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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Aari and 4 of the guys were sitting in a van waiting. The front passenger door was unlocked so that someone could enter easily and quickly. All of them were watching the area around them. It wasn’t the best part of the city and there were some tough looking people, both men and women, walking and sitting, watching this strange van sitting at the side of the street.
“I wouldn’t want to be alone in this neighborhood,” said John, “just doesn’t look too safe.” “Yeah, it is a strange place to meet someone,” said Aari. Just then the passenger door flew open and in jumped a small, young woman with long very blond hair. She was quite dirty looking and smelled quite bad too. Aari asked her name. “Cricket,” she said with a big smile. Then Aari drove away, heading to a safer part of the city. Cricket kept talking, non stop, the whole time Aari drove.
They stopped in a store parking lot and Aari called me. I had already asked Alizea to stay until they picked up Cricket, so she could talk to her and reassure her, in case she is scared of the guys. Apparently Cricket had a friend, her only friend, who was caught spying on this gang. She was put right outside the door where Cricket lived, after two days with that gang. Cricket got her to the hospital, but she died a couple hours later. Now the gang has been chasing Cricket around for the last 2 weeks.
She had to leave her apartment since they knew she lived there and she has been living on the streets since. “I haven’t had a shower in a week,” she said, “you can probably smell that.” Her clothes were very dirty and what she was wearing was all she had. “When did you last eat?” asked Jennifer. “Um, kinda yesterday,” she said quietly, “I had a partially moldy bun that I found in the garbage at one of our parks. I picked off the mold. It wasn’t too bad, I was hungry, so it was better than nothing.”
“Aari, you will buy some clothes for her right away,” said Jennifer, “just a pair of jeans and a couple T-shirts, underwear and shoes, and a jacket if it is needed.” We found out she wanted to get far away from there before they find her and do what they did to her friend. She told us what that meant. “How would you like to come here and stay with us for a while?” I asked, “Alizea, Melanie and Melissa are here, working on the right side of the law now.”
Cricket was ecstatic. After getting her clothes she was taken back to their hotel so she could get cleaned up, then they took her to a nice restaurant for a proper meal. Aari was amazed at how much that little woman could eat. They were not able to get another room on their floor of the hotel, so they put Cricket in Aari’s room and he took the new room on the floor below. “If anyone tries to get in that door,” said Aari, “just press this button and the guys will be at your door very fast. I’m just sorry we don’t have any of the girls with us this time, I hate to leave you on your own.”
But she said that she felt very safe having that emergency button with her. In the morning she would take them to where Sebastien would be. He is the leader of the gang. He is not the type of man to stick to any kind of schedule, he is too smart for that. But sometimes things happen and he has to be in a certain place at a certain time, like in the morning. A special shipment of something was coming in, though Cricket did not know what.
It wasn’t the usual drug shipment, he would never come out for something like that, too risky. So, this shipment has to be something extra special. Cricket thought it might be guns, or other weapons since she knew there was a war going on between this gang and another big gang. Aari didn’t think that was it though, guns could be handled by someone else in the gang, not by the leader, especially if there was a war breaking out between the two gangs.
“But what else could it be?” asked Cricket. “People, specifically, women or children, perhaps both,” he said sadly. That is when Cricket told him about her and her family. Her parents had abused her as she was growing up and made money from videos of her with her dad and other men. Her mom was a photographer so she took all the videos and photos. She mentioned other things as well. Aari and the other guys were very angry hearing about this.
Alizea confirmed what Cricket said. Cricket has 5 sisters and 2 brothers and they all hate her because Cricket finally went to the police and her parents are now in prison. Her siblings felt she should not have done that and it was Cricket’s responsibility to help with the family finances in that way. Apparently Cricket is much prettier than her sisters and that made them hate her even more. It was early morning now, Aari and the others were in place, Cricket was with them too.
She did not want to be left alone at the hotel. At the time that Cricket told them, a car came driving up and stopped by a bench near a children’s playground area. Five men got out of the car and stood looking around the area. Then another man got out and sat on the bench. “That is Sebastien,” said Cricket quietly. Sebastien had a small suitcase with him and soon a white van showed up, along with another car. The back doors of the van were opened, showing women and children inside.
Sebastien handed over the suitcase, one of the new men looked at it quickly, then the new men got in their car and drove away. It was quickly out of sight and that’s when Aari gave the signal and his team moved in, shooting Sebastien’s men and surrounding him. Aari is fluent in French and told Sebastien that he is a dead man.
He then called the police and told them where to find the van, then they left on foot back to their own vans about 2 blocks away. The police arrived quickly and took the van away. Sebastien said they were crazy to kidnap him, his people would destroy them. He thought they were from the other gang. “You better hope that your gang thinks you are worth bargaining for,” said Aari, “or you won’t live very long.”
Aari let us know they had Sebastien and Kat was on her way with her team to that hidden castle. Back here Storm was still at the clinic and now two other cats are sick as well. So far Bridgette has no idea what the problem is, but she is still doing some tests. This is not a coincidence…
To Be Continued.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
Well, it certainly is a bonus having so many ex criminals on our team. They can help us in so many ways, and make things a lot easier for us. So, Liana is from Alizea, Melissa and Melanie’s old gang and they are determined to put an end to us forever. They have Matt, so we need a bargaining chip to get Matt returned to us while he is still alive. Hopefully Matt will remember what to do in emergencies like this and not give up information too fast.
He has lots of false information in that head of his, but although it is false, it certainly would sound real to anyone interrogating him. And he is supposed to give up that information at predetermined intervals and not all at once. They would know that he is an important leader, which is why he was chosen to duplicate. That duplication was amazing, it would have taken them months of labor to get him just right for this job.
Someone wanted to take us down with a loud crash! That would be the new leader of that gang. If he can destroy us, that will help to give him more prestige among the other gangs around North America. We already have a team heading to Canada, with Aari in charge of that operation. Kat will lead the operation to the castle once we hear from Aari. “Do you know where to find this old gang of yours?” I asked.
“I can find out for you,” said Alizea, “I just need to contact a friend of mine. She is not a gang member, but she has a hobby of keeping track of all gang movements across Canada. She is amazing at her work Steve, and she is completely trustworthy too.” “You have permission to contact her,” said Jennifer, and she let Tracy know what was happening. Tracy cleared the call and soon Alizea was talking with her old friend, someone named Cricket, though I would imagine that is not her real name.
We were listening to the call on our end, but we could not hear the other end. Except me. For some reason I could hear both sides of the conversation, though at first I didn’t understand why, however, it began to sink in after a few minutes. I guess this is one of the things that our ghosts gave me, perhaps the only one. Kat did say they can’t give me everything they can do as that would mean killing me and it would also mean getting help from Dr. W.
We heard, just today, that he died one day short of his 80th birthday. That would mean no chance of Sky ever returning to us. But I can’t concentrate on that right now, first we need to get Matt away from this gang. And for that, we need some help, quickly. I asked Melanie if Liana was loyal to her new leader. “Yep, she is for sure,” she said, “the new leader is also her husband and they get along very well.” Hmm, that can be a very good thing indeed. That means we carry on with our plan to kidnap their leader.
I just hope we can do it in time. Aari called just as soon as they arrived. I was then able to give him the name of the city where they can find this gang right now. So, they didn’t waste any time, but quickly went there to look for them. Meanwhile, back to us. “Um, I don’t mean to be pushy or anything,” I said, “but, what happened to me after you put me to sleep? I don’t feel any different, except that I could hear both sides of that conversation.”
“Good,” said Kat, “that means it worked nicely. You can also communicate with the three of us, just like we do.” She then taught me how to do that. “Now, remember this one thing,” she said, “you are not a ghost like us, you can still be killed, and we can’t bring you back if that happens. But, you can go invisible like us. That will help to keep you safe in emergencies, which is a bonus. Now, remember also, some of these things are just inventions of mine, some are because we are ghosts, which you are not.”
“Hmm, still staying with the ghost story I see,” I said, “you don’t want to tell me everything yet.” “Why don’t you want to believe we are ghosts Steve?” asked Jennifer. “Well, because you do some things that a ghost would not,” I said. “Are you sure about that Steve?” asked Angel, “How many real ghosts have you met?” “Fine, hit me with logic,” I said smiling, “you three are the only ghosts I have known, so I guess I really don’t know the answer to that.” Sigh. They all giggled.
We talked some more about my new abilities, what I can and can’t do. I then suggested that Kat should get her team ready to fly. She will be using Kristina’s team for this one, except for Jacquelyn and Acadia. I thought they did not have enough experience for something like this and Kat agreed. So, in their place I will let her take Kitty and Victoria from my team, plus Aletia as their nurse. That way she will have a full team to use.
Plus she will have all the cats that go along with their humans, so she will have six of them to use. Jennifer and I stayed behind to talk some more, Dawn and Aasta were with us too. “Something is wrong Jennifer,” I said, “I can feel it, but what it is, I just don’t know.” “Well, that is working too, which is good,” she said smiling. “But wouldn’t you sense it too?” I asked. “No, I sense danger Steve,” she said, “not if something is wrong. There is a difference between the two.”
“Hmm, yes, I suppose you’re right,” I said, “but knowing something is wrong and not knowing what it is, doesn’t really help too much.” “Give it time Steve,” she said, “soon everything will work properly. Is the problem with Kat and her team, or Aari and his team?” “I am sure it is with Kat and her team,” I said. “Okay, I will notify her and let her know, unless you would like to do it?” “I will let you do it for now,” I said, “until I get used to using these ‘gifts’ properly.” She giggled again.
“Did you get her reply?” asked Jennifer. “Yep, quiet and clear,” I said smiling. Just then Muffin came in and jumped on the bed. “Why the sad face Muffin?” asked Jennifer. She came over to her. Meow,meow?= Maybe Storm not go on case today? Maybe please? He not feeling well. Jennifer contacted Kat right away and told her about Storm, and said to take Squirrel along instead since the guys didn’t take their cats.
Cassie, Hope and Fridr rushed Storm to the clinic so Bridgette could check him out. Dr. Jorgenson called shortly after and told us about Annelie. She had a partial hip replacement years ago when she was shot in that hip, plus her other hip was broken from a hard kick. Both of them were causing her problems and would need to be replaced completely.
He will do the worst one first, then when it has healed sufficiently he will do the other one. So, she will be on recovery for a while, but will still be able to help out, though not full time. The rest of the men that had been kidnapped with Matt have been cleared, which is good, however, they will be on inactive duty for the rest of the case. Now, we just need to wait until we hear from Aari…
To Be Continued.
©2024 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 