A TANGLED WEB

CHAPTER 1- SUCCESSES

Fenton Hardy sat back in his chair, put his feet up on the coffee table and smiled. They had done it! The Hardy Detective Agency team had been working on a contract job for the government agency known as 'The Network' for the last six months. It was 100% office-based, 100% on-line and 100% tedious. But it had been worth it. He looked over at his eldest son, Frank. He was still at his computer, checking and re-checking his work for the umpteenth time. Fenton's smile grew broader. He was so proud of the men his boys had become.

Frank. Always quieter, more serious, more studious, he had been the driving force behind the Hardy Detective Agency's recent successes. He had observed the rise of internet crime and made it his business to get on every course, meet every expert and volunteer for every opportunity that would lead him to being The Best at combating this new era of bad-guys.

Frank had poked, prodded and carried Fenton and Joe along with him to begin with. They had preferred the old-fashioned, feet-on-the-street detection that had served them well up to that point. But they had seen the light! The internet was no longer the realm of the nerd. It had become the territory of choice for organised criminal gangs. They communicated on-line. They traded on-line. They defrauded on-line. They weren't faceless bad guys moving numbers around. They were real bad guys trafficking drugs, weapons and innocent people on a multi-national scale. Fenton and Joe had been sucked into a world where making seemingly simple connections could bring about the downfall of supervillains. Link a few email accounts, a few names, ground truth an IP address, locate a server….. And they had become hooked. The three men worked as a team, unpicking the seemingly impossibly tangled webs woven by the bad guys. They were simply the best and took their pick of contracts with law-enforcement agencies. They still took on local investigations and were as keen as ever to get their hands dirty, but IT detection seemed to have become their bread-and-butter.

This latest case had been the most challenging yet. They had been head-hunted to join an inter-agency team attempting to bring down a shadowy group known as 'Zeus'. They were thought to be based in South America…or South Africa, or maybe Europe. Their main source of income was ingenious. They had control of a computer programme whose sole function was to extract money from peoples' accounts undetected. Adding a few cents here and a dollar there to legitimate transactions. Who would notice? Who would complain about such small losses? It was almost victimless. But multiply the criminal gains across literally billions of affected accounts….. Zeus had become RICH. Who were they? What were they using this money for? But it had been noticed. Whispers of the existence of the group emerged amongst the intelligence agencies from undercover operatives.

Enter the Hardys. They had been fed a few names and the details of a few confirmed tampered transactions to give them something to pick away at. The Hardys connected transactions to mazes of IP addresses, followed the mazes to their end and eventually tied in real names and real addresses of real bad guys. The picture that emerged was ugly. The group was involved in trafficking whatever could be trafficked. They specialised in children, buying or kidnapping them and selling them on into sexual slavery. They funded terrorist groups on a grand scale. They were scum. And to everyone's surprise, Zeus had an identifiable leader. Jason Gilchrist- a man Fenton had co-incidentally encountered 20 years earlier. He had been a petty criminal in New York at the time. Fenton had recognised his intelligence and remembered him well- a directionless genius. It appeared he had found his direction in life.

The Hardys' chain of good, admissible, evidence was undeniable and masterfully presented. Now, the evidence had been submitted and formed the lynchpin of the case against Gilchrist in particular. A synchronised hit by multi-national law enforcement agencies was planned on the main holdings of the Zeus empire that should bring it crashing to its knees. They had identified strongholds in Colombia, New Mexico, central France and Hungary. By the end of tonight, they would be history!

Fenton let his self-satisfied thoughts wander to Joe, his youngest son. Handsome, sporty and impetuous. Rarely serious and always tremendous company- that was Joe. Although he preferred to be hands-on with criminals, he had proved to be a natural with high-tech crime. Fenton was pretty sure a system hadn't been invented that Joe couldn't hack. He was due home later in the day, having been on a defensive driving course for the last week. The demands of the office-based investigation were great. 100% concentration was required. They had decided early on that they would all need time away on a regular basis to maintain their effectiveness. Joe had taken his break last- a weekend in New York with his fiancé, Vanessa Bender, followed by the high-octane driving course courtesy of a contact in the police department.

Frank's voice cut into Fenton's thoughts.

'Joe is gonna be so annoyed he missed the grand finale!' Frank had finally closed down his computer, satisfied nothing had been missed.

'He will, but I think he'll be pretty happy to be coming back to some regular cases. I've got some surveillance needing done for another case next week. A good old-fashioned confidence trickster'.

Frank groaned, but secretly felt pleased at the prospect of spending some time cooped up in a car with his brother. They would drive each other crazy, but in a good way!

'Anyway', said Fenton, 'he should be back in time to watch the fireworks. We've got clearance to tap into the helmet-cam feed from a couple of the stings, so we'll at least get to see some of the faces we've been chasing.'

'Don't you wish we were in there ourselves, Dad?'

'Yes and no. It would be exciting, that's for sure. But Mom and I get really fed up visiting you two in hospital and these guys are bad bastards. It's more important to get the evidence right to make sure they are put in prison and stay in prison than it is to lay hands on them in person. Don't you think?'

'I know what you mean, Dad. I'm not sure Joe would agree though!'

They both laughed.

'I hope Mom, Callie and Vanessa's lunch went well' said Frank. Frank and Joe's mother Laura, Frank's long-term girlfriend Callie Shaw and Joe's fiancé Vanessa were good friends. They had managed to co-ordinate a day off together and were planning to meet to discuss Joe and Vanessa's wedding plans before going for a dress fitting…two months to go until the big day! Callie had been so excited when Vanessa asked her to be her bridesmaid. The two had been thick as thieves, plotting and planning, ever since.

'I'm sure they're having a great time. Wine, pampering and dresses. I'm just glad I'm not there!' joked Fenton.

…..

Meanwhile, in the back of an unmarked, unregistered van across town, three women huddled up together. They were barely able to move as their captors had tied them so tight. Each was hooded and gagged.

The day had started so well! Laura, Callie and Vanessa had arranged to meet at Le Porte Bonheur, a very nice new French restaurant close to the shop where Vanessa and Callie were due to go for their latest dress fitting sessions in the early afternoon. Lunch had been fantastic and they left in good spirits. Walking arm in arm, they entered the alley leading around the side of the restaurant to the street behind. They had thought nothing of the seemingly unoccupied van parked in the alley, cab facing them. It was a mistake.