For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
I told Sky we need one of the ghosts to be with Aari so we can communicate with him safely. Plus, he needs a ghost for protection, he is going to have some tough work ahead of him. “I think Carine would be best for the job,” said Sky. “I agree,” said Angel, “definitely best.” “And may I ask why?” I queried. “Because Carine likes Aari,” said Sky.
“Yep, she does,” said Angel. “How come I don’t know about this?” I asked. “Because you’re eyes are closed too much,” said Sky giggling. “Yep, definitely closed too much,” echoed Angel, also giggling. Sigh. So, Sky flew off, grabbed Carine and took her to Aari.
“Steve says that Carine is to be your pretend wife for now,” said Sky after putting a bubble around the three of them so they could talk. “But…” was all that Aari was able to say. “And he will contact you only through Carine,” said Sky. “But…” he replied. “And Carine is to stay with you at all times for your protection,” said Sky. “But…” said Aari.
“She has a super terrific make-up kit with her to change how she looks,” said Sky. “But…” he said. “And Steve says to make sure you act like a married couple when in public,” said Sky, “anything else that Steve said Carine will tell you about. Bye.” And off she went.
“But…there is only one bed,” he said finally. “We’re married, how many do we need?” asked Carine. Aari sighed. Then Tiia and Ginger jumped down off Carine’s shoulders. “Happy now?” asked Carine. “I’m sorry Carine,” he said, “I just wasn’t expecting this.” Carine chuckled and the cats giggled.
Carine filled him in on what he and the Black Wolves needed to do and make it look like they were just moving in to expand their territory. When Ralph, or Luna, looks them up, they will be a criminal organization based in Vancouver, but are also in Calgary and Edmonton. I relayed information to Aari that Ralph was getting a drug shipment coming in tonight and where it would be delivered.
Ralph showed up in a nice, new limousine to pick up his goods. He has a lot to learn about these things. A truck showed up and a guy came over to talk with Ralph. He was on his phone right away and made a call to Luna, which we were able to intercept.
It appears that along with the drugs, they had brought some guns, gold, grenades, money and something else that we couldn’t understand. Anyway, Luna said she knew about it and they would just take the truck and drive it to the warehouse. The men that brought the truck, four of them, then got into a car that came to pick them up and drove away.
The car didn’t get very far, however, and a bunch of motorcycles got in their way. John got off his and went over to the car and talked with the driver. He just warned them that doing business with Ralph wasn’t healthy. They should stay away from Ralph or next time they wouldn’t be allowed to leave. They then let the car drive away.
Back to Ralph and the truck. One of Ralph’s men was just getting into the truck when he fell backward onto the street. He was dead. Suddenly the windows on the limousine began to shatter sending glass all over the occupants. Then Rock grabbed the driver and pulled him out through the window and threw him onto the street, knocking him out.
A few more shots were heard and more of Ralph’s men fell dead. A shotgun was now at the window of the limousine and a voice told Ralph to get out. “My name is Aari,” he said, “Leader of the Black Wolves. Nice city you have here, it will soon belong to me. Don’t get in my way, when I want something, I take it, do you understand me?”
Ralph said nothing, so Aari punched him in the stomach, causing him to groan. “You will regret this!” growled Ralph, “You don’t know who you’re up against!” Aari punched him again and Ralph fell to his knees. Rock picked him up and slammed him against the car. “Nice bunch of stuff boss,” said John, after looking inside the truck.
“It’s mine now Ralph,” said Aari, “oh, your warehouse is a bit overheated right now.” They took the guns from Ralph and his remaining 3 men, then Aari and his Wolves drove away. A few blocks away another truck was waiting and they moved everything to the new truck and left Ralph’s truck behind. Ralph was so angry, he nearly burst!
He called Luna and told her what had happened and she looked up the Black Wolves right away. She didn’t like what she saw either. The Black Wolves were a criminal gang from Vancouver with an estimated 200 to 250 men. They were spreading east at an alarming rate stated a police report. “Now we have these Black Wolves to deal with,” said Luna, “and I don’t think Ralph is any match for them.”
“Maybe we could make a deal with them,” said a male voice, “rather than fight something we can’t win, join together. You will have to do the talking though, Ralph wouldn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.” “Hmm, you just might have something there Ryan,” she said, “it’s worth a try.
He would be a much better partner than Ralph and someone who definitely knows what he’s doing. Find a way to get in touch with him.” “I’ll get on it right away Luna,” said Ryan.
To Be Continued.
©2025 Steve McLeod.
Jennifer told Lily and her father to lie down on the floor, just in case there was trouble, like shooting. Some of the Wildcats had stayed outside to stand guard, so Kat and Jennifer went out to join them. They left Carine inside to guard Lily, Kristina was already outside with the guards. Everything seemed quiet, but Jennifer said she still sensed danger.
It was a heavily wooded area making it difficult to see anything. But, while the girls outside were watching the front, where the road into the cottage was located, no one was watching the back. “There’s a road that comes to the back of the cottage as well,” said Edwin, “they may come in that way.” Just then a creaking was heard on the inside stairs.
“Hello father,” said Ralph, “and Lily too, plus all these scary Wildcats. Now, drop your guns everyone.” Ralph was not alone, he had quite a few friends with him coming down the stairs, and coming in the kitchen door. “Well, if it isn’t little Ralphie again,” said Kat, as she and Jennifer came in the front door. “Oh, you scare me so much kitty Kat,” he said and laughed.
“You should be scared Ralphie,” she said, “you attacked my Wildcats after I warned you not to do so, now you will feel the wrath of the Kat! First of all, you will die!” She pointed at one of Ralph’s men when she said that and he fell to the floor dead. Another of Ralph’s men confirmed it. “Cool trick, you must tell me how you did that,” said Ralph.
“I don’t do tricks Ralphie,” she said, “I am quite serious.” Carine was touching Lily and Edwin to keep them safe. “Now father, we must part ways,” said Ralph, “then I will be in charge of everything.” “You’re a fool Ralph,” he said, “Luna is the one in charge and she will stomp on you if you don’t obey her.”
“You’re the fool father,” he replied, “Luna and I get along very well and she wants to leave me in charge of eastern Canada and I will make millions. I plan on sending mother away to live elsewhere so she doesn’t interfere. We have already talked about that. My siblings will all be killed, of course, except Lawrence, he is good with finances so I will keep him around for now to look after that end of things for me. He’s really the only one I trust in our family, I can’t even trust my sisters.
Like Lily here, bringing in all these people to try and stop me. Well, it won’t work as you will soon see.” Suddenly Sky appeared with Kitty. She then grabbed Kat and they disappeared. “What’s going on here?” demanded Ralph, “Who are you and where did Kat go?” “My name is Kitty,” she said, “Kat had a previous appointment so I’m taking her place Ralphie, but you will still feel the wrath of the Kat!”
Meanwhile, back home things had suddenly gotten worse for us. Misty was suddenly dying so I called Samantha but she couldn’t find out what was wrong so she said to call Kat back. When I sent Sky for her Samantha began to choke and fell to the floor not able to breathe. I called Dr. Jorgenson but he could do nothing for her.
Then one of the girls came in the room and said all the cats were dying and Bridgette didn’t know what was happening. How is all of this happening at the same time. Even Kat frowned when she returned and discovered she could do nothing to help. Then a message came through and Carolyn played it for us.
“Hi Steve, this is Luna, please call off your team of Investigators, take them right back home, and I mean right away. Otherwise you will lose more of your precious cats, including Muffin, plus some of your people in your clinic. Call off your people and their health will return.
That includes those annoying Wildcats!” “I don’t control the Wildcats” I told her, “but I will call off my Investigators.” “Call off the Wildcats too Steve,” she said, “I know you have some influence over them, so do it.” Kat nodded to me. “Okay, I will call them all off if I can,” I said reluctantly. I communicated with Jennifer and Kat communicated with Kitty.
“Oh, leave Lily behind please,” said Luna. “No, you wanted all of my Investigators out and she is one of them,” I said, “she is one of our nurses, so she comes home too.” There was silence for a bit, then she agreed to that. Our team and the Wildcats didn’t understand why they were being called back, especially when they were winning, but they obeyed the order.
Ralph laughed loudly as our team members pulled out, leaving Edwin, Lily’s father behind. Lily would likely be upset that we left her father behind, she knew that Ralph would kill him. But, it was either save a murderous criminal, or save 5 of our team members and 5 cats. The choice was easy, even though we may lose Lily. I hope she will understand though.
The Wildcats drove to Montreal where their jet was waiting at the airport. Our team went to the Toronto airport and left on our jet. Luna was true to her word and our girls and cats recovered. “Valeska did something to everyone that was attacked here,” I said to Kat and Sky, “she must have put something in them, perhaps a thin piece of metal that Luna could control somehow.”
It is handy being a ghost, we can talk with each other without being heard which is even safer than using our scramblers. Luna may have figured out how to work around our scramblers so I will get Melanie and Alizea working on some improvements to them once everyone returns home. Right now Sky, Angel and I are lying on my bed, well, half sitting really.
“I need some coffee and…” I began to say. “Donuts!” exclaimed Angel. Her and Sky disappeared and returned quickly with both. “Hey, what happened to my plate of donuts I just made?” asked Cassie. “You should only need one guess for that one,” chuckled Cristy. Cassis sighed. She soon had another big plate of donuts ready which Cristy grabbed and quickly ran back to be with Misty.
Both of them laughed loudly, then they munched on their donuts. “Who took my donuts this time!?” yelled Cassie, then she sighed, realizing it must have been Cristy. “I hope Lily won’t be too mad at me,” I said. “I’m sure she will understand Steve,” said Angel, “you really had no choice.” “Hey, I just thought of something,” I said.
“NO!” said Sky and Angel together. “You are going to listen this time,” I told them, “this last message came from Luna. But Valeska said she was working for Brielle. That means that Luna must be Brielle and possibly Medina as well. We know that Medina uses several different names and we have never seen Brielle, so she could be the same person.”
“Hmm, you might have something for a change,” said Sky, “that would make things easier for us to find her as well. Maybe I shouldn’t have killed Valeska so soon.” “I doubt she would have helped us Sky,” I said, “however, she may have given Brielle, or Medina, some information about us, like our ghosts, and that would be bad for us.
Although I’m not sure what she could do about it anyway.” “Well, it can help her stay more hidden,” said Sky, “so it will be hard for us to find her.” But we do have something in our favor right now, she doesn’t know about the Black Wolves, so we left them in Canada…
To Be Continued.
©2025 Steve McLeod.