Disclaimer:

For anyone deciding to proceed, may it be known that Trixie Belden, and all of her wonderful friends, take-up residence at Random House, in a magical world known as Golden Books. Sadly, I am not a part of Trixie's world, and the words following are simply a tribute, meant to help preserve her memory. In my world, I am not a professional writer, and no money will come from this project. I am just another fan with an imagination, who longs for a new Trixie mystery.

Thank you.

Chapter 1: Liftoff!

As the countdown commenced, fourteen-year-old Trixie Belden held her breath and crossed her fingers. Making up the crowd around her, the anxious girl's friends and families joined voices in the chant, "ten, nine, eight…."

In the open grassland behind the Belden's Crabapple Farm stood Jim Frayne, alone and motionless. Streams of sweat were running down the sides of his freckled face, but he didn't move to wipe them. The red-headed teenager's sole focus was on the controller box in his white-knuckled hands.

"Seven, six, five…."

The early August heatwave was one for New York's record books, and as Trixie took a step forward to gain a better vantage point, the dry grass crunched beneath her sneakers. She was glad now that she'd stuffed her short sandy curls under her brother Mart's discarded ball cap. If Trixie hadn't, she surely would have had dripping ringlets dangling in her round blue eyes. And today, of all days, she didn't want anything impairing her view.

Jim had warned all spectators to stay at least fifty feet away. It was the law, and the consciences young man did everything by the book. But Trixie was itching to storm the field. She liked to be in the middle of things where the action was—not waiting on the sidelines.

Of course, it didn't help that the tension in the air was as thick as the humidity. So Trixie had to force herself to exhale.

"Four," she breathed, adding to the rhythmic chorus. "Three, two, one…."

And in that final second, Trixie's almost twin excitedly pushed in beside her. Letting out a deafening cry of "LIFT-OFF", Mart Belden spurred Jim Frayne into action.

Only no one saw Jim's thumb go down on the plunger – all eyes were instead transfixed on the custom launchpad, which had been set up, in the middle of the backyard.

For with a sudden flash, the JF-16 model rocket, affectionately dubbed the Sky Sleuth, shook its umbilical tower and took to the air, leaving a trailing plume of exhaust in its wake.

Trixie grabbed her crew-cut blonde brother's arm, and the two jumped up and down, fully electrified.

Straight and true, the glistening torpedo was cutting through the atmosphere amid cheers of oohs and awes. Higher and higher it went until, with a sudden pop, its nose cone sprung open. But then, things went terribly wrong. The red and white parachute, which should have brought the rocket safely back to the ground, failed to deploy.

Trixie's hands flew to her mouth in alarm. Something told her that if Jim had been the type of boy who cursed, she should have been covering her ears. But Jim wasn't that type of boy. No, fearing for his friends' safety, the handsome young man discarded the useless controller and sprinted to clear everyone out of the plummeting model's pathway.

The plastic and basswood rocket was now tumbling at an ever rapid rate downward, and it was headed straight for the hard graveled driveway. As it made contact, pieces of the young man's prized model flew every which way, and he sank to his knees in despair.

Rushing to the site of the impact, Trixie's youngest brother Bobby, and his buddies Larry and Terry Lynch, were echoing squeals of "cool!" and "awesome!" But everyone over the age of six knew it wasn't so "cool" and definitely not "awesome."

The rocket's sixteen-year-old maker had spent hours and hours perfecting its aerodynamic design, and now it was back to the drawing board. In Jim's Frayne's green eyes, the Sky Sleuth's maiden flight had been a complete failure.

Only the members of the Bob-Whites of the Glen, the club the teenager had started when he first came to Sleepyside, begged to differ. Instead, the six young people, aging between fourteen and seventeen, gathered around their disheartened friend, marveling at the launch's success.

"Did you see how high that baby flew?!" Brian, Jim's closest friend, and Trixie's oldest brother exclaimed. He ran his fingers through his brown wavy hair before pulling his buddy to his feet.

Brian took after his father. He was a sensible and studious young man, with aims to become a doctor when he finished school. He was the oldest of the Bob-Whites and had a reputation for always having everyone's back.

Trixie and her other two siblings resembled their mother's side of the family. They were fairer of complexion and less down-to-earth than their beloved big brother, but equally big of heart.

"If the JF-16 had gone any higher, its trajectile would've put out the Man in the Moon's eye!" Mart chimed, adding his own two cents worth. "It was truly a spectacle beyond comprehension. Kudos to your engineering genius, Sir James."

Trixie grimaced, wishing she didn't have to pull out a dictionary every time her middle brother spoke. Mart's unique way of expressing himself was all part of his warped charm, she supposed. But that didn't mean his sister hadn't been tempted to knock him over the head with the heavy volume from time to time.

However, the Bob-Whites, also known as the B.W.G.s, were all used to Mart's fancy vocabulary. They weren't always sure of his meaning, but if truth be told, sometimes not even Mart knew what he was rattling on about. There were days, when it seemed he just liked to hear himself talk.

"I think what Mart's trying to say," Dan Mangan said with a laugh, "was that the launch was really far-out, Jim! Wouldn't you girls agree?"

Dan was a couple of years older than Trixie, with sleek dark hair and a mercury quick smile. He was normally a quiet and thoughtful young man. But the teenager also possessed a sharp, sarcastic wit, which sometimes had the teenagers questioning his seriousness.

Trixie assumed her friend's hard-bitten nature came from his upbringing. After losing both of his parents, Dan had taken to the streets of New York City and fallen in with a gang called the Cowhands - not to mention, a whole lot of trouble. Fortunately, though, this allowed Social Services to catch up with him. They were the ones who tracked down the boy's long-lost Uncle Bill Regan, who in turn relocated his nephew to Sleepyside-On-The-Hudson. And it was here that Dan met the Bob-Whites and cleaned up his act. In fact, he now hoped to become a policeman one day.

The "girls", the young man was addressing, rounded out the B.W.G.s. They included Trixie, Honey Wheeler, and Diana Lynch.

Honey, whose real name was Madeleine, was Trixie's "bestest" best friend, as Bobby Belden would say. She was as sweet as she was pretty, with glistening amber hair, which had been bobbed at her shoulders and tipped with a flip.

Honey lived in Manor House, the massive stone mansion sitting on the hill overlooking the Belden's colonial farmhouse. Dan's uncle was the Wheeler's groom, and Regan took care of the well-to-do family's stable of fine horses. Regan had an apartment above the stables, but it was small, so Dan lived and worked with Mr. Maypenny, the Wheeler's gamekeeper, in a log cabin in the middle of Honey's father's vast wildlife preserve.

Diana Lynch was Trixie's next closest friend. She resided a little further up Glen Road in another stately home. Di was a beautiful but impressionable girl who had a movie star quality about her. Having long black hair and deep violet eyes, she turned heads wherever she went. Involved in all of the arts, Diana had most recently had begun taking private vocal lessons.

Of course, like the Wheelers, the Lynches were quite wealthy and had plenty of money for this sort of thing. But this hadn't always been the case. When Trixie first met Diana in kindergarten, Di's family had rented a small apartment in town. Since then, however, Mr. Lynch had acquired a vast fortune, and in the beginning, his oldest daughter had felt out of place in her new world. But with Trixie and the Bob-White's help, Diana soon began adjusting to her family's riches and was now an active member of their club.

But even though the members of the B.W.G.s came from different backgrounds and had a wide variety of interests, the teens were thick as thieves and always there to cheer each other on.

So it wasn't surprising when the three girls wholeheartedly agreed with Dan that the liftoff had been a thrilling sight to behold!

Only Jim's face twisted with doubt as Bobby ran up and handed the older boy what remained of the rocket's main body tube. "I imagine Dad wouldn't have been too impressed," its owner sighed, noting that two of the three stabilizer fins had broken off in the crash.

But Honey begged to differ. "He most certainly would have been impressed!" she argued, her hazel eyes wide with sincerity. "Daddy would have been terribly proud of you too! He and Mother felt just awful that they couldn't be here today."

Jim was Honey's adopted brother. After his biological father died, Jim's mother had remarried a man named Jonesy. But he and Jim didn't get along. And when Jim's mother passed away, a short time later, his stepfather became physically and verbally abusive. In Mr. Jones' eyes, Jim was nothing but free farmhand.

So feeling he had no other choice, Jim had run away in search of his great uncle, James Winthrop Frayne I, who owned a Victorian mansion named Ten Acres, on the property next door to the Belden's.

However, just days before Jim showed up, Mr. Belden had found his miserly neighbor lying unconscious in his driveway and rushed him to the hospital. Sadly, the elderly man was not to recover, though Jim had hidden in his great uncle's crumbling home with high hopes that one day he would.

But that decision had nearly cost Jim his life because Jonesy, who'd been trailing Jim, had come up with a scheme to steal away his stepson's future inheritance. He planned to burn Ten Acres to the ground while Jim was sleeping inside.

Fortunately, though, just before this, Trixie had talked Honey into snooping around the old mansion. She'd been dying to get a glimpse inside of the creepy grey and yellow house ever since she'd heard a rumor that there was half a million dollars stashed within its walls.

Not surprisingly, though, Honey had been nervous about the idea. She and her father had been out on a morning ride and seen a face in one of the windows and thought the place was haunted. However, since Honey's family had also just moved into Manor House, the once lonely girl hadn't wanted her newfound friend to think she was a scaredy-cat, so she'd allowed herself to be dragged along.

Later, both Trixie and Honey would admit they were glad she had. Because it was on that fateful day, the girls stumbled across Jim, which would change their lives forever. For not only were Trixie and Honey able to help Jim escape from Jonesy, but it had been the first of many thrilling adventures, which would ignite the young ladies' shared passion for solving baffling mysteries.

And if that wasn't exciting enough, after giving Jim chase across the state in a trailer called the Silver Swan, Trixie and Honey convinced the Wheeler's to adopted Jim! Honey had gotten the brother she'd always wanted, and Trixie had discovered the "most wonderful boy in the whole world."

Jim too, felt pretty lucky when reflected back on it all. He adored his new sister. And Trixie? Well, Trixie was his special girl. If it hadn't for her, he might not have survived the fire his stepfather had set to Ten Acres, or inherited his late uncle's small fortune. One day, Jim planned to use this money to build a school for homeless boys.

So now, recognizing the apologetic tone in Honey's voice, Jim tried to put his sister's mind at ease. His adoptive parents, though very generous, were often absent from their children's' lives due to their high-profile lifestyle. Mr. Wheeler was a prominent international entrepreneur and was constantly traveling around the world on business. While Mrs. Wheeler, when not accompanying her husband on his trips, was usually busy hosting lavish fundraisers for various charitable organizations.

"Dad made it good and clear he wanted to be here," he told Honey solemnly. "But we both know if he'd chosen to come, my rocket launch could very well have spelled Sleepyside's doom."

"Sleepyside's doom!" Trixie cried, clutching her friend's freckled arm. "You can't mean that, Jim! How so?"

Jim looked to Honey, and as she nodded, he admitted that he was indeed quite serious.

"Honey and I weren't going to bring this up until tomorrow's Bob-White meeting," he told the group of alarmed teenagers. "But I suppose now is as good a time as any," he added with a sigh.

"Only you'll have to swear you won't tell a living soul!" Honey interjected dramatically. She motioned for her friends to join her under the old oak tree by the garage, where they'd be out of earshot of the younger children and their parents. "Does everyone promise?" she pressed before continuing.

Trixie was losing patience and bursting with curiosity. "Of course we do!" she replied for everyone. "And you know, as well as I do, that the Bob-Whites always keep their word. So don't keep us in suspense, Honey! Tell us what's happened!"

When Honey hesitated, Jim replied for her. "The owner of International Pine is moving his Westchester manufacturing plant to Maine, Trix. He's up in Portland now, finalizing the deal. The company's CEO, Mr. Turner, told Dad that the cost of shipping in lumber is draining them dry. Apparently, they've exhausted all of their local resources."

Dan's tan face went white as a sheet. "That wouldn't surprise me," he said. "The timber on the preserve, and Mr. Maypenny's small plot, are about all that's left."

Jim nodded solemnly. "Afraid so," he replied. "And Dad's concerned there's going to be a major uproar when the news of the closure hits. The owner hasn't informed the employees yet."

Brian gulped and leaned back against the massive shade tree for support. The news was disturbing. In the short time International Pine had been operating in Sleepyside, it had become the community's primary employer. Over half of the families in town now drew their income from the plant.

"Gleeps," he breathed, breaking the spell that had fallen over the stunned group. "First Mayor Murdock lets Mega-Mart move in, and now this."

The B.W.G.s all understood the devastating impact that losing the factory would have on their tiny community. The town council had recently voted five to four to allow a new shopping supercenter to be built on the south side of town. Mega-Mart had only been open for a few months, but some of the downtown small business owners had already boarded up their windows, unable to keep up with the competition. And many more were desperately struggling to keep their doors open. It also meant a growing number of people were already out of work, and it would be a dark day for Sleepyside for sure if the factory shut down, too.

Of course, the shopping superstore had brought more jobs to the area, but most of them were part-time positions without the medical benefits and retirement plans that people depended on. That meant many of the locals would have little choice but to move and seek work elsewhere. That, or fight long stressful commutes into the bigger cities to eke out a living. Either way, the prospect wasn't a bright one.

Trixie looked over to where her father was showing Mr. Lynch the bells and whistles on her mother's new car. The shiny yellow coupe wasn't exactly new. It was used. But it was new to Moms, and it was the car she'd always dreamed of having.

Mr. Belden had surprised his wife with it for their twentieth wedding anniversary. Trixie had never seen her mother so tickled with a gift in all her life! Just think. No longer would Moms have to drive Daddy to work, or borrow Brian's rattle-trap jalopy, when she needed to run errands or just wanted to feel the wind in her hair.

The thankful girl knew her family was very, very fortunate.

Mr. Belden had worked his way up to financial adviser at the Bank in town and made enough to support his family on one salary. Which meant Moms was able to stay home and tend to the garden and the children. It was true that the Beldens didn't have the great fortunes that the Wheelers and Lynches had, but they had lots and lots of love and enough money to get by.

But many of the kids Trixie knew from school weren't so lucky. A number of them had family members who worked at International Pine. And of those classmates, quite a few came from single-parent households.

Next to the fretful girl, Dan Mangan had been staring off into space, deep in thought too. But his worries were more personal.

"You still haven't mentioned where your father fits into all this," he said to Jim, putting a voice to his concerns. There was a hint of nervousness in the young man's timbre as he added, "Please don't tell us he's hopped his private jet, hoping to stop International Pine from relocating? He's not offering to sell them timber, again, is he? Once they use it up, they'll simply move, anyway, you know."

Last fall, when International Pine first announced their expansion plans, Mr. Wheeler had agreed to sell the company a part of the game preserve for its new facility. In his view, Sleepyside needed jobs more than his family needed a few trees. Only those acres butted right up against Mr. Maypenny's lot, and the gamekeeper had refused to sell his land, despite having been pressured to do so. Mr. Maypenny's opinion was, not only was it his home and Dan's, but also home to numerous bird and animal species.

Trixie shuddered as goosebumps rose on her bare arms. It'd been an unpleasant period in Sleepyside's history, which had not only divided neighbors but also friends and family members. Why even Jim and Mr. Wheeler had butted heads over the issue for a time, and Trixie had been afraid, then, that Jim would run away again. Or worse, that Mr. Wheeler might have the boy sent away. Luckily, the stubborn pair had come to terms – but unfortunately, that caused a rift between Jim and Dan, and the two boys had to agree, to disagree.

Thankfully though, in the end, International Pine had moved into an abandoned warehouse on the opposite end of town from the preserve.

Only now, the worried girl, like Dan, was afraid history might be repeating itself.

But Honey quickly jumped in to put her friends' minds at ease. The pretty girl was sensitive to others' thoughts and feelings and hated it when anyone was unhappy or upset. Mart said this was because Honey was "empathic", but Trixie preferred to think her friend was just kind-hearted.

"Oh no, Dan!" Honey cried, her eyes nearly doubling in size. "Mr. Turner did approach Daddy again about selling. But this time, Daddy flatly refused. He told Mr. Turner to tell his boss, Mr. Banks, that there's no reason their company shouldn't be making money. And if International Pine weren't, then either Mr. Turner wasn't doing a very good job managing them. Or, more likely, that Mr. Banks was a nothing but a money-hungry fool."

Dan's posture loosened, and he gave Honey a weak smile. "I bet Mr. Turner loved that," he said quietly.

"Actually, he didn't take it well at all," Jim replied. "And now our father feels responsible for Sleepyside's fate. So last night, he and Mother flew down to St. Louis, Missouri."

"Remember Daddy's business associate Mr. Brandio?" his sister piped in. "The one with the big aerospace factories along the Mississippi river?"

Trixie and the other Bob-Whites excitedly nodded their heads. Of course they remembered Mr. Brandio! They'd met him when they accompanied Mr. Wheeler on one of his business trips. And oh, what an adventure it'd been! Not only did the teenagers have the great fortune of taking a once-in-a-life-time boat ride on a barge called the Catfish Princess – but they'd also had the miss fortune of stumbling across a dangerous South America gun smuggling ring! All but Diana that is. She'd been away with her family at the time.

"Jeepers, don't tell me your Dad plans to convince Mr. Brandio into opening a new wing in Sleepyside?" Brian gasped. "Why that would be unbelievable!" he added.

Mart looked as if he were ready to shoot to the stars. "Not just Unbelievable!" he exclaimed. "But unparalleled, unequaled, and totally unsurpassable! Imagine! A spacecraft works in our very own backyard!"

Jim laughed and told Mart to come back down to earth. "It'd more likely be some type of parts facility," he admitted. "And it's likely we'll never know what's being assembled behind its walls. Dad said the complex would be classified, and the employees would have to take an oath of secrecy. But yes, that's his brainchild. And he's sure Mr. Brandio will go for it. Having an East Coast facility would be a big bonus when he's bidding on government contracts. "

Dan gave Jim a happy slug in the arm. "Well, as long as they leave the game preserve alone, I don't care what they assemble!" he admitted, catching the wave of excitement.

Smiling, Jim said, "There's no worry there, Dan. But there is a small hitch. Dad is afraid International Pine might not sell Mr. Brandio their old space if they discover that he's a partner in the venture. Our father's proposal depends on the use of those buildings," he went on to explain.

Brian's mood quickly sobered. "Do you really think Pine's owner would be so petty?" he asked.

"Sounds to me like they could use the money?" Diana agreed.

Honey shook her head. "Daddy's sure International Pine has more money than their letting on," she told her. "He believes the company cries bankruptcy to get people to sell off their land cheaply. And when the trees are all gone, Mr. Banks just packs up his business and heads off to the next unsuspecting town."

"Only Dad finally caught on to their dirty scheme and called them on it," Jim added.

"And in the process, has made some real good friends," Dan guessed, as the Wheeler's both nodded sadly.

Lost in thought, Trixie toed at an acorn in the tall grass. Then, in a fit of fury, she scooped it up and winged it at the trash cans sitting behind the garage with all of her might. How dare International Pine treat their town this way! If they had a beef with Mr. Wheeler, well, that was one thing. But they shouldn't take it out on the whole community. That factory had been running on Sleepyside's blood, sweat, and tears -not to mention its once beautiful resources!

Mr. Brandio just had to accept Mr. Wheeler's proposal. And he had to get those buildings. He just had to! The Bob-Whites were good at helping people. But not even the B.W.G.s could save all of Sleepyside!