It did not take long for that old chemist shop building to burn. It was very old and made from wood which would be extremely dry by now. It was probably more than a hundred years old. “Kendra didn’t waste any time burning that place down,” said Dawn, “guess she was hoping we didn’t know about it and didn’t get that drug we needed. Now we just need to keep her away from Steve.” TJ sat there frowning for a few moments.

“I just thought of something,” she said, “that building was likely set on fire by one of Kendra’s men, not by her. Kendra is a coward really, she just pretends to be tough as long as she has the upper hand in a situation. But, a few days ago, quite late at night, I got up to get something to drink and I overheard Kendra and Tony talking. She reminded him of a tunnel in the basement that went to what she called a “safe room”. They could stay there for several days if necessary if anyone ever attacked them.

Then, after things cooled down, they would come out and get away fast. She told Tony to make sure Jimmy and I were killed if things turned against them. Kendra sent Tony into town today, but he never came back. Kendra didn’t like that, but Jimmy said he probably ran away just like a coward. Jimmy always called people cowards unless they did what he wanted them to do. Guess I’m a coward too, unlike you women, but I’m a just an ordinary girl, not a specially trained soldier like all of you.”

“Hey, we are not soldiers,” said Cynthia, “just ordinary girls working as PI’s. But we are specially trained to do our job.” “Yeah, I can certainly see that,” she said. While the girls were talking Jennifer contacted Kat and told her about the tunnel in the basement. Then Kat contacted Matt to let him know. They were now finished with the men in the house, which were only 9, not twelve. But that could mean that Kendra took some of the men with her to that safe room to help guard the room, and her.

Matt knew that in the tunnel, Kendra’s men had the advantage, plus there could be traps along the way as well. So it was decided that Kat and the cats would go ahead of everyone else. Matt sent some of his Riders along with Kat and she took some of her Wildcats along as well. So there were 5 from each team, plus Kat and the cats. However, they first had to find the tunnel and they were having some trouble doing so. The cats sniffed all along the walls but they found nothing.

Then Rusty, Tiger and Squirrel (Cal’s cat), decided to try something different. Instead of looking along the walls, they would look in the middle of the room. It was actually in the second basement room that they noticed a large box sitting near the middle of the room. They went over and began to sniff around the box and sure enough, they detected the scent of humans! Squirrel went running back and got everyone’s attention so they all came running back into the smaller room.

Bear and Oskar tried to move the big box but it did not want to move for them. “Must be locked from below,” suggested Willie. “Thanks for that obvious observation Willie,” they said. Then they began to smash the box to pieces. But the bottom was actually made from steel and quite thick, so they called for Catalina to come down with one of her surprise packages. She set it beside the lock and they all went into the other room. At the press of a button that steel door was no longer a problem.

Kat went down first, then the 5 Knight Riders, followed by the Wildcats. But the tunnel went two ways and they did not want to split up, it would be too dangerous. So, they stayed together and followed the right hand tunnel first. Turned out that was the tunnel they wanted and oddly enough, there were no traps along the way…until they were close to a door. Then suddenly the floor of the tunnel disappeared and John fell into the hole that opened. Kat quickly jumped in after him and beat him to the bottom.

As soon as he was within reach she grabbed his arm. There were poisonous snakes in that pit but John was safe as long as Kat was holding onto him. Oskar and Bear tossed a rope to John and he began to climb up. Once he was safely out of harms way Kat let go of him and Willie dropped a rope down to her as well. He was able to easily pull her out of the pit. Now they had a slight problem, how to cross this 10 foot long opening.

The Riders remembered seeing some long planks in the basement so they hurried back to get them. They were about 12 feet long which gave them just enough length to get across that opening safely. Then Bear smashed the door open, which only revealed another tunnel. In they went and followed along the tunnel which then took another turn and at the end of the tunnel was yet another door. Bear wasted no time smashing that door too which startled Kendra and the 8 men she had with her.

She must have had some men waiting in that underground room, or Tony doesn’t know how to count very well. A gunfight erupted but did not last very long. Only two men surrendered, the rest were killed, including Kendra who had tried to get away through another door, but Kat caught her and when Kendra pulled her gun Kat gave her just one kick to her head and Kendra fell to the floor, dead. Meanwhile, back in town we were packing up quickly. Well, the girls were packing quickly, I was still asleep with Milena beside me.

Once everything was packed the girls carried me down to our waiting car. Jennifer contacted Kat to let her know we had pulled out and Kat said they would be joining us soon. She also told Jennifer that Kendra was now dead. All we had to do now was get out of there and return to our jets. Even though it was a four hour drive we managed to arrive safely at our jets and we were soon in the air and on our way home. We left before the others arrived, we like to try and keep ourselves with some space between us when on the way home, just in case there is trouble. Now, we just need to get TJ safely home to Mandar…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.