"The others must have been checking out why he was late," Pete commented, as to why they saw several teenagers on the road.

"Well we better be careful, Joe Hardy’s brother will be among the group, although I don’t think he’ll do anything openly to endanger his brother, he’ll come up with some way to rescue him," Billy commented. "I heard that they are real close."

"Maybe we can use that to our advantage," Pete commented.

"How?" Billy asked, perplexed and intrigued at the same time.

"Keeping his brother might prevent him from doing a frontal assault, so if we can get prepared for any covert plans he might come up with, having both brothers as hostages will be better than just one," Pete explained.

"What about the others?" Billy asked, a couple of the others look pretty formidable."

"Unlike the brothers, I don’t think we have anything to worry about. Besides, they wouldn’t want anything to happen to Joe, now would they?" Pete countered.

"No, they wouldn’t," Billy agreed. "But I don’t think they should be underestimated, nor should that Brad guy."

"Which is why we have to keep our guard up, the Hardy boys are good, we may have one of them, but I am thinking that Frank Hardy will do just about anything to get his brother back," Pete commented.

* * * * *

As Frank, Biff, Tony, Chet and Phil quietly made their way back to the cabin they talked along the way about what they next course of action should be.

They were dealing with two very dangerous fugitives, and from Frank’s conversation with Sam Radley, desperate too.

"How did Joe manage to get captured by these two?" Chet asked.

"More than likely, they were looking for a vehicle to snatch," Phil commented. "And they came upon the van."

"But there’s an alarm on the van, isn’t there?" Tony asked.

"Yeah, there is," Frank replied. "They probably waited until Joe deactivated it, and ambushed him then."

"But don’t you have a fail safe, that you and Phil installed," Biff said.

"He probably didn’t have the time or opportunity to activate it," Frank said.

"How do you activate it?" Chet asked.

"There’s a switch underneath the driver’s seat, that makes it impossible to start without damaging it, it’s something we hope to patent, if it works," Phil said.

"So what’s important about it now?" Chet asked.

"I have an extra set of keys, we’ll sneak up and activate the switch, that way they think the van isn’t working, and we can keep them here, until help arrives," Frank explained, "unless we can rescue Joe and Brad ourselves."

"But is Joe and Brady in any danger?" Tony asked.

Frank was silent a moment, that was one question he didn’t want to contemplate. True, him and Joe faced many dangers, but he bet Brad never faced danger and was ill-prepared for the mess he was in.

"Frank, is Joe and Brad in any danger?" Tony repeated the question.

"I’m afraid they are," he replied. "But Joe may be safe at the moment."

"Why?" Biff asked, confused. "Why would Joe be safe and not Brad?"

"That’s because of your Dad, right?" Phil guessed.

"Yeah, but he won’t be safe forever," Frank said ominously.

"What do you mean?" Chet asked.

"Once they are free and clear, they’ll either dump him, which I doubt, or they’ll kill him," Frank replied.

"Which is something we can’t allow," Biff stated.

They continued on in silence, not wanting to think of the consequences if they were able to move on. They all knew that Joe would be killed once they were safe from the authorities. For they had hung around the Hardy’s too long, and have encountered too many criminals and know that they hardly kept their word.

They reached the clearing the cabin, and sighed with relief, Pete and Billy had parked the van in such a way that they could easily sneak up on it with no worries of being seen and further endangering themselves or Joe and Brad.

The van was parked on the side of the cabin which had no windows on it, but had direct access to the wrap-around porch via a wide set of stairs, the driveway went all the way around the cabin, so you could park anywhere without turning around.

Frank snuck up to the van with Biff, with Chet, Tony and Phil as lookouts. He held the keys just so that they would jingle and give him away. He unlocked the van, and carefully opened up the van door. He quickly found the switch and flipped it, having completed his task, he relocked the van door and closed the door as quietly as he could. Luckily for him, it seemed that the guys had discovered the deluxe accommodations the cabin offered and had to TV up too loud for them to be heard.

Biff started to head back to the woods, but Frank slowly crept up the steps. Biff cursed under his breath and went up after him, "What are you doing?" he whispered, harshly.

"I have to make sure Joe’s alright," Frank explained. He slowly crept opposite the big living room window, towards the bedroom area. He found the first bedroom.

"I see Brad, but where is Joe?" Biff asked. Frank looked in, and indeed he saw their new friend, who appeared to be asleep, but otherwise unharmed in the master bedroom bed, with handcuffs on.

"Joe must be in another room," Frank surmised. "Let’s keep looking. They continued onto the second bedroom. They looked in, but saw no one in the two twin beds in that room. "He must be in the other bedroom," Frank announced.