Not that talking to Dave is boring, Joe reminded himself. The slim, spare young man who had gone to high school with Joe was actually a lot more interesting than the younger Hardy had ever given him credit for. It was as if getting out of high school had suddenly given the other boy some personality! Dave was a nice guy, to boot, taking interest in not only his own pursuits, but what was going on in Joe’s life as well – commenting on the rumors which had circulated around school, about his and Frank’s accidents ‘out West,’ and asking if they were both okay now.

"I noticed the cast Frank was wearing, last Sunday," Dave said. "And I couldn’t help seeing that he looked like he didn’t feel all that good…."

"He’s getting the cast off on Tuesday," Joe responded, "and it can’t be too soon, as far as I’m concerned. Frank’s making me nuts, he fusses with it so much! Of course, I can’t really blame him for being anxious and impatient. Neither one of us likes to sit still for long, and this has been especially hard on him."

"How so?"

"He can’t do very much – if it had just been a broken wrist, he would be able to do more, but with his arm in a cast past his elbow…well, he’s not a happy camper," Joe concluded with a wry chuckle. "He’s been awfully limited – he’s found out that it takes two hands to do a lot of things. For instance, he works part-time as a pilot – he hasn’t been able to do that, and he’s unhappy about it."

"I agree, it doesn’t sound like fun. I’d hate it!" Dave nodded. He flexed his own arm experimentally. "How could I run if I had a broken arm?" he asked rhetorically, "It would totally mess up my balance and my sense of rhythm! Not that I’m doing a whole lot of running, these days," he added dryly. "But I sure understand."

"That’s part of the problem," Joe agreed, "but not all of it. Frank’s also got muscle damage from a puncture wound in his upper arm, and that hurts him all the time, because until the cast comes off, he can’t do physical therapy to loosen the muscles. Plus, the weight of the cast puts stress on the muscles, so they don’t heal as fast." He grimaced. "Not a pretty sight."

Joe stopped speaking as they reached the bottom of the last staircase. The lower levels of Arbuthnot Science Hall were dungeon-like, in Joe’s opinion. He’d been on the main levels before, but never down here in the subterranean depths. There were twists and turns down here – and much smaller rooms – which bespoke of the oldest portions of the campus. Obviously, the floors above had been rebuilt, remodeled, or added after this part. It felt musty down here, with a lingering whiff of that old-water smell that you either learned to ignore, or let bug you the whole time you were around it. Joe was attempting to ignore it, but wasn’t sure of his success! He also wondered how often the place was checked for animal life….

It seemed a weird place for the S.F.E. to meet, Joe thought. Especially when he had thought that they had an office in the Student Center! He asked Dave about it.

"Oh yeah, that’s where the main office is," Dave said. "That’s where the officers for the S.F.E. meet, and that’s where people can come to get information about the group. But that room isn’t really big enough for a meeting of the whole membership. This place is, and we’re getting ready for a meeting later this evening, so we’re having to do the set-up here. Besides, think about it. This part of the building’s old – it would go unused, if we didn’t meet here. It would be wasteful not to use the space, and that’s one of the things S.F.E.’s against: waste. Perfect, right?"

"Yeah," Joe said a trifle doubtfully, surveying his bleak surroundings. "I’ll take your word for it."

At last they stepped into what had to be the largest room in the basement. Joe was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t quite as dank and forbidding as he had feared; although the walls were concrete, they were covered with colorful posters of rainforests, pictures of endangered animals, flowcharts – even pictures with types of pollution and other environmental hazards! It made for unusual decoration – but it was interesting, and fit their theme!

Two tables were located at the far end of the large room, cluttered with art supplies: poster board, scissors, tape, glue, felt-tip markers, stacks of paper, and two computers. Six people were working busily at the tables, and no one paid attention to the new arrivals until Dave Wahlstrom said "Hey," in general to the room. Then they all stopped working, and turned to stare at Joe, the stranger.

"This is Joe Hardy," Dave announced. "He’s interested in the S.F.E., but he’s not completely sold on it yet, so I told him I’d show him around, today."

Dave’s words elicited a few mumbled responses from the group members, but overall, they didn’t seem all that thrilled to see the younger Hardy. One or two of them shuffled nervously, evidently somewhat uncomfortable at having him there, on what was essentially an inspection tour.

Joe instinctively felt that they didn’t trust him – and he wondered why! Because they knew who he was? He assumed his friendliest, least-threatening expression, and waved casually at them, without asking for individual introductions, and let Dave show him around, trying to show his interest in what they were doing. He was interested, of course – but not for any reason they would like!

Joe had been in the room for over five minutes before anyone besides Dave condescended to talk to him – a black mark in the Hardy boy’s book, no matter what reason he might have been there for! Any group who wants new members, he thought, ought to be friendly to potentials!

At last one of the young women spoke to him. "Hi, I’m Jacklyn. I’m glad to hear you’re interested in our group. Do you really care about saving the environment?"

"Well – sure," Joe said uncertainly. He looked her over. A long single braid of dark hair was draped over one shoulder, and her blue eyes were half-concealed behind oval rimless glasses, but Jacklyn’s smile was genuinely friendly, and Joe returned it.

"If you are, we’re getting ready to hand out fliers and put up a display, at the football game that’s coming up," she continued. "You could help with that."

The football game! Joe tried not to react to her words. That’s just what I need, he thought glumly. The added distraction of a bunch of picketers at a game we’re probably going to lose anyhow! "I – um – I’m afraid I’ll be busy during the game," he muttered. "Sorry."

"Well, maybe another time," Jacklyn smiled. She picked up a piece of poster board from the table. "See, here are the fliers."

He smiled at Jacklyn, attempting to put some of that "ol’ Hardy charm" into it. If I can get this girl to trust me, maybe I can start getting some real information from her! He knew he didn’t have a whole lot of time to waste; he had things to do with the football team, but he wanted to make this as easy as he could, so if the effort paid off….

"You didn’t happen to have a hand in designing these, did you?" he asked, reinforcing the smile and tapping the paper, raising an inquiring brow.

"Yes, actually I did," Jacklyn smiled shyly, responding to both Joe’s implied compliment and his inviting grin. "I designed the logo, and the graphics. That’s what I’m majoring in – graphic design."

Joe nodded comprehension. He wondered if Vanessa might have classes with this girl, since they were in the same field. "I have a good friend in that major," he said, thinking even as he spoke that ‘good friend’ was hardly the way he’d choose to describe Van! "How long have you been going to Bayport Community?" he asked then.

"I just started this year; I graduated in June from Hillman Academy," she replied, naming one of the private schools in Bayport.

"That’s why I didn’t know you!" Joe grinned. "You didn’t go to Bayport High!"

They continued to chat about school and other matters as Jacklyn counted fliers into neat stacks. Jacklyn, it turned out, did have Vanessa in some classes, but hadn’t made her acquaintance yet, just noticed her – Vanessa was hard to overlook! She was amazed and delighted when Joe told her that his friend’s mother was the creator of Rex Rover.

Joe finally managed to steer the conversation around to the campus fires – and found that Jacklyn was most dismayed and upset about them – especially the Art Building conflagration!

"I had a lot of classes there!" she lamented. "After all, you have to take art classes to major in graphic design. And," she continued, "I was in the building the night of the fire!"

"You were?" Joe was startled – and then, privately elated. At last, an eyewitness!

"Yes, one of my classes was being held then." Jacklyn’s blue eyes were starting to look a little teary as she recalled the incident. "I wish I’d gone to Breymand College instead," she gulped, staring down at the table. "That’s what my father wanted me to do."

"Why didn’t you?" Joe asked gently.

"I wasn’t quite ready to leave home yet," she admitted. "I wanted to keep living at home and commute for a year or two. And anyway, everything – the art classes, anyway – I take here will count towards a degree at Breymand; I checked before I enrolled here. But now – with the Art building damaged – this whole semester’s classes may be wiped out!"

Joe blinked and nodded sympathetically. He didn’t blame her for being upset. She’d done everything right. She’d been careful about the classes she picked, she hadn’t wanted to leave home to attend school – and wham, she’d ended up in the middle of a very nasty situation not of her own making!

"Did you notice anything special, the night of the fire?" he asked. "How scary was it? Did people start to panic, or anything?"

"I didn’t notice anything strange until the fire alarm went off," Jacklyn told him. "When we went out into the hall to evacuate the building, I could already smell smoke." She smiled a little. "And no, there wasn’t any panic. The teachers had things under control. We all just marched out nicely. I was lucky; my class was on the first floor, so I was one of the first ones out."

"You didn’t see anyone running out ahead of you?" Joe persisted. "Anyone who might have had something to do with setting the fire, for instance, or pulling the alarm?"

Jacklyn gave him an odd look, evidently curious as to where these questions were leading, then shrugged. "No," she said, "I just don’t remember all that much about it. Sorry."

Joe let the subject drop, and turned his attention to more of the graphics Jacklyn pulled up on one of the computer screens. After a few minutes, however, Jacklyn turned away from her work on a new picture and looked at the Hardy boy again.

"You know," she said slowly, "I do remember something…I think. A boy was running away – he was already out of the building as I was exiting. I remember now, because he had a ‘Recycle’ sticker on the back of his backpack, and another one that I think was for Save the Whales. The reason I noticed it and thought it was weird was because it was a leather backpack. At least – I thought it looked like leather. But it might have been one of those faux suede ones. Anyway, he had the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up over his hair – and it wasn’t that cold out!"

Jacklyn paused a moment, considering her words carefully. She remained silent as she worked a little more on her picture – a dolphin leaping above water in a graceful arc – and then she frowned.

"I feel like I’ve seen that backpack before," she admitted. "Brown…with those logos. I just can’t remember where."

Joe stayed quiet, watching her, wanting desperately for her to say what he wanted to hear – and not wanting to push her. He knew that no one could be forced to remember something. It had to come naturally, or not at all. I just hope it comes soon!

As he waited, he idly watched Dave, who was talking with some of the other S.F.E. members in the room. They were poring over something on the other computer, one boy rapidly typing on the keyboard while two others leaned over his shoulders. They stopped occasionally to look at what they’d done, then returned to the screen, making changes or adding something new to the document they were working on.

Joe turned back to Jacklyn, who was still puzzling over the elusive memory as she worked on her dolphin picture. "Do you think it might be someone in the S.F.E. who has that backpack?" he nudged. "With those logos on it, isn’t there a chance?"

She paused in her work and looked up at him. "Maybe," she admitted. "Maybe it is someone in Students For Earth. But – but I just assumed that whoever it was, had been in a class in the Art building, and just got out ahead of me. It never occurred to me that…I just never thought any of us would resort to those kinds of tactics. It would make our group no better than those terrorist groups out there!" Jacklyn looked extremely sad.

"I know," Joe soothed.

"But maybe….There are a couple of people in the S.F.E. who have wanted us to be more…more – active. But if one of them did this…."

"How much do you know about this group, anyway?" Joe asked. "After all, you just joined, right? You’re new to the school, and most of the people—"

"No – I joined while I was still in high school," Jacklyn told him. "I’ve been in for nearly a year now." She chuckled a little. "The environment doesn’t care about how old you are, Joe, or which school you go to."

"Point taken," he conceded. "Jacklyn – could you tell me – which members have wanted you to be more…active?"