“Clarence, take Tony and Carver on a little hunting trip,” said the Major, “see if you can stop these guys before they cause us some trouble.” “Sounds good Major,” he said, “anyone else to come?” “I think you guys need some bait,” said Crystal, “and the best bait for guys is girls, like us.” “What do you think Mr. B?” asked Major. “Well, it might work, but it is dangerous, so it is volunteer,” he said.

“Okay Crystal,” said Major, “pick two others to go with you.” “Okay, that will be Tracy and Angel,” she said. “And Storm,” added Angel. “Might be a good idea,” said Major, “you want to go too Muffin?” he asked, “you can stay with Clarence, keep him out of trouble.” Meow,meow.=Me happy to go and do good job to protect human Clarence friend.

“I still do not know about this talking cat thing,” said Tony, shaking his head. “Listen to them Tony,” said Major, “they can hear and see things that people cannot.” Off they all went and cruised around for a few hours. Then Clarence stopped the car. “That looks more like a place they would hang out,” said Clarence. The girls went in first, with Storm riding on Angel’s shoulder.

At first they would not let Storm come in, but the manager said it was okay if he behaved himself. Once inside they began to look around. Major had shown them pictures of the men and they spotted Wheeler and Kristopher playing cards at a table with 3 other guys. They wandered over to watch and Crystal leaned on Wheeler’s shoulder. He was a fairly big, muscular man and wore dark glasses. Kristopher was a tall man, even sitting, and was a thin, very well dressed man with a moustache.

He did not look his part at all, being a hit man. Angel went to stand beside him, while Tracy stood behind another very large man, leaning on him. He looked at her and she gave him a nice smile. He smiled back. “Stick around girl, after this we can go have some fun,” he said. Wheeler turned to Crystal. “I do not like being touched lady, go somewhere else,” he said coldly. “That goes for me too, little girl,” Kristopher said to Angel, “you girls do not look old enough to be in here.”

“Oh, but we are Kristopher,” said Angel. “Yeah Wheeler, what harm can little girls like us do to big men like you anyway?” asked Crystal. Wheeler suddenly stood up, as did Kristopher. “Okay, you 3, come with us,” said Wheeler, “I want to know how you knew our names.” “Everyone knows you boys,” said Tracy, “but why you work with a little nobody like Carnival is hard to understand.” “We go now,” said Wheeler, “and no trouble or you will not like it.”

They steered the girls out the door and around back to their car. “Sorry boys, this is where we split company,” said Crystal. The girls then turned and proceeded to kick those 3 men. They did okay with 2, but that very large man knocked Tracy and Angel to the ground. That is when Storm attacked him, jumping on his back and scratching hard. He yelled and that is when Tony and Carver entered the fight. “Remember me?” Carver asked Wheeler, “remember what I said would happen if we met again?”

Meanwhile, back at the cabin. “Good thing we had that bottle of alcohol I guess,” I said, “good to disinfect things.” While I was about to take out the bullet another picture showed up in my mind. “I just saw a woman with long hair and she said ‘you can do it Steve, I trust you completely’, I told Sigurbjorn. Kristina had shown up by then. “That would have been your last wife, Kat,” she said, “you removed a bullet from her too. Sky would be saying the same thing right now if she was awake.”

We had put a blanket on a board, then carefully put Sky on that. It will make it easier to carry her to bed afterward, without disturbing her much. The bullet came out easily and I sewed up the incision. “She will have a small scar there,” I said. “I do not think she will mind,” said Sigurbjorn smiling. Just then Kristina shot at something. A man fell by a large pine tree.

I grabbed my gun and went over to look. No one else was around. He must have jumped from the chopper before the explosion. I took the weapons he had, which were quite a few. Kind of odd I thought. He was one of the 4 new men that Carnival had hired, he liked guns of all kinds and always carried a lot with him. Of course we did not know this.

After we got Sky in bed, Sigurbjorn went out stomping in the snow, spelling out SOS in very large letters. She came back inside and saw me beside the bed with Sky telling her that I loved her. Maybe this is what Steve needed to bring him back, she thought to herself. But, something was happening that she did not like…

To Be Continued.

©2023 Steve McLeod.