We were still in the office of Mr. Fiske, the man who had Friskie and I kidnapped for some as yet unknown purpose, except he obviously doesn’t like Swann and his partner Williams. “Well, I don’t see how you can help us,” I said, “and I don’t usually make deals, or help people, that I don’t know anything about. Perhaps you can fill in that last part for us.” “What do you think about that Sandra my dear?” asked Fiske as a beautiful woman came into the office. “I’m not so sure,” she said, looking at us, “I don’t think Venus passed any information on to these people Oliver.

She will have to stay out of dining room #2 for a while though, until her bruises heal. Wang made sure she doesn’t want to get friendly with people anymore.” Just then he entered the office too. “Wong is his brother,” said Fiske. “Oh, another coward that likes to beat up helpless little girls,” said Friskie, “how would you like to try fighting someone who can fight back?” “Uh, maybe we should just talk with Fiske right now Friskie,” I said, holding her hand. She sighed rather loudly, but remained sitting.

“Well, are we going to talk,” I asked, “or are we going to leave?” “I’m very sorry Steve,” said Sandra, “but you can’t leave just yet, first I need to assess if we can trust you or not.” “Actually,” I said, “that is our part, assessing whether we want to do business with you.” “And how would you do that?” she asked. “By taking a look at Venus for starters,” I said, “if we don’t get to do that, we have nothing to talk about.” “Take them back to their room,” said Sandra, “and take Wang with you, plus, put those handcuffs back on them.”

“Is that really necessary?” I asked, “After all, you do keep us locked in a room with a steel door, what can we do?” “Forget the cuffs,” said Fiske. Stanley looked at Sandra. “Yeah, it’s okay,” she said. They then took us back to our prison cell, that’s what the room looks like anyway. Once at the room Wang hit Friskie three times and kicked her once which knocked her off her feet and down against the bed, then onto the floor. Stanley then stopped him by reminding him that Sandra only wanted to let Friskie know what will happen to her if she doesn’t obey.

After they were gone I helped Friskie get up and we sat on the edge of the bed. I put a bubble around us and asked if she was okay. “Yes, I just let him do that to boost his confidence,” she said, “next time I will tear him apart.” We could easily get out of here, but after meeting Sandra I am more intrigued than before and I want to find out what is going on. Meanwhile, back at the hotel. Sky had brought her Bad Girls and she was now relaxing after all that flying around. Not that she really needs to, but she likes to anyway.

Then Amerie noticed the drawing of me and the raven, lying on the desk. “Who drew this picture?” asked Amerie. “We don’t know, probably Swann,” said Angel, “but we are not really sure of the meaning though.” “The meaning is this,” said Amerie, “the raven is very smart bird, so he is on top. And see here in the feathers? The letter F, that is the name of the person who says he is smarter than Steve. Raven is also scavenger bird, so he is saying he will eat Steve and win fight with him.

Raven is also used for bad omen sometimes. Friskie and Steve get kidnapped after getting picture, and many feathers on the raven means he plans to kill many of us.” “How do you know all of this?” asked Jennifer. “We are the Bad Girls from Montreal,” she said smiling, “we were often referred to as ravens because we were bad omen and scavengers. No one liked having us around for that reason, so we decided to learn more about the raven.” Jennifer then grabbed Sky’s hand.

“What are you doing?” asked Sky. “If Steve calls you,” she replied, “I want to go with you.” “But we don’t know when or if he will call,” she said again. “We will hold hands until he does,” said Jennifer, smiling. Amerie then took hold of Sky’s other hand. “I will go too,” she said. Sky sighed very loudly. “How will we sleep?” she asked, “We can’t hold hands while we sleep.” Amerie came up with an idea for that problem, which Jennifer liked. They had one of the other girls put our handcuffs on them to keep them together. “How are we supposed to sleep like this?” asked Sky. “In bed,” said Amerie. Sky just looked at her. “When this is over,” she said, “I’m going to soak your bed with water.”

Back to us again. “How long do we stay here without fighting?” asked Friskie. “Tired of me already?” I asked. “I will never get tired of my super hero,” she said, and she kissed my cheek, “but you should let me take us out of here before they hurt, or kill, you.” “Hmm, maybe it’s time to call Sky to help,” I said, “then she can take us out quickly and safely.” “I was wondering why you haven’t called her yet,” said Friskie. “I wanted to learn more about Fiske and his part in all of this,” I said, “but it seems he just wants to get rid of some competition. He might be worse than Swann and Williams.”

Just then our door opened and Wang tossed Venus onto the floor in our room, then locked the door again. “Oh my! Don’t look Steve,” said Friskie and she went over to Venus. She then took off her T-shirt and put it on Venus. “It’s nice and long,” said Friskie, “so it will help a bit.” She then helped Venus over to the bed and sat her between us. “But you need this shirt,” said Venus. “Steve and I are married, remember?” said Friskie. I then took Venus’ hand and Friskie took her other hand.

“I guess they brought you here like this because I wanted to see you after Wang had beaten you. I’m very sorry they hurt you because of us. Don’t worry, we can talk safely now Venus,” I said, “no one can hear us, not even Fiske, and yes, we know about the listening device and cameras.” “I don’t know how you do that,” she said, “but anyway, I know you two are not married. Your wife is named Jennifer, and she doesn’t look like Friskie at all.” Friskie and I looked at each other.

“I used to work for a man named Christopher,” she said, “at the time he had captured Jennifer and used you to make her do what he wanted, mainly thefts. That’s the time when he also captured you to make Jennifer do even more, but I guess you convinced her to rescue you instead and you were both gone. I wanted to leave too, but had no way to do so. You may not know this, but Christopher is still alive and is partners with Fiske and Sandra.

She is the real boss of things and she wants Swann and Williams’ operation of drugs, guns and women. They make a lot of money with that, being one of the biggest suppliers of drugs in the country. Swann has some kind of plan to build a big casino in a small town east of here where they will have lots of crooked gambling and women. Their plan also involves you killing Swann, in self defense, but the only witness will be a cop and he will say it’s murder. That will put you in prison for a long time.”

“Steve,” said Friskie, “I think it’s time we get up and walk out of here.” “No, let me call Sky first,” I said, “we need some help dealing with these people.” Meanwhile, “How come there is no sound?” asked Sandra. “Not sure, it just suddenly stopped,” said Stanley, “the camera works fine, we will have to put in a new listening device.” “Fine, but take others with you, including Wong and Wang,” said Sandra, “and kill Venus in front of those two so they know we mean business…”

To Be Continued. ©2026 Steve McLeod.