I was focused on catching Landry, but after a second, something else registered. Joe wasn’t beside me. I watched Landry disappear into the crowd and spun the bike around. When I saw the crowd gathered around an inert figure and recognized the flaming H’s on the bike, my heart sank.

I skidded to a halt and pulled off my helmet. I tossed the helmet down and hurried through the crowd. “Let me through. He’s my brother.”

A paramedic was already there and I felt a moment’s relief that it wasn’t Carter Bean. This paramedic was a woman with long red hair done in a tight braid. She was carefully checking Joe for injuries.

From what I could see there were no compound fractures. His legs seemed okay, not bent at an odd angle. I bent down beside him. “Joe?”

“Please, move back. Give him some air.”

The speaker was a tall black man with a shaved head. He was apparently the redhead’s partner. I cleared my throat. “He’s my brother.”

The man’s dark eyes slid to the bikes. “You two were the fools on the Monster Loop. Where’s your pal?”

I could hear the anger in his voice. “He wasn’t our pal. We think he’s trying to sabotage the games.” I looked up to see him scowling at me and I noted his badge. It said his name was Simon Archer.

He mumbled something about everyone wanting to be a hero. He turned to Joe and carefully removed the helmet. Joe’s face was pale and his eyes were closed. He was breathing and I couldn’t tell if he’d injured something internally or not. “Joe?”

“Where’s th’rock?”

It took me a moment to realize Joe had spoken, his voice was so faint. “Rock?”

“Yeah, that hit me.” He managed to open one eye and apparently saw Simon, not me. “You’re not Frank. At leas’ I don’ think so.”

“Joe.”

The redhead pulled out a light and shone it in Joe’s eyes. He squeezed his eyes shut and grunted. “Hey, no blinding.”

The woman rolled her eyes and I noted her name was Abby Greeves. “Please open your eyes. I need to check for pupil dilation.”

Joe kept his eyes shut. “I don’t want to be blinded for the rest of my life.”

Abby looked at me and I sighed. “Joe, come on. They want to make sure you’re okay.”

“I’m fine. But you should see th’other guy.”

I leaned closer. “I’ll pry your eyelids open like I did when we were in fourth grade and you didn’t want to see the mummy come out of the tomb.”

Joe’s eyes sprang open and he glared at me. “You know, I never got you back for that. I didn’t sleep for a week after that old freaky movie.”

I shrugged and watched Abby do a quick check. She slipped the pen-shaped light in her shirt pocket. “No concussion. Your helmet took the brunt of the blow. Does anything hurt?”

Joe grunted and tried to sit up. “Of course everything hurts. I just did the Monster Loop.” Suddenly, he looked over at me. “Frank! I did it. I did the Monster Loop!”

I saw both Abby and Simon wince. I frowned. “Joe, I’m not deaf.”

“We should take you to the hospital, get some x-rays, give you a full check-up to make sure there are no internal injuries.” Simon’s voice was deep and he rumbled when he talked.

Joe managed to sit up this time. “I’m allergic to hospitals.”

I shook my head. “Joe, come on. Go with them.”

He started to shake his head but winced. “No. Where’s Landry?”

“Got a head start. Let’s get you checked out.”

“I don’ wanna go.” He sat there, arms folded across his chest. “You can’t make me.”

Abby sat back on her heels. “We can’t force you, true.” She pushed herself to her feet. “Why don’t we see if you can get up okay.”

Joe made it to his feet but he looked shaky and I could tell his head was killing him. “See, standing, no help.”

Simon snorted. “No need to be Mr. Macho, kid. You just said everything’s hurting.”

Joe sighed. “Okay, head’s aching, legs are aching. Can I go now?”

I rolled my eyes. Joe was starting to sound like a whining six year old. “I’ll take him back to the hotel. If anything happens, I’ll get him to the hospital.”

Joe glared at me but it satisfied the two EMTs and they left. I righted his bike. “You should have gone.”

“We’re going after Landry.”

“No, we’re not. We’re going back to the hotel and—”

A loud explosion ripped the air, coming from the other stadium. I looked at Joe and gave up arguing with him. He pulled his helmet on and straddled his cycle. I went to mine and revved the engine. After I put on my helmet we steered through the foot traffic and back onto the road.

I kept my eye on him as we headed back to the other stadium but we couldn’t get through. Fire trucks were blocking the entrance. Two ambulances were jockeying to get around the fire trucks.

Joe skidded to a halt, his stance shaky. He flipped up his face shield. “Jenna.”

Someone ran toward us just then, and nearly knocked Joe off his cycle and flat on his back. I realized who it was. A second later, Joe yanked off his helmet. “Jenna?”

She wrapped her arms around his neck. “I told the judges,” she said in a near whisper. “They didn’t believe me at first, said there’s no way anyone can get nitro in the wheels, they’re sealed. So I just started screaming ‘bomb’.”

I heard a grinding noise and turned to see Jacobson skate toward us. “She got us out, even though the judges didn’t believe us.

When that other dude told ‘em she was right, we hauled our rears out.”

I frowned. “What other dude?”

Jacobson gestured with one hand and skated off. I glanced in that direction and turned to see Eddie Mundy coming our way. He gave me that smirk. “Hey, you missed the action.”

I pushed the kickstand down on my bike so it wouldn’t fall over and walked right up to Mundy. “How’d you know there was a bomb?” I asked, my voice low.

He arched an eyebrow and smirked again. “Dude, you really don’t get it, do you?” He shook his head. “Who briefs you guys, anyway?”

I stared at him, stunned by the words he’d used. Surely not, he couldn’t be. I shook my head. “You’re with...?”

He nodded. “I gave you enough hints,” he snapped, his smile gone. “Hinted at the name, told you I knew who you were...” He rolled his eyes. “Dense as pea soup, you two. New recruits?”

I glared at him. “So...you were after the bomber?”

“They’d noticed the threats by GR SK8R, gave me that task, gave you the other.” He shrugged. “We could’ve worked together...” His voice trailed off as he looked over my shoulder. “Your brother okay? Looks a little green around the gills.”

I glanced over at Joe and saw he didn’t look too good. “He had a nasty spill off his bike while we were chasing Landry.”

Mundy scowled at me and headed toward the street. I didn’t bother to call him back. I glanced at Joe again and realized I needed to get him back to the hotel. I walked over to him and Jenna. “Hey, Jenna, can you watch the bike, maybe park it somewhere safe? I need to get him back to the hotel.”

“I’ll ride it back, he can sit behind me.”

“Okay. Sounds good. Make sure he holds on.”

She grinned and nodded. She whispered something to him and he scooted backward on the seat, giving her a little room. She followed me back to the hotel. As I wove between cars and pedestrians, I realized that Eddie was right, if I had just paid a bit of attention and hadn’t just assumed with his cocky attitude he was a bad guy.

We made it to the hotel without incident and parked the bikes. Joe and I made it to the elevators while Jenna headed off to meet some fellow skateboarders. She said she’d check on Joe later and left.

I watched the numbers on the elevator change as it moved upward. Now we just had to catch Carter Bean in the act.

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Disclaimer

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The authors 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.