Unbeknown to Clover and Daphne, they were about to get some company. Sam and Alex had just finished picking the cellar lock and were about to emerge into the manor hallway, when Sam urgently pulled Alex back into cover behind the cellar door.
"What is it, Sammy?" asked Alex.
"I just saw two guys in medieval suits of armour coming down the main stairway," explained Sam in a whisper as Alex carefully peeped through the door to see for herself what was happening.
"Hey, you don't think it's the kidnappers do you? Why would they go around dressed up all weird like that?" wondered Alex.
"I don't know, but if it is them, we are not going to let them get the better of us a third time," said Sam resolutely. "When I say 'go', we'll leap out and tackle them to the ground."
"Right behind you, Sam", nodded Alex who was just as keen to take down those two criminal butlers.
"Three… Two… One… GO!"
Sam yanked the cellar door open and the two spies leapt out, delivering a karate kick to each of the two unsuspecting knights who were knocked right onto the hard marble floor.
"Okay, you two clowns. Now what have you done with our friend?" demanded Alex fiercely.
"Oh, you mean the friend who you just attacked without warning? Rude much, don't you think?" grumbled one of the knights who raised her visor to reveal the infuriated expression on her face.
"Oopsie! Sorry, Clover," apologised Sam as she and an equally embarrassed Alex helped the two knights back to their feet.
"No big," sighed Clover before she smiled and pulled her friends into a big hug. "I'm just glad you guys are here."
"Ahem, so are you going to introduce us all now, sis, before they wallop us again?" muttered the other knight who lifted her own visor.
"Oh, yeah, sorry. Sam and Alex, this is my sister Daphne. Daphne, these are my best friends, Sam and Alex."
Alex immediately dashed excitedly over to greet Clover's sister. "Hi there, great to finally meet you! I just love the stuff you've done for 'Fashion World'! I don't suppose I could get your autograph could I?"
"Alex! This is hardly the time and place!" chided Sam irritably.
"No, it's okay. Believe me, I'm used to it," assured Daphne with a smile. "Love your outfits by the way. Spy-chic is like so in! You guys have got to get me in touch with your designer."
"Well as it happens, she's standing right beside you now," grinned Sam.
Daphne looked at her sister in surprise. "Clove? You designed these way cool catsuits?"
Clover tried her best to look modest. "Oh, just something I quickly came up with when we first joined WOOHP. I mean, there was no way we were going to go around wearing way drab business suits all the time!"
"Ugh, that does sound really wishy-washy and dull!" agreed Daphne.
"Hang on, wait a second there. Clover, does this mean your sister now knows about the… you know, spy-thing?" asked Alex.
"Yeah, Jerry kinda gave the whole thing away," explained Clover sheepishly.
"Well, we'll worry about all that later," said Sam assertively. "Right now, we need to get your sister out of here and then nab the bad guys."
Suddenly, the door to the main study swung open and the girls found themselves facing a bald-headed man dressed in an expensive Victorian-style suit with a monocle in his left eye, an elegant goatee on his face and a glass of sherry in his right hand. The man regarded the girls with an expression of mock amusement.
"Spiriting away my guests are you, ladies? How discourteous of you! Especially after all the trouble I went to bring them here."
"Lord Ransom, I presume?" said Sam as she and Alex moved into a defence stance. Clover tried to move into a fighting position too, but the heavy armour she was still wearing made it significantly less graceful than her friends.
"The one and only, at your service, my dear," said Ransom with a small, courteous bow.
"Hey, you're the guy from that portrait upstairs!" gawped Daphne. "But it can't be! That would make you almost 500 years old!"
"Ah, you're confusing me with my ancestor," said Ransom with an air of reminiscence. "What a fine man he was. A true criminal mastermind. You know it was he who first established the family business with his brilliant smuggling operations. For the next 400 years or so afterwards, the foundations he had laid enabled the family to gradually build up in wealth and power, and the business he created became a proud worldwide multi-national."
"You mean until the authorities busted you," grinned Alex.
"Alas, yes," sighed Ransom sadly. "The entire family was sent to prison with the exception of my good self. I have thus become determined to restore the business to the best of my abilities and make my family prominent once again. I therefore established 'Kidnappers Incorporated' as a means to rebuild the family fortune by ransoming the wealthiest and most schedule-demanding celebrities for a set price. However, I have no desire to be seen as a fairly common type of criminal, so I decided that all my prisoners would be treated with the upmost courtesy and their every wish would be fulfilled during their stay here."
"Except for their wish to get out of this stuffy place," pointed out Clover. "Why couldn't you set up a straightforward hotel business instead?"
Ransom gave an expression of mock shock. "Are you mad, girl? Do you have any idea of the kinds of bills and taxes I would have to pay to maintain such an establishment? In this current economic climate, I would be earning nowhere near as much money as I do now!"
"You haven't earned anything except a long stay in prison, mister! You pilfered all your gains from the innocent celebs you held prisoner!" retorted Sam.
"Yeah, and you're not even a real corporation! You're just three common criminals lounging about in an old dingy house," said Alex.
"I don't know why no one has kicked up a fuss about all this before," added Daphne as she pointed a stern finger at Ransom, "but you will be hearing from my lawyer about all this! No guy gets away with trying to keep me away from my kid back home."
"Dear me, you are a bit stressed aren't you," remarked Ransom. "Still, it's nothing a few rounds with the memory-erasing machine won't resolve. We have had to use it for a few of our more dissatisfied customers, after which they became much more cooperative. Then when they are returned home, the only memories that come to their minds are of the most luxurious hotel rooms they have ever been in!"
"Forget it, buddy! There's no way I'm going to let you mess around with my sister's head with those dirty hands of yours," snapped Clover fiercely as she, Alex and Sam moved to block Ransom's path to Daphne.
"Young lady, I assure you that I wash my hands quite regularly and vigorously!" countered Ransom somewhat intensely. "In any case, you have no say in the matter."
He suddenly pressed down with his foot on a hidden switch in the floorboards. Before any of the girls realised what was happening, a trapdoor suddenly swung open beneath the three spies and they tumbled down with a yell of alarm.
"Clover!" shrieked Daphne as she dashed over to the edge of the trapdoor and peered down. To her relief, she could see her sister and the other two spies gingerly getting back on their feet at the bottom of a twenty-foot drop.
"Are you guys okay down there?" called down Daphne.
"Yeah. Lucky that we landed on this way soft mattress at the bottom," answered Alex. But her relief was short-lived as she and the others suddenly found themselves slowly sinking into the so-called 'mattress'!
"Oh no! It's quicksand!" realised Sam as she and the others struggled to free their feet from the spongy-like surface that was gradually swallowing them up.
Ransom looked down the shaft with a smug expression on his face. "Yes, I had this little trap constructed on the off chance that I might have some unannounced visitors like you barging in. I say you have just fifteen minutes before you are completely submerged and out of my hair."
Alex looked puzzled. "But you don't have any hair on your head for us to get out of!"
Daphne glowered at Ransom. "You creep! You get my sister and her friends out of there right now!"
But before Daphne could protest any further, a pair of strong hands gruffly grabbed her by the wrists. Turning her head, Daphne realised with dismay that while she had been so focused on her sister being trapped in the quicksand, Jarvis and Perkins had returned and quietly snuck up behind her. Now the two evil butlers were lifting her up and between them they began to carry her to the study.
"Make sure she's well secured," ordered Ransom, "then get the memory-altering helmet powered up. We still have a large ransom to get from her agent and I would prefer it if she were made to be a bit more cooperative."
"Put me down, you pair of nutcases!" protested Daphne as she was bundled into the study. With a final wicked chuckle, Ransom stepped inside after his two henchmen and closed the doors, leaving the spies to their fate.