I had sent Kristina and some of the girls with Yves to pick up his family and bring them back to the hotel for safety. I was sure that Francois would retaliate and try to kill Yves’ family. I didn’t want that to happen since Yves was so helpful to us. Once at his flat, or at least the building where his flat was located, Yves was the first to jump out of the van. But a man named Pascal, from Francois, was already there and he, or one of the men with him, shot Yves as soon as he jumped out and down he went. Kristina quickly went around the van to Yves and shielded him from any further bullets that might come his way.

“I’m okay,” he told her, “just a minor shoulder wound.” “Perhaps you should stay here,” said Kristina quietly. “That’s my family in there,” he said, “there’s no way I’m sitting back here like a coward.” “Stubborn male,” she said, smiling. “My wife always tells me that too,” he said chuckling. “Are you brave enough to hold my hand?” she asked. “Why?” he asked in return. “Do you want to live long enough to rescue your family?” she asked again. He just smiled this time and put out his hand.

The other girls started shooting steadily and crossed the street at the same time as Kristina and Yves. Yves didn’t know that he and Kristina were invisible at the time. Yves told Kristina they can go in the back door, so that is what they did. “You know,” said Yves, “we ran right past Pascal and he didn’t even look our way.” “Perhaps he was too busy worrying about all those bullets being shot his way,” said Kristina. Yves just looked at her. “Or maybe it’s because we’re holding hands?” he kind of asked in return. “Maybe,” said Kristina smiling.

They went up to the third floor where Yves’ flat was located and thankfully his family was okay, though frightened. Josephine came running over to Yves, hugging him, then she noticed he was bleeding. “Just a minor flesh wound,” he told her. Kristina just shook her head. Josephine had packed a small bag with some things they might need for overnight since she thought they would have to run away on foot to a safer place, then call for a taxi to take them somewhere for the night. Kristina told them each to carry one of the children, there are two, a girl aged 6 and a boy aged 4.

Yves is 30 and Josephine is 28. Then Kristina told them to hold her hands while they ran across the street to the van. Josephine was perplexed by that, but Yves told her it would help keep them all safe, though he didn’t know how right now. “Our boss will explain things later,” said Kristina after telling Josephine we were private investigators. Once back in the van the other girls returned also. By this time only Pascal was still alive, his five friends were dead.

“Hey Francois,” said Pascal after returning to the club, “Yves returned just as we got to his flat and he brought some of those PI’s with him. They know how to shoot and killed the others. I managed to shoot Yves, then he disappeared. After the van left I went up to his flat, but everyone was gone. I figured they went to the next street and the van picked them up there.” “Yeah, probably,” said Francois, “that PI is more trouble than he’s worth, far as I’m concerned. Koffman is crazy to stir up trouble with him unnecessarily like this. We got the old lady, she’s the important item for us.”

“That old thing is too confused to help us with anything,” said Pascal, “she probably doesn’t remember anything anyway.” “She remembers,” said Francois, “we just need to wait until the confusion wears off. Those things really work good though, Koffman had that part right. It even confused a bunch of those PI’s!” They all laughed about that one. “That was a brilliant idea to use something that looked like smoke detectors to produce those sound waves,” said Percival, “no one would suspect, since they can’t hear anything.”

“Yeah, and it works fast too,” said Francois, “those PI’s didn’t have time to get out of the house!” “How come it didn’t work the next time?” asked Pascal. “I had them turned off,” said Francois, “I was hoping those PI’s would leave once they found out their people went crazy, but it didn’t work. And those things really eat up electricity which could cause the wires to overheat if we left the devices on too long.” “Oh, guess that makes sense,” he said.

We had put a couple of listening devices in Francois’ office, so we heard this bit of information. “That is a rather interesting way to do things,” I said, “but I wonder why they had to use so many?” “Some may have been real smoke detectors, dear husband,” said Jennifer. “Oh, right, that would make sense,” I responded, then added, “I wonder why they had to use so many?” Everyone looked at me. “What’s wrong?” I asked. “You asked the same question twice,” said Jennifer. “I did?” I asked, “By the way, why is everyone looking at me?”

“Why do you keep asking the same questions over again?” asked Sky. “Maybe because I don’t get an answer,” I said, “Kat, come here please.” “I’m Jennifer, dear husband,” she said smiling. “Then why did you call me your husband?” I asked, I then turned to Kat, “Come here please.” “Are you feeling okay Steve?” asked Kat. “Actually, I have a terrible headache,” I said, “and everything is starting to go in circles.” Kat quickly caught me as I was about to fall. She then laid me down on the bed.

By now I was just staring at the ceiling and moaning. Mrs. Hickman was sitting in a chair across the room laughing. “He will be that way for days now,” she said. “And why doesn’t that sound bother you?” asked Jennifer. “My dear husband, Felix, gave me medication to keep it from affecting me,” she explained, then continued laughing. Sky then grabbed her purse and searched for this medicine and found it quickly.

“Oh, it’s too late now, my dear,” she said, “it must be taken beginning two days before exposure, or it won’t work.” “And who is this man, Felix?” asked Sky. “You don’t know?” she asked, and began to laugh again. That was too much for Sky and she slapped Mrs. Hickman hard, twice. “Now, what is your real name?” asked Sky angrily. “You will regret doing that to me,” she said, “my name is Bernadette, and I’m married to Felix…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.