We made a slight change with our little team, I took Ginnifer with us too, and Snow. Snow was worried about Muffin so wanted to come along too, Ginnifer will look after her. Kat had enough time to make some new backpacks for our 2 new cats coming with us, even though the one for Rascal had to be quite a bit larger, as was his slingshot.

Rascal and Jewel had little time to practice with them, however, but hopefully they will not need to use them anyway. With us safely out of the way, then Baldwin and Mandar began their plans. “Matt,” said Baldwin, “pick who you want to go with you. You can have 2 of the men and 2 of the girls.” “Okay,” he said, thinking things over, “I will take Mac, John, Galyna and Penny, if she is willing to play the part.” Penny smiled. “I will play my part,” she said, “quite happily.”

Apparently that made Matt blush and I am sorry to have missed that. Penny will be playing Matt’s wife on this case and Galyna will be his sister. I wonder if this means Penny has her eyes on Matt? Matt lost his wife in a vehicle accident 10 years ago where her body was burned beyond recognition. She was identified by the jewelry she was wearing.

He had been offered a job in a different part of his country and he declined because his wife did not want to move and uproot their daughter from all her friends. Three days later was when she died. He was then offered the job again and took it. That is where we met him 10 years later and he wanted something better for his daughter so asked us to take her out, but she would not go without him, knowing he would be in trouble if she left.

So, we took them both out and they both are valuable members of our team now, with new identities. Anyway, Matt and his team left to go their way on this case. Just to make sure Carole Ann thinks we are still at home, Crystal, who is a twin to Sky (actually they are cousins but look like twins), is pretending to be Sky right now. Amber looks a lot like Aasta, so she will take her place.

She did have to dye her hair though, since their hair color is much different. It should work unless Carole Ann sees her up close. She might take Amber anyway, however, since she is young and very beautiful too. They have been told how dangerous it is pretending to be Sky and Aasta, but they still volunteered. They only need to do this for a short time though, the longer we can keep her fooled, the harder it will be for her to find us.

Meanwhile, “Yeah, that Aasta dame was in town,” said Freddie, “along with that ghost dame and 4 others. No way I could get close to pick her up by myself.” “That is okay,” said Carole Ann, “she is still there, that is the main thing, and Jeff saw Sky at the house, wandering around by herself outside for a short time this morning. So they feel comfortable at home and figure they do not need bodyguards around. That is perfect! I hope we can pick up both of them at the same time.”

“Any of those gals would be good to have,” said Jeremy, “seems they are all pretty.” “Pretty is one thing,” said Carole Ann, “beauty is another. But we will pick up some others too if we can. Always good to have some extras around.” “Too bad you were not beautiful Carole Ann,” said Jon, “you would be at the top of the chart right away.”

She turned and looked at Jon with so much anger and hate, that if looks could kill, Jon would have died a hundred times over. But she needed him and the others right now so had to hold herself back for a while at least. “Do not press your luck Jon,” she said coldly. “I meant that as a compliment,” he said. “Well, stop complimenting then!” she yelled. She then told everyone to get ready and tomorrow they would strike.

Except when tomorrow came, it was raining and everyone stayed indoors. That infuriated Carole Ann! Then a second day of rain, or mostly anyway. Carole Ann was so angry over this that none of her men wanted to talk to her at all. Meanwhile, where we were the weather was fabulous. But where were we? I did not know, but it was an amazing round about way we took to get here.

And “here” was a beautiful, large log home in the middle of the wilderness. There were no roads into this place, we arrived by helicopter, 2 of them actually. They brought in supplies for us too and would bring more if we had to stay there longer than 2 weeks. Apparently the nearest village was about 300km away, quite a hike. We had no phones, we left them behind so Carole Ann could not use them to track us down.

If we need to communicate we will do so with the cats. Their collars cannot be tracked, though I always thought they were limited by range. But it seems Kat fixed that problem. I hope so anyway. We do need to use a certain satellite to help us which Kat had showed me before. It is quite easy to spot so I showed everyone our first night out there.

“What if it is cloudy?” asked Sky. I just looked at her. Sky likes to ask questions. “Then we wait for a clear night,” I said. “What if it is an emergency?” asked Aasta. She likes to ask questions too. “We will be fine out here anyway,” I said and went back inside. The others followed. Even with the excitement of the day and being in a new place without knowing where we are, we still slept very well…

To Be Continued.

©2024 Steve McLeod.