Jennifer had communicated with me about some serious trouble at home, so I will need to go back and help with that right away. I put everyone on a team call and made sure they were all using the scramblers so no one could listen in on our conversation. I told them about the trouble back home and I needed to head back for a while. Sky would be in charge while I’m gone and Jazzy will help with advice, since she knows these kinds of people. But they won’t do anything just yet, unless necessary.

I will take Dawn and one other volunteer with me, since I can only take two on such a trip. Everyone volunteered, which didn’t help, so I chose Alizea because of her planning skills. Off we went, arriving in our library. “Sorry Steve,” said Jennifer, “it was my fault she was shot.” Mandi, our daughter, who is now 16, was shot as she and Jennifer were walking through our front garden.

Because Jennifer is a ghost, no other guards are necessary, according to our rules, but there were four cats with them as well. Unfortunately, Jennifer let go of Mandi’s hand, just briefly, as a car came driving in. The back window opened and a man shot twice, once at each of them. Mandi fell immediately. Jackie was outside right away with one of Catalina’s surprise packages which she quickly tossed at the car as it tried to speed away. It hit the back of the car and exploded.

Two men in the back were killed, 2 in the front were wounded and are now in our clinic. The driver said it was a warning from Mr. Meyer, we were to stop what we are doing in Mexico and go home, or worse things will happen. It’s interesting that John Meyer is affiliated with one of those Mexican cartels. But, I guess that’s where he gets his drugs from. I wonder which cartel he is associated with? I am thinking it is likely Ramon’s cartel, since he is the one we are stepping on right now.

So, this would be a good time to get a gang war started. Samantha then told me she had seen a tattoo on the driver’s arm, so I showed her the tattoo of Ramon’s gang. “That’s it Steve, exactly”, she said. Hmm, Ramon’s influence extends a long way from Mexico. I wonder if John Meyer has one of those tattoos as well? I will find out when we talk with him today. I called Mandar, but he was still away on his business trip but Richard said he could send me a couple of teams to help protect the chateau.

I told him I needed a team to help us with Mr. Meyer too since most of our team is in Mexico, and I explained what was going on. “I will have to call Mandar for that one Steve,” he said, “sorry about that, but it’s company rules.” I understood that part and would wait for an answer. I have to leave Jennifer and Kristina behind for protection of those left at the chateau and clinic. I could get teams from Sienna, but she, too, is on a business trip and Roger was severely beaten yesterday and is in hospital.

The woman now in charge was not helpful at all so I will report her to Sienna, once I’m able to do so. Richard called back and said 4 teams will be arriving at our chateau in 3 hours, two for protection and two for fighting Meyer. The fighting teams have 15 men and women on each team, the protection teams have the usual 12 per team. That will be perfect since there are only 20 altogether that I can use from our home team.

Well, that includes the 3 of us that came back too. So, that gives us 50 on our side, enough to make John Meyer squirm a bit. I doubt he has that many men. Once the teams arrived, I gave instructions to the guarding teams head officer, which turned out to be Vlora. “Nice to see you again Vlora,” I said, smiling, “Mandar obviously has great confidence in you now.”

“Yes, thank you Steve,” she said, “how about you?” “I always had great confidence in you Vlora,” I said, “and I would like you back with us again, if you are willing to come back.” “I would like that very much,” she said. “I will talk with Mandar about it later,” I told her. Dwayne was the leader for the two offensive teams going with me and Vlora said he was a good man and will take orders without question. We were soon on our way back to Milan to visit with our old “friend”, John Meyer.

Shooting my daughter Mandi was a stupid thing for him to do, and he will discover that very soon. After we left, Sienna called Jennifer to see how things were going, so Jennifer told her what had happened. She didn’t know that Roger had been beaten and was in the hospital. Jennifer then told her the woman who was next in charge was not very nice to me and refused to give us any help.

“That is so strange,” said Sienna, “Elaine knows Steve and you, she also knows that she is to give you any help you need.” “It wasn’t Elaine,” said Jennifer, “it was Shirley.” There was silence from Sienna. “I don’t have anyone named Shirley working for me,” said Sienna, “but I will find out what is going on!” Now it was Jennifer’s turn to be silent. Sienna called her head of security, a man named Big Mike, due to his size and he told Sienna he would look into it right away.

He found Shirley and had her arrested and locked up immediately. She had managed to come inside since she was a friend of Elaine, but once Elaine brought her in, Shirley killed her and took her place, hiding Elaine’s body in a locker. Elaine didn’t follow protocol and should never have brought her friend into the office without checking her out thoroughly. We found out later that she worked for John Meyer.

Anyway, when we arrived in Milan it was right at the time he could be found at his favorite restaurant for dinner, so we stopped in just to take a look. Sure enough, he was in there with some of his bodyguards, and another old “friend”, Koffman. He had two women with him, likely his bodyguards. Meyer was at one end of the table, against the wall, Koffman at the other end, so he didn’t see us come in. I went walking straight to Meyer and slammed him against the wall.

“So, you want to fight me?” I asked, “Then let’s you and me go outside and fight. If you win, you take over the Investigators, but if I win, then I take over your organization.” “You know I can’t fight,” he said indignantly. “Then send your four bodyguards out to fight in your place, same deal,” I said, then I turned to Koffman, “leave now and I won’t touch you, stay and your fate will be the same as Meyer’s.”

One of his women bodyguards recognized me by a photo she saw in Koffman’s files. She already had a note written out that she was going to give to the waitress asking for help, but instead she stood up quickly and handed it to Dawn, who read it and handed it to me. “You can go Koffman,” I said, “but this woman stays with me.” “Not for less than 10,000 euros,” he said, and he stood up to go…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.