Chapter Title: On the Farm  

The wind tugged on John’s cloth jacket as he rode his motorcycle.  In the fields beside the road, he saw and smelled cows.  He remembered long ago when this road had been dirt.  It had been gravel for many years after that, but now was blacktop.  He used to travel this road frequently, but during the past few years had not been on it.

Ahead, he saw Conrad out at the mailbox.  Conrad heard the approaching motorcycle.  He looked up waited.  John drove up and shut off the engine.  He pulled off his helmet.

“Hey, Conrad.  Is Ivana home?”

Conrad choked up, then managed to say, “That sounded so normal!  You better not let my parents see you.  They blame you for what happened to her.  That you’ve been gone the last few days when my parents had so many questions for you and your brother made things worse.  Despite their disapproval, Ivana wants to see you badly.”

“It wasn’t my choice to be away.  I came as soon as I could,” John insisted.

Conrad wondered, “Where’s Fritz?”

“Car shopping with Christine.”

Conrad said, “My car is still in the shop getting the fender fixed, so Ivana and I have felt trapped on the farm.  John, I have to know.  What has my sister been doing the past few years?  She won’t tell me.”

“I cannot tell you because I really don’t know,” John replied.

Conrad’s expression clearly indicated strong disbelief in this answer.  Yet, James had spoken the truth.  Entangle had a strict policy of allowing agents only to know secrets that they had some obvious need to know.  So far, Dr. Ruby had judged that Fritz and John Hardly had no need to know what cases Ivana Morrow had worked on for the past few years other than her latest.

Conrad explained, “She was supposed to have amnesia from hitting her head when your car blew up, then only got her memory back only recently.  I certainly don’t believe that!”

“I’m not a brain doctor, so I don’t know.  I am delighted and amazed she is alive.  I had really believed she had died in the explosion,” John remarked, not believing the amnesia idea for a second.

He climbed off the motorcycle.  He stretched, arching his back.  He smiled as he did that because he felt no pain.  The cut in his back had healed completely.

Conrad asked, “Why can’t you tell me what really happened?  You obviously know more than you are telling me.”

John thoughtfully suggested, “Consider what you accomplished by impersonating Gordon Snuff.”

“I helped rescue my sister,” Conrad answered.

John persisted, “What else?”

Conrad thought back, then added, “I helped stop some kind of device by letting your brother use my car.  Vicky had the map of where it would be placed, so she helped more.  The President was speaking at the convention center.  Vicky’s map indicated a corner about two miles away from there.  I’d think it’d take a nuclear explosion to reach that far.  Were we dealing with a nuke?”

John shook his head slightly, but Conrad picked that up.

Conrad responded, “I know from living on the farm and watching the wheat fields sway that Port City mainly gets winds from the west.  The security team would have looked for snipers or bombs, but could a toxic gas drift in from that far?”

John said, “All I am allowed to tell you is the President was never in danger.”

Conrad picked up something in John’s tone and body language that told him John’s meaning was the opposite of the actual words.  Conrad dropped the mail on the ground.  He leaned hard against the mailbox.

Conrad said, “I really thought it was just a normal bomb.  It wasn’t, though.  It couldn’t have been.  This is an act of war!”

John suggested, “I am really not allowed to say, Conrad.  I wish I could.  While I honestly have no idea what Ivana has been doing the past few years, I believe it had similar importance as this case.”

Conrad picked up the dropped mail.  Color had returned to Conrad’s face.

Conrad said, “I’m going to have bad nightmares.”

John admitted, “Welcome to the club.  I’m sorry.”

Conrad declared, “I’d rather know things like that are happening then not know.  Before Ivana reappeared, I couldn’t imagine anything worse than her dying.  My parents refused to believe she had died.  That’s why they bought Suzy the Horse.  Like them, I tried to believe Ivana was still alive, but I couldn’t pull it off.  I am so glad that I was wrong and my parents were right.”

John said, “Until recently, I thought she was dead too.”

Conrad confessed, “It seems I helped save the city, but I don’t feel heroic.  Just stunned by the magnitude of the threat.  If Ivana was saving people from threats like that, perhaps it is understandable that she let us think she was dead for all these years.  Even though it hurt our parents so much.  Even though it hurt me so much.”

“I know when I saw Aunt Grace crying on the television, I wished I would have found any other way to solve this case then letting her think I was dead.  I am sure Ivana felt worse.  Plus, for her it was for years, not just a few days,” John remarked.

Conrad consoled, “You had to do that to save the city, John.  Now that I understand the magnitude of the threat, I’d be willing to do the same.”

John said, “I agree, which is why I went along with it, but I still have regrets.  I’m sure Ivana does too.”

“I see what you’re getting at,” Conrad said with his eyes down turned.

John asked, “Is Ivana in the house?”

Conrad replied, “No, she’s riding Suzy along paths in those woods that form a windbreak at the far end of the fields.  You can go out to see her.”

John asked, “Can I ride my motorcycle across the fields?”

“The crops are harvested already, so go right ahead.”

John eagerly started the bike and cut straight across the field.  He peered into the trees, which cast dark and mysterious shadows.  He vaguely saw the form of a woman riding a horse, almost like a ghostly apparition.

Ivana heard the motorcycle, a sound that did not seem to bother Suzy.  Ivana pulled the rein and gave Suzy a gentle kick.  Suzy then galloped toward John Hardly.  Ivana and the horse emerged from the shadows cast by closely packed trees into the bright sunlight.  Ivana’s hair, no longer dyed bright red, flowed behind her.  The years of stress faded away from her as she smiled at John, restoring her to the same high school age as he was.

 

THE END

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.