Maybe I was wrong. When we got downstairs, everything seemed normal. Mom and Aunt Gertrude were in the kitchen finishing up supper. Dad was watching the evening news. I shared a look with Joe who just shrugged.

Dad turned as we entered the living room. He didn’t say a word, merely handed us a sheet of paper. It was an email. It let Dad know our next assignment. He gave us a long look. “You ready?”

I nodded and sat down on the sofa next to him, telling him what I’d discovered. Joe sat down on the coffee table, shifting the ceramic knick-knacks. I kicked his ankle. “Sit elsewhere. Mom would have a fit if she saw you.”

“What she doesn’t know...” Joe trailed off and gave Dad a look. “Does she?”

Dad stared at the television screen for a moment. “I told her you’ve become junior partners with me. When a case more suited to your style of investigation comes up, I’m trusting you to take care of it.”

“So status quo hasn’t changed...really,” I said, kicking my brother’s ankle again to get him to move.

Our thirst for adventure and justice had started out because we wanted to be just like Dad, wanted to catch the bad guys and put them away. We’d helped on his investigations before, not always intentionally. Dad nodded. “But the difference is, that she knows now that she can’t always hear all the details. That they’re confidential.”

I took a deep breath. “So...about the trip to California?”

“You’re going to help a young girl out a sticky situation.”

Joe grunted. “How come you know about the senator’s daughter being there?”

I grinned. “He has higher clearance.”

Dad shook his head slightly. “Not exactly. The senator contacted me. His daughter went to California for a vacation about two weeks ago and never came home. When he tried to call her, he got her voice-mail. He’s a busy man and knows she’s at an age where she doesn’t want to be trailed around by bodyguards. He said he didn’t see anything wrong with letting her go on vacation.”

Joe frowned. “She went alone?”

“I don’t know. Mitch doesn’t know either. He figured she went with a group of friends and she’s having so much fun that she doesn’t want to go home.”

Joe looked puzzled. “He’s not worried?”

Dad took a deep breath. “Mitch isn’t much of a family man. I was surprised he married when he did. His wife passed away several years ago and his daughter was raised by a nanny.” Dad shrugged. “Anyway, he asked me to look into it. I discovered she’s involved with Stench and so I passed that along to the company.”

I read through the email. “Hmm, we’ll get more info when we get there?”

“Yeah.”

“Supper’s ready,” came Mom’s quiet voice. She looked at me and Joe for a long moment. “You’ll want to eat while it’s still warm.” She turned and headed back to the kitchen.

Joe cleared his throat and shot to his feet. “Um...”

“Give her time to get used to the idea of you two growing up. Let’s go eat.”

Dad walked past us and headed for the kitchen. I folded up the email and stuffed it in my shorts pocket. “Come on, Joe.”

“She didn’t even yell at me for sitting on the coffee table,” Joe said in a low voice.

I slung an arm across his shoulders as we headed for the kitchen. “Just don’t push your luck.”

He whopped me upside the head and ducked out from under my arm. “Ha-ha, you’re so funny. I get dibs on the rolls!”

I shook my head. Same old Joe....

*****

Joe came into my room the next morning and flopped onto my just-made bed. “Hey, you’re just now packing?”

“You’re re-making my bed,” I said, adding clothes and stuff to my backpack. According to the email Dad got, there was cash and transportation waiting for us at the L.A. airport. Transportation as in two cool motorcycles, not much different than the ones we own.

Before he could answer, there was a knock on the bedroom door. “Come in,” I called.

Mom pushed open the door. “You’ll be out there in southern California, so I printed out some information on petroglyphs. Some of them could have been carved as far back as eight thousand years ago.”

Joe took the printouts from Mom and started scanning them. “Is any of this talk about the connection between the petroglyphs and aliens true? I heard that some of the glyphs are actually of UFOs the Indians had seen?”

Mom blinked, looking distracted. “Actually I did come across one site that talked about that. I didn’t print anything from that one. It’s a controversial theory, right up there with ancient astronauts who helped build the Great Pyramid and Stonehenge.”

I have to hand it to my brother. He’s good at the distraction thing. She took a deep breath. “Be careful, boys.”

“We will, Mom,” said Joe, cheerfully. He handed the printouts to me and I packed them with my other stuff.

Mom sighed. “I guess I don’t have to give you any mother speeches. Like, always wear your helmets. And try to eat something that’s not fried once in a while.”

“Don’t worry. Aunt Gertrude’s made her mark on us,” I told her, teasingly.

Mom dropped her voice to a conspiratorial level. “You know when you two are gone it’s me she lectures.”

Joe grinned. “She means well, Mom,” he said.

Mom gave us each a long look and a hug. “Go say good-bye to Aunt Gertrude.” She left the room and I heard her head downstairs.

Joe cleared his throat. “I have to go get my duffle.”

I watched him dart out of the room, hoping I wasn’t making a big mistake with this assignment. We could deal with anything...right? We were a team.

Joe came back with his duffle and we headed downstairs. Aunt Gertrude didn’t look too happy with us leaving but Joe promised her some delicious chocolate candies from California and she finally told us goodbye.

We got into the van and backed out of the driveway. We’d said our goodbyes to Dad last night. We headed for the airport in silence.

“Good thing, Dad was gone. Or we would have been stuck there for another half hour listening to advice.”

“He means well, too,” I told him, giving him a look.

Joe grunted. “Yes, I know. But still...” He took a deep breath. “I’m glad we don’t have to exactly lie to Mom anymore.”

“Yeah, me too.” I pulled into the long-term parking lot and we unloaded our backpacks from the back seat. I locked the van and then we headed for the terminal. I couldn’t shake the feeling we were stepping into a situation more twisted than we could imagine. Hopefully all would go well this time. I wasn’t sure if the reason I was so unsettled was Stench’s history or if it was the knowledge that his compound was possibly a cult. Joe and I would have to be on our toes constantly, and stay alert for possible problems. More so than usual.

Once we were in our seats on the plane, I settled in and got comfortable. Joe grunted as he sat down. “How’d you get the window seat?”

I shrugged. “I’m the oldest.”

“That can’t be the reason for everything.”

I grinned. “It is for me.”

Joe rolled his eyes. “You better hope I don’t strand you in Los Angeles.”

“Idle threats.”

“Yeah right,” Joe said as we took off.

I took a deep breath. It was beginning....

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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.