The three boys were still sitting on the floor of the room when they heard the gunshot and Vanessa’s scream. They immediately climbed to their feet, rushed to the door and began kicking the woodwork violently and hollering at the top of their lungs.

They eventually heard footsteps thundering up the stairs and along the corridor, the door was flung open almost tossing Biff onto his back, revealing Wayne and John with the gun and a pale Vanessa. "Shut your noise!" Powers bellowed.

Joe advanced on him. "What have to done to Callie?" he demanded to know.

"I’ve done nothing to your precious Callie, it was a warning shot. Your girlfriend thought she was clever enough to fool me and I interrupted her making a phone call on this," he held up the cell phone and threw it across the room, smashing against the wall.

"I don’t believe you!"

"Tell them," said John to Vanessa.

"It’s true, guys, we were making the phone call in the bathroom when they interrupted us. Callie’s unhurt, I promise."

"Are you okay?" asked Biff.

"Yes, I’m fine."

"Okay, that’s enough chit-chat," said Wayne grasping the doorknob. "If I hear any more noise, your girlfriends will heartily regret it," with that he slammed the door on them.

***

Frank opened his eyes. He felt like he’d been drugged - his eyelids were heavy and it took some effort to open them and bring his eyes into focus. He was lying on his side next to the stricken phone. Rolling slowly onto his back he thought vaguely. "What the heck is going on?"

Suddenly something went pop in his head and he went limp. Staring sightlessly at the ceiling, his eyes rolled back in their sockets as images started to tumble round above him forming a huge spiral. The spiral began to spin, slowly at first and then picking up speed, moving faster and faster, becoming tighter and tighter until finally, upon reaching its maximum velocity, it imploded like a blackhole, all the images were sucked into the centre until all that was left was a single bright, white dot. Frank blinked his eyes a couple of times, and sat bolt upright. "I remember everything!" he shouted out loud, delighted and surprised at the same time. However, his expression turned sour when he remembered the frightening phone call he’d just received from his girlfriend. He turned and grabbed the telephone, pressed last number recognition and read the time of the call on the readout. Comparing it with his wrist watch he realised despondently that he’d been out of it for a good ten minutes.

Getting to his feet he leapt up the stairs into Joe’s room and quickly went to his desk draw and yanked it open. It held Joe’s notebook that he’d been keeping throughout the investigation. Frank wasn’t surprised to find it there, his brother always kept his case notes in that drawer. He often berated his brother for his habit of not locking his paperwork safety away, and was glad on this occasion his brother hadn’t followed his advice. Sitting down on the corner of the bed, he began to scan through the book, his eyes finally resting on the final entries, including the office building’s address. He read about the web-cam, went to his own room to switch on his PC. He accessed the junk yard’s web-cam and, sure enough, there was Biff’s empty car.

He went to his bedside drawer, rummaged around and retrieved his motor bike keys. He grabbed his leather jacket and bounded down the stairs and out of the house.

Opening the garage doors with his remote unit, he was relieved to note that despite the fact he hadn’t ridden his bike for several months, it was parked close to the front of the doors with the helmet hanging on the wing mirror. He kicked the stand away, wheeled the bike out onto the driveway and mounted it. Gunning the engine to life he gingerly pushed his helmet onto his head, pressing the remote control over his shoulder to drop the garage door. His bike gave off a loud roar, and he sped off down the driveway, skidded round the bend and almost collided with a car coming the other way. He veered out of range, picked up speed and shot away.

The black sedan did a wide U turn and took off after the speeding motorbike.

***

"Can you guy’s smell something?" asked Chet nervously.

Joe and Biff sniffed the air and looked at each other "Gasoline!" they both exclaimed simultaneously.

"There going to burn this place!" Chet cried.

"Maybe they’re just trying to destroy evidence?" Joe suggested.

"I hope you’re right," said Biff.

The door opened and they saw John standing there. "Get up, we’re leaving."

"You’re not leaving us here to burn?" asked Biff surprised.

Joe shot him a look, not wishing any ideas to be put in John’s head.

"Luckily for you we’ve managed to persuade Wayne not to let you or your girlfriends go up in smoke - but don’t push your luck, Kid."

They left the room and were led down to the ground floor. Callie and Vanessa were waiting with Wayne. He had his arm about Callie, his hand resting on her neck, the gun levelled at her face. "Your girlfriends pretty fiery, Joe, you should be proud!" he caressed her cheek with the gun barrel.

They watched as Jack and Len spilled flammable liquid all over the carpet in the hallway. After they had used the last of the gasoline they tossed the cans aside. "Let’s go, said Len."

They walked out into the street and Wayne led the teenagers to his truck.

"As you can see, the garage made a lovely repair job on the window. That’s the beauty of working next to a scrap yard. Lots of under-the-table upgrades," he added. "It made the repair completely untraceable too—clever eh?"

"If you say so, but we didn’t have trouble tracking you down, and neither will the cops," replied Joe.

"I’m so sick of your smart mouth, Kid. Shut your face, or I’ll black the other eye for ya!" Wayne now addressed his three companions, "You can go now, I’ll load these kids on the back, start the fire and meet you at the other end."

They nodded and departed.

"Okay, Girly," he said, addressing Vanessa. "Help yourself to the keys out of my right hand pocket." She reached into his jacket. "Now open the back doors." She did as ordered and swung them wide. "In you go lads, and no funny stuff." Vanessa helped them climb awkwardly aboard. "Keep going to the back and sit down".

He released Callie and trained the gun on Vanessa instead. "Callie, take the rope from my back pocket and tie your friend’s hands behind her back." She hesitated and Callie and Vanessa looked stunned at each other, "Get a move on!" He pushed the gun closer to her friend. Callie walked behind him and pulled a piece of twine from his pocket, noticing that there was more rope than was needed, she understood what was probably going to happen to her next.

"I’m sorry Vanessa," she said, her voice breaking.

"Just do it Cal, I don’t want him to hurt you," replied her friend softly. She turned her back and Callie bound her. Vanessa kept her muscles ridged, hoping that afterwards it would provide enough give so she could free herself. This was a trick that Joe had told her about, something that he and Frank had made use of several times.

"Now help your friend into the back and lock the doors behind her." Callie did as instructed and she and Wayne were alone.

***

Vanessa’s eyes adjusted to the dark and finally was able to make out the outlines of the guys at the other end of the van. She made her way towards them.

"Are you okay?" asked Joe.

"I feel like were in a nightmare, and I’ll be waking up soon dripping in a cold sweat."

"I wish," commented Biff.

"Can you get your hands free?" asked Chet hopefully.

"Hang on, I’m working on it," she smiled ruefully, "Either Callie’s rubbish at tying knots, or she’s done us a huge favour, because these ropes aren’t very tight," she wriggled and felt the binding come loose around her right wrist. Gritting her teeth she pulled her arm and managed to force it though the loop. "Done it," she gasped triumphantly, yanking the rope free from her other wrist. She knelt to untie Biff. "This is not easy in the dark," she muttered, picking at the tight knots frustrated.

"Take your time," said Joe.

***

Frank was half way to his goal, taking the bike’s speed to the limit. He knew he was driving crazily, but was also aware he had no other choice.

A quarter of a mile behind him, the black sedan was having trouble keeping up and had to be satisfied with following his tail light. The driver wondered why the older Hardy brother was in such a damn hurry.

***

Wayne put his hand against Callie’s chest and held her against the van whilst he holstered the pistol in his inside pocket. "Got a little surprise for you Callie," he said pulling the twine from his pocket.

"That’s no surprise, I guessed that was for me."

"Ah no, you don’t understand, this isn’t the surprise!" He said wiggling the rope in front of her face. Callie’s frowned and shook her head not understanding.

"Look over there and tell me what you see," she looked across to the other side of the junk yard in the direction he was pointing.

"What? The crusher?" she asked.

"Yep," he smiled. "Still not getting it?" She shook her head again. "Let me help you, what is destroyed in a crusher?"

"You can’t be serious!" Callie said quietly, his plan dawning on her.

"Deadly serious - gonna make a cube out of you and your friends!" he started to laugh evilly.

As Callie stared horrified into his eyes, the realisation hit that this man was totally deranged. She therefore knew that no amount of sane persuasion would help them now. She gritted her teeth, pulled her leg back and thrust her knee straight up into his groin. He gave off a wild howl, doubled up and grabbed at himself, allowing her the opportunity to run.

She put her head down she ran faster than she’d ever run in her life, round the truck, through the yard and out into the street. She bounded across the road to Biff’s car - hoping that the keys were still inside, unaware that Joe had removed them earlier. She looked through the window and banged the roof in frustration when she saw that they’d gone. She ran further up the road and began screaming for help.

Hearing heavy footsteps running behind her she turned and saw that Powers had recovered enough to come after her. "Get away from me you freak!" she yelled.

Realising she would be unable to outrun him she headed for the nearest doorway and began banging loudly and yelling for assistance. Gaining no response she ran to the next one and repeated the exercise, gradually realising, to her dismay that help was not going to be forthcoming.

Glancing fearfully over her shoulder she saw he was almost upon her. She ran forward, caught her foot, fell on all fours and scrambled frantically away. Feeling a strong hand catch her by the ankle she turned sideways and kicked out with her other foot catching him a glancing blow to the shoulder, unfortunately, not hard enough to stop his assault. She screamed in terror as his insane face loomed over hers, trapping her left arm to her side beneath his leg. She reached out with her other hand grasping for any sort of weapon, her hand curling around a rock and she swung it hard towards him. Wayne second guessed her intention, caught her arm and pinned it down whilst he wrapped his other fist around her neck and slowly squeezed.

"You see," said Wayne pushing his face close to the terrified girl. "My partners-in-crime didn’t want me to roast you or your friends, but to tell you the truth, I much prefer the personal touch - more stylish, I’m sure you agree?" he saw that Callie had passed out. "Oh well, I’m sure you would have agreed, if you could’ve!" Wayne flipped her over and tied her wrists and ankles, picked her up and carried her back to the truck. He opened the passenger door and threw her across the front seat.

***

Vanessa had managed to untie Biff’s hands and they were both working on Joe and Chet. The knots had been tied so tightly that it took Biff a full minute before any feeling crept back, and now his was suffering violent pins and needles.

Vanessa felt Joe’s knots loosen and quickly finished the job. She’d felt something warm and damp with her hand and suspected what it was. "Is that blood?" she asked.

"Yeah, but don’t worry, I can’t feel a thing anyway!"

"You’ll be eating your words once the numbness wears off, believe me," warned Biff.

"You know what I think?" said Chet. "I’m beginning to think that Mr Powers has decided to abandon us here, he’s been gone a good while now."

They all went silent, contemplating what he’d said. "If that’s the case, he’s taken Callie," whispered Vanessa.

Joe put his arms around his girlfriend and hugged her tightly. "We’ll get out of here in a minute," he promised her.

They all felt the truck rock slightly as someone climbed into the front.

"Mr Powers hasn’t gone after all," remarked Biff, as they heard the truck door slam.

***

Frank was now cruising the streets, looking for Biff’s car. He wasn’t sure of the exact whereabouts of the office building and was annoyed with himself for being so ill prepared as to not bring a map of the area with him. He knew this was the general vicinity when he saw a familiar looking van up ahead and drew to a halt next to it, in front was Vanessa’s car.

The black sedan pulled silently into the curb, watching Frank inspecting the vehicles.

***

Wayne entered the building, lit a match and flicked it away, the second it hit the ground a blue flame quickly spread across the carpeted hallway. He walked calmly from the building, passed the truck and bashed it with the palm of his hand. He headed around the back and placed his face against the door. "Hey kids, he shouted, I’m taking you on a little ride, hold tight!".

The guys on the back of the vehicle looked towards the doors surprised.

Wayne walked across the yard to the crane and climbed the metal hand ladder up into the crane’s cockpit. He bent down and yanked wires from under the control panel. He selected two cables, stripped them and touched the ends together. The crane engine rumbled into life and then died. He sighed impatiently and tried again - this time succeeding in hotwiring the crane’s engine. Looking across at the offices and was pleased to see that the fire was now ablaze.

Using the controls in front of him he swung the crane arm to the right. Aiming the claw directly over the truck, he opened its teeth and let it drop.

Biff and was still working on Chet’s bonds, when the claw hit the roof with a huge crash.

"GET DOWN" shouted Joe throwing himself on top of Vanessa.

Biff and Chet hit the deck as one. Biff continued to work on Chet whilst they were lying down. "NO WAY, THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!" yelled Chet.

Joe could feel Vanessa’s ragged, terrified breathing beneath him.

They heard metal screaming and watched in morbid fascination as the claw’s teeth bit through the sides of the truck above them, ripping gashes that allowed moonlight to come flooding in. They felt the vehicle being hoisted up like a feather from the ground and they were swinging free.