We went to bed late and all of us were tired, including me, but for some reason I was awake early, 4am, which is too early. But I just laid there on the bed so I wouldn’t disturb Jennifer, and I did some thinking. The man talking on the phone was Paul, who used to be Mr. B, not ours but the one from America that was the leader of his own criminal organization. However, he got tired of that and wanted out and since he had helped us a couple of times, he asked to join us.

He seemed to be very sincere, but he was used to being the boss, giving orders, not taking them. I guess that made it hard for him to adjust so he sold out to someone else who is obviously from Canada. That puzzles me too, who in Canada wants to destroy me? Everyone that did has already been destroyed by us. Well, obviously not everyone, but who did we miss? What has been planned now by them? To kill more of our team? Questions, always questions.

We need answers and we need them quickly. This stress is taking it’s toll on me and just wearing me out completely. And it’s all my fault. Then I felt someone climb onto the bed beside me and cuddle with me. “It is okay big brother,” said Amerie quietly, “I am on top of the blankets, you are under them. Now, why is my brother awake when he should be sleeping. This is not good, too much stress will make you sick and that will not be helpful.

You need to share the burden with us, so, tell me what is bothering you right now.” “Just thinking about how all of this is my fault,” I said, “I should have noticed that Paul was not really with us, yet he always seemed so sincere, wanting to be part of the team, always helping out. Yet he must have been planning to find a way to destroy us, how else did he find this woman to work with? How did he make contact with her without us finding out? Calls have to go through Annelie…”

That’s as far as I got, but could it be possible? “You have answered two of your questions already big brother,” said Amerie, “Annelie must have been working with him on this plan. Maybe he was her boyfriend, things like that do happen. As for the first part, it was not all your fault. We are all trained to see things, but our ghosts and our cats are specifically trained to see such problems and no one did. Some people are very good at hiding right in the open.

We bad girls did it for some time before we finally ran from Sebastien. We needed a good plan before we could run or none of us would be alive now. Even with our plan we almost did not live.” “Good thing you did live,” I said, “or I would not be here today. Do you really think that Annelie and Paul were working together?” “It is the only thing that makes sense,” she said, “there is no other way for Paul to call out or receive calls and Annelie could find anyone he wanted.”

“I agree with Amerie Steve,” said Jennifer, “I have been wondering about that myself, I just didn’t think about putting Paul and Annelie together. I thought perhaps it was Rock and Annelie, until Angel told us about Paul talking with that woman from Canada. Do you have any idea who that woman could be?” “No,” I replied, “I have no idea whatever, but it must be someone who hates us, or me anyway, a great deal, and she wants to hurt me as much as possible.”

“I also agree with Amerie on something else,” added Jennifer, “it is not all your fault. I didn’t notice any problems with Paul either, and I should have. But we also can’t go around suspecting everyone of betraying us, it would be impossible to function as a team that way.” “That is true,” said Amerie, “trust is very important, even if sometimes we get burned by those we trust. I trust you completely so that I could cuddle with you like this even if we were totally alone and I know you would do nothing to me. Although I do not know if you should trust me in such a situation.”

“I trust you Amerie,” said Jennifer. “Yeah, I think I could too,” I said. All the girls giggled. “May we turn on the lights since you are all awake now?” asked Katresa. “Good idea,” I said. Maybe it wasn’t such a good idea, those lights are bright. Meanwhile, far away back at our chateau. “I guess you will be first my pretty girl,” thought Paul, “sorry it has to be this way.” He used a silencer and a special cover we have for guns so they are basically noiseless. He went into the room quietly, pulled the trigger, then left. Penny was next and then the other five girls that had accused me.

He decided to kill a couple extra girls too, just because he wanted to, he didn’t care if Medina liked it or not, he would like to kill her too, he hated taking orders from a woman. “Stupid name,” he thought, “named after some town in Ohio, just like her uncle Toledo.” But she was paying him well, so for now he would play along. He quickly went to bed so he could get some sleep before all the noise in the morning.

And there certainly was noise when everyone woke up, especially from Matt and Rock when they found their wives had been killed. “It had to be one of those ghosts,” said Paul, “they are the only ones who could get in here and quietly shoot the girls. Steve wanted to make sure they couldn’t make their accusations public.” “Yeah, I can believe that,” said Matt, “he let his leadership position go to his head and figured he could do whatever he wanted.”

“How do we know it wasn’t one of us?” asked Kitty. “How could anyone here do it so silently?” asked Paul rather smugly. “With this,” said Engla, showing a gun with silencer and our special cover to silence noise. “Yeah, I forgot about that,” said Rock. The ambulances were back to pick up the last of the girls now. Richard had recalled Teams 4 and 5 from the chateau and the clinic, he wasn’t going to use Mandar’s resources to protect the traitors. Mandar would certainly agree with his decision.

Nearly everyone was outside while the ambulances were here, but just before they left a van drove in and six men jumped out and began shooting. Paul was inside and he grabbed the machine gun we had at the door and was going to use it to help the guys from the van, but he discovered it wouldn’t work. “It only works if you unlock it first,” said Kitty as she held a gun aimed at Paul.

For some reason the drug that had been used on our team wore off sooner for Kitty and Engla than it was supposed to. “Hey, you got this wrong girl,” he said, “I was going to help our team.” “Then why is the machine gun aimed at them and not at the attackers?” she asked. Rock came running down the hall just then, he had been back in his bedroom until he heard the noise outside.

“Rock, Paul here was going to help the attackers kill our team members,” said Kitty. “And look what I found under his bed,” said Engla, “a gun with silencer and our special cover. It has been very recently used too.” That was all that Rock needed to hear and Paul was soon dead. The attackers outside were dead too…

To Be Continued.

©2025 Steve McLeod.