You know, heat shimmers really do blur things just like in the movies. I’d always thought it was just special effects. I could actually see the shimmers rising from the desert floor. For some reason, I kept looking for bleached bones like the props in an old western movie.

What I wouldn’t give to see movie cameras and hear someone yell, ‘Cut!’ Then I could head back to my air-conditioned trailer and sign autographs.

“Joe?”

I looked over at Frank, squinting against the sunlight. “Huh?”

“You okay?”

I thought about it, or tried to think. The sun beating down on my head was giving me a headache. I took another look at my brother. His eyes were sort of sunken and his lips were cracking. “Water.”

He blinked and nodded. “Yeah.”

We pulled out a bottle of water and shared, drinking it slowly, trying to make it last. “Do you think ATAC will be able to find us?”

Frank gave a slow nod and sipped his water. “The no-fly zone is only the perimeter of the base...”

I frowned at him. “I didn’t ask a math question.” I shook my head and stared down at the sand as we trudged along. I’d asked another question, hadn’t I. “Do you think ATAC will be able to find us?”

Frank gave me another look, his expression worried. He touched my hand and then my forehead. “What?” I asked.

“Drink some more water.”

I sighed, feeling exhausted. “Why don’t we stop for awhile? I’m getting really sleepy. Maybe we could nap until dark. We have flashlights.”

Frank glanced at his watch. “The sun’s going to be out for hours, and there’s no place to take cover. We’ll bake out here. We’ve got to keep going until we find at least some kind of shelter.”

“Shelter, right.” Silly of me to forget that. I turned in a slow circle, shading my eyes with one hand. Absently, I noticed I wasn’t sweating. That’s a bad sign, right?

Suddenly, I saw movement in the distance. “Do you see that? Or is it a freaky desert mirage?”

Frank followed my gaze. We both stared at the metallic dot moving toward us. Frank pulled out a small pair of binoculars. “It’s a van,” he said, surprised.

I held out a hand for the binoculars and Frank handed them to me. I peered through them and frowned. “It’s a Seuss-mobile.”

“What does that mean?”

I rolled my eyes. “You know, it looks like something out of a Dr. Seuss book.” What else was it supposed to mean?

Frank took the binoculars back and checked out the van for himself.

“See?” I asked. “It has all those weird metal things poking out all over it.”

“I think they’re solar panels,” he said. “Which explains why we’re not hearing a motor.”

It hadn’t even dawned on me how quiet the van was, but my brother was right. A solar-powered van, hmm. Too bad for all the solar panels attached to it. Made it a little less streamlined for my tastes.

“There’s a good chance we’ve found Arthur Stench.” He lowered his voice. “Or he’s about to find us. What else would an extreme environmentalist drive?”

I took the binoculars again. The van was close enough for me to see the driver now. “It’s not Stench,” I announced. “Unless he’s had an extreme makeover.”

A girl was operating the solar-powered van. A knockout of a girl who looked vaguely familiar. Her halter top bared her shoulders revealing dark freckles. Sunglasses covered her eyes but I was betting they were green.

Frank took the binoculars and looked through them. “Joe, that’s the senator’s daughter.”

Aha, that’s why she looked familiar. Frank looked over at me. “She seems to be here of her own free will.”

“Or maybe we were wrong and this isn’t a cult. Just a compound of environmental terrorists.”

Frank suddenly stashed his binoculars and a few minutes later the van pulled up beside us. The girl leaned out the driver’s window and I saw a small hummingbird tattoo on her left shoulder. “Welcome to Heaven,” she said, smiling.

“Does that mean we’re dead?” asked Frank.

Her smile widened as she looked over at him. “You don’t look like a ghost to me.” Her gaze lingered on him and I tried not to roll my eyes. Just great. I trek through the desert and she falls for my brother. And the thing is, he has eyes only for Callie. Doesn’t make sense, does it?

“Heaven’s what we call this place,” the girl added. She sighed softly. “I guess I should tell you what I’m called too. My name is Petal Northstar.”

Huh? That girl’s parents didn’t name her Petal. Unless she wasn’t the senator’s daughter. But I decided not to say anything that could hurt her feelings.

“I’m Frank Jefferson,” said Frank. “And this is my brother, Joseph.”

I tried not to glare at him for the fake last name. I hate initial nicknames and I knew immediately people would go for J.J. “You can call me Joe,” I told Petal quickly.

“How’d you guys end up all the way out here?” asked Petal.

“We were just doing some off-road motorcycle riding. Then we ran over a couple of spikes, and they blew our tires out,” Frank told her. “But we kept walking.”

“Maybe you should have obeyed the No Trespassing signs,” said Petal. Her voice was soft but sounded like she didn’t have a problem using spikes to keep out unwanted guests.

“Yeah. It’s just that you have to get almost this deep into the desert to get the full impact of the terrain. All the way out here, the world is untouched. No soda cans, no graffiti.”

Petal studied us for a second, her gaze lingering on Frank. Finally, she got out of the van and walked to the back door. She pulled out two canteens and handed them to us.

“I actually saw a cactus with graffiti carved into it once. Cut right into the cactus flesh,” she said as we both took long drinks.

Nothing tastes as good as water in the desert – nothing.

She stood there for a moment longer, studying us as if trying to read our minds or something. Finally, she looked around us. “Father is expecting me back. I cannot leave you here to die so you will have to come with me.” She gave Frank a shy smile. “Perhaps you will stay with us and experience the desert.”

“Great,” said Frank. “Thanks.” He climbed into the back of the van and I was right behind him. I was hoping I could get the shotgun seat next to Petal but it was loaded with boxes.

I wondered what was in them. Guns? Bombs? Vegetable seeds? I shifted my gaze from the boxes to our driver. She looked exactly like the senator’s daughter. Was it her? Why was she saying her name was Petal though?

“Did that water taste weird to you?” Frank asked as Petal walked back around the van to the driver’s side door.

“It tasted awesome,” I answered.

“Don’t drink too much, okay?” he said. He dropped his voice to a whisper as Petal got behind the wheel. “I think it might be poisoned. It tasted off to me.”

Poisoned? But why? Did Stench somehow get advance notice that Frank and I were coming? Did he know about the mission?

The thoughts made me feel dizzy. Or maybe it was all those hours in the sun. I drank some more water. It really did taste good. Maybe a little metallic from being in the canteen but good.

Frank shot me a disapproving look but I ignored him. Petal powered up the solar van and we bounced away. It was great to be moving and sitting.

“You two must be hungry,” said Petal. “There are some energy bars in that bag behind your seat. Help yourself.”

I didn’t need to be asked twice. I grabbed bars for me and Frank, and had half of one in my mouth in about a second.

“Chewy,” Frank said, the word coming out garbled because he was having trouble swallowing his bite of energy bar.

Mine wasn’t going down too smooth either. The more I chewed, the bigger the lump in my mouth seemed to become. Although it couldn’t really be growing. Could it?

“Tofu and cactus fiber,” Petal told us. “We make them ourselves at the compound.”

Frank looked like I felt. He looked like he wanted to spit it out and fast. Somehow he managed to swallow his wad of cactus tofu. I figured if he could do, I could too – so in one huge gulp, I forced the gunk down my throat. That was just too yucky. I downed some more water.

Frank leaned forward slightly. “This compound, is it where you live?”

She smiled and got an odd look in her caramel-brown eyes. “It’s Heaven.”

I shared a look with Frank and saw he was uneasy. It still didn’t make sense that if Stench was holding the senator’s daughter hostage, she wouldn’t have the kind of freedom to drive all over. What was going on? And if it was Stench, why was she calling him Father?

I cleared my throat. “Hey, we didn’t even say thanks for saving our lives. We’d be vulture chow if you hadn’t shown up,” I told her.

“My pleasure,” said Petal. She was looking in the rearview mirror right at Frank. “My complete pleasure.”

I sat back only to see a sign and felt that lump of tofu settle hard in my stomach. The sign read: Now Entering Heaven.

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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.