J.M.J.

Author's note: Thank you for continuing to read! Thank you especially to everyone who left reviews on the previous chapter: max2013, are, angelicalkiss, ErinJordan, and Bkworm4life4! I so appreciate the encouragement to keep on writing. I expect there to be about twenty-three or twenty-four chapters in this book, so things really are coming to the climax. In a way, you could argue that the climax started last chapter. Either way, things are about to get very, very tense.

Chapter XX

Attack

Frank kept his eyes on Evangeline, but he spared a little attention for the two gunmen, too. They were an even greater threat in many ways, after all. If Evangeline missed her shot at Mario—which seemed likely since Mario was taking Frank's advice and holding perfectly still—these two goons would doubtless take over and they wouldn't make the same mistake. Still, Evangeline was the one actively threatening to shoot, and so she was the most immediate threat.

Evangeline aimed the gun, but she hesitated. Clearly, she wasn't as sure about where Mario was as she had said. For a moment, she let the muzzle of the gun drift upward. Then she tried aiming again. Mario tensed, but he still didn't move or say a word, other than to cast a glance at Frank.

The gunman who had lent his weapon to Evangeline folded his arms in annoyance. "Look, sweetheart, if you don't have it in you…"

"Shut up!" Evangeline practically screeched at him. "Just shut up. I've waited for this moment a long. I'll grant you that the other three—Johnson, Hardy and Radley—were always bigger priorities than this one, but still…"

If she continued speaking beyond that point, Frank never knew. There was a sudden explosion, not immediately close to them but not so very far away, either, that caused them all to jump. It was so unexpected that for a moment, Frank didn't react. The only thing that saved them all was the fact that Evangeline and the two thugs seemed to be just as surprised, giving Frank time to recover before they did.

Frank pounced on the thug who was still armed. He knew jumping an armed man was a desperate thing to try, but he had to try something. At the same time, Mario made a dive for Evangeline and her gun. The woman didn't even try to put up a fight. She practically dropped the gun and took off running into the trees with her other accomplice following her.

Frank's struggle with the one thug didn't last long. The man gave him a hard shove that sent him reeling backwards and then took off running himself. Frank and Mario stood breathing hard for a few moments, but then Frank made a move to follow the trio.

Mario grabbed his arm and held him back. "Hold on! That guy's still armed and they might just be going for backup."

"We can't let them get away!" Frank struggled to free himself from Mario's grip.

"Like letting ourselves get killed is going to help bring them to justice," Mario argued. "Besides, that explosion came from the direction of the house. You don't think Black Rose or Evangeline or whoever the heck we're dealing with would try blowing up the Mortons' house, do you?"

Frank's face blanched at the thought. "I don't know, but you're right. We'd better out." He glanced at the gun in Mario's hand. "Careful with that. It's evidence. You don't want to smear any fingerprints on it. I know that we already know that that was Evangeline, but that could be our ticket to identifying her little friend."

"Right," Mario agreed. "I'll be careful. But if they jump out at us and try to kill us again, I can't guarantee I won't try to defend myself."

HBHBHBHBHB

A few minutes earlier, Joe and Iola were just reaching the barn behind the Morton home. Iola's horse, a bay named Jackson, was grazing behind it. He raised his head and whickered when he heard his young rider approaching. Iola rushed forward and stroked his neck.

"I'll need to get his saddle and bridle from the tack shed," she said, turning to Joe.

"Right." Joe hesitated. "Iola, I know we've got other things to worry about right now, but I thinking about what happened earlier, at the church."

"You're not rethinking that, are you?" Iola asked, a little concerned for a moment.

"No," Joe assured her hastily. "I was just thinking that I wish we hadn't been interrupted."

Iola grinned. Then she reached up and placed a kiss on his lips. They remained there longer than they had intended, but finally they stepped apart.

Iola was a little flushed. "I hope that wasn't too…" She paused at a loss for words.

"No, I don't think so," Joe replied.

Iola smiled, but then she said, "Maybe we'd better get back to business now."

"Right," Joe agreed.

They hurried over to the tack shed, which was a separate building from the barn. Iola took a halter from it and handed it to Joe, asking him to lead Jackson over here. Joe trotted back over to where the horse was standing to do so and then began leading him back. He was about halfway there when he saw something fly out from behind the nearby barn and land just in front of the tack shed where Iola was still gathering the saddle, blanket, and bridle. Joe started to shout a warning, but there wasn't time before the object exploded.

The concussion knocked Joe off his feet. Unfortunately, he had a tight hold on Jackson's lead rope, so when the horse reared up in terror, Joe's hand somehow got tangled up and he found himself getting dragged a yard or two before he could pull himself loose. For a moment, all he could do was lie there in the grass, unable to think of anything besides how badly his hand hurt. When he looked down at it, he saw that his palm was cut open and it was bleeding.

However, at the same instant, he saw something else that made him forget his own pain. The front wall and door of the tack shed had been demolished by the blast from the grenade, and Iola was nowhere in sight. Joe struggled to his feet and hobbled as well as he could to the shed.

"Iola!" he shouted, a moment before he saw her lying beneath some debris. The blast had knocked her several yards and she was now lying face-down and unconscious. Joe hurried to her side. "Iola?" Joe said again, but she made no response. He bent down and felt for a pulse with his good hand. There was a strong one.

Just then, Molly Morton came running from the direction of the house. "What happened?" she demanded a moment before she saw her daughter on the ground and rushed to her side.

"Someone threw a grenade," Joe said. "We'd better call 9-1-1."

"I left my phone in the house," Molly replied. She grasped her daughter's hand and didn't make a move to go toward the house.

Joe was about to tell her that he had his phone on him when suddenly the world started seeming fuzzy and a white mist covered his vision. He had the sensation of hitting the ground, but it didn't hurt and then everything faded away.

HBHBHBHBHB

It felt like a long time later or like it was someone else's life and he was just watching when Joe felt someone holding his hand and rubbing his wrist. He didn't like the handholding, but that didn't matter right now. It wasn't like any of this was really happening. Things like this didn't happen.

But then the world slowed down from spinning around him and seemed to become more real. He opened his eyes and saw Mario looking down at him. Then he looked to see who was holding his hand. It was Frank. Joe yanked his hand away.

"What are…" he began to mumble, but then he remembered what happened. "Iola!" He tried to sit up, but Frank pushed him back down.

"Hold on," Frank told him. "I don't know what happened to you, exactly, but you'd better just relax."

Joe looked around him without sitting up. Everything looked exactly the same as it had before except that Molly Morton was gone and Frank and Mario were here.

"Why didn't you call 9-1-1?" he demanded.

"It's only been about three minutes," Frank told him. "They haven't had time to get here. Just calm down, Joe."

"Where's Mrs. Morton?"

"She went to the house to get some blankets. Just stay calm."

"Where's Iola? Is she okay?"

"She's okay." As Frank said it, he glanced to where Iola was still lying unconscious. What Frank had said was mostly true, at any rate. She was alive, at least, and just seemed to be unconscious, but Frank was no medical expert. She could be far more badly hurt than he realized.

Before Joe could ask any more questions, Tony and Chet, with Lisa in tow, came running across the pasture.

"Wow! What happened?" Chet asked.

"Your mom said something about a grenade," Frank explained.

"Whoa," Tony replied. "You can never tell what's going to happen with you Hardys around. Is anybody hurt?"

"Well…" Frank began and glanced from Joe to Iola.

That was the first time Chet noticed his sister and he hurried to her side.

"There's one other thing," Mario said. He held up a black rose. "We found it when we arrived on the scene."

Lisa folded her arms. "I told you they were everywhere."

"Why do you want to be part of a group like this?" Mario asked her.

Lisa rolled her eyes. "Don't be an idiot, whoever you are. School of Thought was founded to counteract Black Rose, which is a totalitarian group bent on establishing the New World Order."

Tony did a facepalm. "Please, Lisa, how can you not see that that is so stupid." Lisa cast him a dirty look.

"Besides," Mario spoke up, "whatever they told you, we were just told by a source that is probably reliable on this topic that Black Rose and School of Thought are one and the same thing."

"I recorded the conversation," Frank said, taking his phone out of his pocket and tossing it to Lisa. "You might want to listen to it."

Lisa dropped the phone on the ground. "I don't need to listen to your lies."

"I'll listen to it." Tony bent down and picked the phone up. The recording was already on the screen and all Tony had to do was tap "play".

…whole thing with Lisa, Frank's voice came over the phone. Someone scoffed, and then a woman's voice said, Lisa. She's an idiot, but a useful idiot.

Lisa's face reddened as the rest of the recording played. "It's not true!" she insisted. "It's a lie! They've even gotten to you!" Then she sat down on the ground and began to sob, much to the disgust of the boys.

Then Molly Morton returned with the blankets, and everyone turned their attention to more important matters.

HBHBHBHBHB

Laura paced back and forth in the emergency waiting room at the hospital. She had spent more hours than she cared to recall doing just this, whether she was waiting to hear news about her husband or about one of her sons. Most of the time, it was something minor, which was probably the case now. She had been told that Joe would need stitches in his hand and he might have broken some bones in it. That would be ugly if that was the case. Still, it wasn't like he was in danger.

Her worried train of thought was broken by her husband hurried into the room. "I came as soon as I could," he explained. "Is there any news?"

"Not from the doctors yet," Laura said. "Frank says that Joe seems to be all right."

Both she and Fenton turned their attention to the larger group who was sitting down. In addition to Frank and Gertrude, this also included the Mortons. Tony and Lisa were at police headquarters at the moment with their parents, as was Mario, to give their statements about what had happened. Captain Olaf had given Frank, Chet, and even Molly some static for wanting to go to the hospital rather than give their statements immediately, but Chief Collig had intervened to let them go.

"I don't think Joe was hurt very badly, Dad," Frank said. "His hand was in rough shape and he had some other bruises, but I think he's okay."

"Good," Fenton replied, taking in a long breath of relief. "What about Iola?"

Everyone instantly looked a little grimmer.

"She has a back injury and she was knocked out pretty hard," Laura explained to him softly. "We don't know how bad it is yet."

Fenton bit his lip and nodded. There was no use conjecturing. The only thing to do was to wait and pray.

A few minutes later, a doctor whom the Hardys had met before, Dr. Barton, came out of the emergency room and called for the Hardys. Immediately, the family gathered around him, asking about Joe.

"He's fine," Dr. Barton told them. "His hand is the worst injury. It did require quite a few stitches, but there were no broken bones, which is remarkable after what he says happened to him. He is going to need to keep the bandages on his hand and not get the stitches wet for the next ten days. As for his other injuries, he's got a lot of bruises and he's going to be pretty sore for a few days. He'll probably want to keep fairly quiet."

"We'll see about that," Fenton said with a knowing grin. Keeping quiet was not Joe's forte. "Can we see him now?"

"He'll be out in a minute," Dr. Barton replied. "There's no need for him to stay here."

Sure enough, Joe came out of the emergency room a short time later. He was subdued, although he did ask about everything that happened while he was being examined. The Hardys talked it over in the corner, out of earshot of the Mortons.

"At least we know now who was behind Mitch's murder," Fenton said, although judging from the frown on his face, the information did nothing to alleviate the concern he had for the whole case. "We know for sure that Mario, Sam, and I are the other targets, and we know that School of Thought is Black Rose. Really, the only thing left to do is capture Evangeline and the Black Rose people."

"Easier said than done," Frank replied. "I wish we wouldn't have let them get away."

Fenton didn't comment directly on this. Instead, he said, "Hopefully that gun that Mario was able to get away from the one gunman will give us some clues that will lead us to Evangeline. Collig is having his men get right on it, checking the fingerprints, running a ballistics test, and checking the registration. I doubt the gun is registered, but you never know when you might get lucky."

"What about the grenade?" Joe asked.

"Collig has bomb squad out there right now looking for fragments of it," Fenton explained. "If they can determine the type of grenade, we might be able to trace where it came from."

Gertrude shuddered. "I don't like the idea of you boys having anything to do with people who throw grenades."

"Me neither," Laura spoke up, "but if these people are making targets of them, they're not going to stop just because the boys stop investigating. They've already proven that. The safest thing for all of us to see these people captured as soon as possible. If the boys can help accomplish that by investigating, I think they should."

Fenton nodded slowly. "I agree."

"So we're officially back on the case?" Frank asked, perking up a little.

"Yes, but only if you follow orders and don't get into trouble," Fenton said.

"You can count on us, Dad," Joe replied, more serious than he normally would be. "I'm starting to really want to put these people in jail."

Their conversation stopped when they saw a doctor approach the Mortons and begin to speak with them. The Hardys all held back, knowing they had no right to intrude. Yet, when they saw Molly's eyes fill with tears and Chet and his father both register blank, shocked expressions, they knew the news couldn't be too good.

After a few seconds, Joe couldn't stand the suspense any longer. He hurried forward. "What is it?" he asked, trying to be gentle, but not being entirely successful in his worry. "What's wrong?"

Molly turned to him slowly, her eyes wide and tear-filled. "He says that Iola is paralyzed."