Chapter 5 – A Little More Than He Bargained For….
Back on the barge the gals feel it move from it's anchorage.
"Sam! Use the contacts! What's happening?" asks Clover.
"We've been swallowed up by a large submarine! It looks like we are on the way to meet Saldo!" replies Sam.
"Should I activate my tracking barrette?" asks Alex.
"Not yet! Saldo is probably still scanning for a tracking device! He could sink us again! Wait until we end up at his hideout!" replies Sam.
"Gotcha, Sammy!" responds Alex.
The remainder of the ride is uneventful. The sub travels for about one hour, until it surfaces in an underground lake. After surfacing, the maw of the sub is opened and a crane lifts the barge out and puts it on a pier.
"I think we're here!" says Clover.
"Let's see if we can sneak out of this barge and have a look around!" suggests Sam.
The girls quietly sneak out of the barge. The pier is well lit, so the girls try to stay in the shadows as they exit.
Away from the gals, two pier workers walk toward the barge.
"Saldo should be pleased!" remarks a pier worker.
"He will be!" responds another.
"When do we start moving the gold?"
"No rush! No one knows where we are! All we have to do is make sure that the barge bricks are all gold. If they are, no problem!"
The pier workers begin their inspection of the precious cargo just as the spies begin their inspection of the hideout.
"With all of this stone, I'm not sure if our tracking barrette signal could even penetrate outside!" remarks Sam.
"Then what do we do?" asks Alex.
"We need to find a way to the surface, so we can place one barrette. Then we can place another down here!"
"I get it! The first will lead WOOHP to the second!"
"Exactly!"
As the girls continue to sneak around the facility, looking for a way to get to the surface, a security camera catches a fleeting glance of them.
The guard monitoring the camera turns on an alarm. The PA system blares, "Security breach in section 17! Code 39!! Code 39!!"
The gals here the intercom, and quickly look for a place to hide. They spot an open door and make a beeline for it.
"We're in luck! Let's make for that door!" cries Alex.
"Right! This place will be wall-to-wall guards pretty soon!" responds Clover, as the three run through the open door. They just have time to realize their mistake as they begin to black out from the knockout gas that was fired at them by the waiting guards. The intercom blares, "Intruders captured! All clear!"
The gals wake up in a very uncomfortable position. They are shackled to a stone wall by the arms, with their feet just barely touching the ground. There are four armed guards in this room. As they awake, one of the guards leaves through the only door.
"My bad!" whispers Alex, as she refers to her suggestion of the door. Alex is shackled between Clover on her right, and Sam on her left.
"No biggie, Alex! We didn't have much choice!" whispers Sam back to her.
"How do we get out of here?" whispers Clover.
"You don't!" booms a voice, as the door opens. The girls were unaware that there are microphones planted within the wall, to monitor their speech. Obviously everything they have said has been heard by someone.
That someone walks into the room. He is a man in his early 60's, bald, and about as tall as Alex. He has a couch potato body, and thick eyeglasses. He is wearing a navy blue business suit and white shirt, but without a tie.
"Who are YOU?" asks Clover.
"Let ME guess! Saldo!" comments Sam.
"Right you are, young lady! I am the criminal genius, Saldo!"
"We've heard THAT one before!" whispers Alex, forgetting that Saldo can plainly hear every word.
"Maybe you have! But I am the embodiment of the criminal genius! I was able to steal a barge full of gold bullion without outside detection, save you three. I assume you stowed away on the barge! You'll find your backpacks are gone, although I saw nothing helpful in them. Except for this!" says Saldo, as he brings forth an x-communicator. He and two guards begin walking toward the spies.
"Quite clever! It appears to be some sort of walkie-talkie!"
"Well, actually, it's just a compact that plays music! We like techno thingies!" responds Clover.
But as Saldo gets close, Clover remembers the gals' near death experience in the first barge. In anger, she unleashes a frontal kick right into Saldo's solar plexus! Saldo doubles over, as a guard quickly punches Clover hard on the left side of her face! She lets out a cry of pain, as her body drops limply, hanging by her arms.
"CLOVER?" cries Sam and Alex together. Both are seething with rage. But Saldo can see that as well. He recovers from his kick, and continues his talk with the conscious two members of the spies a good ten feet from them.
"For that insult, your friend shall die, as will you two!" Saldo says angrily.
"Seeing we are going to die, tell us, what do you plan to do with the gold?" asks Alex.
Saldo begins to grin at her curiosity. "Curiosity killed the cat, they say! I have a foolproof plan to sell the bullion. I will become the richest man on earth!"
"No way!" responds Sam, as Clover begins to come to, from her punch.
"Yes! And you will witness it first hand! Guards! Bring them to the plan execution area!"
With that Saldo leaves. The remaining guards don gas masks and douse the gals with knockout gas again.