In another part of the world…”You failed this time,” said General Liu Wei, “you know we do not tolerate failure.” “They are a tough group,” said the man, “but most of them are wounded and recovering in hospital. I am sure we can eliminate them easily now.” “You have one more chance,” said the General, “do not fail this time.” “I will not fail, they will soon be just a memory,” said the man. “It better be so, or you will soon be a memory,” the General reminded him, “now go quickly, get the job done right.” “I am on my way,” said the man.

Now back to us…Here we are in the hospital again, they have actually set aside two spacious rooms just for our PI team to use, well, any time we need them, which unfortunately seems to be too often these days. Adela was not hurt too bad and is already leaving the hospital and taking advantage of the police protection program with a whole new identity. She is now Anne Marple and is moving to England and is quite excited by it. That is good to hear, I really hope she can put things behind her now. Kristina was not hurt and has asked to join our PI team. I said that would be fine, depending on what we are planning to do.

Right now there are some hurdles to overcome. I was not shot, but landing on those rocks damaged the same area of my back that was injured before. So now I can’t walk and it does not look good for the future either. Baldwin is bringing in one of the top doctors in the world to take a look at my back to see if something might be done. We will see what happens with that. Annelie and Kat were injured badly. Kat has developed a bad fever and they do not know why. Baldwin has just showed up with Rock. Jennifer is here 24 hours a day, she insists she is not leaving.

She is helping out a lot with Kat and Annelie though which is good. The cats come in every day with Baldwin or Rock who take turns checking on us. Today Baldwin has some pictures to show me. “Well, what do you think of it?” he asked. “It is a beautiful place,” I answered, “but what is the price of this chateau?” “That’s not what I asked,” said Baldwin, “do you like it, and do you think Kat will like it?” “Looks fabulous and I know Kat would love it,” I said, “it has everything she is looking for.” Then I called Jennifer over to look at the pictures.

“Wow, this is better than your old place,” she said, “and Kat would simply love it!” “There you go,” I told Baldwin, “that’s your answer. Now about the price.” “Well, selling your old property and the resort, which I don’t want anymore,” he began, “that will pretty much cover the cost of this place.” “Pretty much, means it is quite a bit more expensive than the price of those two properties,” I said, “how much more?” “No need to worry about that right now,” he said, “the main thing is Kat will like it.” That is when the doctor came into the room. He told me that Kat’s fever is getting worse and they just cannot seem to get it down and if it went much higher she would not make it.

I told Baldwin about the old Chinese man in New York and he contacted him right away. He was on the next plane over here with his medicine bag. We had to get special permission for him to bring that medicine bag with him. Rock’s assignment was to meet him at the airport and bring him here quickly since he knew the Chinese man. I just hope we can get him here in time. A couple hours later Rock was still here, though Baldwin had left, and we heard a commotion in the other room. I sent Rock over to check it out. “I must give her this needle, it is for her fever,” said the nurse.

“The doctor said it would be another hour before her needle,” said Jennifer sternly. “He changed his mind,” said the nurse angrily and two male nurses moved over to keep Jennifer out of the way. That is when Rock entered the room. He picked up the 2 male nurses and tossed them against the wall. The noise brought a doctor into the the room. He looked at the nurse who wanted to give Kat the needle and said, “who are you?” That was enough for Jennifer and she flipped the nurse over her shoulder and onto the floor. That is when 2 men with guns entered the room…

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.