For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Nothing much happening on the home front, so we will continue with the prison people. “Kate Saunders!” said Craig (the boss), “now we are getting somewhere. She must be a relative of Kat and came to avenge the death of Kat. Am I right?” “Sorry boss,” said Fingers, “that is what I thought too, but I checked on this Kate Saunders and she is a dead end. There is no such person.”
“Obviously there must be,” said Craig, “but perhaps she is just using a different name.” “I checked on that possibility too,” said Fingers, “but could not come up with anything. This lady just does not exist.” “You know Fingers,” said the boss, “if it wasn’t you, they would need to carry you out of here now. I want answers and you give me questions.”
“Sorry boss,” said Fingers, “I will keep checking. I also have Williams trying to break into the computer system of The Investigators. He said it is a tough one, must be a pro job, but he will break in. Might take a little time though. Then he can find out more about Kat and Kate Saunders. They have a lot of rigid rules in that group apparently, so they should have info about all their team members.”
“Good,” said Craig, “if anyone can hack into their computers, Williams is the one to do it.” Meanwhile, back to us. Annelie called everyone into the library. “Someone is trying to hack into us,” she said. “That means someone is very interested in us for some reason,” said Nelson, “do you know who it is?” “Someone from that prison where Morgan broke out from,” she said, “once he hits this next part, then he will be redirected to our false information. It will still be hard for him to get in there though, if I made it too easy, he would be suspicious.”
“Good,” said Nelson, “now who would be interested in us from that prison?” “I have been checking out the prison for a while now,” said Andrej, “Morgan likely broke out with the help of Craig, that big drug boss, so he could run things for Craig. And Craig likely wants to know more about us since we put Morgan in prison.” “So he wants Steve most likely,” said Nelson.
“And Sky too,” said Crystal, “she is a good way to hurt Steve.” “And Kat too,” said Sapphire, “he will have been told about her, um, interesting abilities and he will want to find out what he can about her.” “That will not be easy,” said Kat. “Yes,” said Annelie, “like us, he will find out that Kate Saunders is a dead end.” “Well, that is very fitting since Kat is also a dead end,” said Kat smiling.
“By the way,” said Nelson, “how did you get in here before your bodyguards?” “I told them to take a break,” she said, “after all, we are inside.” Nelson frowned at her, then at her bodyguards. “You will stay with Kat at all times,” he said, “and I mean all times. And those other guns are to be with you at all times too.” “We will do that,” they both said together. It was now time to go meet the plane with my doctor on board.
Everyone was told to remain in their seats temporarily while the police came on board. It was actually our team, not the police, but it worked nicely. Rock went directly to the doctor while others on the team watched the passengers, having their guns out. They took the doctor directly to our clinic and he checked me out right away.
He did not like the idea of giving me this drug while I was on life support, so he talked things over with Li Jing, Bridgette and Sky. Kat was called to the clinic as well. “Talk to him Kat,” said Sky with tears, “he might listen to you.” Everyone left the room, except Muffin and Kat. After a little while Kat came out and said I was ready.
They took me off life support, my heart was beating normally and I was breathing normally too. The doctor waited just a bit longer to make sure I was okay, then he gave me this new drug. It had to be administered slowly since it was a large amount he was giving me. Since I was so far gone with Nowhere, it might not work and the doctor had explained the risks plainly to Sky and the others.
Meanwhile, back at the prison. “I got in finally,” said Williams to Craig, “it was tougher than I thought it would be. I checked out a few of the team members at random and they all checked out. Then I checked Kate Saunders, but they found out the same thing as Fingers. Kate is a dead end.
She must be using a false name to protect herself but The Investigators tried to find out her background and came up empty, just like I did. As for Kat, she is not a member since she refused the annual physical checkup.” “Hmm, now that last part is interesting,” said Craig, “why would she refuse unless she is hiding something.”
“But if she is hiding something,” said Williams, “they would not let her stay around. They have tough rules for things like that. Unless she really is Kat.” “You believe in ghosts Williams?” asked Craig. “Yeah, I do,” he said, “and ghosts can do strange things, so maybe she is a ghost…
To Be Continued.
©2023 Steve McLeod.
Good morning to everyone on this very foggy Saturday! It is mid morning and it is still very foggy out there. Earlier I could just make out the houses across the street, now I can see slightly beyond them but not quite to the next street. It has not been foggy like this for a very long time. It is supposed to be sunny today though and the fog is supposed to be gone already. Oh well.
I was hoping to take some pictures this morning. Perhaps this afternoon. One time I walked down to the river while it was foggy, much like it is today. It was kind of eerie walking along through the trees, not being able to see very clearly, or very far. And it was quiet, so very quiet. The ground was moist and even though the path was covered with newly fallen leaves, they were soft and made no noise at all while I walked along.

Looking down the street away from my apartment building.
I would stop and look around. Not a sound anywhere, even the birds were quiet. At one point I spotted some chickadees, nuthatches and a brown creeper foraging among the trees. But they made no sound whatever. Usually they are calling to each other as they foraged. Not that day. They were quiet as could be. It was so strange.
I would stop and take pictures of mushrooms, lying down on the wet ground to get closer to them. It seemed to feel so strange doing that, yet on sunny days I never gave it a thought. But that day was different. I doubt I would hear a bear come along, especially if it was on the path. At that time I had no bear spray. I did buy some the next spring.

A broader view of the street.
When I finally got to the river there was a lady sitting on the bench with her little dog. I had met her several times so I naturally said “Good morning” to her. She jumped off the bench, holding her little dog. Then she saw it was me. She nearly had a heart attack. Neither of them heard me coming. We sat down together and talked for about 20 minutes, then we both left.
By that time the fog was lifting nicely and the birds were now chirping again. Interesting that the birds remained quiet while the fog was so thick, one would think that would be a good time to chirp to each other. But then, at a time like that, any noise would attract the attention of predators. Even predators would have trouble seeing well in such heavy fog.

The next street over from mine.
Tomorrow I will not have an internet connection until 2pm. The whole town will be without electricity for 8 hours. They need to do some upgrades to our power station. So I will be staying indoors during that time since the elevators will not be working and I do not plan on walking down the stairs. My knees would never handle that. Minor details. Well, I hope you all have a nice relaxing weekend and God bless!
Steve and Muffin.
©2023 Steve McLeod.