DEADLY CURRICULUM
by
LSAU
Chapter 21
THE CHAPTERS
"Tell
Mom and Dad that I won't be too late," Frank said as he gathered his
books together and stuffed them into his knapsack.
Joe
looked at his brother and grinned. "Famous
last words. I'm sure Callie
will make certain that you won't be coming home early."
"Joe
Hardy, stop talking about me behind my back like some gossipy
busybody," a familiar voice spoke up behind them.
Both
brothers turned to see Callie glaring at the younger brother.
"Gossipy?"
Joe echoed. "I'm just
stating the truth. Frank ends
up breaking all sorts of curfew when he's with you."
Callie
smiled sweetly at him. "I
can't help it if Frank is totally taken in by my charm."
Joe
grinned right back at her. "Yeah,
well, somebody has to and Frank's always the one to root for the
underdog."
Callie
punched him in the arm.
"Ow!"
Joe cried, rubbing his arm. "Frank,
your girlfriend is getting violent."
His
brother smiled at him. "I
think you deserved that."
Callie
smiled triumphantly. "Ha!
Take that, Joe Hardy! Even
Frank isn't taking your side this time."
"Okay,
okay, children. Can you two
not co-exist in peace for even one minute?" Frank asked as he
clicked the lock closed on his locker.
"What?
And take the enjoyment out of life?
I live to antagonize your girlfriend," Joe said with a wicked
grin.
"Well,
the feeling is mutual, Joe Hardy," Callie shot back.
"I can't believe we actually agree on something."
"Yeah,
something's wrong," Joe nodded, looking incredulous.
Frank
laughed. "You two will
be the end of me. You ready
to go,
"Ready
when you are," Callie said cheerfully.
She turned and patted Joe on the cheek.
"Drive carefully, baby brother and don't do anything foolish
when I'm not around to pick up the pieces."
Joe
swatted her hand away as Callie burst out laughing.
"Did
I get that right, Frank? Anything
else you want to add?" Callie looked at her boyfriend, still
laughing.
Frank
shook his head, grinning. "That's about it,
Joe
moaned. "You two better
get out of my sight before I start gagging."
Frank
grasped him briefly on the shoulder.
"See you later tonight."
"Yeah,
whatever," Joe grumbled.
Turning
to his own locker, he could hear Callie's laughter echoing down the hall.
Despite himself, a grin spread slowly across his face as he
gathered his books together. As
much as they took constant jabs at each other, he liked Callie.
She was genuinely devoted to Frank and for that alone, she was
more than acceptable to Joe. Not
to mention the fact that she really was quite a lot of fun, with a witty
sense of humour that was especially appealing to him.
He was happy for his brother and at the same time felt a familiar
stab of aching sadness as he thought of Iola.
Would their relationship have progressed as smoothly as that
between Frank and Callie, if Iola had not been taken so brutally from
him? It was not a question
that he would ever find the answer to.
Shaking
his head slightly, he made a conscious effort to drive those dark
thoughts from his mind. He
knew that if he dwelled on them at all, he would be snared in an downward
spiral of depression and hopelessness.
Iola would not have wanted that for him.
Watching
a couple of younger students crossing the street while he waited out a
red light, Joe found himself thinking about Jason and wondered, with a
slight lurch of his stomach, whether the kid was all right.
It had been two days since Jason had gone missing, seemingly
disappeared from the face of the earth.
Chief Collig had assured Fenton Hardy that the police were
actively searching for Jason, and the two men who were intent on doing
harm to the missing boy.
Fenton
Hardy had personally made a trip to Jason's school and questioned both
staff and students, but had been unable to come up with any leads.
Joe knew that his father had also made a visit to Taylor Grady to
gather more information and to assure the distressed father that the
search for his son was continuing. Fenton
Hardy had used that visit to question some of the occupants of the
apartment building as well, but came up completely empty-handed.
If anybody had seen Jason, he or she was not talking about it.
Joe
knew that the longer that Jason remained missing, the lesser their
chances of finding the boy unharmed, and that knowledge never strayed far
from his waking thoughts. What
if Jason thought nobody was looking for him, that nobody cared whether he
lived or died? Joe shuddered
involuntarily. How
devastatingly frightening it must be to Jason if he thought everyone had
abandoned him to survive on his own.
Joe
glanced at the clock on the dashboard.
It was early still. An
idea raced through his mind and gained momentum.
He would take a brief detour through Jason's neighbourhood.
Maybe he would have more luck than the police and his father.
It was definitely not something that his father, or Frank, would
approve, but he could no longer sit back and do nothing while Jason was
running for his life. Besides,
he told himself, he would stay inside the car with all the doors locked.
How dangerous could that be? Nothing
would probably come out of this little detour and nobody would be the
wiser if he kept his mouth shut. Having
decided, he turned his car in the opposite direction from town.
Joe
drove the van slowly down the narrow street, peering carefully into every
shadowy enclave and corner. He
had been driving aimlessly for the past hour, and other than the
suspicious stares from a few loiterers, he had seen nothing that alerted
his suspicion. Taking note of
the lengthening shadows of the afternoon, he let out a long frustrated
sigh. He might as well be
searching for a needle in a haystack.
The kid might not even be in the area any more.
What if he had already left Bayport?
It would make sense for Jason to get as far away as possible from
the source of danger.
Suddenly
he caught sight of a figure at the far end of a narrow alley way.
Joe couldn't even be sure if he had really seen something, but
without a second thought, he was out of the van and sprinting down the
narrow path as fast as he could. He
caught another flash of the fleeing figure as he rounded a corner.
Sucking in a sharp breath, Joe put on a surge of speed and the gap
between them narrowed considerably. He
was close enough now to make out that it was indeed Jason who was running
away from him. Something told
him that it would not be wise to shout out the other's name.
Gritting his teeth in a final effort, he leapt forward and grabbed
the fleeing boy by the arm.
"Let
me go!" Jason shouted, trying to yank his arm from Joe's vise-like
grip.
"No!
We've been looking all over the place for you.
You are coming with me," Joe said breathlessly.
"Let
me go!" the younger boy shouted, still struggling to free himself
while looking about him frantically.
"I can't be seen out here in the open."
"And
that is why you are coming with me," Joe said firmly, tightening his
grip on the boy. "If you
stay out here, you will get yourself killed.
Come on, my van is just out there.
It's time to stop running, Jason."
Jason
shook his head and once more tried to pull back.
"No, let me go! You're
taking me to the police and I ain't going to jail!"
Joe
shook him forcefully. "Would
you rather die out here on the streets then?
Wake up, you little fool! You've
done enough running from those guys.
You will be safer with the police."
"No!
I'm not going with you! Let
me go!"
"What
are you going to do? Run for
the rest of your life? Always
looking over your shoulder for that bullet or that knife?
Is that what you want to do?" Joe asked angrily.
"If you put an end to this right now, you still have a chance
to make a life for yourself. Otherwise,
your life's over! Think,
Jason!"
The
younger boy finally stopped trying to free himself and stared at Joe with
fear-widened eyes. "I
don't want to go to jail."
"It
might not come to that," Joe said, wishing that he could convince
himself of that as well. "Come
on, Jason. Your father has
been frantic over your disappearance.
He loves you, kid. He
really does."
"He
loves me? Then why does he
beat the crap out of me all the time?" Jason asked angrily.
Joe
shook his head. "Let's
not go into that now. It's
not safe standing out here like this.
At least let us get into the car first.
We can talk in there."
Suddenly
the younger boy's eyes widened in fear as he looked past Joe's shoulder.
With a breathless cry, he pulled himself free from Joe and started
running away.
Joe
barely had time to look behind him before he was pushed roughly out of
the way. Instinctively, Joe
reached and grabbed at the figure rushing past him and was struck hard in
the face by a flailing fist. Before
he could recover, the person who had struck him was out of his grasp.
"You
little shit, I'm gonna kill you when I get hold of you!" Jason's
pursuer yelled as he scrambled after the fleeing boy.
Something flashed in the man's hand.
It was a knife!
"Go,
Jason, run! Go for
help!" Joe shouted frantically to the fleeing boy.
Then
with no thought to his own safety, he sprang forward and dived into the
knife-wielding man in a flying tackle, sending them both sprawling onto
the hard cement. For a brief
second or two, both lay stunned in a tangle of limbs.
Before Joe could recover, the man elbowed him hard in the stomach
and slashed out with the knife. The
cold metal caught him in the right arm with a blinding flash of pain and
Joe fell back with a cry. Even
then, he managed to snatch at the man's leg and brought him crashing down
on top of himself once again. The
air was driven out of him and for a few brief seconds, the world
blackened. From the dim
corners of his darkening mind, Joe hoped that he had given Jason the
precious moment or two to get away.
A
jarring kick caught him in the stomach and Joe grunted in pain.
From somewhere above him, he could hear a steady stream of
profanity from his tormentor. Another
brutal kick landed, then another. As
his consciousness began to slip away under the fierce onslaught of pain,
Joe held grimly onto the thought that Jason had gotten away and that he
would somehow get help. Joe
hoped dimly that it would not be too late.
The
man stared down at the now unconscious youth sprawled out on the cement
before him, his breathing heaving from the recent exertion of the kicks.
"What
the hell happened here?" a voice spoke behind him.
He
whipped around and let out a long breath when he saw who it was.
"Jesus, don't sneak up like that, Scala.
I could have taken you out with this knife."
"Where's
the kid, Ribera?" The
other man eyed him coldly.
"He
got away, because this little piece of shit held me up," Ribera said
angrily as he delivered another kick at the inert body at his feet.
"Christ,
can't you do anything right?" the one called Scala said.
"And
where were you when the action was taking place?" Ribera retorted.
"Didn't see you hanging around to help."
"Who
is this kid?" Scala stared down the unmoving figure.
"I
have no idea, but he did his best to hold me back while that little
bastard Jason got away," Ribera said.
"Did
the kid go and get himself another partner?" Scala asked, half to
himself. "Our little
Jason has been very busy, it seems."
"Then
this kid might know where the stuff is stashed," Ribera said, his
eyes narrowing. "I don't
think we should just leave him here to die."
Scala
shook his head slowly. "No,
I don't think so either. He
might be useful since the other little bastard got away.
Let's get him into the car before somebody comes by.
Here, grab his other arm and let's get out of here.
Jesus, what did you do to his arm?
He's bleeding like a stuck pig."
"His
arm got in the way of my knife," Ribera said and then laughed
mirthlessly at his own joke.
"Well,
make sure you wrap it up when we get into the car.
Don't want his blood messing up the place," Scala said as
they half-carried and half dragged the unconscious boy between them.
"Yeah,
we don't want him to lose all the blood before he tells us what we
want," Ribera grunted. "He'll
be sorry he ever crossed my path."
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Disclaimer
The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.