Dr. Kerstina welcomed Melissa into the clinic enthusiastically, she was happy to receive help in trying to figure out what kind of drug might be causing my problem. I had 2 MRI scans and nothing showed up there, so it must be a drug. Sure enough, there were traces of an odd drug which Melissa recognized right away. “It is a very rare drug, with very little known about it really,” she said, “but it is dangerous if enough gets injected into your body.

Then these attacks will keep happening, but will get longer each time until one day you just will not recover from the attack.” “That is exciting news,” I said, being a little sarcastic. “Hush you,” said Sky, “this is serious.” “Well, one good thing, there is not enough in your system to kill you, yet,” Melissa added, “however, it was not given to you through food, it must be by injection.

In food the smell and taste would be so bad, even in very tiny amounts, that it would be very noticeable.” “That is not good news Steve,” said Sky, “that means someone on the team is doing this, but how?” “You mentioned using dart guns,” said Melissa, “may I see one?” Kerstina brought one out, with three different sizes of darts. “This small one would be perfect,” said Melissa, “try it out on your neck Steve.”

Sky poked me with it and I grabbed it. “That is it,” I said, “I remember being bitten by what I thought were flies, felt just like this dart.” “That means we have a traitor on the team again,” said Sky, “that is not good news, we have a much larger team now.” “Well, we will have all dart guns locked up for now,” I said, “and darts too, we know exactly what we have, if any are missing then we will search for them.

Even if we do not find them all, it will be harder for someone to jab me with one anyway.” Well, after all that it was time to head back to the chateau so we headed out to the car. There were Sky, myself, Jennifer, Melissa, Melanie, Dawn, Beryan and Kitty. Muffin, Jewel, Rusty and Ginger were with us too. Kerstina watched until we were at the car, then she went back to her office.

Meanwhile, back home. “I wonder why it is taking so long?” Baldwin asked, “I hope they have not found anything serious. Uh, Aasta, could you please bring me some more coffee and a donut?” “Right away, Mr. B,” she said cheerfully. She came back with coffee and 3 donuts. “Wonderful Aasta, thank you!” he said, “I do wish they would keep me better informed though.”

Cynthia came in next. “I think there is something wrong with Midnight’s collar,” she said, “he started getting a call from Muffin, but then it faded out and now it is not working at all.” “Let me see,” said Baldwin and she put Midnight on his desk. “Get the girls in from the pool,” he said casually, and off she went right away. “Everyone inside, pool time is over,” she called out. “But it has only been 20 minutes,” said Amber. “Order from Mr. B.” said Cynthia.

Though Baldwin said nothing to Cynthia, he knew there was a problem right away when she said Muffin’s call faded out, that is why he wanted the girls inside. Meanwhile, back at the clinic. Bridgette was walking past the main door and saw our car outside with doors still open. She immediately pressed Red Alert. The alarm sounded at the chateau, “Code Red, Leaders Down!”

“Aari! Get the guys down to the clinic now!” bellowed Baldwin, “Kristina, get your team down there too! Rock, Mac, Alfred, Cal, you stay here! Astrid, you keep your team here too!” Aari, Kristina and their teams arrived at the clinic, but everything seemed normal, our car was gone, Team 5 was guarding outside. They went inside to see what the problem was. Kerstina did not know what they were talking about.

Bridgette, who sent the alarm and actually talked with Baldwin telling him what she saw, also did not know what they were talking about. “I did not send the alarm,” she said, quite puzzled. So they played the recording of what she said to Baldwin. “I, I do not understand,” she said, “Steve and the others left an hour before that call, the car was gone by that time, it makes no sense.”

Baldwin had two helicopters in the air right away too, looking for the car. One chopper found it, down a steep gorge, it was still burning. They sent rescuers down there right away. It was a long drop before the car hit rocks at the bottom and exploded. The right number of bodies for people and cats were brought up and taken to the clinic. All were dead, and burned, but the DNA samples matched for everyone, cats included, except one body that had no match.

“That would be Jennifer,” said Dr. Kerstina, “we do not have a sample of her DNA, just like with Kat.” “We could exhume her body,” said Baldwin, “just to make sure.” “No!” said Kat, “Steve gave his word that Jennifer and I would never be exhumed for any reason.” “But this is important,” said Baldwin. “You have the DNA proof for everyone else,” said Kat, “missing one will not make a difference.” “I guess you are right,” he said sighing.

Poor Storm, he was lying flat as could be on Muffin’s favorite part of the play structure. The other cats were all around purring for him. “I do not believe those bodies are Steve and the others,” said Kat, “let me take some Wildcats and go looking for them, please.” “Even if you are right,” said Baldwin, “how would you go about looking for them? If they were kidnapped, then those kidnappers have a long head start.” “We are private investigators,” said Kat, “finding clues is our job. With Annelie helping, we can do it.”

“Could it be Fabien and Arielle that just escaped us?” asked Baldwin. “I doubt it,” said Alizea, “they need time to rebuild before they could attempt something so complicated. The people at the clinic, something was done to them to erase their memory of what happened. Mike’s organization did not have that ability.” “Okay Kat, pick your team, how many will you take?” asked Baldwin.

“I am betting this enemy is small, but sophisticated,” she said, “so we need to portray strength right from the start, or they will walk all over us. So, I would like to take 18 Wildcats, plus John and Mac. That will leave Kristina a full team of 10, plus herself. That will also leave Matt with a full team of Knight Riders, 12 including himself and ready to come help us if needed.

We will also take 4 cats, Storm, Rascal, Tiger and Midnight. That will leave 4 cats behind for Kristina.” “Okay,” he said, “I already have Annelie checking all the international airlines to see if any of our people got on board…

To Be Continued.

©Steve McLeod.