CHAPTER 6
"What do you mean I'll be dead?" Joe asked in shock.
"I guess I made the deal a bit too early before they changed their minds and decided to make you as the bargain. By that time, it was too late for me to take back my words. I'd thought they would kill me if I don't give it to them, not you. That way I wouldn't be risking other people's lives," Frank replied, guiltily. "I'm very sorry about that."
"Why did you have to make the deal with them in the first place?" Joe demanded.
"Look, I didn't realize it would be going to be this way. I know I made a huge mistake," his brother confessed wearily, "I admit, I wasn't thinking clearly that time. They wouldn't let me go until I gave them the answer they wanted to hear."
"But – "
"All right, that's enough for now. No use crying over spilt milk," Mr. Hardy suddenly spoke up. His expression was deadly serious as he looked at his eldest son. "And that should teach you something, young man. You probably haven't been in this situation before, so for now, we'll be lenient to you."
"Thanks…I guess," Frank replied, still didn't feel any better. He squirmed uncomfortably on his bed.
"We need to think of our next step to outwit these people, without endangering any of you." Their father frowned thoughtfully.
"How?" Joe asked, feeling uneasy to be used as a bargaining chip.
"We work on what we have for now," Mr. Hardy told them. "I'm going to check something in my office, while you two search for the chip, and find out who sent the email to Mr. Shelbrooke. It might be nothing, but we're not leaving anything out however insignificant it is."
"All right," Joe agreed quietly, sensing the controlled anger beneath his father's calm voice. This wasn't the time to argue with his father. Joe knew his father was right. It wasn't really Frank's fault. He wondered what he would do if he was in Frank's place. Probably something worse.
When Mr. Hardy stormed out of the room, Frank turned to Joe.
"Dad's really mad, isn't he?" Frank finally commented after an uncomfortable silence.
"He'll cool off soon. I don't think he's mad at you."
"Look, Joe –"
Joe waved him off. "Don't worry about it. I forgive you."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'm a bit steamed, but like Dad said, no use getting upset over it. Those guys could have been bluffing to trick you."
Frank was unconvinced about the bluffing part. "I hope so, but thanks anyway, even though I don't deserve it."
"Like I said, don't worry. I realized you've been through a lot, and I guess…I've been unfair to you…Anyway, enough of that, let's start brainstorming about the case," Joe suggested, changing the subject.
"Right," Frank agreed slowly, massaging his pounding head.
***
"Okay, don't forget to ask George about the email virus," Frank reminded Joe during breakfast the next morning.
"I didn't forget," Joe rolled his eyes to the ceiling.
They had brainstormed about the case last night, but it didn't last long when Frank had drifted off to sleep during the discussion.
"We need to find out everything we can," Mr. Hardy said, before drinking his morning coffee. He seemed to be in his usual self – calm, and confident.
"What about your contact from the FBI? Did you find out anything?" Joe asked his father.
"No, they didn't have anything so far. It's been pretty quiet around Bayport," he replied. "The FBI are very busy concentrating on an important case in Boston right now – something to do with a company…four of their employees were murdered recently."
Frank lifted his right hand, but then fought the urge to scratch his bandaged wrist that was starting to itch. "I think Morris and his thugs had ransacked my room in the first place, and when they couldn't find the chip, they set me up with that email virus, knowing that I would either get a detention or suspension from school."
"That way no one's going to be suspicious if you left the school so that they could kidnapped you easily and interrogated you," Mr. Hardy concluded thoughtfully.
"But how could Frank have possibly obtained this chip?" Joe pointed out as he stabbed his pancakes with a fork, and popped it into his mouth.
"Like he said last night, that's the million-dollar question," Mr. Hardy said, glancing at Frank.
"I don't think anyone's given me any chip. All I want to do right now is to find this chip ASAP," Frank frowned.
"Maybe someone had slipped it into your belongings without you knowing it?" Joe suggested.
"That would be like looking for a needle in a haystack," Frank groaned. "I wouldn't know where to look first." He hadn't a chance to search for the chip last night due to his dizziness, and fatigue.
"And we also need to find out who these guys are," Joe reminded them. "I have a gut feeling something big is going on here."
"Me, too," Mr. Hardy agreed. "I still don't like the deal you've made with those people, Frank, but then it's the only chance we get to find out who they are, and what they are up to. I'm sorry about last night. I didn't mean to sound…harsh."
"I understand," Frank replied quietly.
"Well, I better get to school," Joe said, getting up from his chair.
After saying goodbyes to the others, Joe headed for the van. When he was already on the road, he couldn't help noticing a black sedan moving behind him. At first he didn't think the car was following him, but after he made a few turns before heading toward the school, the car was still on his tail.
Maybe Dad was right about someone keeping us under surveillance, Joe thought. Or maybe someone's keeping tabs on me to make sure Frank's doing his part of the bargain. He tried to read the license plate, but it was caked with mud. Why doesn't that surprise me?
If he couldn't get the plate number, he could try to study the make of the car. The car was a dark blue Honda – looked as if it was manufactured fifteen years ago, judging by its boxy design.
As Joe entered the school parking lot, he watched the car passed the school and went out of sight. He climbed out of the van and checked his surroundings again before locking the van. Noticing nothing suspicious, he jogged toward the building. He met Phil as he was climbing the stairs to his homeroom.
"How's Frank doing?" Phil asked.
"Pretty good." Joe decided not to mention about Frank's kidnapping.
"It feels strange without him in school," Phil admitted.
"I know what you mean." Joe laughed. "I feel like I'm the studious one."
During lunch, Joe headed to the system administrator's office. He knocked on the door.
Instead of expecting a guy, a pretty young woman answered the door.
"You can't be George Summers," Joe looked puzzled. "Frank kept referring George as a he."
"No, I'm not. George has to go to New York to get some backup utilities for the server, so I'm in charge here at the moment," the woman smiled, showing her dimple. "I'm Elizabeth Cornell. Call me Liz. I'm George's assistant."
"Hardy. Joe Hardy."
They shook hands.
"You must be Frank's brother," Liz remarked.
"Yup. Anyway, since George isn't here, I might as well ask you something, if you're not too busy," Joe said, pulling out the printed paper that Frank had given him this morning. His brother wasn't well last night, and he hadn't gotten time to look at it.
"Don't worry. We've already finished cleaning up the mess with the virus, but we are still closing the computer lab for today, just as a precaution."
Joe handed the paper to Liz.
"I was wondering how can you tell the email wasn't sent from outside?" he asked curiously.
"You just have to look at the MIME header," she told him simply.
"Huh?"
"Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension." She pointed to a few lines on the paper. "Look at this."
- Message-ID: POPKHFPELDKCGAAA@Bayport.High.edu
- Received: from 206.21.53.110 by mail-store-09.Bayport.High.edu; Fri, 13 Sep 2002 14:43:32 GMT
"If the email was sent from outside, it would have to go through a few networks that linked in a chain. But if you look at the 'received' line in here, there's only one IP address, 206.21.53.110, which is the computer lab, and the email was received directly by the school network," she explained, pointing to the particular line on the paper.
"That means it doesn't go outside of the school network?" Joe guessed.
"You're catching on," Liz smiled. "If you sent from outside, you might see a few 'received' lines and some extra commands like SMTP added in this email. It's like…if you want to send a letter to someone who also works in the same building, you don't have to go out of the building and go to a post office to do that. You could request the office boy to send it directly to that person."
"So, that leaves the possibility that someone else might have known Frank's password," Joe concluded thoughtfully. "But Frank is very careful about his password. He never writes it down – always keeps them inside his head."
"Are you implying that someone had hacked the school system?" Liz asked, frowning. "We would have noticed something if someone's trying to breach in."
Unless someone from the school did it, Joe added silently.
An extremely handsome tall blond guy, standing about six two, suddenly came over toward them. Joe knew he was the new guy, whom everyone in school – especially the girls, had been talking about.
"Hi, Liz, I come to get the pictures," the guy said to Liz.
"Oh, right," Liz said, slapping her forehead. "I'll be right back." She disappeared into her office.
The guy turned to Joe and smiled. "Hi, I'm Bruce Prescott. I'm brand new here."
"So, I've heard," Joe replied. "I'm Joe Hardy."
"Another Hardy? Are you related to Frank Hardy?" Bruce looked surprised.
"He's my older brother. You know him?"
"He's in my class," Bruce replied.
"Where did you transfer from?" Joe asked.
"Cambridge, Massachusetts."
Liz came out from her office and handed Bruce a few pieces of printed pictures of the school.
"Thanks," Bruce said to her. "Are you sure we've never met before?" he suddenly asked her with a grin.
Liz laughed. "Silly! I would have remembered someone like you."
But Joe thought she looked a little bit uncomfortable.
"Just a thought," Bruce shrugged. "Anyway, see you guys later." With that, he left them.
Then Joe turned to Liz. "If you find out something else about the email, why don't you give us a call," he said, pulling out a piece of paper and wrote his home number on it.
"Sure," Liz replied, exchanging phone numbers and addresses with Joe.
When Joe got home after school, he heard sounds of things being shuffled, and wood being dragged against wood from Frank's room.
He knocked on the door. "Frank?"
"Yeah." Came a faint reply.
"What are you doing?" Joe asked after he opened the door. He saw Frank's desk drawers lay opened. A pile of plastic green electronic boards, and electronic components lay cluttered next to an empty shoebox on the desk.
"What do you think?" Frank retorted. "I've been searching for that stupid chip."
"Still nothing?"
"I would have found something if those goons would be a little more specific." Frank snapped the drawer shut, and sighed in frustration.
"What about these little things?" Joe asked, scrutinizing the tiny electronic components on the desk. He picked up something that looked like a tiny black three-legged plastic spider.
"That's not a chip, Joe. It's a transistor." Frank shook his head. "I've had those components for ages. It couldn't be in them."
"Where's Dad, by the way?" Joe asked, as he rummaged through a small box, that was filled with a coil of wires, screwdrivers, and other tools.
"He went to pick up Mom from the airport, remember? She's coming back from Scotland. They might be back a little later after dinner."
"Have you taken your medicine?" Joe suddenly asked.
"Yes, Joe, thank you for asking. Don't worry about me."
"I'm just concerned."
Frank hadn't a chance to reply when the phone in the living room rang.
"I'll get that." Joe jumped up from his seat and rushed to the phone.
"Hardy residence," he answered.
"Joe?" a vaguely familiar voice asked hesitantly.
"Liz Cornell?"
"Yes, it's me. I'm at home now. Anyway, I've found something else about the e– "
Suddenly, Joe heard something crash, like a glass breaking, at the other end of the line. He heard Liz screaming, and the line went dead.