EXTREME DANGER
by
PiperMerlyn
Chapter 2
The Chapters
Frank
“Wipe that smirk off your face,” I said as we headed for the van.
My little brother gave me an innocent look. “Who, me?”
We’d left the warehouse where the Freedombird Skydiving School was situated none too soon. Belinda was pretty enough but Callie was the only girl for me. I didn’t like ending up in situations that always ended awkwardly. “Let’s go home.”
“No argument there.”
I watched him pull himself up into the van and got in behind the wheel. “You okay?”
“Just sore. Let’s not do that any time soon.” Joe moved to sit down only to bounce up again. “What the—?”
I saw a small discreet package on his seat. It was about the size of a CD jewel case and about as thick as five of them stacked together. “Is it ticking?”
“That’s not even funny,” growled Joe. He turned it over and sat back down. “ATAC.”
ATAC – American Teens Against Crime. It was our father’s brainchild actually, when he’d retired from the police force, but it had taken quite a few years to get the organization up and running. He’d seen how easy it was for us to go where no adult could go and now he splits his time between his private detective agency and ATAC. It had been ATAC that had sent us after Maletta. “Man, they’re fast.”
“I’m not going anywhere until I’ve slept for twenty-four hours.”
Personally I agreed, but I knew we’d both check it out as soon as we got home. The problem was we had to be careful. Dad knew about the missions but we couldn’t share any classified information with Mom or Aunt Gertrude. Some days it was hard to get anything by our aunt.
I pulled up in the driveway and noticed Dad’s car was home. “Hey, Dad’s back from New York.”
Joe was turning the package over and over in his hands, looking disgruntled. After a moment, he looked up. “Oh, Dad’s home.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m hungry, let’s go grab a snack and see what Santa brought us this time.”
He grunted. “Ha. More like the Nightmare Before Christmas if Santa keeps this up.”
We got out of the van and went inside, Joe tucking the package out of sight. No one was in the living room, so we made a beeline for the staircase.
“Boys.”
We were halfway up when it registered that our dad was in the foyer. I turned around, noting he’d spoken quietly. “Hey, Dad.”
“I think we need to talk.”
I shared a look with Joe who shrugged. We headed back down the stairs and went into his office, off the living room. “What is it, Dad?”
“I just got off the phone with Mitch Jones.”
Joe’s head shot up. “Dad—”
“That was a very close call...” His voice trailed off as he spotted the package. “Another one? Already?” He looked at each of us in turn and frowned at the package in Joe’s hands. “Are you ready?”
Joe sighed, rolled his shoulders. “I could use a hot meal and about two days’ worth of uninterrupted sleep but...”
I cleared my throat. “Jones told you...um, everything?”
Our dad took a deep breath. “He told me enough.” He looked like he wanted to say more but didn’t.
Joe squirmed in his seat. “Dad, I checked my chute, Frank checked his. No idiot who skydives ignores that rule.”
“So...what happened?”
Joe lowered his gaze to the package and mumbled something. I looked at him. “You had to...?”
“Hey,” he said defensively. “I had that huge drink I’d ordered from Mickey D’s, remember?”
Dad sighed. “All right. Check that out, see what it is. Hopefully, you’ll have a bit of down time.”
I nodded and shared a look with Joe. We told Dad we’d be upstairs but before we made it to the safety of my room, we were waylaid again.
“Where on earth have you two been?”
“Hi, Auntie,” said Joe, giving her a hug. I noticed he favored his left shoulder, hoped she hadn’t noticed it.
“What’s wrong with your arm?”
Didn’t I say it was hard getting things past her? I started to answer but Joe was quicker. “Just rough-housing, Auntie. You know I was on the wrestling team last year. Some bozo thought I couldn’t take him in one move.”
Aunt Gertrude shook her head. “Joseph, might is never the answer. It’s almost time for supper. Go get cleaned up.”
We headed upstairs and into my room. Joe stood there for a moment and shrugged with his good shoulder. “It sounded better in my head.”
I had a feeling he’d imagined the bozo to be Conrad. “The game player is in your room.”
He headed through the bathroom we shared, unwrapping the package as he went. He stopped right there in the middle of the bathroom, and I ran right into him. “I’m gonna have to buy you stoplights or something.”
“Frank...”
Something in his tone made me worry. “What’s wrong.”
Joe spun around waving papers in my face, grinning from ear to ear. “Nothing, bro. Absolutely nothing.”
“What are you so excited about?” I asked. When he didn’t answer, I snatched the papers from his hand. They were all-access tickets to the Big Air Games in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The games started Monday. “Joe?”
“Big Air, bro. Oh, this is absolutely wicked cool!” He hurried into his room, leaving me standing there staring at the tickets. Flipping past the tickets I found a glossy, full-color brochure about the Big Air games devoted solely to extreme sports.
I headed into Joe’s room to find him tearing the rest of the brown paper off the package and pulling out a CD-Rom. He inserted it into the game player and grinned at me. Something told me it wasn’t going to be as fun as he thought it would be.
Let the author know what you think of this story
Home Library Authors Rogue's Gallery Vehicles Chums Message Board Rap Sheet Links Contact
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.