Well, we were at our hotel having breakfast and then we would pick up the money from the bank and head out to meet with Carmen. I would like to say I was not nervous. But I am, very nervous. Aasta insisted that we take Rascal along with us and I thought that might be a good idea. But still, we are heading into the enemies territory and Carmen will likely have a lot of people around her for protection.

We are just two, and one cat. “They will not kill us, or take us,” said Jennifer. “They outnumber us,” I reminded her, “and she managed to take down a jet with two pilots, 13 of our girls and 3 cats. Without a fight obviously. Carmen had a lot of dreams and ideas as a kid, fantastic kind of ideas that were like science fiction. If she has started putting some of those ideas into practice, then that makes her very dangerous.”

“I can be very dangerous too, Steve,” said Jennifer seriously, “no one, not even Carmen will hurt you, or take you, with me by your side. No matter what kind of weapons she has, or fancy science fiction toys, she cannot kill a ghost. Now is the time for you to start believing me when I say that, okay?” “Okay, that is a deal,” I said.

Meanwhile, “Did you find out anything about those 4 young people that went to the park yesterday?” asked Carmen. “Yeah, they are a bunch of typical, boring punks,” said Burk, “all from MN, that big truck is a rental, the two gals have low paying jobs, the guys are wanna be mechanics at a service station. They all like camping, hiking, fishing, soccer and basketball. No connection to these Investigators though.”

“Good,” she said, “now it is time to pick out 2 of these girls to send back with Steve.” “I say we should just kidnap Steve right now,” said Brad, “and hold him for ransom.” “No, I want my money,” she said, “and I believe Steve when he said his team would destroy us. He has a big backer of some kind, just wish I knew who it was.

So, he just might have the people to stop us and I do not wish to take that chance. This is more important.” Well, here we are, stopping in front of that little general store. We left Rascal in the car and stood outside. A large man came out the door and motioned for us to come in, which we did. “Welcome, dear Steve,” said Carmen, “I hope you enjoyed your drive.”

“It was okay,” I said, “a long drive for me right now though.” “Yes, I’m sorry about that, really,” she said, “but things have to be done. I see the money was in my account at 1pm, thank you for that, and this suitcase is the rest?” The same man came and took it from Jennifer. “I must say Steve,” said Carmen, “you did pick a very beautiful wife.” “Thank you,” said Sky, “oh, my name is Sky, since Steve forgot to introduce me.”

Carmen laughed. “Typical man,” she said, “but I knew your name already anyway, I did see you the other day.” “Oh, that is right,” said Sky, “I nearly forgot that was you. A very good disguise.” The man then put the suitcase next to Carmen. “You know Steve,” she said, “if we worked together this whole country could be ours. Remember how we used to talk and play our games when we were kids?”

“But we always played the good guys,” I reminded her. “That is only because we did not understand,” she said, “we were naive kids.” “With a dream,” I said. “And I’m going to bring that dream to pass,” she said smiling. Then her man brought out Tracy and Engla. “Until tomorrow, dear Steve,” said Carmen, and she disappeared into the back. We all left in a hurry back to the car and then drove away.

“We were not able to find out much Steve,” said Tracy, “but there is a control room with something going on that seems to interfere with our transmitters.” I had a scrambler working in the car so we could talk on the way back, just in case the girls had listening devices planted on them. Sure enough, Rascal found one on each of the girls. I kept the scrambler going anyway, just in case.

Rascal said that no one had come close to the car while we were inside the store, which was good. The other girls were doing okay, everyone was being treated well and fed well too. They said that Sky was going to be the last girl to be set free. She requested that since she was the team leader this time. That made me very nervous.

Well, after 3 hours we were back at our hotel, that makes 6 hours of driving for the day. Too much for my sore back, so, after dinner Beryan was busy massaging my back again. Meanwhile, “I think we found something…”

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.