Tuesday, September 26, 2001 (time unknown)

       “Just relax, Frank, relax!” Joe told his brother.  “We have time, just relax.”

       Joe couldn’t believe he was the one saying that.  His heart was going at a hundred miles a minute within his chest, making him pant for breath again.  He took a shallow breath, trying not to inhale too much of the smoke that gathered quickly throughout the room.  His vision swam before him and he closed his eyes.  Time to free his arms.

       Joe rocked back and forth until he was able to thread his legs through his arms and bring them to the front.  I should be a contortionist, he thought with a smile.  He got his fingers on the knots of the bonds tying his legs into place.  It took him almost two minutes to free his legs and then he scrambled off of the bed and raced over to his brother.  He pulled Frank off of the table that Frank was lying on.  Joe stumbled toward the door, pulling Frank after him.  Joe’s head swam in several directions around him; the heat from the flames shooting up behind them was hot enough to scorch the hairs on the back of his neck.  Frank, with his longer hair, had to be suffering even worse.  Joe just hoped nothing caught fire.  The flames from the wall licked out at them from the back wall as the fire spread quickly over the kerosene walls.

       They burst through the door, pushing it open ahead of them once Joe opened it.  Joe stumbled on his feet just outside the door and collapsed, bringing Frank down on top of him.  Joe moaned and clutched his head; it ached worse than it had for some time.  Taking anything resembling a deep breath was worse than difficult.   He thought his lungs might burst or his heart or both.  His vision swam around him as he tried to push himself back to his feet.  Then, a moment later, Frank lifted him and they stumbled forward, away from the burning inferno behind them.  Frank half lifted Joe into his arms and Joe, unable to protest or argue, let him do it.

       “You’ll have to direct,” Frank warned his brother in a soft voice.  “As I have no idea where we are, where we’re going.  ‘less, of course, you actually enjoy colliding with walls or the like.”

       “Know that,” Joe rasped.  “Straight.  Go straight.  And I think I’ll leave the wall collisions to you, big brother.  Don’t have time for communing with them today.  Go ‘head, ‘joy yourself.”

       “No thanks,” Frank muttered as he continued to stagger forward.  Joe tried to help his brother as much as he could.  His legs really didn’t want to work but Joe forced them to accept part of his weight.  “Crashing into walls has never ranked very highly on my list of enjoyable things to do.  I just thought it was right up your alley, Joe, because we both know how much you enjoy those really hard football tackles.”

       Joe made a face that Frank couldn’t see but he knew Frank would understand nonetheless.  

       Joe really wanted to go to sleep.  In a merciful, kind, considerate world, he would be asleep right now.  His head would rest on a firm but soft pillow, his blanket would come up to below his arms and he would be listening to AC/DC for a couple of songs before he turned off the CD to concentrate on going to sleep.  In a merciful, kind, considerate world, he would be sleeping in a nice, warm, soft bed with a glass of milk resting on the table beside his bed and the promise of a day of classes that would bore him silly the next day.  In a merciful, kind, considerate world, he would not have to worry about getting burned to death, being in the hospital (unless injured in a football game) or his blind brother running into a wall.

       Unfortunately, the world was not so merciful, kind or considerate and often slapped Joe Hardy right upside the head.  Joe closed his eyes for just a moment then snapped them open that moment later, just in time to bring Frank up short.

       “Right,” Joe whispered to Frank suddenly as they came close to a wall where they had to change directions or crash into the wall.  “Right, Frank, go right.”

       Just in time to avoid running into the wall, Frank veered right and proceeded more cautiously, sliding his elbow along the wall beside him to feel his way.  Joe, grateful that Frank fended for himself, moaned when his next breath brought a searing pain into his lungs and his chest.  He took another that was just as painful.  His lungs really hurt.  He wanted to go to sleep in the worst way and forget all about life.  It sounded so much easier than trying to force in the next breath past lungs that did not want to work properly.  Breathing became more and more difficult.  What was he doing here anyway?  He should have been home! Or in the hospital!

       Joe’s eyes burst open suddenly and he pushed against Frank, knocking his brother backward just as a board crashed against the wall near where Frank’s head had been just a moment before.  Frank protested as Joe scrambled off of him, adrenaline making it possible for him to stand again on his own.  He reached out with one hand and snagged the board from the hands of his attacker, then pulled it free.  A moment later, their attacker, the large man named Pankovic, fell to the ground in a tumble of legs and feet as Frank made a flying tackle and grappled Pankovic about the legs.  Pankovic flailed for a moment, lashing out at Frank with one meaty fist that drove Frank backward into the wall.  Frank lay winded for a moment, giving Pankovic enough time get to his feet and make another grab for him.

       “Not so fast,” Joe gasped as he lashed out with one leg and hit Pankovic in the stomach.  Even as weak as Joe felt, the kick caused Pankovic to fall yet again.  Joe scrambled forward, his stomach and head churning and hit Pankovic a good clop across the face.  Pankovic roared and rolled to his feet.  He was exceptionally agile for one so large and Joe frowned when Pankovic managed to get out of the way of Joe’s next attack.

       Frank chose that moment to make his next attack.  He had no way of seeing just where he was attacking but Joe reached out and turned him in the right direction by tugging on a pant leg.  Frank turned, going into a karate stance.  Joe stayed against the wall, not moving, to allow Frank to use his hearing and touch to make his attack.  Joe held his breath as Frank lashed out with a hard karate jab that connected solidly with Pankovic’s shoulder.  Pankovic fell back a couple of steps, redoubling only to be hit, this time, by a solid kick from Frank, who lashed out almost double footed, rolled and came back down on the ground again.

       Pankovic hit the ground hard.  Joe stayed put on the ground as Frank reached out with a foot and then reached down to grab at Pankovic’s collar.  Pankovic rolled out of Frank’s way, winded but not seriously injured and knocked Frank’s feet out from under him.  Joe chose that moment to make his own attack.  Pankovic was kicking out at Frank’s head when Joe tackled him again, bringing him down to the ground in a move worthy of the best defensive linesman in football.  They both hit the ground hard; this time, Pankovic lay stunned for a moment, winded.  Joe followed through and hit him again, driving one fist into Pankovic’s face. 

       “Stay down!” Joe whispered in a raspy voice as he hit Pankovic one more time.  He wanted to make sure the large man would stay put long enough to not harm either brother.  Joe remembered the rope then, the one that lay looped over Frank’s right shoulder.  Joe turned to get the rope from his brother and stood in dismayed shock.  Frank was missing!

 

*****

       Amanda Hardy paced the floor of her boyfriend’s dorm room, walking from one end to another in a frenzy that she knew caused her hair to fly out on end and dance around her head.  Her blue eyes flashed occasionally as she looked out the window, expecting her father to pull into the parking lot outside any moment.   He had already come and gone, but not before telling Mandy and the others to stay put; the police were going to conduct the search and Fenton didn’t want anything to happen to anyone else.

       Mandy frowned as she looked down at her watch again and then out the window.  Where was he?  She had called her father four hours ago! Where was he?  What was taking him so long to get here and take up the search for her brothers?

       “Mandy, you’re not helping anything,” Samantha said in a soft voice.  She was sitting on Frank’s bed.  Vanessa sat beside her, her fingers flying across the surface of the keyboard on Frank’s laptop.  She had the modem connected to the Internet and while Mandy had no idea what she was up to, she knew Vanessa was searching in her own way.  Vanessa was calm, though her gray eyes belied an intense worry of her own, a worry that she might not see her boyfriend again.  They always felt it together, whenever Joe and Frank got into trouble.  With Joe it was always worse.  Mandy swore left and right that she and Joe were not psychic, that they only occasionally got impressions and then only if a feeling was very, very strong.

       Like the night that Joe had been taken from his room and brought to the woods.  That had been very strong indeed, Joe’s fear that he might not get out alive.  Mandy felt something as strong from him now or as intense.  She felt his overwhelming fear, a fear suddenly punctuated by something else.  Mandy’s hands flew up into the air as she leaned against the window.  She felt flush and Samantha flew across the room and grabbed her.  Connor took her into his arms and sat her down into a chair.

       “What is it?” Samantha asked in her quiet way as she gazed up into Mandy’s eyes.  Violet met blue eyes; Mandy looked away from her and up into Connor’s eyes. 

       “I don’t know how to describe it,” Mandy said as she wiped away tears.  “I don’t really… I don’t really get words.  I don’t even really get images.  Just impressions, like I’ve told you before.  I just… I get the idea that Joe’s terrified about something.  I just don’t know what it is or why!  I won’t know, not until I can talk to him about it.”

       “Just take deep breaths,” Samantha said, softly as she went to get Mandy a glass of water.  “You know you won’t help Joe if you get so terrified he can feel it from you.  Just take a deep breath.  We’ll find him.  We’ll find THEM.”

       Mandy nodded, shakily and took a sip of the water offered.

       “I just wish I knew who was working with Anna.  It’s got to be that Pankovic guy,” Connor said.  “But I keep thinking… it has to be someone in the dorm.  Or someone who knows this Hall so well, they knew how to get Frank out of here if they didn’t want to be seen.”

       “Oh… my…” Vanessa looked up at them suddenly.  “Guys, come over here for a minute.”

       Mandy, Connor and Samantha all walked over to Vanessa and knelt beside Frank’s bed.

       “What is it?” Mandy prompted her.

       “I thought… I thought I’d try to see if I can’t find a picture of Jason Rich,” Vanessa said.  “You’d be surprised what you can find on-line, especially if one of the people you’re trying to find is the son of a prominent scientist.  There were several articles by Doctor Rich and several more that were about Doctor Rich.  I finally found a family photo from one of the on-line magazines, a picture of Doctor Rich, his son Jason and his daughter Anna Phillips.”

       “And?” Connor asked.  “It’s someone we know?”

       He stood, one hand resting lightly on Mandy’s shoulder as he peered over at Vanessa.  Mandy smiled up at him, relaxing for the first time since she arrived and laid a hand on top of his before she looked back at Vanessa.

       “This is what he looks like,” Vanessa said.  She turned the laptop around so that they could all see the monitor.

       “Jase Aleman?” Connor grimaced when he saw the picture.  Jase Aleman, their next door neighbor.  Jase Aleman, who had helped him look for Frank earlier.  Jase Aleman, who had access to any of Michael Freeman’s keys and could have conceivably made a copy of Michael’s master key for the dorm rooms on his floor.

       “Jase Aleman, aka Jason Rich.  That’s who was behind this the whole time,” Vanessa said.  “He’s the one who kidnapped Frank and since we know Anna can get in and out of the hospital, I bet she’s the one who kidnapped Joe.”

       “There’s something else,” Connor said, slowly as he tried to remember something.  Mandy looked up at him when he turned away to think.  She switched to sitting on the corner of the bed.

       “He asked me all kinds of questions about the campus one day,” Connor said.  “About the old parts of the campus, especially the condemned or partially condemned buildings.  I knew basically what anyone else knows and I told him what I knew.  I thought at the time he was overly interested in two of them but I thought maybe he was one of those nuts that like to storm condemned buildings for the thrill.  That’s where he has to have them!  Tagarty Hall or the old Kleinman Research Building.”

       “I’m not waiting for dad any longer.  Let’s go,” Mandy stood again and grabbed her backpack, complete with her collapsible bow, a few half-arrows and her cell phone and she raced from the room, ready to go on the search.

 

******

 

       “Frank?” Joe called out as loud as he could.  It wasn’t very loud at all.  His voice probably did not carry further than ten or fifteen feet down the hall.  “FRANK!”

       That last came out as a shout, using up all of Joe’s oxygen build-up.  Joe gasped as he sagged over to one side of Pankovic’s still form and forced himself to remember how to breathe again.  He gave himself only a few seconds then he rolled over again, forcing himself onto hands and knees.  Where the heck was Frank?  His brother should be here somewhere close-by, it wasn’t like he could make a speedy getaway on his own.  And Frank would never leave Joe on his own, not even if Joe was in better shape than he was now!

       Joe forced himself up to his feet next and used the wall to propel him down the hall leading in the opposite direction.  Joe grimaced in agony after about ten steps.  His whole chest felt like it was on fire.  He really should still be on oxygen.  The adrenaline pumping through him used up oxygen at a substantial rate; Joe knew he might give out entirely any minute.  But he had to figure out where Frank was!  How had he slipped away so fast, so silently?  Why would he have left without saying anything?  And how the heck had he missed it? 

       Joe walked cautiously down the next turn in the hallway and stopped a moment to listen.  He thought he heard something coming from up the hall; he continued walking cautiously.  He wanted to call out to see if Frank could answer him but something stayed his tongue, something that filled him with a sense of foreboding and fear.  He walked still more slowly, as if he sensed his brother might be just around the next bend, or inside the next door.  He peeked inside of several doors but heard nothing and saw nothing in the darkness of each room.

       Joe stopped a moment later when, coming by a door, he heard the sound of giggling.  He turned back to the door he just passed and peeked inside.  There he saw Anna, leaning forward against something that was behind her.  He pushed the door open quietly and held his breath; he did not want to hear her coming and his breath was a little raspy right now.  He took a cautious step forward to try and get a better view of Anna.  She stood near something… or Frank.

       “Let me go, Anna,” Frank said a moment later in a cold, emotionless voice.  Joe realized that Anna had taken his brother!  “I’ll die before I go anywhere with you, so just give it up.  Go on to your father or whatever you were doing but leave me alone.”

       “No, no, that will never, ever do!” Anna giggled and Joe took another step into the room, moving as quietly as he could.  Anna seemed very involved in whatever she was doing to Frank.  Joe was almost glad he couldn’t tell what it was from this angle.  His brother really didn’t need to be mauled by some deranged chick bent on hijacking him out of the country.  “You’ll like where we’re going.  Daddy has assured me it’s a grand place and we have a really big house there.  I have my own room and you’re going to share it with me!”

       “Not in a million years,” Frank vowed in that still cold voice.  Joe shivered as he heard it and ducked around a pillar.  He could see Anna now and he could see Frank.  She had him sitting in a chair, his arms behind his back once again.  Anna giggled as she absently ran a hand along one of Frank’s cheeks.  Frank’s cold brown eyes looked past her, past Joe.  He had no way of knowing that Joe was in the area.

       “Well, of course you’re coming with me,” Anna said haughtily.  “You don’t really have any choice about it.  Once the right time has come outside, I will drag you out of here and you will disappear from Bayport forever.  We’ll live in my father’s house in Libya.  I’ll be a princess and you will be my prince.  It is really a most perfect plan.  I thought of it all myself.  We have a private plane flying us out of here, you see.  There’s plenty of room for you on board.  I know my father will love having you with us.  You’ll make a wonderful son-in-law for him!  I can’t wait!”

       Frank looked nauseous.  Frank growled and looked up at his deranged captor, as if just by that sound he might get Anna to release him.  She smiled down into his face and kissed him. 

       “Stop it, Anna,” Frank ordered the girl.  “That’s not changing my mind at all.  Let me go.  Now.”

       “No!” Anna screamed.  “You’re either coming with me or I’m going to cut your throat!  I’ll… I’ll kill you and make you bleed and when Joe finds you, he won’t be able to save you.  Now just be quiet and wait.  We’ll be leaving soon!”

       Joe stopped short of charging Anna when he saw what was in Anna’s other hand - a very sharp, very pointy looking knife.  The knife rested, almost absently to Joe’s point-of-view, on Frank’s right shoulder.  Anna shifted the knife so that it slid along Frank’s cheek or his neck but then went back to rest on Frank’s shoulder again.  Joe thought she made her… point… quite clearly.

       “Now,” said Anna with a small smile that Joe could barely see.  “Do you understand, Frank?  That I mean what I’m saying?  That you go with me or I have to cut you?”

       “Are you planning on keeping that knife with you the whole time, Anna?” Frank asked.  “You’ll have to.  Even if you get me to Libya or wherever your father really is, I’ll do everything I can to get home again.  Blind or not, foreign country or not, I won’t rest until I’m back home, in Bayport.”

       “You’ll never make it,” Anna vowed.  “My father is very powerful where he is.  We’ll have a hundred guards and they’ll all make sure you stay!  But I won’t need the guards after a few months because then you’ll love me and you won’t ever want to leave me again!  Ever!”

       Frank shook his head in denial.  “Won’t happen.  Won’t ever happen.  I’d probably fall in love with my roommate before I fall in love with you.  At least I like him!”

       Anna slapped Frank as Joe took another step forward then stopped again.  He wished he could tell Frank he was here.  Frank did not seem overly alarmed.  In fact, Joe’s older brother looked more annoyed than anything.  Anna pushed the knife tip up next to Frank’s neck, then leaned forward and kissed Frank, full on the lips.

       Joe charged then, moving so fast he startled Anna.  He saw the knife bite into Frank’s neck but Joe kept up his momentum.  He grabbed Anna and pulled her away from his brother, then kicked the knife, which fell to the floor, far back into the room behind them.  It skittered to a stop somewhere out in the darkness nearby and Anna, enraged, pushed to her feet and slapped at Joe.  She was intent on scratching his eyeballs out, apparently.

       “Give it up, Anna,” Joe told her.  “You’re not going anywhere, much less with my brother.  You even try it and I’ll hunt you down.  I don’t care if you are just a girl.  Nobody messes with Frank, especially not a nutcase like you.”

       Anna hissed and slapped at him again.  Joe grabbed her wrists and pulled them behind her, then, holding them in one hand, he managed to keep hold of her while he fished out the handcuff key for the set of handcuffs holding Frank to the chair.  Joe freed his brother then put the handcuffs around Anna’s wrists.  As soon as he had Anna secured, Joe sagged for a moment, leaning against one of the pillars in the room.  He felt on the very end of his energy reserves; he wasn’t sure how much longer he could last.

       “Let’s get out of here before that fire gets any farther,” Joe told his brother.  He pushed Anna ahead of him and put Frank’s hand on his shoulder.  It was all pure bravado, though.  He knew he might make it another five steps before he fell and he had no idea how Frank was going to manage him and Anna, all by himself.

       “Where’s Jase?” Frank said.  “He didn’t leave you here all by himself, did he?”

       “Of course he did!” Anna exclaimed.  “Well, no, he took me outside but I snuck back just as soon as he drove away.  He doesn’t know I came back for you.  He’ll be on his way back to Daddy!  We’re meeting at the airport later.  He won’t be able to stop me when I get you to the airport!”

       “Except I’m not going to the airport and right now, neither are you,” Frank said bluntly.  “I think they only place you’re going is to jail, at least to start with.”

       “Jase’s leaving you behind, hmm?” Joe asked.  “I’ll bet he’s already left.  He probably took the plane and left his precious sister behind.”

       Joe led Frank out into the hallway, careful to keep Anna within arm’s length.  Joe figured out that they were still on campus; this looked suspiciously like the closed portion of Tagarty Hall, the old engineering building on the east part of campus.  The campus administration always threatened to have the hall torn down to make room for a new one but the funds never became available.  Only the west half of the dorm was currently in use; it had been built on long after the original part of Tagarty had been built.  Joe and a couple of his friends had explored this building late one night, mostly out of curiosity and mostly out of freshman stupidity but at least, now, Joe knew where they were.

       “Frank,” Joe whispered to his brother; it was the loudest voice he could manage.  “Listen carefully.  I don’t know if I can go on much longer so if I do, here’s how to get out.  Follow the wall on the right.  Keep one hand on it.  Keep going, I think it’s down two intersections.  When you get to the second one, make a right turn.  Switch to the left wall.  When you get to the next intersection make a left turn.  There should be a door there.  You can get out…”

       “Stay with me, Joe,” Frank told him and he squeezed Joe’s shoulder.  “We’re going to make it out of here together, little brother.  So stay with me.  Think about all the things you’re going to do to Coonby when you get hold of him again.  Just stay with me!”

       “Not… so easy…” Joe gasped out and staggered.

       “It’s even harder,” a new voice said to them a moment later and chuckled.  Jase.  Joe didn’t even have to look at him to know who it was.  Joe grimaced in agony as he looked up at the face of the enemy.  Jase smiled beatifically, a gun held out before him.  Jase held it steadily on the two Hardy brothers.  Frank stood uncertainly, his head cocked to one side in confusion.  Joe pushed himself back into a straight position, keeping his gaze intent on Jase.  Jase stepped forward.

       “Seems you are at the end of your rope,” Jase waved the gun in front of him.  “Let’s go, both of you.  I should have known you’d get away before the fire got you.  I should have just shot you to begin with.  Turn around.”

       “Shoot us here,” Frank said.  “If you’re going to kill us anyway, we aren’t making it easy for you.”

       Jase glared at the older Hardy.  Joe struggled to stay on his feet.  Frank could not deal with Jase on his own and Jase looked ready to do just what Frank said! 

       “I’m the one with the gun, blind man,” Jase waved the gun again and Joe flinched when Jase’s finger seemed to press against the trigger several times but the gun never actually fired.  “I’m the one who’s calling the shots, blind boy.  You don’t have any say in what I do or when I do it.”

       “And I’m the one with control of my legs,” Frank said, calmly.  Joe frowned at his older brother though Frank would not see it.  “These legs aren’t walking anywhere.  If you want to take the chance to shoot us here, go right ahead.  I’m sure there will be about a half-dozen people here to investigate in a half-minute or so.  That’s what you get.  You want us dead shoot us.  We’re not going anywhere else with you.”

       Joe saw Jase pull up short, uncertain what to do next.  Finally, he reached out and pushed Frank backward, as if to propel the older boy by sheer force.  Frank, however, held his ground and refused to be budged even a single inch.  The moment Jase tried to push him harder, however, Frank lashed out with a fierce karate chop that staggered Jase backward.  Joe fell forward then, knocking against Jase and knocking loose the gun.  Jase bellowed and Joe grimaced when he felt a very firm kick connect with his chest.  Anna.

       Joe staggered back to his feet with no idea how he remained standing.  He knocked Anna back hard enough that she fell on her rear end and Frank lashed out again with another karate kick that landed quite hard on Jase’s chest.  Jase’s exhaled in a rush of air and fell down next to his sister.

       Joe’s legs gave out on him a moment later and he sagged to the ground, unable to go any further.  He struggled to retain consciousness but, finally, a moment later, the darkness caved in around him and claimed him for its own.

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. I've only borrowed them to play with for a while but I promise to return them whenever I've finished with them.  (I make no promises as to condition, that's entirely up to them).  I promise, I'm only writing for fun and I'm not making a single dime off of this (unless you count personal fulfillment).