September 5, 2000

"I am going to kill Maidlin," Connor said, slowly as Frank got up to more closely inspect the message. "Sometimes he takes his little jokes just a little too far. How did he get into our room, anyway?"

Frank didn't answer that, instead, he went to one of the unpacked bags on his bed and pulled out his magnifying glass so that he could more fully inspect the message. It was written in what was more commonly known as 'stage blood', something that they had in the theater department of BU and every department store in town with Halloween less than two months away. He touched one corner of it and sniffed it, then wiped it off on a Kleenex from the tissue box on his desk.

"Aren't you taking a prank just a little too seriously, Frank?" Connor asked as he got up and began to unpack his own suitcases and boxes. I mean, it's just Maidlin again. He did this all last year."

"You can't ever be too sure," Frank said as he went to the previous bag, reached in and pulled out a small leather pouch. He opened the pouch as he walked back over to the mirror and pulled out a small spray bottle. He sprayed it on the mirror.

"Would you set-up my laptop?" Frank asked Connor as he reached into his leather pouch again and this time pulled out a small baggie of powder. Connor, looking slightly puzzled, took Frank's computer bag off of his bed and opened it, pulling out the computer from inside.

Frank, in the meantime, blew some of the powder onto the mirror and several splotches immediately appeared, definitely in the outline of thumb and fingerprints. Connor sat up the computer on his own desk since he couldn't get to Frank's and booted it up, typing in Frank's password when prompted and then moved out of Frank's way.

"I'd pay money to know what you're doing," Connor commented in an idle tone of voice.

"I have Maidlin's fingerprints on file from last year," Frank said to Connor. "In my hard drive. I'm going to see if these match. If they do, I'm going to let you go kill Maidlin for breaking into our room. If they don't then we either have another prankster on the loose or we have more serious trouble than we thought."

Frank pulled out a small, rectangular sheet of paper and carefully affixed it to one of the prints, then gently pulled it free from the mirror, being careful not to smudge it. He reached into his computer bag and pulled out his hand-held scanner, hooked it up, then sat down at his computer. After finding the program he wanted, he scanned the print.

The room was quiet for several moments as Frank called up several more programs and files. Eventually, he had the scanned fingerprint outlined in a specific program and was scanning through several other files. Connor continued to unpack his own bags while Frank worked, taking time to put things into drawers and to hang up clothes in his closet. Other things were brought into the private bathroom that they shared with no one and still others were put on one of the four shelves that he and Frank shared.

"It's not Maidlin," he said, finally. "Would you get my digital camera out? I'd like a picture of the message."

"Should we call campus security?" Connor asked, though he knew the answer before he asked it.

"No," Frank shook his head and once again his dark hair managed to fly around his shoulders. He batted it out of one eye, contemplated for a brief moment getting it cut again then shook his head. He liked it and it drove Sam crazy: what better reason for long hair than that?

"I knew you were going to say that," Connor's own fairly long, red, hair might not be as long as Frank's but it came close. Then again, as a Football player as well as chemistry major, Connor never kept his hair that long. "What are you going to do?"

"Make a new file, see if I can match these fingerprints with the ones at the police station and talk to Joe," Frank said in a calm voice. "Then I want to see if that professor you ran into this morning was Professor Tylange or not. After that, I want to find out if there's any reason why he should have the plans for a computer data chip and see if I can actually find out what it was and if that has any connection to the note here."

Connor shook his head, looking mystified as usual. "You really think that has some connection to this? I mean, you barely saw the thing; the professor was fairly adept at getting the thing out of the way, wasn't he? Did that seem suspicious to you?"

Frank considered for a moment, one hand drumming silently on the console in front of him. Did it seem suspicious, or just the act of an impatient professor who was angry that he'd been nearly knocked over? Frank sighed and looked up at the mirror again, studying.

"Mmm," he said in a noncommittal tone of voice.

"Hey, anyone home?" a voice called out, breaking Frank from his line of thought. "Frank? Connor?"

"Come in, Chet!" Connor called out to Frank's oldest friend.

"Hey, guys," Chet walked into their room past their private bathroom and stopped short as he saw the message on the mirror. "Maidlin again? Isn't it a little early for pranks?"

"It's not Maidlin," Frank said as he turned to gaze up at his slightly chubby friend. "How are you, Chet? I see you got back from Sydney."

"You should have been there, Frank," Chet said. "I'm glad Dad took us on that trip. Australia is great. I took a lot of pictures. Who left that message if Maidlin didn't?"

"You know, it's really amazing how you can go from one topic to another like that, Chet," Connor told him as he sat back down on his bed to go through his backpack. "Do you give lessons?"

"I don't know who it's from," Frank told Chet. "I'm going to find out, though."

"I'm willing to help, if you need it," Chet said, ignoring Connor's comment. "Oh. Are we getting together tonight? I want you to meet someone."

Frank exchanged a look with Connor at that statement. One of Connor's eyebrows managed to rise up to a point, as he regarded their friend.

"Don't tell me you found a girlfriend, Chet," Frank said, grinning. "I thought you were a confirmed bachelor."

Chet blushed, his chubby face turning a brilliant red in embarrassment. He shifted uneasily from foot-to-foot, looking much like a kid whose hand had just been caught in the candy jar. Frank and Connor exchanged a humorous look as both of them, just barely, held in a laugh.

"Uhm, well," he said, stammering. "I met her in Australia. Her name's Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn Matthews. She wanted to come back to America to go to College and her parents agreed she could come to Bayport U. She's really sweet."

"She's Australian?" Connor asked. "Or was she just visiting Australia the same time you were?"

Connor tossed some neatly folded socks into a nearby open drawer, piling them on each other one after the other. He missed the face that Chet made at him but Frank smiled again, almost chuckling at the look.

Chet spoke. "She's Australian."

"You said her name is Kaitlyn?" Frank asked, curiously as something came to him.

Chet nodded and Frank puzzled that out for a moment.

"Kaitlyn, Kaitlyn," Frank turned the name over in his mind, trying to figure out why that name was so familiar to him. He turned to Connor. "Isn't that the name of Mandy's new roommate?"

Connor shook his head. "No, she and Elizabeth decided to give it another go this year. I think she's Samantha's roommate."

"That's it!" Frank snapped his fingers in remembrance. "You're right, she's Sam's new roommate. Sam may have already met her, then, Chet."

"So are we getting together? I could go for some pizza," Chet said, excited.

"You can always go for some pizza!" Frank exclaimed. "But yeah, we're getting together tonight. Pizza Palace, right?"

"That's my vote," Chet said with a happy smile. "I've missed that place. It may not be as good as Mr. Pizza but it's pretty close. I haven't had a good pizza in a month!"

"When did you get back to town, Chet?" a voice said from behind Chet.

Chet turned to look at Joe who stood just behind him in the door leading into Frank and Connor's room.

"Just yesterday, actually," Chet informed his friend. "I know that was cutting it close but my dad figured we may not get another opportunity like this for a long while and it was worth it. You'll have to go there sometime. I definitely want to go back again!

"With all of the traveling we've done in the last five years, I'll be lucky to get out of Bayport in the next ten," Joe said, mournfully.

"Chin up, youngster," Connor said as he tossed another set of socks into his top drawer. "You'll get by, somehow."

"Frank, did you talk to Matt at all this summer? I just heard he's not coming back. "

Frank shook his head. "No, he promised to send me his e-mail address and never did it. Do you have a new roommate?"

Joe nodded and Frank, knowing his brother as well as he did, made out the consternation in Joe's gaze.

"I have some freshman as my roommate this year. He's totally trying to take over the whole room. Is it illegal to kill freshmen roommates?"

"Are you the one that ended up with Eric Roberts?" Connor looked up from his sock sorting.

Joe nodded as he stepped past Chet and came into the room.

"I..." he started to say, then stopped as he saw the message on the board. He read it once, then twice, then moved closer to it to inspect it more fully.

"I swear," he muttered. "Maidlin is going to go too far some year and I'm going to have to take him down several pegs."

Joe rubbed his hands together enthusiastically, as if he wanted to have Maidlin in his grasp right now.

"Good idea," Connor said. "But it wasn't Maidlin, at least not according to the in-house detective here."

"Not Maidlin?" Joe looked steadily at Frank. "But this is classic Maidlin, Frank. Are you sure?"

"Positive," Frank said. "Unless Maidlin has become a genius who can suddenly fake fingerprints, it's definitely not him."

"But who else would do something like that?" Joe asked as he came into the room to peer closely at the message. "Theatrical blood? That's just too totally gross!"

Connor laughed. "I have to agree with that one, Junior."

"This from the guy who had to dress up as Dracula when he was sixteen and have the drops of blood running from his fangs," Frank shook his head at his younger brother. "I ran it through my program. The prints aren't Maidlin's. I have those on file from last year. I'm going to connect with Bayport PD later and see if I can't get a more positive match on them. That is, if I can figure out the newest encryption system." Joe shivered and Frank knew that memories of his Uncle would forever haunt his younger brother. Connor looked slightly confused, until Joe finally laughed.

"You look kind of like a mad-hatter when you get that look on your face, Frank," Joe told his brother. "Like someone about to do something both fun and slightly illegal? You know what Chief Collig will do if he catches you in their system again, don't you?"

"Since when did you worry about stuff like that?" Frank asked his brother. "Besides that, I'm not going to get caught. That's why I have to figure out the encryption system. That's half the fun anyway. Just ask your girlfriend, Joe, Vanessa enjoys breaking a good encryption, almost as much I enjoy breaking a good encryption."

Joe shook his head, his expression dubious but resigned. "And here I thought I was the one who took all the risks. Did you up and change your major to computer coding when I wasn't looking? And who's Eric Roberts, anyway? I take it that's a name you know?" he spoke that last to Connor.

Connor nodded. "He's supposed to be our new star running back. He wasn't at all pleased with the idea of living in the plebian football dorm with the normals. He told Coach Saunders, that 'If the Quarterback is not living with the other football players, then I'm not living with the other football players.' Keep on your toes with him, Joe, he's got an ego the size of Texas and the manners of a goat. Or so I've heard."

"He is supposed to be good, though," Chet commented. "Coach told me that Roberts is the best running back he's ever seen. He might just help us get that National Championship that we're looking for."

"Oh yea," Joe said, sarcastically. "And here I thought I might live through my sophomore year. Frank, just remember, I want a picture of Cindy Crawford and a Mr. Pizza pizza on my grave, not flowers."

Frank, Connor, and Chet all laughed at that and Frank reached around to save the information on his screen and turn off his computer. He was about to get up when the window beside his desk crashed open and an object landed on the floor of the room. The boys all looked at it for a moment, stunned, before Frank leapt forward and knelt beside it, half afraid that it was a bomb.

Just as Frank bent over it, however, the object on the floor, a small cylinder about five inches in diameter, shot out a puff of white powder at him. He knelt, bewildered, for a moment before the world began to whirl in a fast circle around him and then, the darkness grabbed him and he toppled over sideways onto the floor.

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).