Chapter Eleven: Death by blackmail (Joe Hardy)

"You're not going to get away with this," I rip around in the dim hallway to face Tino as soon as Nancy leaves the train car.

"Never mind me getting away—what about you, Hardy?" I swear he almost laughs when says it—if it's even possibly to be that sick—grabbing me by the arm and slamming my back into the wall. "Surprised you didn't take this opportunity to run like the little coward that you are,"

I struggle to break free, wanting to deck this guy so ripping much.

Tino grabs my hand—the one that's still bleeding all over the place, and nails it to the wall with his, pinning me right where I am. "Nicely done, getting Nancy out of here. Why? So we can finish what we started?"

I shake my head slowly, acting unfazed by all of this. "I don't want to fight with you anymore, Tino—"

"Really." the liar actually smiles.

I swallow, trying to get my blood to stop boiling.

I don't really know how I did it, or what happened back there, but I somehow got Nancy to leave—telling her that I'd meet up with her in the dining car to fill her in on everything.

Why I didn't just burst out right then was because I didn't want Nancy to get hurt. I mean, I just went through an all-out war with this guy, and he didn't let up. I could just barely make it out myself. What if Nancy had been there? One of us would've gone down. And God, I didn't want it to be her. Tino is so not going to get away with this—with any of this.

"You're still trouble, Hardy. Don't you act like I don't know it." Tino gets right in my face, narrowing his eyes to tense slits. "I could have you arrested right now if I felt like it—do you realize that?"

I almost want to laugh at this point—and I would, if I wasn't in such ripping agony. I think the story went like this: Cop tries to kill teenager. Teenager punches cop. Cop tries to kill teenager again. Teenager is arrested for punching cop. Am I the only one seeing kind of a flawed system, here?

"I didn't do anything wrong," I drag my gaze up to meet his. "You're the one who deserves to be arrested. And you know it."

Tino nails me into the wall harder. "It's not about what you did wrong.. it's about what you know."

"It's about what you admitted, you mean?"

His grip on my arm tenses up. "…No. It's about what you know. You're not going to walk out of this place and go blab to Nancy or your brother or anybody else about what happened tonight. Nobody is going to know about that." he nods shallowly in the direction of the door we just came through. "Nobody is going to know, you hear me? Because you're not going to tell them."

"And why wouldn't I."

"Because." he pulls back slightly, looking down at me for a second before finishing. "If you open your mouth, Hardy, if you breathe a word about this? She dies."

My throat runs dry, almost instantly. I swallow the lead weight. "Who are you talking about."

He almost smiles. "You know who I'm talking about. Nancy." he starts emphasizing every syllable just to drill it in deep. "If you dare to breathe a word about this to anyone? I promise you that girl will die a slow, painful death, and never live to solve another mystery again."

I swallow hard, that sick wrenching feeling coming back into my gut. "You wouldn't do that."

He laughs dryly, shallowly. Barely. "Yeah, you'd like to think that, Hardy. But the thing is? I would. I swear to God that Nancy's life is depending on whether you shut up or not."

Two seconds. "I don't need to tell Nancy about this. Or Frank. Or anyone on this train." I pause to pull in a breath, feeling Tino's vice grip on my arm letting up a little bit. "You don't know this about me, but I have bigger connection. I'm actually an undercover agent. For an operation called ATAC—maybe you've heard of it."

Tino just looks right at me for a few moments, then gradually a sick smile evolves on his face. "No, you're not," he shakes his head slowly, "you're no undercover agent."

"You want proof?" I've never actually had to do this before. "Because I can show you proof." I use my free arm to reach into the pocket of my jeans and take out my skinny wallet, which is really just a disguise for my ATAC ID. So it is quickly ripped out and pretty much thrown in Tino's face.

He takes the ID card from my hand, giving it a once-over and shaking his head again. "This badge means nothing—it's worth nothing."

"What're you talking about?"

Tino almost laughs at this, looking back up at me. "You're no undercover agent now, Hardy. You're ID is expired."

Oh God. This isn't happening.

"This ID here in my hand? It's worthless. Any real detective would know to destroy worthless documents like this." he takes his hands off me completely, then takes the ID card in between his fingers and rips it in half, then to pieces, throwing the remains of the badge down on the floor.

This cannot be happening. It just can't. I watch wordlessly, everything pouring down into my head all at once.

You stupid, stupid idiot loser. How could you have forgotten about the forms? About the expiring ID? About the nightmare that follows it?

"As far as I'm aware," Tino turns back to me, that same twisted smile stuck on his face. "Your Private Investigator ID has been suspended for the time being. You never sent in those certification forms. As of right now, Joseph Hardy does not belong to ATAC. He does not have any connection with ATAC whatsoever."

I just stand here for a few seconds, completely voiceless. Feeling like I've been shot in the head with a tranquilizer gun. And he just watches my stunned expression, like the sick villain that I know him to be. "…Am I leaving anything out, Hardy?"

.I can't ripping believe this guy.

"So now you have nothing. Nothing to hide behind." Tino clamps on of his cold, damp hands down on my shoulder, bringing his voice down again. "You shut your mouth from this point forward, you understand? Don't talk about this to anyone. You know what will happen if you talk." he backs off a few inches. "…You know what will happen to Nancy."

At this point, I'm done. I feel like a thousand pound weight is dragging me down, like if everything that happened is trying to numbly wipe itself out of my memory, like if it's too overwhelming to live with. But it can't be wiped out—it's there. Staring me in the face, and I don't even know how I'm going to get through it.

I break out of Tino's grasp on my shoulder and push past him to get out of the cramped little hallway.

"Don't forget, Hardy." those are the last words I hear from him—they chase me down the hall and get to my ears just before I can escape the train car.

I slam the door.