The phone call ended abruptly and both of them were brought back to the cave.

Joe watched Jay who was sitting against the wall again, her face even more drawn than usual.

“What’s wrong?” asked Joe.

“Why would your Dad care about me?” asked Jay.

“Because he considers you a good friend,” said Joe.  “Besides, why not?”

“Joe, I don’t want your family to know about me or the things I told you.”

“Jay, they like you.  They are not going to change their mind about you except maybe that you need our help.  Trust me.  Trust my family.  We are not going to hurt you.”

“Joe, I haven’t told you everything.  I would rather they and you not know the things I did to survive.  They are pretty bad.”

“Jay, they are not going to treat you like the plague.  Trust me.  We can help you, if you let us.  Mom, Dad, Frank, Callie, and Vanessa care about you very much.  So don’t even think about running and hiding when this is over.  You are coming home with me.”

Just then they were interrupted by their ‘hosts’

“Okay, little lady,” said Mac.  “We are going on a little trip.”

“Not without me,” said Joe.

“Take them both,” said Mr. Smith.

“Yes, boss,” said Drake as he climbed down the ladder and grabbed Joe.  Harry helped Drake.  Josh and another man grabbed Jay.  They were taken up and blindfolded.  They were taken back out to another area where there was a lot of caves.  

Joe started to get worried, that were instructing Jay to take them on a tour of the different caves, especially the ones along the river. 

’Why are they moving us, why don’t they just keep us there till they get whatever they want from Dad? What’s going on? Maybe because it was all a diversion to throw his dad off their trail.’

Mr. Smith turned to Joe and Jay with an evil smile on his face.  Drake grabbed Joe by the throat.

“Boss, if were finished with them,” said Drake.  “Can we kill them?”

“What do you mean finished?” Joe struggled under the larger man’s grip but it held firm.  He flashed his blue eyes at Mr. Smith and they were full of anger.

“No,” said Mr. Smith.  “Let him go.”

“Alright,” said Drake dropping Joe to the ground.

“What are we going to do with them?  We don’t have time to baby sit these two,” said Mac.

“I was thinking on that very subject.  And I believe I have come up with the perfect solution.”

Joe and Jay found out exactly what he meant.  They were tied to a huge boulder in a pool of water in a cave. 

“I believe the water fills up this room.  Sorry, we have to say good-bye.  But you understand we have work to do,” said Mr. Smith to Joe and Jay as he and his men left smiling and laughing.

“Why didn’t they just kill us?” asked Jay.

“They didn’t want our bodies to be found to quickly and someone might have heard the shooting,” said Joe.

“He was right about this room filling up with water,” said Jay.

“Come on, big brother,” said Joe.  “I need that rescue.”

“You think he will come?”

“I know my big brother.  He doesn’t quit.”

“Joe, the water is coming in fast.  They must have busted the dam to let the water in to take care of us.  I hope he gets here very soon.  I hope they get my clue, except at the time I didn’t literally mean we where under water.”

“He will.  Frank and Dad will figure it out.  Why worry so much?” Joe tried to sound hopeful, but that was not what he was feeling.

Jay had told Joe about her clue.  Joe told her it was a good one.  Joe was trying to make conversation with her.  He thought he could keep her mind off everything.

“Because I can’t swim,” said Jay very quietly.

***

“Dad, what did Jay mean about under water?” asked Frank as he started pacing back and forth across the room.

“I don’t know,” said Fenton rubbing his jaw.  “Maybe it was a clue.”

“Let’s reexamine our information.  We have a body of a man who was known to associate with smugglers.  The cave that almost collapses on me, must have been their hideout.”

“Since the cave-in and the police kept hanging around, that probably drove the smugglers out of their hideout and into Joe and Jay.  They could have their merchandise in other caves.”

“They probably figured that Joe and Jay could get them out of that cave.”

“Which they did.  Too bad we were too late in getting there to rescue Joe and Jay,” said Fenton scowling at how close they had been to saving them.

“They are keeping Joe, because of you and the investigation.  But why keep Jay?  What can she give them?”

“She is going to help them find another hideout.”

“And it’s probably got to be near the river which would lead to an ocean and perhaps a quick means of escape. That is what she meant by under water,” said Frank smiling as he finally realized what the clue had meant.

“Smart girl.  We better go back to the college and find Phil.  We are going to need that laptop to help us find Jay and Joe.”

“Dad, do you think that they will kill Joe and Jay?” asked a very worried Frank about the prospect of finding his brother dead.

“Yes.  That is why we better hurry,” said Fenton as he jumped up from his desk and headed to the door.

Fenton, Frank and Phil went back to the lab and downloaded all the other caves along the river that Jay had mapped.  They knew that one of those caves was the answer to the riddle of where was Joe and Jay.

Frank called Tony, Biff and Chet for help in searching the other caves.  Chet brought Frank’s laptop, so Phil could download the maps to it also.

Fenton called Chief Collig and explained what they were doing and asked for back up.  The Chief agreed to help and told Fenton he was sending some men along for assistance.

Once the various groups arrived at the cave,  Fenton split up the men into three groups to search the caves. 

The men went into the caves hoping to find some evidence of where Joe and Jay where located.  Frank was getting more and more frustrated, but was very determined.

He was not going to give up, he knew that he couldn’t give up and just prayed that Joe and Jay would hang on.  He just wished his brother could give him some kind of sign. 

“Frank, you okay?” asked Chet.

“Yes,” said Frank.  “I’m just worried about them.”

“We’ll find them,” said Biff.

“They got to be around here somewhere,” said Tony.

“Boys, this cave up ahead splits after we enter.  So, Frank, Chet and Biff you take the right tunnel and we will take the left,” said Fenton squeezing his son’s shoulder to comfort him.

“Sure, Dad,” said Frank.