Alizea told the other girls that she thought Angelica was much the same as Mike. “From what you have told me,” she said, “she likes to control things herself, even though she will put others in top positions. This means that Angelica will want to be present when the museum treasures are brought to her warehouse.” Oddly, Angelica had the ownership of the warehouse in her name, guess she did not think anyone would find out. She is getting careless, a plus for our team.

Kat quickly called Matt and the Knight Riders were in position within minutes, waiting for Angelica to come out of the hotel. Sure enough, out she came with 8 bodyguards late that afternoon. Matt came out from behind a black van at that moment. “Hello Angelica,” he said, “my name is Matt Knight, leader of the Knight Riders, and you now belong to me.” “Kill them!” screamed Angelica to her bodyguards.

There was a brief gun battle and all 8 of her bodyguards lay dead in the parking lot. They took Angelica prisoner to an old, abandoned building. Meanwhile, the girls left an envelope for Carolyn at the front desk and asked them to deliver it quickly as it was important. Hotel staff took it to her right away. “Now, what is this?” she asked herself.

“Greetings Carolyn; my name is Matt Knight, leader of the Knight Riders. I have your mother, but I will give her back to you if you give me Steve, Sky and the other girls that you have. The Investigators killed some of my men and were responsible for others ending up in prison. I want to show them that was not a good idea. If you do not agree to this, then I shall have to kill your mother and stop your museum heist. Think it over. Which is more important to you? You have 2 hours to decide. My phone number is below. Matt Knight.”

Carolyn was horrified by this turn of events. She needed her mother back in less than an hour or their plans for the museum heist are finished, and they put so much time into planning for this. She had a man named Arthur check on the Knight Riders. “Don’t get tangled up with them,” he said after a few minutes, “they are a rough bunch.” “Well, Steve,” she said, “I guess you and your friends will be going to a new home. Right now my mom is just more important than anything else.

But perhaps you can do something for me, by killing this Matt Knight.” She laughed cheerfully at the thought. She just needed to program Steve a little differently. He only needed one more session and he will never return to normal. She had just enough time to do it too since it only takes 15 minutes. She decided to give Sky her last session at the same time so no matter what happens, Steve and Sky will never be together again. She called Matt and set up a neutral place to meet.

Unfortunately Carolyn would not be there, she was smart enough not to do that, just in case they decided to kidnap her too. That was on Matt’s mind, but they had to change their plans for that one. Arthur brought Steve and the girls and exchanged them for Angelica. Matt decided not to show for this exchange either, just in case. The exchange went smoothly enough and once in a van Steve asked Aari why Matt did not show.

“Same reason that Carolyn stayed away,” he said, “sometimes leaders need to be a bit more careful than others.” “Makes sense,” said Steve, “I’m looking forward to meeting this guy though, he seems to be quite smart to outwit the intelligent Angelica.” “Or maybe he was just lucky,” said Aari smiling. Steve’s interest in Matt got Aari thinking and wondered if maybe Steve had been programmed to kill Matt. So he decided to send a coded message to Matt, to warn him.

He also sent a message to Kat letting her know that they had Steve and the others, but they cannot be trusted right now. Steve and Sky especially were acting strange. They had put blindfolds on Steve and the others and drove around a little before stopping at the back of Kat’s hotel. Jennifer and a few of the girls took their “prisoners” up to their rooms. Kat, the rest of the girls and the Knight Riders went to see if the museum really was going to hand the priceless treasures over to Angelica or not.

Alizea was right. Armored trucks were bringing the treasures into Angelica’s warehouse when they arrived. Well, they just could not let this happen, so, they decided to attack! They began by shooting smoke bombs into the warehouse through the open doors, then shooting small bombs onto the roof where they exploded with minimal damage, but it caused a lot of fear among the museum curators and guards. This meant that their new plan was known and obviously they would not be able to use this location.

Angelica had hired a hundred unemployed men very cheaply to be her guards at the warehouse, but most had never even held a gun before, so when explosions and shooting began, they tossed their guns away and ran out of the building through the front doors since all the action was at the back. Angelica was furious and hysterical at this point, yelling and screaming at her fake guards to come back and fight, but none did, they all fled! Then sirens were heard so everyone left since they did not wish to be caught.

The museum trucks then went to a government warehouse where soldiers had been deployed to protect these national treasures. Angelica just kept pacing back and forth in their hotel room, periodically screaming hysterically because of the days events and trying to figure out what to do next. “Hey,” she said, “we can use that invention of yours to make those soldiers obey us.”

“It is not ready for that yet, mom,” said Carolyn, “I need to figure out a way to make that gas stronger for widespread use like that. All it would do now is maybe give them a bit of a headache.” “Useless machine!!” screeched Angelica, “All that money it cost me and we can’t even use it!” “I told you it was still experimental yet,” said Carolyn, “and now we know it works great. Plus, Steve and Sky are out of the way for good, no more problems with them.”

Carolyn smiled at her mom. “Yes, I guess that is a good point,” said Angelica, “we are rid of Steve forever!” “And we still have one more chance at those treasures,” said Carolyn. Then she showed her mom some papers. “Where did you get those?” asked Angelica. “While we were hiding in the office during the attack,” said Carolyn, “I took one of the briefcases from a museum official and in it were plans for moving the trucks from their new hideout to the museum.

It was labelled Plan C, just in case our warehouse didn’t work out. So, I took pictures and put everything back in the briefcase and put it back next to the official, he never even missed it.” “Good for you girl!” exclaimed Angelica…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.