Danger Zone

by Franklin W. Dixon

  Fenton Hardy's eyes widened. "I shot the full round in the brig," he said in disbelief.

  Joe climbed up the ladder again and rammed his shoulder against it. A jolt of pain shot through him, and the hatch stayed put.

  "Is there another path?" Mrs. Hardy asked.

  "The only thing we can do is backtrack - "

  "There they are!" a voice echoed into their passageway.

  Joe stood frozen on the ladder. On either side of him were his mother and father. He squeezed their hands and felt his throat turn to cotton as a battalion of six armed men charged toward them.

  And he felt himself go numb as Straeger's voice pierced the humid air: "Shoot to kill!"

  Chapter 18

  In a burst of energy, Joe tried the hatch one more time. There was a dull thud and a cracking sound.

  I'm breaking it, Joe thought. Just one more shove.

  "Get down!" Mrs. Hardy cried. "They're shooting at you!' '

  So that's what the crack was. Joe fell to the floor. A bullet whizzed just over his head.

  Suddenly Straeger's voice could be heard again: "Ceasefire!"

  The passageway fell silent except for a faint murmuring among the crew members. They stepped aside as Straeger pushed his way through to the front.

  He stood in the dimly lit corridor facing the Hardy family, his gun ready at his side.

  "I want to see this," he said. "I want the pleasure of returning the humiliation I've received at your hands, Mr. Hardy. How does it feel to have your life's plan thwarted? How does it feel to stand in front of a firing squad and know your family is to be shot in seconds?"

  "I thought you said we were moving out to sea!" Joe blurted out.

  "Don't try to distract me," Straeger shot back.

  "I didn't feel us accelerate," Joe continued.

  "The engine is quite silent," Straeger said.

  "Sure feels like it's idling to me."

  "Ready ..." Straeger called out.

  The crew members lifted their weapons.

  "Don't you think this is overkill?" Joe tried in desperation.

  Above him there was a sudden clomping noise on the deck.

  "Aim ..."

  The clomping turned into a knocking. A shaft of light slanted down into the corridor from the ceiling above.

  "What the - " Straeger muttered.

  Joe looked up. The hatch was moving!

  Captain Matyus appeared behind Straeger.

  "Hold it!" he ordered. "Farrell, if that's you up there, knock it off, or you'll be shot, too!"

  "Farrell, eh?" came a muffled voice from outside the hatch. "Close - both are two syllables and Irish. But you don't get a cigar, my friend!"

  Joe couldn't believe what he was hearing. When the hatch flew open his disbelief flew out.

  A familiar, beefy man in a blue uniform stared down at them, his hand clutching a revolver. "Riley's the name. Officer Con Riley, Bayport Police. Hands up, everyone, and drop those weapons. You're surrounded."

  "Hi, Mom. Everything all right?" Frank smiled pleasantly over Riley's shoulder. "Seems a little warm down there."

  "Frank!" Mrs. Hardy said, enjoying the sound of the name as if she were saying it for the first time.

  Joe felt an unexpected laugh erupt. "Yeah, it's hot down here, all right. In fact, I think it's time we put old Straeger here on ice."

  "With pleasure," Officer Riley said with a smile. Then his voice became a drill sergeant's bark. "All right, everybody out here - on the double. And don't try anything funny. I've got the entire Bayport Harbor Police with me!"

  Straeger's face broke into a cheerful, slightly baffled smile. He handed his gun to one of the sailors. "Officer Riley, I must say I'm happy to see you, but I think you've been misled. It is we who require your services. These people are trespassing on our ship."

  "I see," said Riley. "You just happened to be anchored way out here, playing idly with all this fancy equipment, when Fenton, Laura, and their sons decided to break in."

  "I can't speak for them, officer, but Mr. Hardy did shoot holes in the ship's pipes. Steam is billowing through every hallway down here."

  "Straeger, I believe you like I believe in the tooth fairy," Riley remarked.

  Straeger laughed. "Well, then you may end up with a quarter under your pillow. With all due respect, I don't think you can arrest us if the evidence is in our favor."

  Riley looked from Straeger to Mr. Hardy and shrugged. "I suppose you're right about that. And it follows you have nothing to hide." Then he shouted over his shoulder: "Wyman, Hastings! Come with me. The rest of you guard the deck and make sure no one leaves."

  By this time Matyus and most of the yacht's crew had been herded upstairs and onto the deck. Officer Riley and two other police officers climbed down.

  "You realize you won't be able to see a thing in the engine room because of the steam," Straeger said.

  "We'll just have to do our best," Riley replied.

  "This way, gentlemen," Straeger said, ushering the three men past him. Mr. Hardy began to follow, but Straeger held out his arm. "I must request that Fenton Hardy stay behind. I see no reason that he should be with us."

  Officer Riley sighed. "Fenton, wait here a minute, okay? I'll be right back."

  "Make sure you check the engine room!" Joe called out.

  As Riley walked down the companionway Joe heard Straeger say, "Of course, the engine room is off limits. Hot steam is spewing out, and you're likely to get burned."

  "Don't you have someone fixing it yet?" Riley asked.

  "Of course. But it will probably take hours."

  As they disappeared into the steam at the end of the passageway Frank called down, "Mom, are you all right?"

  "Fine," Mrs. Hardy said. "They gave me nautical magazines to read while I was in their little jail. When we get out of here I'll be able to build a boat."

  "Don't get your hopes up," Joe said. "If Officer Riley can't see the brig, he may have to let them go."

  "Come on, let's climb up," Mr. Hardy said. "At least we can wait in the fresh air."

  Joe looked up to the open hatch. His brother was missing.

  "Frank?" he called out.

  One of the policemen gave a shrug and pointed to his right. "He ran off."

  Joe climbed onto the deck, then helped his mother and father out. The afternoon had become cool. Joe shivered slightly from the abrupt change in temperature.

  "Where's Frank?" Mrs. Hardy asked.

  A moment later they heard Frank's voice over a loudspeaker. "Attention, please - this includes you, Mr. Straeger. This is Frank Hardy with a message for Officer Riley. The steam-powered engines have been turned off. You may safely enter the engine room. Be sure to visit the cage of the escaped prisoners on your left and see the marvelous hidden-camera-in-the-stemware-box trick!"

  Joe, Mr. Hardy, and Mrs. Hardy ran into the wheelhouse. Frank greeted them with a smile. "Well, I give them about - oh, fifteen minutes!"

  "Long enough for a little family time," Fenton Hardy said. "A little story-swapping about the last few days. What do you say we sit on the deck?" He put one arm around Frank and the other around his wife.

  "I'm not sure I want three rubber wet suits next to me," said Laura Hardy, taking in the three men in her family all dressed in identical black rubber.

  ***

  "So who aw na yur?" Chet Morton mumbled, his mouth stuffed full of Aunt Gertrude's Swedish meatballs.

  Mr. Hardy cast a puzzled glance around the dining room table. "Would someone like to translate?"

  "I think he said, 'Who's on your - something,' " Tony Prito tried.

  "Talk, talk, talk," Aunt Gertrude said, shaking her head as she heated up a new batch of tomato sauce on the stove. "You're all talking a mile a minute about this awful adventure, and I can't understand a word of it! Swallow first!"

  "Owned the yacht," Chet said, wiping his mouth with a napkin. "Who owned the yacht? Did the police find out?"

  "Uh - huh," Joe replied,
quickly swallowing his food. "It's registered under the name Matyus Shipping, which turns out to be a subsidiary of MUX."

  "So by capturing Matyus and Straeger we've managed to smash two important MUX espionage rings," Frank went on.

  "What happens next?" Biff Hooper piped up. "Does the whole organization come tumbling down?"

  Fenton Hardy exhaled. "Unfortunately, no. We wouldn't have even known Matyus and Straeger were connected if we hadn't found them together on that yacht. In fact, I believe they hadn't even known each other until this caper."

  Laura Hardy looked puzzled. "Then who introduced them?"

  "That's the big question," Mr. Hardy answered. "There's somebody at the top, somebody we've never been able to come close to. He's covered himself with layers and layers of umbrella organizations."

  "Straeger and Matyus both claim they don't know his name," Joe said. "They just accept his orders through anonymous couriers."

  "It makes me shudder to think there may be more of those ruthless men out there somewhere," Aunt Gertrude said.

  "Oh, we'll track them down," Frank said. He was speaking to Aunt Gertrude, but his eyes were looking into the distance. "As long as there's an MUX, we'll be right behind them."

  A silence settled over the room, interrupted only by the clicking of forks on the plates.

  "By the way," Mr. Hardy said, "tomorrow the Marfield police are auctioning all the stuff they found in Straeger's office. Anybody want to go?"

  Phil Cohen's eyes lit up. "Any electronic equipment?"

  "You bet," Mr. Hardy said. "A fax machine, a copier, an answering machine, a couple of printers, and - something else."

  "Mmb awuhnuhk!" Chet blurted out, his mouth full again.

  Mr. Hardy snapped his fingers. "That's what it was. The voice scrambler!"

  As the table broke into laughter Chet Morton's face slowly turned the color of Aunt Gertrude's tomato sauce.

  The End.

  Frank and Joe's next case:

  The Hardys and friend Callie Shaw are off to Washington, D.C. Callie finally has the chance to meet her Parisian pen pal, Madeleine Berot, whose parents have been assigned to the French embassy. But when Maddy is caught shoplifting, Frank and Joe suspect that there's something rotten in the state of French diplomacy.

  Determined to get to the bottom of the Madeleine Berot mystery, the Hardys find themselves caught in a web of international intrigue. They take off on a tingling chase through the nation's capital, pursuing a gang of continental con artists. In a case of D.C. deceit, it's up to Frank and Joe to nip the caper in the bud ... in Diplomatic Deceit, Case #38 in The Hardy Boys Casefiles®.