As we went inside the chateau Aari tried to attack me but Cynthia moved quickly, kicking him twice in the stomach, knocking him against the wall and onto the floor, groaning. John went and checked to make sure he had no weapons on him. Then a tall, thin man came out of the kitchen, obviously not knowing we were there as he was quite surprised to see us.

I went over to him and Jennifer gave him a hard back handed slap knocking him onto the chair right behind him. He spilled his cup of coffee all over himself. “What is the meaning of this?!” he yelled. “Where are the rest of my team that I sent here 3 days ago?” I asked, “I only see one right now and he is lying on the floor.” “I do not know what you are talking about!” he growled, “That is my butler Andy, he has been with me for years!”

“Wrong answer,” I said, “guess we have to be more direct with our questions. This is Mac, he is a man of few words, but he does know how to make others talk.” Mac pulled the man off the chair, punched him in the stomach, then gave him another back handed slap. “Answer the question,” said Mac calmly. “I do not need to answer a PI or anyone else!” he growled.

“Well, well,” I said, “you do know what this is about. Check the place everyone, if anyone gets in the way you know what to do.” Off they went except for Cynthia, Jennifer, Kat and Mac. Galyna and Tracy came out of the kitchen with Kristina who had been making breakfast. Kristina was fighting mad! “Help hold her Kat,” I said, “so Galyna can calm her down.”

Galyna gave her a needle and Kristina was quickly asleep, just as Aari. The man grabbed his phone and was going to call the police but Cynthia kicked the phone from his hand, then picked it up and handed it to me. “You like to be bad,” I said, “why not save yourself some pain and tell me what this is all about? A lot of people died because of you, many more are injured, it would not bother me to kill you right now.

We are angry hornets at the moment, do not mess with angry hornets, you will get stung badly.” He just sat there smiling at me. I nodded to Mac who “talked” to the man a bit more. The man’s smile was gone, but he still would not talk. “Bet I could make him talk,” said Cynthia. I looked at her. She looked quite determined, like she had done this before.

“Ha! A little girl like you?” said the man, “How do you get away with hiring little girls for your team?” This guy knows too much about us. “Sky, use scramblers at all times,” I said, “the place has been bugged, though for some reason that never showed up in our checks.” “Already ahead of you Steve,” she said, “Snow discovered it and likely there are more.” “Be careful on the computer too,” I said, “they may have added something.”

“They did,” said Cynthia, “but I cleaned that up and put extra protection on it when I redid the system.” “I got that,” said Sky, “I also have more info for you.” “Hmm, send it to Rascal,” I said, “it would be safer, and part to Midnight as well, 2 are better than one.” Cynthia, Jennifer and Kat giggled. First Rascal told his part. Meowrr.=Mariia say she know maybe who did attack, she know man who use same kind of trucks.

They very special trucks, extra strong, use radio R, have special weep ons, carry lots mens. Meower=Yep, have base in Miami city in Floor in da. Have big big organs with nations, name is Cramer Winhouse, big boss for man name Jenkins. Mariia know man, he want to do bad things with her. Midnight then put his head down, but continued.

Meower.=Mariia woman… she not… maybe going to live… not look good. “Any problems right now Sky?” I asked her. “No, but what now?” she asked. “We keep moving ahead with our plans,” I said, “we are not stopping this time.” “I agree,” she said, “but you might want to talk with someone first anyway.” “Yes, I will do that,” I said, “oh, we have found Aari and Kristina, obviously hypnotized, the others probably are as well.”

Soon Rock returned with Harvey and Hope, both struggling to get away. “Had to get them out of bed,” he said. Galyna gave them each a needle as well. We still need to find 4 more. Suddenly Aasta came running in. “Muffin is hurt bad!” she exclaimed. Kat took Muffin and sat on a chair with her. Rock ran off and returned quickly with a large towel for Muffin.

“It was Storm, he attacked Muffin when she went to talk with him,” said Aasta trying hard to hold back tears, “I got Storm, Tiger and Tracker, had to dart them, they were just wild!” The thin man began to laugh, which was too much for Mac and he began to beat the man. “Okay Mac, stop for now please,” I said and he did so. I went over to see Muffin and started crying. Cynthia had a puzzled look on her face…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.