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For a smile as wide as a country sunrise
Here we are, the road ahead was blocked by a large military truck, with about a hundred soldiers and police officers. One of the soldiers, a Captain, had come over to talk with us and he told us we were under arrest for destroying our plane and stealing state secrets which he said we have hidden in our vans. Astrid has been translating for me since this Captain doesn’t seem to speak, or perhaps just refuses to speak, English. When I went out to talk with the Captain, Astrid came with me and I asked Sky to join us as well. She came quickly with Angel and stood with us.
Jennifer was driving the first van, Sky the second, Misty the third and Rock was in last place. I told him to stay put, since his size can be rather intimidating and we don’t want to scare anyone just yet. I tried to explain to the Captain that we did not intend to come here but we had been kidnapped by our pilot and brought here against our wishes. We then found these vans at the unused airport building and decided to use them for transportation. I could tell by his laughter that he did not believe my story.
He said it would be a great story to tell his family tonight. Sigh. Then that big truck moved a bit and a military car drove past and up to our van. The back door opened and the Captain, and the others with him, quickly stood at attention and saluted. Hmm, a higher ranking officer has come to see us now, this is getting more interesting all the time. And it started with a glass Christmas tree. Out stepped a Colonel and he came walking over to us, I mean, she came walking over to us.
“Do not worry Steve,” she said, “these men do not understand English at all. I will have to let them search your vans though, sorry for the inconvenience, but it will give us a chance to talk. Please ask your people to leave the vans and stand off to the side and not interfere.” I told this to everyone and they got out of the vans and stood in the grass to the side of the road. The Colonel then told the Captain to take his men and search the vans. Off they went, beginning with the first one.
“I must apologize for the unorthodox way of getting you here,” said the Colonel, “but it was not easy to get in touch with you without being discovered. I am being watched, so must be careful. Some good friends of mine have been convicted of sedition and are now in prison serving a life sentence. They are also looking for their son and daughter. The son has disappeared with a couple of his friends, but the daughter has been hiding on her own. She finally got in touch with me and I have her in my car right now. I want you to take her away from here, please.”
“We will gladly do that Colonel,” I said, “but we need to take you with us too, otherwise you will end up dead or in prison for life too.” “It would be much too dangerous to have me along with you,” she said, “besides, how would you take me without my men seeing me leave?” “The same way we will take the young woman from your car,” I said, “just leave your door open long enough and let us do the rest. What do you think your niece would say if we left you behind to die in your prison? She would hate me for that.”
“Yes, that is possible,” she admitted, “but after she thinks it over, she will understand that it had to be done.” “But it doesn’t have to be done,” I said, “just trust us and we will get both of you out of here and to safety. When you get back in your car, tell your man you will close the door yourself, but wait briefly and when one of my girls shows up, then take her hand and follow her over to our van. But remember, hold her hand all the way. We will take the young woman first, before you get back to the car. Leaving the door open was a good idea and makes our part easier. Now it has come to me, you are the woman who phoned me and said not to get involved with Christmas trees.”
“Yes, someone else was trying to get you involved in a false case,” she said, “like I said, I’m being watched, though I doubt any of the people here today know anything, they are just doing their job. By the way, there are strong metal gates at the border, these vans won’t be able to crash through them, and they will be waiting for you, especially if you have me along too.” “I will come up with something by the time we arrive at the border,” I said, “so don’t worry about that, just come with us.” “It’s still another 5 hours to the border,” she reminded me, “they will have a lot of men waiting for us.”
“Numbers mean nothing,” I said, “it’s the best plan that counts.” “What plan do you have for getting this woman out of my car and into your van?” she asked me. “She is already standing with my girls on the grass behind me,” I told her, “and we will do the same for you. Just get in your car, then get out again when you see one of my girls, but like I said, you must hold her hand. Then you close the door once outside the car and walk over here. Very simple, which is the way I like things.”
“I know you and your organization can do some amazing things,” she said, “so I will trust you, though I still think it would be better to leave me behind.” “Well, I don’t think so,” I said, “we are used to danger and we have a good team with us.” “Remember also, the country we will be heading into, is not exactly a friendly country,” she said, “and they will not help us, but will likely be against us.” “Yes, I have thought about that too,” I said, “but we will survive okay.”
I was talking bravely, but inside I was not so sure things would go well for us. Normally we would also have a vote for a rescue like this, but that was not possible this time. I’m sure everyone would vote yes anyway. The Captain and his men were finally finished and reported that they found nothing, so the Colonel told them to move the truck and head back to their base. Off they went and she returned to her car, sitting in the back seat.
As soon as she sat down she looked and Kitty was standing there with her hand out, so the Colonel held her hand and walked back over to our van after closing her car door. The car drove away and the Colonel got in our van and noticed the young woman already sitting inside. “I do not understand how you did that Steve,” she said, “it is indeed a miracle.” “That’s a good way to put it,” I said and soon we were driving down the road toward the border. But what will happen when we get there? I communicated everything with Kat…
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Well, this is certainly an interesting predicament we are in right now. There are presently 26 from the Investigators on board this jet, and we have been kidnapped…by someone. But who? Our pilot, who is working with the kidnappers, and I suppose the copilot is as well, will not tell us anything. He just told us not to do anything rash or he would blow up the plane, so we will assume that he can do that and just wait, calmly until we land somewhere. Meanwhile, back at the chateau.
Aari and Rock, along with Carine and a couple of the guys had arrived and Kat asked Rock how to track our plane. Rock gave some instructions to Trixie and soon they were tracking us. Not long after, our pilot said we would be landing in one hour and 12 minutes. I told that to Kat and Trixie soon figured out where we might be landing. We are already inside Russia and there is only one larger town that might have an airport that would accommodate our jet. We also have two Russian women with us, Sapphire and Aurora.
Although we have given them both new identities, I’m sure the authorities here will figure out their real identities quickly enough. That could be a big problem for them, and I guess for us too, since we have helped them escape. This could land all of us in prison for a long time. That’s not a problem for some of us, but it would be for others. And they will not likely keep us together for very long, but they will probably split us up so we can’t help each other. I need to stop thinking so much.
I wonder if this is related in some way to that Christmas tree? I do remember all about that now, so does Sherry. Misty said she had a solution to the problem for why we couldn’t remember. I should have kept my mouth shut, but no, I had to ask how. She said to give her my hand and I willingly obeyed, which was my second mistake. I was soon flying through the air and landed on my back on the hard floor. Good thing I’m a ghost, or whatever, or she might have killed me.
My memory of our visit did return though, so I could hardly be angry with her. Sherry was not in the room at the time so Misty told her the same thing and Sherry shrugged and held Misty’s hand and was soon on her back on the floor, moaning. Misty then left the room and returned quickly with donuts. Amazing how quickly Sherry was standing and munching on a donut. I then communicated something with Kat, then with Sky. Sky was soon gone and when ready I called for her. She returned with a very surprised Rock.
It should be noted that when Sky went back home, she took Sapphire and Aurora with her to keep them safe. I thought perhaps we might need Rock to fly this jet out of here. None of this is making any sense though and I certainly hope these people were not expecting to find Sapphire and Aurora, or they might take out their anger on the other girls. But, with 5 ghosts and me, we should be able to keep the girls safe. I hope so anyway. I communicated with the other ghosts that our main priority was keeping the girls safe and staying together.
That pilot is punctual, we were landing at the one hour and 13 minute time, just one minute late. It was a rather short runway though and the jet went past the end of the runway and onto some very rough ground and ripping some of the wheels off the jet and we kind of skidded a bit further until we came to a sudden stop. “Must have hit something,” said Rock casually, “guess we won’t be flying out of here.” We waited a bit but our pilot did not come out and he would not answer either, so I told Rock to open the door, which he did, with a big crash!
Our pilot was dead, so was the copilot, yet there was not a mark on them. The girls had been looking out the windows for our welcoming committee, but no one showed up. We picked up our backpacks, guns and a few other things, then went outside. Still no one was around. This is all very strange indeed. The small airport building was empty, though not locked. “It doesn’t look like it has been used in years,” said Jennifer. “I agree with that,” said Misty. I asked Kat how far it was to this town that we were supposed to be at. She said about 5km, which produced a groan from everyone.
Then Kristina looked around the side of the building. “Hey everyone, transportation awaits!” she exclaimed. Sure enough, there were several, fairly new vans parked there, with keys and full tanks of gas. Misty reminded me it’s called petrol. “Gasoline,” I said. “Petrol,” she said frowning at me. “Petrol,” I said in return. “Gasoline!” she exclaimed. “Okay, you win, it’s gasoline,” I said. “Ha!” she said smiling. Then it hit her and she turned, shuffling away mumbling, “he did it again.”
Jennifer told me to go apologize to Misty, and I could tell she meant it, so I did. Misty returned very happy now. “Okay, we have transportation,” said Jennifer, “where do we go?” “Um, not sure, but I guess we go to town,” I said, “if no one stops us then we will just keep going to the border. Kat said it’s about a 6 hour drive, depending on the quality of the road.” “This does not make any sense at all,” she said. “True,” I said, “and it started with a glass Christmas tree.” As we drove away there was a large explosion and our jet was in flames, what was left of it anyway.
“Sienna might not be too happy about losing that expensive jet,” said Jennifer. “She does sometimes get upset about such minor details,” I agreed, “but I’m sure you won’t have any trouble explaining it to her.” I’m sure that was the loudest sigh I ever heard from Jennifer. We were soon driving through the town. “Oooo, a ghost town,” said Astrid. “That wasn’t funny,” said Jennifer. That got Misty and Cristy laughing, loud and long.
“To think I came so close to saying I was going to stay home with the kids today,” said Jennifer, sighing once more. About half an hour outside of this deserted town we came to a road block. There was a large military truck across the road and what looked like about a hundred soldiers and police officers. We had that lead van so Jennifer stopped and opened the window as a soldier came to our van.
He ordered us to get out and we were under arrest for destroying our jet and trying to leave the country with state secrets. Guess we should have checked these vans. Astrid was translating for us since she knew Russian fluently. “Now what Steve?” asked Jennifer. “Well, we can’t let them arrest us,” I said, “or they will split us up, which will make things difficult. But, what can we do?”
To Be Continued. ©2025 Steve McLeod.
Steve`s Country 