The team was now speeding along down the road from the mansion and Kat communicated with Jennifer and I that everything was successful and the girl is fine. I didn’t bother asking Kat how they managed to get the girl out of that cage, I will leave that for when they return. I really would like to know about this one, though when I mentioned that to Jennifer she just gave me a sort of blank stare, and sighed. That could mean I won’t find out what happened, so I sighed too.

That got Jennifer giggling. Kat had told us the girl’s name was Charlette, which to me sounded French, so I asked her about it. “Yes, she is French, from Montreal,” said Kat, “and that makes me rather suspicious.” “That makes me more than just suspicious,” I said, “I think we are dealing with the same enemy that we had with that castle case. At least, the people who were backing Sebastien and Liana. And it is someone with a lot of money.

It must be someone known to both Mandar and us, and we need to find out who very quickly. Go straight to the airport and get out of there!” Kat also told us that Catalina had tossed one of her special packages into the garage once the girl was safely out and that set off the large bomb which completely destroyed the garage, leaving just small bits and pieces scattered over a wide area.

They also left several fire bombs around the mansion with timers so the team was safely away before they detonated, causing the mansion to be completely destroyed. Meanwhile, over here it is a bit later in the morning and I decided to call Kristen and Krissy to get an update on what has been going on there. “Good news about Richard,” said Kristen, “he will be released from hospital today and will be staying in the office here where we can keep him safe.

We will have teams 1, 2 and 3 inside the building and teams 7 and 8 outside, along with the regular outside guards. All regular inside guards are undergoing testing to make sure all are working for us and not for someone else.” “Has there been a problem with security?” I asked. “Yes, we followed the route that Mandar took to go home,” she said, “all cars are equipped with GPS monitoring so we can follow the exact route taken.

The route was normal, but there was one short stop along the way, in front of a popular pub, but a place that Mandar would never go to at any time. When they arrived at Mandar’s home the security cameras managed to get clear photos of all the security guards that went with Mandar in his car. There were six men that went with him, and six arrived at home, but only one was our man, the driver, and he was shot when he got out of the car.

The other fake guards then ran to a waiting van and drove away. Krissy went with one of our security teams to check for clues in the car and at home, but found nothing. We have not gone to the pub yet.” “I want you and Krissy to stay at the office at all times,” I said, “you are too important right now to leave and do other things. I will send some of our girls out there to check for clues and check out that pub as well.”

“Okay Steve, we will do that,” she said, “and thanks. Also, we ran a test of Mandar’s voice from that phone call. Although it is close sounding, it was not his voice at all.” “I thought so,” I said, “we will have to work fast now to find out what happened to him, and let me know if you hear anything at all from these people.” “Oh, that driver had been working for Mandar for 5 years,” she added, “and had never given us any indication of problems.”

“That could mean this plan began a long time ago,” I said, “and it is meant to destroy Mandar Corporation, or perhaps to take over the Corporation. Either way it would be catastrophic, it would have implications around the world and that is definitely not good. Keep Richard well guarded. Wait, let me send one of our teams over to look after things and get him safely back to the office.” “I was hoping you would suggest that Steve,” she said, “thank you again.”

Matt and the Knight Riders were nearly home now, I had told him to come back, so I sent them on to London instead. Matt called Kristen and let her know when they would be arriving, she would need to make arrangements for them to guard Richard at the hospital now and bring him safely back to the office later today. Considering how things are playing out, I think we are likely being watched, not only here, but in London as well.

Undoubtedly our teams in Belize were also being watched. Whoever our enemy is, they want to know how we react and do things, possibly so they can better keep Mandar from being rescued, or possibly for a different reason. Perhaps they want us to do something for them, that has happened before when we had to free people from prisons around the world. But so far, neither the twins, nor us, have been contacted by these people.

Back to our teams in Belize, they are now heading quickly back to the jet, only one stayed behind for safety reasons. The other one is about an hour away in a different country. The pilots in both jets stayed on board the whole time and monitored our electronic sensors which would tell us if anyone came near the aircraft. We can monitor the sensors here as well and everything has been fine. But, just as our teams were approaching the jet, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by the local police.

However, our two friendly “ghosts” went to work and everyone boarded the jet without incident, the police just standing where they were. The jet was given permission to take off by the air traffic controllers, and once safely away from the country the two vans burst into flames and the police woke up from their rather odd “sleep”, and not remembering a thing about what had happened. Our “ghosts” are getting better all the time! A while later Kat called us to give us some more news about our little girl, Charlette.

Her last name is Cadieux and her foster parents were Alphonse and Coralie Boucher. Annelie is checking them out right away. The name Alphonse Boucher sounded very familiar, however, both are common French names, at least in Quebec. Charlette told Kat that a woman and a group of men brought her to the mansion, the woman’s name was Brielle Fortier and one of the men that talked with that woman a lot was Armand Gagnon.

The other men didn’t talk much and never talked to Charlette. She also said that Brielle mentioned the name Mandar a few times, and the name Steve. Although the girl could speak English somewhat, she was more comfortable speaking French, which makes sense. Fortunately Aari is fluent in French, and with one of the girls from our team sitting with Charlette for comfort, she would speak with Aari so we could get this information.

However, I told Aari not to probe too much right now since the girl has been through a very traumatic time, and he agreed. Once back home I will get our “bad girls” to make friends with her since they are all from Montreal. We do need information quickly…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.