The footsteps kept getting closer. I whisper to Mr. Cat. The door opens, a guard turns the light on and…”Thwock”. He falls to the floor without making a sound. Mr. Cat just used a rubber ball to knock out the guard, we didn’t want to kill him. Bernard kept on with his work while Lena and I tie up the guard. These new handcuffs sure work good, and easy to carry around as well. Tape over the mouth and we’re done. I look at Muffin, she is obviously not well. Meow,meow.=Not feel well, tummy hurt bad, she meowed to me quietly. I give her to Lena and look through my backpack quickly. “We don’t have much time,” says Bernard. “Muffin comes first,” I said, “we’ll still get those jewel thieves too, they really made a bad mistake this time.”

Meanwhile…”Did you give that cat this whole needle?”, asked Sabine. “You told me to give the cat another shot,” said Charles. “Idiot, didn’t you read the instructions?”, asked Sabine, “giving her the whole shot, she will die tonight, then Steve will never give us that Jade Cat.” “Sorry, I didn’t read that paper, I just figured I was to give her the whole amount,” said Charles, “anyone could make that mistake.” “Not when you work for me,” said Sabine calmly, then she said to a couple other men, “take him out and lose him somewhere.” They grabbed him and lead him out the door while he was pleading for his life. Sabine, who is the ‘boss’ of this group of jewel thieves, paid no attention to his pleas. She turns to her boyfriend Gaston and says, “now what will we do, if that cat dies before he gives us the Jade Cat, then we’re finished.” “Once he is out of that museum we can get him easily enough,” said Gaston, “let me get some men over there to wait for him.”

Sabine agreed that might be the best way to do it. “Wait, we need him to take the cat to Switzerland, we’ll never be able to do it,” said Sabine, “hold off for now.” “Okay,” said Gaston, “I forgot about that, we can’t do it for sure.” Meanwhile, back at the museum… “I checked the guards badge, he should be on the other side of the museum right now,” I said. “That means they changed the schedule again,” said Bernard, “that’s not good, we will have a harder time now.” “Yes, but it’s now or never,” I said, “I gave Muffin some antidote to the poison, hopefully it’s on time. Lena, you will have to carry her.” “That’s okay,” said Lena, “I can do that.” Meow.=Oh, those people, they pay for doing this to my Muffin. “Yes Mr. Cat,” I said quietly, “they will pay.”

Off we went, following the floor plan of the museum. We had to go up to the next level so we took the stairs so we wouldn’t alert any guards that might notice an elevator moving. We just got to the door and a guard opened it and came in the stairwell. I hit him from behind. Well, his headache won’t be as bad as the other guard. Both of these guards will likely be looking for a new job tomorrow. Down the hall we went to a large open room and the Jade Cat was right in the middle of the room sitting on a nice pedestal. Hmm, it’s larger than I thought it would be. The area around the Cat was roped off, I looked at Bernard. “It’s safe now,” he said. I quickly grabbed the Jade Cat and off we went back to the lower level, which is really the basement. So far so good. We went into a storage room and found a wood box we could pack the Cat in nicely. Then off we went.

We managed to get back outside without meeting any other guards. Bernard took the wood box and went over to his truck. He gave us keys to a car that was parked on the next street, so we went there right away, found the car quickly and off we went. Meanwhile…”The guy in the truck must have the Jade Cat,” said the man, “the others don’t have anything except the two cats.” “Good,” said Sabine, “follow the truck and get that cat!” “I didn’t think you wanted to do that?”, asked Gaston. “True, but it looks like Steve is trying to cross us,” she said, “so we need to get that cat, and then find Steve to take it to Switzerland.” Bernard noticed he was being followed and managed to lose the car just long enough to park and get into an office building. The 2 guys in the car figured he must have gone in the building so in they went also. “Did anyone come in here carrying a large box?”, asked one of the men.

To Be Continued.

©2021 Steve McLeod.