Aari knew that meant trouble since Ohio already knew Mandar. “So you know him,” said Matt smiling, “he will finish you off easily enough, he has a large gang working for him, though this is the first time he has come here.” “Perhaps he is after you, my good man,” said Mandar, “he might want his money back for the man you sold him and then hired me to take the man away from him.”

“What?” exclaimed Matt, “I never hired you!” “That is not what I will tell him,” said Mandar casually. “What else have you been doing behind our backs?” asked the sheriff who then jumped Matt and the two began fighting. Ohio’s men then arrived, but Samson and his team came right behind them and the shooting began.

Our team was much better trained than Ohio’s men, however, so the gun fight was short. But, as I said, Ohio’s men came into town, but one car was late coming along, the car with Ohio and 4 men in it. They spotted Dawn at the edge of the trees and stopped. Ohio got out with his men and called to Dawn to put her gun down and give up.

Never!” was her only response. Muffin walked through the long grass to get a bit closer and “Thwock!”, one man fell. The shooting began. Dawn kept jumping, rolling in the grass and shooting. At the end Ohio and his men were dead. I tried to get up, but my legs would not move. Dawn and Muffin came over to me. “Are you okay Steve?” asked Dawn. That is when I saw she was bleeding in 4 spots.

“I am okay Dawn,” I said. She said nothing, just began shaking and fell to the ground beside me. “Muffin, red alert to Sky,” I said to her with an alarmed tone. Meow,meow.=Me did already, but no one come to help. I did not like the sound of that. What happened though was that Sky got the message and turned around quickly.

However, it was a narrow road and she went slightly into the ditch hitting a large hole and ripping the right front wheel right off. They were going nowhere. And it was too far to walk in time to help us. “Alarm to Annelie Muffin, quick!” I said. She did so immediately. “I just got a red alert from Muffin,” said Annelie, “why send it to me?”

“Perhaps no one else answered,” replied Nelson, “alert Mandar right away.” Annelie did so and Mandar looked at his phone. He was puzzled by the message coming from Annelie but he reacted quickly. “Karen, Kera, Crystal, Aoife and Beryan, red alert little M, now!” he said, and the girls did not question him, they just left in a hurry. They first came upon Sky, who had Aubrey and Bridgette with her.

They quickly jumped into the car and off they went. They stopped where we should be, noticing the other car, and the men lying on the ground. They all jumped out with Sky calling for me. I called out and they all came running quickly to us. “Ohio and his men were taken down by Dawn and Muffin,” I said, “but Dawn is seriously wounded.”

Meow,meow!=It not me, human angel Dawn, she take down men! “We need to get her to the jet quickly,” said Bridgette, “she has lost a lot of blood.” “Come Steve,” said Sky, as the girls carried Dawn to the car. Sky had her hand out. Meow,meow.=My human not able to move legs. Karen was still there, so her and Sky carried me to the car.

“I think it was that beating on my back,” I said, “guess I should have been resting more.” “You are going to start being more of an armchair PI,” said Sky, “no more going on cases until Li Jing says it is safe to do so.” “Good thing this car is so big,” said Beryan as she massaged my back, “we need some bigger cars back home too.”

“We will get some,” I said, “by the way, who is driving?” “Karen,” said Sky, “she drives just like me.” “Yes, I noticed that,” I said. “And Karen came along with Mandar because she wants to join our little family. And so does one of Mandar’s men, his name is Joe Hawkins, but everyone calls him Hawk.” “Good, we need some more men on the team,” I said, “but they still need to pass our tests.”

“I am sure they can do it,” said Sky, “since they are working for Mandar. And as far as I am concerned, Dawn has already passed the tests.” Then she stopped for a couple of minutes. “I just hope she lives,” she added, with tears rolling down her cheeks. Sky really likes Dawn, which is nice to see. Sky is right, I think Dawn has already passed the tests too…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.