Hardy Detective Agency featuring Hardy Boys Fan Fiction

Sand swept over him like a tide just as his entire world shook from an extremely loud noise too close at hand to give him any comfort. For what seemed like forever, he felt like he was drowning as sand covered his face, spilled inside his mouth, trickled into his clothes. Fighting the panic, he dug himself out of the sand until he could see sunlight and feel fresh air. He took in a deep breath, then coughed as an errant wind blew smoke from the charred jeep right in his face. Joe's eyes watered from stinging sand and smoke and he could barely make out the shape of a huge sand dune that seemed oddly stationary. He thought he saw gray slats close against something and he wondered if someone had been watching.

He stumbled out of the hole in the sand and stared at the remains of the jeep, then lifted his head to look where he'd thought he'd seen the metal slats but the wind had already covered the spot. A cold chill swept over him as a thought crossed his mind. Raven had stolen Casi's clothes to send to him, intent on making him think that Raven had Casi. Had she made Casi watch the jeep explode? The chill settled in his heart as he realized the answer to that was yes. He started for the sand dune, then stopped. He squinted to his right, due west of the sand dune. Back there was the city, hopefully, he could get back there and get help. The sun was still high enough in the sky to give him light for the several hours it would take to get back. He swallowed hard at the thought of leaving Casi but he knew he couldn't do anything on his own, not this time.

He took a deep breath and coughed again. He was thirsty but there was no water to be had anywhere. But he had to get to Marrekech, he had to get to his brother. Joe winced in memory. Maybe he shouldn't have hit Jonathon quite so hard....

***

Jonathon MacKensey left Cafe Argana as sober as he'd gone in. He had gone there to drown his sorrows but die-hard training had kicked in and he'd ordered the local coffee instead of liquor. Shakira was gone, with her children. She'd never know the whole truth but she'd guessed enough. Now she was gone. Maybe now she'd be safe. He looked up a the dark sky. Stars glittered like diamonds. He recognized the familiar shape of Centaurus and heaved a world-weary sigh.

"Jonah Kensington, right?"

He whirled at the voice. "Who wants to know?"

"Relax. Just me." Kendra Hunter pushed the hood of her cloak back. "So where's your twin?"

"Raven got him and Casi."

In the dim streetlight, he thought he saw her narrow her eyes. "The place is empty."

"They flew east, under radar."

"Ah..." Kendra nodded. "Khalil's hidden stronghold."

"Can you get me there?"

"You're crazy. You can't just barge in there."

"Yeah..." Jonathon looked away. "I am."

Kendra stared at him. She'd suspected, but now she knew. She knew much more than she was willing to share with him. "It was you."

"What?"

"Shakira's lover. It was you."

Jonathon frowned. "Let's not change the subject. Can you get me there or not?"

Kendra frowned right back at him. "And you let her go."

"I said..."

"Deal."

Jonathon felt confused. "What?"

Kendra shook her head. "Come on." She led the way to a jeep with wide shallow-tread tires. "Get in. I can get you to the drop-off point. The rest of the way I know only by air."

"Get me to the drop-off and I'll handle it from there." said Jon, getting into the passenger seat.

Kendra snorted as she shifted gears and pulled onto the street. "Ooh, Mister Macho. You sure you and Mack aren't twins?"

Jon sighed. "Lay off of it."

"Crabby, are we?"

"I tend to get that way when an assignment goes bust."

Kendra was quiet for a few moments, then glanced at him as they left the city. "You're his brother."

"What makes you say that?" asked Jon, guardedly.

"You're just like him. In dim light, you look even more like him."

Jonathon stared down at his hands, refusing to answer.

Kendra gave him another glance and nodded. "Yep, you two are definitely related." She glanced forward and hit the brakes. "Oh my God."

"What?"

Kendra scrambled out of the jeep. In the glare of the headlights, Jon saw her bend down next to a dark shape. Sudden horror hit him and he got out of the jeep himself. "No."

Kendra helped the figure sit up. "There's a jug of water under your seat," she told Jon. "Get it."

Jon retrieved the rectangular gallon jug and knelt down beside her. "Here."

"Yo, bro, that you?" came a rough whisper.

Jonathon took a deep breath. "God, Mack, what happened?"

"Tangled with a bomb," Joe said hoarsely, too tired and hot and thirsty to be joking. He gulped down the water Kendra handed him.

"You idiot, I ought to knock your lights out."

"I've been knocked around enough today. No thanks."

Jon sighed. "What happened?"

Joe shook his head. "No time. I have to get Casi out."

Jon sat back on his heels, then glanced at Kendra. "So what's in your arsenal?"

Kendra stared at him, then looked at Joe. In the glare of the headlights, she could see he had one hell of a sunburn. "You're both crazy. That place is a fortress." She got to her feet. "No...a gigantic sand-coated bomb shelter. There's no way in heaven or hell you could get in there."

Joe stood up, exhausted, sore, and still thirsty. "There's always a way. What've you got?"

Kendra shook her head and poured another cup of water. She handed it to him. "Heavy artillery is so much useless baggage."

Joe told himself to sip the water this time, savor it. "How about high-tech?"

Kendra snorted. "James Bond, you're not."

"You're no Emma Peel, either."

Kendra shared a look with Jon. "He's feeling better."

Joe grunted and finished off the cup of water and poured him another one. God, he was thirsty. Jonathon nodded to Kendra. "Yeah, let's go."

Kendra shook her head. "No. Aaron's in there. He'll let us in, simple as pie."

Joe arched an eyebrow, gave up on sipping and downed the cup of water in one gulp. "Just walk in. Now there's a novel idea."

Jon sighed. "You think it'll work?"

"You got any better ideas?"

"How will he know you want in?" asked Joe as he reached for the jug again.

Kendra frowned. "You trying to drink the whole gallon?" she asked Joe, nonetheless handing him the jug. She glared at Jonathon. "We're not trading secrets here. Let's go."

Jon looked at his brother. "We'll get her out."

Joe nodded, turning serious. "But this is the last time it'll happen."

Jon frowned, started to ask what he meant then shook his head as they got back into the jeep. There would be time for that later.

***

The room was dark when she opened her eyes. Her throat hurt when she tried to swallow. Then she remembered and squeezed her eyes shut. No. Oh God, don't let it be real. A single tear traced it's way down the side of her face as she lay there, staring up at a dark ceiling. Oh God... Cassandra sat up and began to cry, the tears coursing down her cheeks. He was gone. Oh God, how could life be so unfair?

The tears came harder. So many what-ifs, so many might-have-beens, so many things she had wanted to tell him crowded in on her, almost stifling her. If she'd followed gut instinct he would never have left Ireland...If she hadn't come, he wouldn't have gotten caught...Damn, his death was her fault. She hiccuped on a sob. "I said I'd die for him," she said out loud, looking upward. "So why is he dead?"

No answer came so she wiped her cheeks and got to her feet. She'd get even, she vowed, feeling her way to the closest wall. Pay Lilith back for this. And then what, asked her conscience. That won't bring him back. Her fingertips touched cold metal. "I'll get the satisfaction of killing Lilith," muttered Casi as she turned and moved parallel to the wall. And then what? Become like him, pushing people away, turning into a lonely spinster with a thousand cats? "As long as they're not all like Merlin." Casi stopped as her fingers found a switchplate and she flicked the switch.

Harsh over-head lighting filled the room, making her squint. As her vision adjusted, she saw a bare room, no windows and two doors, a tall metal cabinet stood in one corner. It made her think of that old Bill Murry movie Stripes. It looked exactly like a soldier's barracks. The bed was an old army cot that had seen better days. Considering her emotional state, she hadn't even noticed. She walked over to the cabinet and opened the doors. On one side hung several one-piece jumpsuits in desert camouflage. The bottom half of the other side had drawers. All were empty but one. Her shirt and skirt were inside, hopelessly wrinkled.

She slammed the drawer shut and grabbed one of the jumpsuits. She shed the loose cotton djellaba and pulled on the jumpsuit. It was a little on the snug side but had plenty of pockets. She found a pair of boots at the bottom of the makeshift closet. They were half a size larger than she wore and her bare feet could feel every seam of the sewn leather and the metal edge of the steel toe. She needed socks but couldn't fnd any. She sighed and laced the boots up tight and decided she could handle the discomfort.

Casi walked to the door to test the boots and tried the knob. To her surprise, the knob turned easily. Frowning, Casi cautiously opened the door, half-expecting a guard but the corridor was empty. She took a step back, leaving the door open and flicked off the light. She gathered her hair and twisted it inot a coil until it curled in on itself, then wrapped the length around the bun tightly, then tucked the ends in and under the bun. It would stay like that for awhile.

The corridor beyond the open door was quiet, lit by diffuse flat panels set in the ceiling. Casi took a deep breath and left the room, quietly pulling the door shut. An oval piece of metal was screwed to the door with numbers on it. The number, thirty-nine, made her think of that old black and white movie, The Thirty Nine Steps. Casi groaned inwardly. She watched entirely too much television. She stood in the corridor, wondering which way to go. Casi sighed. "Eenie, meenie, minie, moe..."

She ended up going right, her right. The corridor was long and straight. As she tread quietly, she noticed that the numbers on the doors to her left fell--thirty-four, thirty-three, thirty-two--while the numbers on her right climbed--forty-one, forty-two..Casi gave a mental shrug, better than evens on one side, odds on the other.

Just past room twenty-nine on her left and across from rooms forty-five and forty-six was a compact metal staircase, one end led up, the other down below. Remembering the feeling of height earlier--she deliberately blanked out the rest, she chose to go up. She was barely half-way up the stairs when she heard it. A faint steady beep, the soft clacking of a keyboard, the whir of machinery and voices. She took two more steps, then another until her eyes were level with the floor.

What she saw made her wish she had never seen a James Bond movie. Anyone who had would know this was the control room almost like in You Only Live Twice. She was tempted to look up to see if the roof could move. Casi shook her head. Definitely too much television. She moved a few steps higher to see who was in the room. There was no way she could prove it but it felt as if quite a few hours had passed. She was usually pretty accurate on time whether she wore a watch or not. But considering all that had happened--she blanked it out again--she might be a little off on her reckoning.

One man sat at a computer, the overhead lighting turning his sandy hair a dishwater blond. He wasn't wearing the sunglasses but the beard tipped her off. Seated next to him was a scared, mousy looking man with granny glasses. Casi gave a silent snort. The tiny round lenses looked ridiculous on the man with his receding hairline and ponytail. She continued up the stairs, crouching low and ducked behind some type of machine. They appeared to the only ones around. Carefully, keeping something between her and them, Casi took a roundabout way to get within earshot.

"......for sure."

"I know the icon. It's her."

"So what do you propose to do. Just let her in?"

"Well....yeah. That's the idea."

"Aaron, no."

"I have to."

Casi saw Jade shake his head and felt a shiver run down her spine. He looked so much like....She swallowed hard, forced herself to concentrate on what he was saying. "...too dangerous. For one, you can't open th edoors, too much noise. Second--"

"Shit, whaddya take me for? This place is computer controlled. Watch a master."

"No."

"I have to." She heard the man Jade had called Aaron sigh heavily. "She told me I'd never be involved with that side of it. I was a hacker, nothing more. But I killed someone today--"

"Aaron--"

"--because I didn't stop it."

"You couldn't---"

"I could've done--"

"Something damned foolish and gotten yourself killed." Jade's tone was decidedly harsh.

"So? It would've been action, not just standing there doing nothing." Aaron sighed again. "Nobody deserves to go like that."

Casi felt her chest tighten, realizing what they were talking about. Tears pricked her eyes and she nearly started crying again. Vaguely, she knew she needed to breathe....and to keep listening.

"You know him?" asked Jade in the sudden silence.

"She did. Talked about him. Probably'll be pissed she didn't get a chance to sock 'im one for leaving her high and dry in Bangkok."

"You said she's--"

"Yeah. She told me he knocked some sense into her. Anyway, she says this is a hundred more times more profitable than acin' somebody."

The computer beeped again. Aaron shifted in his seat. Casi heard the vinyl crackle. "One program controls all this. One button'll let her in--"

"And the fur shall fly."

"Huh?"

"I was being sarcastic," Jade said in a weary tone.

Casi listened to their breathing for a few moments, the clack of keys, forced herself to stay calm and not burst into tears at any given moment, even though looking at Jade...She took a deep breath and slowly straightened up, scanned the room. It was empty except for the two men. "Do you have the time? I seem to have lost track of my watch."

Both men jumped. Aaron barely glanced her way, but he stared. In this light, she saw she'd been right before, his eyes were a beautiful shade of green that made her think, suddenly, longingly of Ireland. He stared at her for a long minute. "You---"

She stepped around the machinery toward them. "Someone left my door unlocked."

Jade quickly shook his head. "Don't look at me."

Casi just grunted, not entirely believing him. She looked at the computer screen where numbers and letters made nonsensical sentence strings. "What are you doing?"

Aaron shook his head and kept on tappin the keys, adding more letter and number sequences. She looked over at Jade. "What's he doing?"

Jade sighed. "Letting in a Trojan horse."

***

"Well?"

"Stop pestering me."

"You know," said Jonathon, as calmly as he could. "Now that sanity has returned, I don't think this is very smart."

"Shut up," said Joe, not even looking at him.

"I'm just making---"

"What the hell's that supposed to mean?"

Joe peered over Kendra's shoulder. He'd been stunned to discover she actually had a website. It's cover was an underground hunting magazine but only a few people knew what HunterOne.Com really meant. It even had a chat room. " 'Eat, drink, be merry. For tomorrow we die'? That sounds---"

"Depressing," muttered Kendra. "Better not be prophetic."

Joe shook his head. "I've heard that before. Someone--"

The words vanished and were replaced with others. Kendra frowned. "What the hell?"

Joe stared at the words. "Enemy action." He swallowed hard. " 'First time is coincidence, second time is happenstance, third time is enemy action." He tapped Kendra on the shoulder. "Goldfinger. Send it."

"That's where I've heard that," muttered Kendra as she typed the word and sent it. She shook her head. "Just great. One James Bond wanna-be is enough. There."

One word came back and Joe went cold. "Ditto. Oh God--"

Jon frowned. "What?"

"Casi. She's okay."

Kendra gave him a long look that psychiatrists usually reserved for their most hopeless patients. "You got that from all this gibberish?"

"She watches James Bond."

Kendra arched an eyebrow. "Do tell. She sounds interesting."

A memory passed behind his eyes and Jon cleared his throat. "And she's a pretty fair beserker."

"And one hell of a demolition driver," added Joe, lost in his own memories.

"She's not driving my jeep."

Joe couldn't help but smile, despite the fact the sunburn was really starting to hurt. "Actually, I think you'd like her."

"Oh really." Kendra frowned at him, then sighed. "Damn, Mack, couldn't you let me down nice and easy?"

"Hunh?"

Kendra rolled her eyes and gave a dramatic sigh. "You love her, don't you."

Joe stared at her, feeling Jon give him a hard look. "What? How'd---"

Kendra shrugged and shut down her laptop computer. "Woman's intuition."

"Don't give me that." Joe turned to his brother. "You?"

"Whoa, don't look at me. Didn't say crap."

"It's in your voice, Mack. And your eyes. Hey, great. Glad you found someone who can tolerate you."

Jon smirked, remembering a certain brother spending the night in jail. "She has a very high 'Mack' tolerance."

"Shut up."

Kendra grinned at Jon. "Touchy, isn't he?"

"Yeah. Did I tell you about the time he hit me with a cooler?" Jon's smirk widened into a wicked grin. "Full of ice?"

"It was empty," snarled Joe.

"Didn't feel empty. Still can't breathe right."

"That's a load of shit."

Kendra chuckled, placed the laptop in the special case she used to protect it from damage. "While we're trading stories, maybe I---"

"Don't you dare," warned Joe.

Jon arched an eyebrow. "That bad?"

"Actually--"

"Kendra."

Jon squinted at his brother. "Are you.....blushing?"

Joe gave a half-hearted swing at his brother, wincing as his shirt sleeve scraped his sunburned skin. "That's a sunburn, you idiot."

"Oh really."

Joe shook his head. "Let's go."

"I still say---"

"Shut up, Kensington," said Kendra. "No need to jinx this little trip any further."

Jon grunted. "First Tarot, now jinxes, what else do you believe in? Ouija boards? Crystal balls?"

"I believe you can be very annoying."

"Lay off," muttered Joe as they got back into the jeep. "One man's religion is another man's science and still another man's magic."

"Well--"

"Drop it."

Kendra shrugged and shifted gears. "Chill, Mack. A healthy dose of skepticism makes the world go 'round."

Joe stared at her, then at Jon, feeling the oddest feeling for a split second, then banished it. "Round the twist, you mean," he said.

"I heard that."

Jon rolled his eyes. "Be nice to the driver," he said from the back seat. "You don't want to wreck the car, do you?"

"It's a jeep."

"Whatever."

"And if you think insults affect my driving, think again."

Joe grunted. "And may I present Wonder Woman sans suit."

"You shut up," ordered Jon.

"Who, me?"

"And ditch the innocent act."

"Yeah," agreed Kendra. "We both know you're as far from innocent as east is from west."

Joe snorted. "So what would that make the two of you?"

Kendra stopped the jeep, then glanced over at him. "Okay, buster, out."

Joe blinked. "You're gonna make me walk the rest of the way? You said insults wouldn't affect you."

Kendra sighed. "No, idiot. We're here."

"Where? I don't see anything." said Jonathon.

Kendra sighed again. "Camouflage." She pointed to a huge sand dune rising up like a mountain in front of them. "There's Khalil's secret headquarters."

Joe stared at the sand-dune. It was too dark to look for the remnants of the jeep. Just the memory gave him a shudder. Casi was in there. He felt panic rise up again, like it had done nine months ago when it had hit him that Lilith had Casi. At that moment, he hated the fact that he could remember the empty car, the bullet hole in the windshield. He took another deep breath, felt as if his heart was being squeezed. "She's in there."

Jon studied him for a moment. "We'll get her out."

Joe got out of the jeep. "Damn straight."

***

Casi took a deep breath and stepped back from the computer. The exchange of silent amber words on a black screen raised her hopes more than she wanted to admit. What if he'd gotten out of the jeep? No one had been watching seconds before the....God, she couldn't even bring herself to think the word.

"You okay?" asked Aaron, looking at her in an odd way.

Casi nodded. "I'm fine." Liar, shouted her conscience.

"What now?" asked Aaron, looking at Jade.

"We let them in as quietly as possible."

"Think again."

The three of them turned to see Lilith at the stair landing, clad in a skin-tight solid black jumpsuit. Casi felt off-balance now and felt a moment's fear. If he was dead, what was there to fight for, to live for. She did want to kill the woman but couldn't seem to summon the energy to even scream.

Lilith's colorless eyes focused on her stepbrother and a second of pain crossed her face, before fading away. "Why?"

"Because it's wrong. We both knew that going in."

"Damn you!" Lilith's fist crashed on top of a monitor housing. "Damn you."

Casi blinked and stared. She was seeing things. The monitor couldn't have lit up for a heartbeat just now. It wasn't even on.

Jade stood up. "You weren't raised this way."

"Shut up!"

Casi blinked again. The monitor was on--she could hear the hum---and it was steadily getting louder.

"Dad did his level best to treat---"

"He was not my father. My father was---is--a powerful sorcerer. He taught me what I needed to know."

The hum turned into a loud whine. Casi swallowed hard, shook the strangest feeling of deja vu away. "Aaron, get every door open now."

"What?"

"Now!"

There were rattles and clanks as doors and windows opened. Seconds later the whine became a high-pitched squeal. The monitor's screen flickered a putred yellow now. Casi could feel an odd sort of pressure in the room, making it difficult to breathe and it seemed to be coming from Lilith. "Duck!" she shouted above the squeal.

Then the monitor exploded.

***

"Hey, it must have--" Whatever Jon was going to say was drowned out by a distant explosion above them that spewed blinding bright light from what looked like portholes. "What the hell?"

"Casi!"

Jon clapped a hand on his brother's shoulder and dragged him back. "No."

Joe didn't even feel the pain of fabric scraping his sunburned skin. He swung a wild punch that grazed Jon's shoulder. "Let me go."

"We can't just burst in. Doors are open." Kendra shrugged. "A little stealth never harmed anyone."

Joe glared at her, angry at his brother, angry at himself. "Except who you were stealing from."

"I'll ignore that, considering the situation this time. Watch it." She handed a gun, grip first, to him. "Don't lose it like you lost the other one."

"I didn't lose that one. Someone took it."

"Yeah, right."

"Argue later," advised Jon. "Let's go now."

"Always have to be the boss," muttered Joe as they came to the huge metal doors gaping open.

"Up top's the control room," said Kendra. "Come on."

Joe looked at the doors, then around. As much as he wanted to rush in, go find Casi, he didn't like the way the doors had opened so suddenly and that explosion....what the hell had happened? "No way. It's a trap."

"No. Aaron---"

"Lilith would. And she'd use Aaron to do it, down to the last drop." Joe pointed to the side of the man-made sand dune. "It's a trap. We go up that way."

"You must be joking."

"Kendra, I know good and well you always carry a grappling hook and rope in that jeep of yours. Not to mention chains, nunchucks, steel throwers, cross bow---"

"God, he wasn't kidding about the arsenal."

"Keep it up and I'll leave you two jocks out here to fend for yourselves."

Jon grunted, then rubbed his hands together. "Can I have the crossbow?"

Joe snorted. "I'll take the grappling hook," he said, following Kendra back to the jeep. "You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a crossbow," he added, sparing a glance for his brother.

"Excuse me? Whos the idiot who shot a road sign full of buckshot because he saw a deer?"

"The sun was in my eyes."

"It was cloudy that day."

"Like you remember eleven years ago."

"Boys," said Kendra, trying not to laugh. "Behave."

Joe hefted the grappling hook and started for the hidden stronghold. Jon shook his head. "Too bad it's not automatic, eh, Batman?"

"Don't fret, Boy Wonder. I have a good throwing arm."

"You broke your leg, not your arm. So unless you're the bionic Batman, I'd like to see you get up there."

"Watch a master." Gripping the rope about ten inches below the grappling hook, he swung the hook in a vertical circle to gain momentum, then tossed it up. The hook bit sand and slid down to land at his feet.

"You were saying?" said Jonathon. "Would you like me to try?"

"Shut up." Joe tossed the hook again and one prong caught the edge of the window.

Jon looked at Kendra. "He needed that little extra incentive."

"Sure, he did."

Joe tugged on the rope hard and nodded when it held. "Come on."

"You're crazy," said Kendra. "There are no hand-holds. It's sand."

"We're not going through the doors. It's a damn trap."

Jon held up both hands in concialitory gesture. "Why don't we split up? Joe, you go your way, we'll go ours."

Kendra gave him a sideways glance. "What makes you think I'd go anywhere with you."

Jon shrugged. "Fine. We'll split up too."

"Too risky." Joe wrapped the rope around his left palm. "We--" He'd barely gotten five inches off the ground when the rope went slack. He narrowly avoided the falling grappling hook. Joe scowled. "Shit."

Jon sighed. "The door would be easier."

Kendra nodded. "Let's go."

Joe picked up the grappling hook and started coiling the rope. "Fine. We all get busted."

But before they got to the huge doors, they slammed shut. And Joe felt a cold chill race down his spine. He was going to lose her too, he just knew it. God, he couldn't bear that. He just couldn't.

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Disclaimer

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.