Well, it seems like our little plan might be working, although we can’t relax just yet, there are still many things that could go wrong. Right now Eddy is still a key part of our plan and he could still back out on us if he lets his nerves take over and he gets scared. That is a real possibility, and a real danger for us. Now it’s time to continue our plan before Eddy gets too scared.

“Hey boss,” said Eddy, “sorry to disturb you again, but I was doing some thinking. Since Raven knows where those people are, maybe we should move them out of there to a safer place before he gets back from hiding our loot. By the way, this gal knows where Raven is hiding our stuff too, so we can spoil Raven’s plans in both ways.”

“Fantastic thinking Eddy!” exclaimed Lombardi, “I was already thinking about moving those people too and I will put you in charge of that. Spence and Carvell will send their men to pick up our loot, just give me the location.” Sky then told Eddy where they could find everything, and her information was genuine, we want to catch as many of these men as we can to put a dent in their organizations that they will feel for a while.

Lombardi then told Eddy his plan for moving Rossana’s family. He will send some men with a van to pick them up and take them to a certain park where another van will be waiting, but it will be bigger than the first van. Eddy will be waiting at the second van to pick up the people, but, he will have the same number of people already in his van.

Then he will drive with both groups to another spot where another van will be waiting, The decoy family will get out and into the third van and it will drive off, supposedly going to a different safe place. But the real family will still be with Eddy in his van, and he will also have Sky and Angel with him too. Sky will tell Eddy where to drive, which will be to a place where we can then take the family from him and off to safety.

Sounds easy, but not so fast, it isn’t quite so easy. There will be a total of three cars with Eddy and his van, just as there will be three cars with the decoy van. The three cars with Eddy’s van will have 5 men in each, for a total of 15 men. We will have to deal with them before we can take over the van. So, at the beginning Eddy will follow Lombardi’s route or the men in the cars will stop the van and call Lombardi who will likely have more men available not far away.

So, we will need to move fast to get the family out of harms way very quickly, which is where our ghosts will come in handy. Eddy, Sky and Angel drove to the park where they found the waiting van, but something didn’t look right to Eddy so he stopped a little ways from the van and blinked his lights off and on a couple of times then he looked at his watch.

Exactly 4 seconds went by but nothing happened. “They should have replied at 4 seconds,” said Eddy, “something is wrong. Lombardi must have figured out I was lying and this is a trap to kill us.” He looked over at Sky with terror written on his face. “You worry too much Eddy,” she said, “remember, I told you we are ghosts, no one can kill us, and I will keep you safe too, so no one can kill you either.

So, relax and let us handle this now. Trust me, okay?” “I don’t know why,” said Eddy, “but I think I do trust you. Um, where is your ghost sister?” “She went to check on that van to see if anyone is inside,” said Sky. “How did she get out without opening the door?” asked Eddy. Sky looked at him and shook her head.

“I told you, we are ghosts,” she said again, “we don’t need to open doors, we just walk through them.” Then she smiled. That seemed to calm Eddy down a bit. Then Angel reappeared in the back seat and leaned into the front. “Everyone in that van is dead,” she reported, “all were shot.” “That means Raven found out about this somehow,” said a now very nervous Eddy, “we’re all dead now!”

“Eddy, Angel and I are already dead,” said Sky, “and I will keep you safe.” “When is the first van supposed to get here Eddy?” asked Sky. He looked at his watch again. “In another 6 minutes,” he said nervously. Sky then sent a message to me and Kat to let us know what had happened. This is not off to a good start. Someone else is in on this deal, but who is it?

The only other people who know about the moving of the family are Carvell, Spence and Gary (the police chief). I think it’s safe to say that the police chief isn’t capable of planning something this complicated on such short notice. Carvell and Spence could certainly do it, they each have a larger number of their own men in the area. But how would they tell their men what to do?

Neither one has used his phone since Lombardi gave the plan to Eddy and it wouldn’t make sense for Lombardi to kill his own people. Although, the 3 adults and 4 kids he had in the van were likely just people he picked up somewhere and apparently there were only 2 of his men in the van. Those two may not have been important members of his organization, likely just disposable types used when needed for something like this.

Sky asked Eddy about that possibility and he said Lombardi did keep some guys around for that purpose, expendables is what he called them. Fortunately we had Aari keeping an eye on the house and I had sent Kitty and Kristina to be with Aari in his van. They could keep the whole van invisible, that way Aari and some men could follow the van with the real family in it without being seen.

When the family was brought out Kitty was right there to make sure it was the people we wanted. We can’t afford to make a mistake right now or we will lose the family completely. Kitty confirmed it was the family we wanted so Aari began to follow. There was indeed three cars with the van, one in the lead and two cars behind the van, and Aari following close behind them.

Meanwhile, back to us. Misty and I stayed behind to pick up any new information we could, and it’s a good thing we did. “Hey Lombardi,” said Carvell, “you got a bathroom on this boat?” “Lorenzo, show him where it is,” said Lombardi. Lorenzo took him down the hall and we followed close behind. “Hey, we can’t go in there,” said Misty, “I mean, I can’t.”

“You would rather stay out here where everyone can see you?” I asked. “I’ll close my eyes,” she said and in we went. Carvell, however, was looking for a phone booth, not a bathroom. “Hey Jimmy,” said Carvell, “follow along close behind them, keep in touch with the boys and as soon as you can, stop that van. And remember, I want that family alive!”

I made sure to allow Lorenzo to hear the conversation and when he brought him back to the others, it was interesting. “This guy called his men to attack our boys,” said Lorenzo, “and take the family, seems he wants them too.” “What?” exclaimed Carvell, “That’s a lie!” But Lorenzo took Carvell’s phone and handed it to Lombardi. “Then what is this phone call you just made?” asked Lombardi…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.