“The mushrooms are poison,” said Sky, “but they look the same as the ones we usually buy. Annelie suggested having mushrooms and Storm was already gone after checking all the food we were having for breakfast, so not his fault. We got them at the market in town, there was a new vendor and she had the mushrooms. It would have been easy to substitute the poison ones for the regular ones.” 

“See?” said Baldwin, “You are too easy on everyone Steve, you need more discipline here, you need to be tough, like me. I fire Candace for her disregard for authority and you reward her by hiring her and giving her some false punishment saying, ‘I love you Steve’ each day.” I think it was the sarcastic way he said that which got Sky so angry. 

“I will have you know,” said Sky, “by having her say ‘I love you Steve’ each day, she will learn to love him and respect him, just like the rest of the girls here. Aasta, show Mr. B. what I mean.” Aasta came over, hugged me and said, “I love you Steve, and thank you for loving me.” 

Then she turned to Mr. B and said, “I not only love Steve as my leader, but I respect him as my leader also and I know that he loves me as he does all of us girls and he would die for us too, and I would die for him. He gained my respect by his love and treating me with respect.” Then she went and stood beside her dad. ”What do you think about that Aari?” Baldwin asked. ”I stand behind my little girl totally,” he replied. ”I give up,” said Baldwin. 

Then Sky brought me more coffee and donuts, then gave more to Mandar and was about to bypass Baldwin but he growled at her. ”I would like more too!” he said frowning, “More disregard for authority.” He probably should not have said that. Sky sloshed the coffee into his cup. ”You spilled coffee on my papers!” he yelled. 

“Where?” asked Sky as she leaned over his desk to see. While doing so she spilled more coffee onto his papers. ”You did that deliberately Sky!” he yelled. ”Oh my, I seem to be a bit clumsy this morning,” she said giggling. I started to laugh but had to stop because of my sore stomach. ”That will be 5 demerits for you Sky!” he bellowed. 

“Here is your donut,” she said and dropped it into his cup of coffee. ”That will be two more demerits!” he growled. Sky stuck her tongue out at him. Kat had to leave, she was laughing so much. ”Two more demerits!” he yelled, “And 5 demerits for you Kat, for laughing!!” ”Oh dear me, so much yelling here this morning,” said Mandar shaking his head, “surely we have more important things to deal with.” 

“I agree with you Mr. M,” I said, “this case is getting more serious. Now everyone is a target.” Just then Li Jing called to say that Felina had died, and Tracy, Sapphire and Annelie were not doing well at all. I called Matt and told him to get over to the clinic right away. I told Crystal, Astrid and Engla to take him over and come back right away. 

“I just told my Team 4 to come over here and help out Steve,” said Mandar. ”Thanks Mr. M,” I said, “I think we could use the extra help.” Then 2 of the girls from Team 7 came to our door and asked to talk with me so Kristina invited them in. But before they got inside, one of them fell, bleeding. Kristina grabbed the other one and pushed her to the floor and pressed the alarm, but nothing happened. 

“Red Alert Attack!!”, she yelled out. I tried pushing the alert button, but again, nothing happened, but then I remembered the guys were working on the alarm system so likely had it turned off. Sky went flying out the door and down beside the steps and yelled out, “RED ALERT ATTACK!!” For a small woman, she sure can yell when she wants to. 

The guys outside heard her and came running around to the front. Nothing else happened, but we determined where the shot must have come from and a couple of the guys went to look. They found the exact spot and it looked like two people had been there. Someone is trying to take us down a little at a time. But who? The one girl from Team 7 was dead, shot in the heart, the other girl, Kari, was shot in the arm instead. Kristina’s quick thinking saved Kari from the same fate as the other girl. 

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.