J.M.J.

Author's note: Thank you so, so much for continuing to read! Thank you especially to everyone who has reviewed since the previous chapter: every single review is greatly appreciated!

ErinJordan: Thanks! Here you go!

Max2013: I'm afraid it's true. I am an evil author. ;)

Angelicalkiss: Ooh, good guess about what happened with Biff! We're about to see whether you are right or not…

I was planning on not having to put in this disclaimer until next chapter, but there have been some unexpected delays in the writing process coming right before an expected delay. I'm going to be gone on a long weekend this weekend and there have been some hitches, so I'm not sure I'll be able to get a chapter out later this week. Worst case scenario is that I won't be able to post anything until Tuesday morning next week, but I'll try to not have it come to that. While I'm away, I'm hoping to still take some time to write, but I won't have reliable Internet, so maybe you'll extra chapters next week to make up for it. We will see. For now, enjoy the chapter and God bless!

Chapter VII

"Biff? Biff?" Joe's voice raised in pitch as he saw his friend crumple to the ground for no apparent reason.

Jim looked, too, and started when he saw the prone figure. "What happened?"

"Beats me. He just passed out." Joe hurried to Biff's side and shook him gently, laying the black rose he had been holding to the side as he did. "Biff? You with me?" Biff didn't respond.

"He just…fainted?" Jim asked. "But why?"

Joe shook his head. "I don't know. He didn't seem like he was feeling sick, and it's not like that kidnapper could have done something without someone noticing, even if he was still hanging around."

Then Biff groaned and opened his eyes.

Joe leaned over him. "Hey, Biff? You're still here?"

Biff blinked a few times. "I feel awful. What happened?"

"That's…" Joe started, but Biff cut him off by saying, "Ugh! My hands! They're burning!"

"Your hands?" Jim shone his flashlight on Biff's hands which he had begun scratching at furiously. Beneath the smudges of black paint, the skin was red and inflamed.

Joe grabbed his wrists and pulled his hands apart. "You'd better not scratch like that. You could make it worse."

"It must be the paint," Jim said.

Joe nodded. "It must be toxic or something." He gave the rose a suspicious glance, thanking his lucky stars that he had only touched the stem rather than the petals.

"Please do something!" Biff begged. "I can't stand it."

"We should wash his hands off," Jim said. "We need to take him into the mission. Do you think you can walk, Biff?"

"Anything, as long as it will stop this burning," Biff said through gritted teeth.

Joe and Jim helped him to his feet. They could tell in the light of Jim's flashlight that Biff was still pale, and his face seemed to grow even more white when they had gotten him to his feet. They had scarcely gone three steps before Biff's knees buckled and he nearly went down again. Fortunately, his friends were on either side, and they held him up.

"We'd better just carry him," Joe told Jim. "Be careful of his hands. Don't let them touch anything."

They had to let him down to the ground again before they could pick him up, with Joe taking his shoulders and keeping a close eye on his hands and Jim carrying his legs. It was hard work, since Biff was taller and more muscular than either of the others and he made for a heavy load. They didn't have to carry him far, although they not only carried him into the mission, but also to the nearest sink, which was in a kind of mud room.

"Get a bowl or a bucket or something," Joe instructed Jim. "We don't want to wash this stuff down the drain and into the water supply."

Jim scouted around for a few seconds and spotted a large tub. He put that in the sink and held Biff's wrists while Joe ran water over Biff's hands. Long before the paint had been washed away, the tub was full and Jim had to look for something else.

"You know your way around this place better than I do, Jim," Joe said. "You'd better go find my dad and Wanda and get some help over here."

"Yes, I will!" Jim hurried off to complete this task.

Meanwhile, Joe continued trying to rinse off Biff's hands as well as he could without touching them while keeping Biff from passing out again, as he was still light-headed and dizzy.

Apparently, it didn't take Jim long to find the others, because it was only a few minutes later that he came running back with Fenton, Frank, Wanda, and Alyssa behind him. They all demanded to know what had happened, but all Joe could tell him was that he really wasn't sure other than that it had something to do with the paint.

"The rose!" Joe froze as he remembered that he didn't have it anymore."I must have left it outside."

"We're going to need it," Frank said. "Both for evidence and so they can test the paint on it."

Fenton nodded. "We've got a doctor on the way. I think you'd better stay here and wait for him, Frank. Joe, you and I will go and look for that rose."

By the time the doctor arrived, Fenton and Joe had found the rose again and Jim and Alyssa had succeeded in washing most of the paint off Biff's hands. Frank was feeling much stronger, so the doctor turned his attention first to Biff.

The doctor only spoke Chinese, so Jim had to translate for the Americans.

"He says that he does not think Biff is in any danger," Jim explained.

"Well, that's good news," Biff said. "I'm feeling better now anyway." He didn't look much better, but his voice was stronger and he seemed less dizzy.

"He still says you should go to the hospital so that they can find out what the poison was." Jim chewed his lip slightly as he bided his time before adding the doctor's next question. "He also thinks we should call the police. He does not know about Jones, of course, but you called the police about her already, right?"

"Yeah, where are they?" Biff asked.

Fenton set his jaw in annoyance. "We were just discussing that before Jim came to get us. There's a slight difference of opinion, but it doesn't matter. A crime's been committed. We need to report it to the police."

Wanda shook her head. "And I already told you why we can't. If we report that Jones has been kidnapped, we're going to have to tell the police why, and then we'll have to explain all about why you're here in Ziyou and why you're here in the mission, and having that get to the government will cost us the mission, in the absolute best-case-scenario."

"And not calling the police could cost Jones her life," Frank insisted.

"I thought you were detectives," Wanda argued. "Can't you find her yourselves?"

"We intend to look, but we'll have a much better chance working with the police," Fenton insisted. "They'll have the resources and the manpower to search quickly.

"Besides," Joe pointed out, "not notifying them will be even worse for everyone when it comes out, and it will come out sooner or later."

"I'll take that chance," Wanda insisted. "Anyway, it will buy us some time. Every day we can keep this mission open could mean the difference of life or death to the people we're helping, so it's worth fighting for every single day we can get."

Alyssa had her arms folded and an eyebrow raised all through this conversation. "Look, Wanda, all due respect, and I get what you're saying, really, but this is stupid. If you're worried about saving lives, you should be worried about saving Jones' life, too."

Jim had a thoughtful look on his face and he was continued to gnaw on his lower lip. He finally spoke up. "I would rather see my uncle's murderers go free than see anything happen to Jones, but perhaps calling the police is not such a good idea. Black Rose was hired assassins. Perhaps they did not kill my uncle because they wanted him dead; perhaps they killed him because a rival of his hired them. What if the police are loyal to this rival?"

"Finally!" Wanda said. "Somebody who has some sense of the political landscape here. This isn't the United States. Sometimes calling the police here is the worst thing you can do."

"That sounds like something that someone with something to hide would say," Alyssa pointed out. "I don't care what you say. I'm calling the police right now." She took out her phone.

Wanda made a dive to grab it away, but Alyssa held it out of her reach. "I'm warning you, Alyssa: if you do this, you're out of this mission, too."

"Swell. I don't want anything to do with a so-called 'mission' that's totally cool with kidnappers and murderers getting away just because cooperating with the police would be inconvenient." Alyssa placed the call.

Wanda sighed in defeat.

HBHBHBHBHB

Biff checked out all right, although with strict orders to rest and to return to the hospital if he experienced any symptoms again. The toxin in the black paint was a mild one, although it did cause dizziness and a rash in the area where it came in contact with the skin. It would take a few days for the rash to disappear, but Biff was given a topical treatment that would ease the itching and burning. Frank, too, was declared to be fine, although he was advised to rest, as well.

It was hard to say right away how the interview with the police went. A detective named Tang took statements from the Hardys, Biff, Jim, Alyssa, and Wanda. He didn't make many comments as he did nor did he make any hasty conclusions. He did ask that all the primary witnesses remain in the area, in case he needed to ask further questions.

"I think he means in case one of us turns out to be the kidnapper," Joe grumbled as he walked out of the police precinct in the early hours of the morning. Wanda and Alyssa had either left earlier or were still being detained somewhere in the precinct, as they weren't with the group.

"It's not such an unusual precaution," Fenton told him. "He's going to want to be extra careful with this one, since it does involve a U.S. citizen. The whole situation is even stickier because there's no U.S. embassy in Ziyou."
"That's because the U.S. doesn't recognize it as a separate country from China," Frank said. "So, technically, the U.S. would want him to contact the embassy in Beijing and I'm sure he doesn't want to that."

"And there are no doubt Ziyouan officials who are going to get involved on both sides of the issue," Fenton added. "Some will want to contact Beijing, which will naturally drag China into this, and some won't want that, and the press will get involved and spin whichever direction suits their fancy. It will be a major mess by noon."

"Maybe Wanda was right that we shouldn't have called the police," Biff said.

"I am afraid she might have been," Jim agreed.

Everyone was dismal and quiet as they made their way back to the mission. They were only going to pick up their belongings, as Wanda had repeated that they were not welcome there anymore. It only took them a few minutes to do so, as the Hardys and Biff hadn't even had a chance to unpack and Jim didn't have many belongings.

"It looks like we'll have to get a hotel," Fenton commented as they walked back out on the street. It wasn't even dawn yet. "I doubt any of them will be open for check-in this early, though." He looked at his younger companions. Biff and Frank were wan and probably not feeling well after their recent experiences. Jim was blinking sleepily, and Joe's hollow eyes betrayed the fact that he was tired, too. And probably hungry, Fenton realized as hunger pangs made themselves known to him as well and he remembered that none of them had eaten supper the night before. It wouldn't be hard to find a store of some sort that was open at this hour to take care of the problem of food, but they really needed a place where they could rest for a few hours while they waited for the hotels' check-in hours to begin.

Fenton looked around him as if he expected to see a solution to the dilemma, but he was surprised all the same when he did. His glance fell on the dark shape of the little mission church down the street. If it was open, maybe they would be permitted to sleep on the pews for a little while.

He told his companions this thought, and they all agreed that anywhere they could rest for a little while would suit them just fine. So they walked down the street and went to the door of the church. It was unlocked, and they saw one person up at the front of the church. It was a young Ziyouan man, who was kneeling in the front pew and looking up at the altar, where a golden holder shaped somewhat like a sun with a Host, or a piece of Communion bread, inside it. Lit candles were lined up on either side. The Hardys and their companions immediately felt the sacredness of the place.

The young man must have heard the door open, as he turned and looked back toward it after a second or two. He must have thought the bedraggled-looking strangers, four of them obviously foreigners, looked a bit lost, and he got up to go and see if he could help them.

Jim addressed the young man in Chinese and they spoke for a few seconds. Then Jim reported, "He says it's fine if we stay here until we can find somewhere else, as long as we're quiet. He says the pews are wooden, though, and he doesn't know where any pillows or blankets would be, so he's afraid it won't be very comfortable."

"Tell him I could sleep on a rock right about now," Joe replied.

Jim told the young man something, and it was probably a translation of what Joe had just said, as the young man chuckled softly and grinned.

The Bayporters and Jim picked the back pews to stretch out in, and the boys all dozed off quickly, except for Frank. His headache and his concern for Jones didn't let him actually fall asleep, although he closed his eyes and rested them and his head as well as he could. Now that he was still and lying down, some of his headache did disappear, but it was replaced by thinking about Jones. First and foremost, he was concerned for her safety and felt guilty that he hadn't been able to protect her. Then, too, he was of course trying to think of a way to find her. But when he did find her, he realized he was in for some trouble. Clearly, Jones still had feelings for him, but he couldn't return them. Frank sighed softly. Why did girls have to be so complicated?

Fenton was the only one who didn't even pretend to go to sleep. He was tired, but he didn't want to leave the group so vulnerable as to have all of them asleep at once. A church ought to be a safe place, but then a person never knew, and their first sixteen hours in Ziyou had been eventful enough that he wasn't going to take any more chances. Besides that, he didn't want to take a chance on having another dream. The one he had had earlier had been just like all the others: Joe had been killed and it had been Fenton's fault. The image of his son gasping for his dying breaths had been a terrible thing, and even though Fenton knew it hadn't been real, he couldn't get it out of his mind. With Frank having been injured and the stress of knowing that they all might be in danger, Fenton felt certain that he would have more dreams if he went to sleep now.

Be that as it might, he did eventually doze off, sitting up in the pew with his arms folded in front of them, and the young man kneeling at the front of the church was the only one left awake.

HBHBHBHBHB

It was several hours later when someone gently shook Fenton awake. He woke with a start, his instincts honed to be wary of being woken, and he was even more on his guard when he saw that the person shaking him was a stranger, a man of about thirty-five with dark hair and European features. Then Fenton relaxed a bit as he noticed that the man was wearing a clerical collar. This was just one of the priests from the mission.

"I'm sorry," he said in a thick Eastern European accent. "I didn't mean to frighten you. We were told you were Americans?"

"That's right, for most of us," Fenton replied.

He looked around him. The young man who had been kneeling at the front of the church had moved to a different pew and about a dozen other people had gathered now. Otherwise, the church looked just the same as it had before, but with sunlight coming in through the windows. The altar was still set up as it had been. Fenton noticed now that there were large statues on brackets mounted on the wall on either side. He assumed they were Mary and Joseph. There was also a painting on the wall behind the statue of Mary. It showed the Madonna and Child, wearing rich, royal robes and crowns supported by angels on either side, although both Mother and Child had darker skin than Fenton was used to seeing and there were two scratch marks across Mary's right cheek.

"My name is Father Janusz Łaska," the priest went on. "Mass is about to start in a few minutes, but if you don't mind staying, you could have breakfast with us."

Fr. Łaska was speaking softly, but he woke the younger men, who began sitting up sleepily and looking around them in mild confusion as their brains tried to catch up to the whirlwind of events which had happened already. They were in time to hear the offer of breakfast, though, and they all readily agreed to that.

The Mass was in Chinese, so only Jim understood the words. It was a Saturday morning, so it was only a half an hour long. Afterwards, Fr. Janusz walked outside with them.

Fenton introduced the members of his group to him and then asked, "How did you know we were Americans?"

"Rong told me you were there," Fr. Janusz explained. "He's the young man who was at the church when you arrived. As for you being Americans, that wasn't too hard to figure out, considering…"

He was interrupted by a British accented voice calling, "Ah, Mr. Hardy. I was hoping to see you around here."

Fenton and the boys turned to see Edmund Wight walking toward them.