Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys Fan Fiction

Chapter Title: Another Bomb

John Hardly, a light-haired man who appeared to be seventeen years old, complained to his dark-haired, one-year-older brother, "Clothes shopping is boring. Watching the girls do it is worse."

"Shhh," warned Fritz. He sat next to his brother on an uncomfortable vinyl-covered bench.

Vicky and Christine came out of their dressing rooms. Each had on a different styled dress. When John saw Vicky’s dress, his expression changed from disinterest to great sorrow.

Christine said, "Which dress do you like better?"

"I'm not really the one to judge dresses," John announced as he barely gave Christine a glance. His gaze was on his own girlfriend.

Christine said, "Come on, John. This is for Craig Peter’s wedding."

John wistfully said, "I like Vicky’s dress."

Vicky blushed. They had dated for what felt like a wonderfully long decade, but this was the first time he'd given her such a look.

Christine turned to her boyfriend, "What about you?"

Fritz remarked, "Vicky’s dress looks familiar. Don't you have one like it, dear?"

Christine replied, "No. Wait, I know what dress you mean. Ivana Morrow had one almost exactly like it. She let me borrow it for a school dance you took me to a number of years back."

Vicky had heard of Ivana Morrow even though she had never met her. Christine had told Vicky that Ivana had been John’s first love. Also, Ivana’s brother Conrad had been a close buddy of John and Fritz. Vicky had met Conrad Morrow several times at high school. Conrad was polite to the Hardly Boys, but he did not spend time with them. A few years ago, his sister had entered their car, which had then exploded. Gordon blamed those who planted the bomb, the Obliterators. Although he did not blame the Hardly Boys, he avoided them. Vicky had asked Conrad about that. He told her that being around them brought back painful memories.

Vicky snapped, "I'm not wearing this dress just so you can pretend I'm your old girlfriend, John Hardly!"

"I never said that," John countered. "It's simply a nice dress."

"Come on, Vicky. We have other dresses to try," Christine suggested.

Vicky stood fast and complained, "John, how can I compete with a woman who's dead?"

What looked like a cell phone in a leather holster on Fritz's belt gave an unpleasant sound. It sounded like an alarm rather than a ringing phone. Fritz's face showed great concern, although John's showed relief at any excuse to get out of this. Fritz yanked the device off his belt. Unlike a regular cell phone, the LCD display changed to show a color video image. This was not a regular cell phone, but one issued by a special government agency named the Entangle. Both Fritz and John had worked for them for several years, although they had been famous amateur detectives for many years before that. Their first case for Entangle had been to catch the Obliterator member who had placed the bomb in their car. They had caught him when he was trying to assassinate a presidential candidate. Their friends knew about the Obliterators, but were not supposed to know about Entangle.

Fritz announced, "It's a special alarm. The image shows a man is in our van!"

Their van had replaced the car that had been blown up. It was no more a normal van than Fritz's cell phone was a normal phone. The van had thick polycarbonate windows instead of glass. It had kevlar batting under the sheet steel. This, along with special tires and other modifications, made it bulletproof. It also had alloy racing wheels, a powerful V8 engine, all-wheel drive, and handled like a sports car. All the students and most of the teachers in the high school were envious of the Hardly Boys having a vehicle like that. If James Bond were to trade in his sports cars for a van, this would be it.

Without a word, John spun and ran. Fritz peered so intently at the image that he did not notice. Christine peered in too, touching her boyfriend. The phone’s display screen showed a man with long dark hair and wearing sunglasses getting under the dashboard. He wore a leather coat. He pulled out a pair of needlenose pliers from a coat pocket.

"Is he planting a bomb?"

"Almost certainly," answered Fritz. "Our van is bulletproof, but I don't think it is bombproof. Hey, where's John?"

"He ran off," Vicky volunteered.

Fritz shoved the gadget into Christine's hand. He ran down an escalator, shoving by people and knocking packages out of their hands. A mall cop noticed and gave chase. A second mall cop, whom Fritz recognized as Gordon Snuff, stood outside the mall's glass doors, gazing out intently. Gordon gazed so intently into the parking lot that he did not notice the commotion behind him. Fritz ran into Gordon, knocking him over like a bowling pin.

Some distance away, John had gotten close to the van. The leather coated man stepped out of it, carefully closing the van's door behind him. A yellow car pulled up. A brown haired woman, also in sunglasses and leather coat, drove. The man climbed into the car. John reached out and touched the car, but then it pulled away from him. He stopped running. He pulled out a pen from a pocket. He scribbled the license number on the back of his hand. He then walked back toward the van.

Despite being unexpectedly knocked over, Gordon managed to grab Fritz’s ankle, causing him to trip

As Fritz fell, he yelled at the top of his lungs, "John, get away! There's a bomb!"

Other people in the parking lot heard this.

John immediately moved away from the van.

In most parts of America , a high school boy yelling about a bomb might have been dismissed as a prank. However, besides having their car blown up in this same parking lot a few years ago, crime-ridden Port City had had many stores, buildings, houses, and vehicles bombed over many violent decades. Fritz being chased by a mall guard had made it look to observers like he was a criminal. Some got the impression the bomb being yelled about was in the mall. A well-intentioned bystander, who thought the mall needed to be evacuated, quickly stepped inside the mall. He pulled the fire alarm to accomplish this. People streamed out. Cries of a bomb spread like wildfire.

Inside the mall, Christine still peered into the video display on the phone. The image shifted every few seconds from the interior of the van to the exterior, so she had been watching the action.

Vicky remarked, "Being with the Hardly Boys certainly is exciting!"

A saleswoman hurried over and warned, "Get out now, girls! There's a bomb!"

Christine informed the saleswoman, "Calm down. It's a car bomb, just like happened here a few years back. We're safe here. It's the parking lot that's dangerous."

The saleswoman said with a trembling voice, "The parking lot is where we're supposed to go when the fire alarm goes off!"

Out in the parking lot, chubby Gordon Snuff snapped, "You're in big trouble now, Fritz!"

John ran up and said, "Let go of my brother, Gordon! People’s lives are in danger!"

The other mall cop said in surprise, "Hey, you two are the Hardly Boys, the world famous amateur detectives! Your car was blown up in this same parking lot a few years ago."

John clenched his fists and said, "Yes, my girlfriend was vaporized in that explosion. Not as much as hair or a bone fragment remained of her."

The mall cop who had recognized them said, "I was working that day. What a nightmare! Hey, look!"

Some people were getting into the car next to the van. John and the mall cop ran to shoo them away. They weren't in time, but the car pulled away without incident.

Gordon declared, "There is no bomb! You Hardly Boys always exaggerate everything. I noticed a long-haired man in a leather coat stealing your car radio. I was about to apprehend him when you ran into me, Fritz."

Gordon released Fritz Hardly and strode toward the van.

Still getting up, Fritz yelled, “Get back, Gordon! There’s a bomb!”

Gordon snidely said, "No, there isn’t. I'll see if your van still has its radio."

Gordon Snuff grabbed the driver's door and opened it. The ground shook. A sound like thunder roared. Fritz, John, and the other mall cop fell. Shrapnel cut John’s back. Gordon flew into the air like a rag doll. He came down on top of a parked car, smashing the windshield.

In the clothing store inside the mall, the saleswoman shrieked because of the sound. She did not realize yet that the bomb was not in the mall, just as Christine had claimed.

Vicky said to Christine, yelling to be heard, "What are we going to do?"

Christine loudly explained, "I think I know how to use this gadget. Fritz may get in trouble for this, but I think this is important enough. This button here."

The saleswoman stopped her yelling, finally convinced she was not going to die.

Christine held the device to her head like a regular cell phone, "Hello, is this Dr. Ruby? I thought so. This is Christine, Fritz Hardly's girlfriend. I know about your organization called the Entangle. We can talk about how I found out later. There's been an incident you need to know about! It's the same modus operandi as the Obliterators used with the Ivana Morrow case a few years ago. A car bomb just went off."