By the time the sun was high up in the sky, I was hot, tired and miserable. We finished our little patch of the garden and went to clean off the dirt and sweat. I noticed that the Seuss-mobile was gone and that bothered me. I hadn’t been able to get away from Willow. She always seemed to be right there when I was about to take off.

Not that I couldn’t have outrun her but she had quite a few coworkers who seemed to keep an eye on me too. I was glad to clean the sweat and the grit off of me and hoped that there was something good for lunch.

I walked with Willow to the dining hall and almost walked right back out. Spinach and tofu patties with salad. Ugh. But something made me stay, and then I caught sight of Frank. He looked unsettled and worried. I started to go over to him but Willow grabbed my arm. “You have to sit with me. That table is full.”

“That’s my brother over there. I’m going to talk to him.” I studied her for a second. “And you’re not going to stop me.”

She looked past me for a moment and then let go of my arm. I glanced over my shoulder to see Stench looking directly at her. He gave me a smug smile and gestured grandly to the table Frank was sitting at. I narrowed my eyes and made my way over.

Frank was staring at his unappetizing meal as I walked up. “Frank?”

He jumped and looked over at me. “Joe! Where’d you go?”

I shook my head. “Decided to take the full tour. Didn’t want to bore you.”

Frank narrowed his eyes but I gave him the we’ll-discuss-this-later look. He pushed the food toward me and I tried not to gag. “I’ll eat the tomatoes.”

He rolled his eyes but grinned. I picked the tomatoes out of the salad and ate some of the lettuce too. He could have the rest. As we sat there, I realized that the gang was all there: Solar Man, Petal, Mondo, a guy with wild hair that kind of reminded me of Einstein, Dave and two older people who could have been his parents but I didn’t want to jump to conclusions.

The Einstein Wannabe was talking. “I appreciate your love of solar panels. But they can only take us so far. Geothermal energy is my pick. There’s all that heat at the core of our planet, just waiting to be turned into steam.”

I realized he was talking to Solar Man. Petal nodded and spoke up, “Mama Earth is ready to provide. With the right turbines you can run almost anything with steam.”

“Why go to the center of the earth for something we have right over our heads?” asked Solar Man. “You don’t have to dig for what Papa Sun provides.”

I barely restrained myself from rolling my eyes. Mama Earth and Papa Sun. Gag me with a tofu patty. Oh right, that’s what they were trying to do.

“What we need is more wind turbines,” said the older guy seated next to Dave. Now that I looked harder I could see the resemblance. He smiled at the woman next to him. “I’m no scientist like Janet, but wind seems the way to go. There are acres and acres of land that could be wind farmed.”

“The problem with that is lack of infrastructure,” said Janet.

“So we set up the systems we need to get the energy to the places it’s needed,” countered Dave’s father.

“There’s always hydroelectricity,” a man in a long robe like Stench’s suggested. “The motion of the tides can create energy.”

“Why not use them all?” Petal said. “Sun, water, the earth’s natural heat, wind. Anything but fossil fuel.”

At the those last words, the whole group erupted. I couldn’t even figure out who was saying what. “Wasteful.” “Ozone-destroying.” “Polluting.”

“The use of fossil fuel will bring about the destruction of civilization,” Stench said, silencing the voices.

Every head turned toward him, almost in adoration. It gave me a creepy feeling. “Fossil fuels make us slaves,” he continued, getting to his feet at the head of the table. “Slaves to the countries that produce the most oil. And every drop of oil we use brings us one step closer to annihilating the earth.”

Stench stood up straighter, and his voice grew louder. “But they won’t see, will they? We tell them and tell them, but they won’t hear.” He threw up his arms. “We are trying to save their lives and they call us madmen. So what are we to do?”

It felt like everyone had stopped breathing. The big tent was silent as we waited for Stench to continue. “We give them a taste, that’s what we do.” His voice dropped almost to a whisper, making us listen even harder. “We give them a taste of the destruction to come. The only thing that will get their attention is pain.”

He searched each face in the dining hall and softened his voice, gave us a sad expression. “When they feel the pain, they will change. And the world will be saved.”

I swallowed hard. No one asked what kind of pain and destruction Stench was talking about. No one suggested other ways of communication. I was starting to feel a little sick. One glance at Frank told me he felt the same.

“I have a plan. You will all have the chance to play a part when the time comes. And it is coming soon. Be ready. Stay strong. You will be given assignments when the time is right. And we will be the ones who have saved our precious planet. We will be—”

Frank gave me a hard nudge with his elbow and when I looked at him, he cut his eyes to the tent door. Everyone was so focused on Stench and he seemed to be staring off into space that we slipped out of the tent with no trouble.

I gave my brother a hard look. “What’s with you? And what’s that red stuff on your shirt?”

“Paint.” He told me what Stench had done in town.

I glared at the tent. “Crazy. They’re all crazy.”

“Shh.” Frank pulled me down into a crouch alongside him. “Look.”

I blinked. It was Mondo. He was lacing the flap of a large tent closed. Then he headed toward the row of Porta-Pottis. “Wonder what he’s up to?”

“Let’s check it out.”

We waited until Mondo was indisposed in one of the potties, with the door shut behind him. Then we raced toward the tent. I untied the flap and Frank and I stepped inside.

Frank stared at the huge thing sitting in the middle of the tent. “That thing isn’t solar powered.”

I stared, surprised for nearly an entire minute. “A helicopter. What the heck does Stench need a helicopter for?”

“Maybe for emergencies, to get one of his people to a hospital if they needed it?” Even as he suggested it, he shook his head.

I watched him climb up to the cockpit and let out a low whistle. “You’ve got to see this.”

I was still trying to take in the fact that we’d found a helicopter in an anti-technology compound. I hurried up beside him and peeked into the cockpit. Low-speed air indicator, Doppler NAV; tachometer. I frowned. “Notice anything weird?”

Frank gave me a look and I pointed inside. “No stick.”

His eyes widened. “There’s no way to fly this thing.”

“Can I help you boys?”

I spun around. Mondo stood in the entrance to the tent. For a huge guy, he sure was quiet. I glanced at Frank who looked at me. He cleared his throat. “Dave’s mom invited us to take a look at her lab.”

I blinked, startled. She had? My brother sounded completely calm and I had a hard time trying not to grin.

Mondo scowled. “She didn’t give you very good directions. Janet’s lab is only a few tents away from yours.”

“We were going by size,” I said, trying to be helpful.

Mondo eyed us for a long moment, running a hand over his blond crewcut. “Go back to your tent. We take at least an hour’s rest in the middle of the day. It’s the best way to survive in the desert. You can pay a visit to Janet’s lab later.”

Frank gave a jerky nod and we headed out of the tent, past the bodyguard and went straight to our tent. I stopped cold in the entryway, noticing my stuff was back were it had been yesterday. “Frank...”

“I see. Where were you this morning?”

“Weeding the garden,” I muttered. “Never want to do that again. Not even if Mom promises to buy me all the Christmas presents in the world.”

Frank didn’t quite smirk. I glared at him and flopped down on the cot. “That helicopter is definitely suspicious. He had to get it custom-made. And why? Why a copter with no controls?”

“The only answers I can come up with are bad ones,” said Frank, sitting on his cot. “Like you want to drop a bomb without putting a pilot in danger. Or you want to spray hazardous chemicals.”

“Or spray gas and start a fire.” I sat up slowly and looked over at Frank. “Do you realize a starter fire in the right spots would burn half the western U.S.?”

Frank sighed. “We’ve got to work this assignment fast.” He stretched out on his cot and tucked his hands underneath his pillow. “We don’t know when Stench is going to make his first move.”

I watched him frown and sit back up. “What?”

“Somebody left something under my pillow.”

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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.