Hi readers! A new chapter! I'm sorry they are far and few between. School is priority but I'm done soon so that's exciting! Enjoy!
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"Nancy, it's Frank. Can you give me a call at this number when you get in? I think we may have a break in the case. Thanks."
Nancy felt a rush of déjà vu. The last time she had a message that sounded like that, Frank had asked her to play his wife and go to Cairo. That trip had been a fiasco and they had almost been killed. However they caught the bad guy Jonathan Krieger.
And they had shared their second of only two, amazingly wonderful kisses.
Nancy felt her face flush at the thought. She remembered quickly feeling guilty afterwards, thinking about Ned and she was sure that she saw regret in Frank's eyes too. He had Callie to think about. They had parted as "really great friends". Too bad.
Nancy wondered what the break in the case was. She suddenly felt nervous and excited at the same time. Excited because they finally had a break through in the case and nervous because it would be the first time she would talk to Frank since he helped rescue her.
Stop being such a fraidy-cat! Nancy scolded herself, nervous about picking up the phone. It's Frank. You've known Frank for years – nothing has changed.
Taking a deep breath Nancy picked up the phone and dialed the number Frank had left her on the back of the card that had come in the flowers.
It rang twice before a deep voice answered.
"This is Frank Hardy."
For a moment Nancy couldn't say anything. It wasn't fair that he even sounded sexy over the phone.
"Hello?"
"Um…hi. Hi Frank, this is Nancy." Nancy said, holding the phone tightly. For a moment both ends were quiet.
"Hi Nancy. I see you got my message." Frank said, his voice sounding tiny in the phone.
"Yeah. What's this breakthrough you mentioned?"
"Joe and I think we might know where Saffron is operating from. His Athens warehouse was the most logical choice. It was raided yesterday and they found nothing. The entire place had been cleaned out."
"If Athens is quiet, where do you think he'll go next?" Nancy asked, her mind jumping into work mode. She flipped open a folder on her desk with all the information they had on Saffron. His "empire" was huge and he had warehouses all over the world.
"We're still talking to contacts but we will let you know at the meeting tomorrow. Listen Nancy, I gotta run but I will talk to you soon okay?"
Before Nancy could reply, Frank said bye and hung up the phone. Nancy couldn't help but feel a little hurt but shook it off. Frank sounded busy anyway. She thought over what Frank had said about the Athens warehouse.
Nancy looked at the map of the area where the Ark I had been anchored. Fighting a sudden shiver, she looked at the blue pin that indicated the yacht and red pins where information told them Saffron's warehouses were located.
The closest ones surrounding the Athens warehouse, which she replaced with a black pin to signify it was confirmed empty, were a few in surrounding Greek islands, Istanbul, Turkey, Odesa, Ukraine and Madrid, Spain. However, big ones were in Northern Ireland, Columbia and Cairo, Egypt. Nancy paused at the Cairo pin.
"So what is this assignment? I'm dying to know."
She could hear the hesitation in his voice, even over the phone.
"The assignment is – you and I have to, um, pose as newlyweds. And Joe and Bess, too."
"What?!" She cried, almost dropping the phone.
Nancy smiled as the memory of that phone call played through her mind. She had been excited about the prospect of a case but nervous about being put into such an intimate position with Frank. It didn't surprise her that they had fallen into the roles so easily. Frank had always been someone who completely understood her and vice versa. She had caught herself a few times thinking about what it would be like to be married to Frank Hardy.
It had just felt so right.
Sighing, Nancy flipped the folder closed and closed that memory with a snap. Her relationship with Frank, not that there was much of one other than being distant friends, would remain professional throughout this case.
It has to be. Nancy thought. He probably doesn't even remember those kisses. It's been too long.
Nancy bit her lip. There wasn't much else she could do besides wait for the meeting with the Hardys in the morning – and keep it strictly professional.
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In the next room, Cody was looking at similar information. He was growing more frustrated by the minute. He knew he was missing a key point to the puzzle.
He turned to two other folders. One read Hardy, Frank CIA and the other Hardy, Joseph CIA. Inside was a dossier on each CIA agent and all the information Cody could find. He could help be impressed by some of the cases the brothers had worked on. It didn't sit well with him the amount of cases they had teamed up with his partner on but there wasn't much he could do about it. The information was, however, useful.
Their style was something to note. Frank seemed to be the smart one whereas Joe was all action-packed. They backed each other up however so it showed the roles could be reversed. Joe was no slouch and Frank was tough.
Then there was the way Nancy lit up when talking about Frank Hardy. Sure, she went to lunch with just Joe and had ended up being shot at, but she talked about Joe more like a brother. With Frank…Cody was sure there was a connection there.
Guess I'll find out at the meeting. He leaned back in his desk chair and threw his pen in frustration. A knock on the door interrupted his brooding.
"What?" He growled.
"Agent Brooks? I need to talk to you about Agent Drew." Came Eddie Kirkpatrick's voice. Cody looked up.
"Following her around again Kirkpatrick?" Cody asked, watching the young man. He studied him closely. Eddie was of average high and weight, dull brown eyes and slack brown hair. He was pretty average all around. Sadly, forgettable.
Cody had noticed Eddie's slight infatuation with Nancy from the moment the two had been introduced. Nancy was always polite but Cody knew it slightly irritated her when Eddie was a constant shadow. Some of the other agents teased him about it.
Eddie wasn't smiling.
"I know how Saffron found out about Nancy's undercover operation." He said as he stepped fully into Cody's office. He closed the door behind him.
Cody's eyes widened and he sat up straight.
"I didn't know you were on this case Kirkpatrick." Cody said, motioning to the chair in front of his desk. He waited until Eddie made himself comfortable. "How'd you get this information?"
"I have my sources," Eddie said once he sat down. He placed a stack of papers on Cody's desk. "A transmission was sent to the yacht from Milan. The information sent was sent to Milan from the States."
Cody picked up the papers and started looking through them. It was an entire dossier on Nancy. Her life before she joined the DIA, full accounts of the cases she worked on with the DIA and the entire set up plans for infiltrating Saffron's empire.
"Where in the States?" Cody asked, looking for a transmitting number. He missed the dark look in Eddie's eyes when Eddie answered.
"McLean, Virginia. From the offices of the CIA. The fax machine belongs to Frank Hardy."
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Hi everyone! So I inputted a few lines from Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys Supermystery: Secrets of the Nile. It is my all-time favorite Supermystery. Thank you for sticking with me so far and thank you so much for all the reviews!
