The telephone rang at a house not too far away......a ginger-haired, lithesome fellow, lounging on the counter nearby like a cougar reposing on a tawny rock high in the plains of Wyoming, picked up the line.....cool as a stealthy mountain feline.....

"Hello?"

Danny was shaky......yet sturdy......his every word almost breathless with fear.....

".......Kenickie?"

"Yeah?"

"It's Danny......"

"Hey Danny, what's the buzz?"

"Sandy.....s..s....Sandy's been kidnapped....."

"Ho, ho, very funny, Danny, that chick we saw at the bonfire?"

"I'm serious, Kenickie....she's been kidnapped....."

"By who?"

Danny desperately tried to get the words out despite his pounding heart and his head swept away in the wonder of it all.

"Bal......Balmudo...."

"Balmudo?! Why would he kidnap her? What does he want? What does he want with Sandy? With us?"

"Round up the other boys, Kenickie.....she may not be alive much longer if we don't meet the Scorpions at the abandoned warehouse on Bleeker Street at nine o' clock...."

Kenickie, Danny's right hand man in the T-Birds, was perturbed. "Man, I **knew** those Scorpions were askin' for trouble! I just knew it!"

"Take it easy, Kenickie.....one false move or flinch and it may be curtains for Sandy...."

"All right....I'll call the other boys..."

"Don't come with your pocket knife.....they want us to come as we are....."

"Black tie party......"

"You bet."

"Black tie? Why?"

"It's either black tie, man or Sandy runs red."

"Holy Toledo......man, why would they want her?"

"Beats me.....all I know is, either we're there at nine or she's gone."