"Hey Frank," C. J. said, "What are you doing up here? Did you find something?"

"I guess we got the same idea," Frank replied, "I found some blueprints downstairs. There’s a secret passage somewhere in this room."

"And you think we’ll find Vicki there," C. J. asked, "I think you might be right Frank. Where is it supposed to be?"

"That’s the whole problem," Frank told them, "It doesn’t say how to enter the passage, just where it should be."

"Well, we haven’t found anything so far," Joe Clark said, "Even though it did seem strange that this room was marked as a maintenance closet."

Frank brought a small paper out of his jacket. It seems that he took the time to draw a small diagram of the room. The other two gathered around as he pointed out the area where the passage should be.

"It should be on the opposite wall," Frank said.

"But there’s nothing over there but a desk," Joe stated, "Where would the passage be at? The wall is completely blank." Frank ignored Joe and walked over to examine the wall. C. J. followed him and finally Joe walked over.

They took their time in examining the wall and even looked through the desk for any clues. None were to be found though and they finally decided to take a break. After the search Joe pounded the wall in frustration. A hollow sound greeted him.

"Hey guys," he called out, "This wall is hollow. I don’t remember it being like that before, do you?"

"No," Frank replied, and walked over, "I already checked that area and I didn’t notice anything strange."

"Then again," C. J. remarked, "A lot of strange stuff has been happening. We could have missed the area completely and never noticed it." The three then redid their search, but still found no sign on how to open the wall.

"Let me see that paper Frank," C. J. asked and he handed it over. Seeing a pen sitting in a holder on the desk, she reached over to pick it up. When she did that, the wall suddenly opened in front of them.

"So that’s how you do it," Joe exclaimed, "The pen holder! Why didn’t we think of that?"

"There’s a lot of things we didn’t think of," C. J. said to herself, "If only we could have thought of them sooner." Out loud she said, "Come on guys. Let’s check this passage out."

She walked in first, followed by Frank and then Joe. The wall closed silently behind them. The long, narrow passage required C. J. to bring her flashlight out. She didn’t let too much light out, but just enough to see where they were stepping next.

Soon they came to a well-lighted area and made their way to a pair of double doors where voices could be heard, "The boss found someone sneaking around upstairs," a man said, "What should we do with him?"

"What did you bring him here for," the man sighed, "Okay, throw him in with the other. We won’t need them much longer anyway. And don’t bother tying him up. Even if they escape, there’s no way that they’ll get out with the extra security."

"Okay," the first man answered, "I’ll get this taken care of right now." The doors opened and the man stepped outside now. The inside of the room revealed a huge desk and a collection of filing cabinets covering the back wall.

The person coming out behind the first man, Frank, Joe, and C. J. instantly recognized. Joe Hardy was being suspiciously silent, as if any word might cause something a bad reaction. When the two were out of view, Frank was the first to speak up.

"What are we going to do," he asked, "We can’t rush out there and expect to not be captured ourselves. Does anyone have any ideas?"

"Yeah," C. J. whispered, "Get back. I think someone’s coming this way."

"Get back where," Joe Clark asked her, "There’s nowhere to hide." C. J. pointed to a door that they had passed on the way down, "How do we that’s not where he’s headed?"

"We don’t," C. J. remarked, "but I’ll willing to bet that we’ll be safer in there than out here. Maybe we can hear about what’s going on." The teens raced over and opened the door easily. Seeing a stack of boxes lining the far wall, they quickly ducked behind them just as the door opened.

A man who stood about five eleven opened the door and entered. His brown hair was combed back carefully and his brown eyes carefully scanned the room. He was talking on a cell phone.

"Yes, I’ll make sure everything is okay," he said, "They will escape eventually, but don’t worry, I’ll help them. These guys don’t suspect a thing." C. J. and Frank glanced at each other. Was this the man who had been helping them out all this time?