The Investigators, Inc. The Case of Mystery. Chapter 7. New Secret Weapon.

Well, we will soon put our plan into action, though we need to wait until tonight. Even if Toledo had seen Mac before, it is doubtful he would have recognized him sitting outside playing checkers that afternoon. Saranna does such a good job of temporarily changing a person’s appearance and she made Mac, who is 37, look like an older man in his 70s.

Even the beard he had grown while on vacation was very gray looking, he actually looked totally different. He had given a small device to the service station attendant and when he went to fill the tank of the van with petrol, he placed this device just inside the outer cap. It is a very sensitive device that can track that van over a very large area.

Plus it is also a listening device and all of their talking came in nice and clear, and it covers an area of 40 feet around the van as well. Earlier, since we know that Toledo can listen in on our conversations with another device he has, we decided to do the same, only by using a drone that is completely silent. And with one of these listening devices, it picked up their conversations perfectly.

That is why I knew when to step in front of Sky to keep her safe. This is not the real Sky however, since we got her, Trisha, Muffin and MC safely away last night to their new hiding spot. Galyna, Tracy and Ashley went along for protection, and now John and Vince are there too. Crystal is taking the place of Sky right now so they do not realize that she is gone.

After tonight it will not matter, unless for some odd reason, our plan is not successful. Toledo has his new weapon to use against us, but we have our new secret weapon to use against him and Carmen. I am really surprised that Toledo would team up with someone like Carmen, she is certainly not like him at all. And she will be his downfall. Plus, of course, the using of our secret weapon.

That secret weapon is one of the members from the special guard team that Mandar has given to us. She actually designed that tracking/listening device that we used. It also has a camera, which in this case did not help us because of where it was put. She has designed other things too, some will be a unique help to us as we carry on with our cases.

That drone we used was also her invention, being totally silent in operation. It can do different things as well and I am sure it will come in very handy. Mandar was kind enough to give us several of these drones. This woman has a rather unique name too, Kyanite, which is the name of a mineral. Her mother was a geologist and named all 5 of her children after minerals.

Kyanite would be a great addition to our team, so I will be talking with Mandar about that. Kyanite said it would be okay to call her Kyan if we preferred, most of her friends and her mother call her that. Her father died in a work related accident when she was 5. Her dad’s best friend, who was working with him at the time of his death, started spending a lot of time with the family and eventually married her mother.

Things went downhill after that, he changed a lot she said. He started to gamble and ended up losing all of her mother’s savings, and even their house. Before I say more, we are on our way to Toledo’s house having just picked up Mac in town.

Before we got too close, however, we used drones to check out the place carefully. He obviously relies totally on his electronic security system since we saw no guards around the place. We used the drones to listen in a bit to their conversations too. “Okay everyone, get ready,” I said, “we will be attacking in just a few minutes.” I have been waiting a long time for this, so I have been told…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.

Thursday’s Thoughts, With Coffee! #16

Good morning everyone on this dull, cloudy and very windy Thursday! The birds are singing loudly from the trees right now which really brightens up that dull look out there. Plus, those bright yellows and reds really stand out, kind of glowing like lights in all the trees. There are at least 64 Evening grosbeaks this morning, and over 30 Purple finches.

There are fewer juncos around this morning though, probably only around 100 today. I expect that will increase as the day moves along. There is another snowstorm on the way and should hit us around noon today, dropping about 10 inches (25cm) or so, of snow before the storm moves on tomorrow.

They were swinging so wildly on this feeder, it was hard to get a pic of this Evening Grosbeak and his friend.

And it will be cooler again until Monday or Tuesday, so this snow will stay around for a few days again. Oh well. It will melt. And spring will finally arrive and stay with us. Hopefully this will be the last snowstorm of the winter and warmer weather will stay with us after this. Hard to tell though. Spring is very unpredictable in our area.

A Sharp-shinned Hawk just swooped through, scaring all the birds. It did not catch anything which is good. But it will likely come back again since there are lots of birds here. They are a small hawk, but can eat one or two birds a day. The birds certainly scattered quickly when that hawk showed up! The juncos are starting to return now, as are the Pine siskins and Purple finches.

One of the many Purple finches, and they are nearly all males.

Might take a little longer before the grosbeaks come back. They are more cautious. They are also bigger and perhaps make a better target for that hawk. The clouds seem to be getting darker all the time. Speaking of dark, that big black bear was back very early this morning, around 2am. I can actually feel the vibration of him stomping on the deck while I am inside. Amazing.

I do not mind if it comes around at night, I just want it to stay away during the day. If it decides to start coming during the day, then I will have to stop feeding the birds. And I would like to keep feeding until at least mid May. I used to feed all summer, which is nice. That way I get to see the young birds once they are flying around.

Another male Purple finch, also swinging wildly on that same feeder.

Besides, it is just nice to have the birds around all summer. And it does increase the number of species around in the summer, which is also nice as it gives more opportunities for photos. There are still a lot of birds on my “wanted” list for getting photos. Hopefully I can add a few more this year. Well, guess that is all for today, thank you for reading. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2023 Steve McLeod.