Everyone was a bit hungry after our little fight, well, the girls did the fighting, I stayed at the van with Yana and Kitty stayed in the van with Anya. Rock enjoyed the fight too, he said it was good exercise, but it made him extra hungry. I reminded him that he’s always extra hungry, but right now he may need to go on a diet. The shocked look on his face when I said “diet” was priceless! We drove for a while, then stopped and parked behind some trees along a country road where we could hide the vans.

Then the girls went to work with painting the vans. They do a remarkably good job at painting. Our black vans are now a sandy color with the name of a Russian tour service painted on the side. We were even able to make name tags for our 4 tour guides, Yana, Anya, Astrid and Valeria. Our two guides can speak Russian fluently, as can Macy, plus Astrid can speak the local language as well, something that might be very handy. We will begin listening to news reports on the radio in the vans so we know how much information is being shared in this country.

We had buried the Russian uniforms, plus our phones, on the other side of the border, so we couldn’t be tracked through them. Our individual communicators should be safe from any tracking possibility. While the girls were painting the vans, our cats checked them thoroughly for any trackers, or other devices, but found none. We actually have quite a few of the cats with us, 8 of them, since they had been invited by Mandar to come with their humans. I asked Kat if there was a small town close by where we could by food, without being too noticeable, although a larger town might actually be better for hiding in the open.

However, it was indeed a small town that we came to just 2km from where we painted the vans. There was an open air market, plus one store that sold different grocery items that we needed too. Our “guides” told the store owner that we took a wrong turn, an understatement, and we were now lost. They told him which city we were heading for along the sea coast. He shook his head and admitted that we were indeed lost. He was kind enough to draw a simple map showing how to get back to a main road that went to the city we wanted.

We stocked up on food and other supplies and off we went following his map. However, driving along the main highway might not be a good idea, but what choice did we have? The city we are aiming for has an international airport, and that means we can get our plane in and out of there, hopefully without being arrested beforehand. We made good time driving for two hours on this highway until we came to a town where we stopped to buy petrol.

The man behind the counter looked at us rather suspiciously, especially after I purchased a road map. Right after Sky went to him and he leaned close to say something to her, then she touched the back of his neck and he was soon sleeping. The girls set him on his chair and came outside. As I went outside, there were two young men standing there and one had just started to make a phone call. I went to him and put my hand on his phone which he quickly let go because it was burning his hand.

I put my hand around it and the phone melted in my hand while the two men stood there with shocked looks on their faces. I then touched the two of them and they fell backward onto a bench. Then I touched the backs of their necks and they were soon sleeping as well. “Now you are catching on my dear twin brother,” said Sky smiling. “And how can you two be twins,” asked Yana, “when she is one of the triplets?” I laughed. “Sky saved my life one time,” I explained, “by sharing some of her blood with me. So, since then we call each other twins.”

“Aww, that is so nice,” said Anya. “You know, when those men wake up,” said Yana, “they will phone the police and tell them about us.” “No, they won’t do that,” I said, “because they won’t even remember that we stopped there.” I smiled at Yana. “You have many secrets Steve,” she said, “no wonder you can do such amazing things like helping people to escape.” “Oh, oh,” said Jennifer, “that police car turned around and is now following us.” “Hmm, that isn’t good,” I said, “but maybe that was his usual place to turn around and come back.”

“Nope, his lights are on now,” she said, “so, do we stop?” “Yes, we will stop and talk with him,” I said, and I told the other vans we were stopping. The driver of each van now is one of our “tour guides” who can speak Russian, except Jennifer, so she quickly changed places with Yana. We do have a big problem though, what if he wants to see the driver’s license of our drivers? Jennifer, Sky and myself quickly got out and turned invisible, running back to the police car. There were two officers in the car, obviously calling in about our vans.

Their side windows were open so Jennifer and I reached in and touched the back of their necks and they were asleep very quickly. I destroyed their radio equipment while Sky flattened their tires. “Do you suppose removing their pants was overdoing it a bit?” asked Jennifer. “I think it was a great idea,” said Sky giggling, “good one my twin.” “Thank you,” I said. Fortunately, when these police officers wake up, they won’t remember anything about the previous two hours, not even if asked why they called in. This drug we use for these situations was developed by Carolyn and it certainly works great. Now to continue our journey…

To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.