by now.” Then he continued laughing. Rock was about to punch the doctor but Kat stopped him, she was afraid Rock might kill him.

He set the doctor back down on his feet and Jennifer came over and slapped him hard with the back of her hand. He fell to the floor. “Where is he?!” she demanded. “Answer,” said Kat, “or I will let Rock have you.” He looked at Rock. “Why should I help you?”, he said, “what is in it for me?” And he stood up again. Jennifer slapped him to the floor again. “How about your life?”, she said. Rock stood him up again. “When Rock breaks an arm, it cannot be fixed,” said Kat, “then what would you do?”

“Okay, okay,” said the doctor, “he took your friend to Paris, by that time everything will be set, then John will let him go on the streets somewhere and leave him. He will be afraid of everyone and everything and will be on the run until he turns completely crazy.” Then he laughed hysterically again. That was too much for Muffin and she jumped on him, scratching and biting. Then “Thwock!”, the doctor fell to the floor.

Meow!=He laugh at Muffin’s human, no one do that to my Muffin! Chung wanted to look around. He found a needle that was full and one empty beside it. “This might be what he used, am not sure, but we take anyway,” he said. Soon they were back in the air on their way to Paris. “We should alert the police to look for Steve,” said Baldwin, “we need all the help we can get to find him quickly.” “Yes, that is true enough,” said Kat sadly, “we do need to work fast.”

To Be Continued.

©2022 Steve McLeod.