21. Chapter: Betrayal ------------------------------------------------------------ Well, here's a new chapter! I expect more tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- A group of people tiptoed down the hallway. They were all wearing black clothes and masks.

They stopped in front of the door.

One of them looked up to the ceiling, to the dark corner where he knew there was a camera. He smiled at it, though it couldn't be seen because of the mask.

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In the control room Luise Walker smiled too but that couldn't be seen either, because she was alone there. She looked at all the screens. She frowned when she noticed that Tony Prito had also disconnected the surveillance camera in his bedroom. Then there were two blank screens.

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One of them put it's ear against the door. No sound.

'Kill Hardy and Prito, bring Julia to me but... if necessary, kill her too...' that was the order.

'Elaine...do it.'

A woman squatted and started to prod up the lock. After a moment the door was open. The group moved slowly and quietly into the room. Except two who were supposed to stay outside and guard it.

Jerry noticed a pillglass on the desk. He took it up with glove-covered hand an read on it. He almost laughed. A soporific. That was way too easy.

Another man opened a drawer beside the bed and removed a gun from there. Then he looked at the bed. He saw some brown curly hair stand out from the cover. He took a deep breathe. Jerry came to him. 'What's wrong, Phil?' he asked.

'I'd hate to kill her' Phil whispered.

'I know. Now, let's be cool' Jerry said in a low voice. 'Guys, come here.'

They all gathered around the bed.

'Pull off the cover very slowly when I say. Elaine, come here, stand to the right, if they wake up shoot him, if she wakes up hurry and make sure she won't yell. If she has a gun under the pillow and gets to it, shoot, got that?'

The woman nodded.

'Wait, does she have a gun in the drawer?' Phil asked.

'Check it out' Jerry answered.

Phil did. 'Nothing.'

-'All right, let's get this over and done with.' Jerry took the security off the gun and aimed it to the bed.

They didn't need much. They only moved the cover for a few cm, then they saw that there were no people under it. There were just pillows and clothes under it and some lovelocks.

Jerry hissed and went to the surveillance camera and connected it.

Luise saw that.

He shrugged and shook his head.

Luise understood the sign and hit her palm with her fist.

'Damnit!'

She connected the sound-system and put headphone on her head.

'Look in the safe' she ordered.

It didn't take long to blast the safe, but that was all for nothing. Jerry's face almost went purple.

'How the hell did they know?' he asked himself.

'Check out Tony' Luise ordered again.

Jerry nodded and gave his people a sign to follow him.

They walked fast to Tony's room.

They planned to open the door the same way as Joe's room but it was already open, that could only mean one thing.

They deprived the cover off the bed. Of course it was empty.

Jerry cursed silently. Where could they have gone?

In the control room Luise opened the camera recorder to rewind it to see where Joe and Tony had taken her sister. She frowned when she realized that there were no tapes in it. Why didn't she just let someone in to watch the cameras? She cursed. 'Damn you Hardy!' ----------------------------------------------------

Joe, Julia, Tony and five of their supporters walked in a file down the main hallway. Tony and another man were carrying big, long baseball bats which they used to wreck all surveillance cameras and lights on their way.

Joe was carrying a big sport bag and Julia was carrying a flashlight.

Everyone else were carrying weapons (Walker & Jennings production, of course, though the name Jennings had been sandpapered off).

They went into a hall.

Nancy was once again disturbed in her thoughts and escaping plans when the door opened. She looked to them and saw Joe and Julia standing there with evil smile on their faces. Randy frowned. He and Nancy had had a chat while no one was looking after them. He wouldn't believe that Joe was a criminal.

Now when he saw him there he couldn't help staring.

'You? You killed my sister?!' suddenly he lost control and tried to reach to Joe but the chains held him down. 'You f*#%-ing, darn bastard, you...I'll...!'

'Randy, u-um' Nancy said calmly and shook her head warningly.

Joe smiled innocently. 'No, Randy, I didn't kill Sarah. I never kill my ex- girlfriends.'

Randy calmed himself down and grinned at Joe. 'But you killed your first girlfriend, didn't you?'

Joe's face went pale and he stared angrily at Randy.

'Release them' he ordered.

'What?' Nancy thought and looked at him.

Joe noticed that.

'From the chains, I mean. You're coming with us for a little trip, how does that sound?' he said and grinned.

Nancy's hope died.

Tony and Julia walked over to them and unlocked the locks.

While Julia was opening Randy's chains she whispered to his ear. 'Your sister took a long time to die, thought you should know... that...that I regret it. But done is done.'

Randy's whole body shook.

'Let's go now' Joe said when they were loose. 'And you two won't try anything, you'd only get lost and then blown up' he warned Nancy and Randy.

'Blown up?' Nancy repeated.

Joe nodded. 'The police knows about the place but they don't know that we're here and they're only going to explode the entrance, anyway. But I don't risk anything...so, let's go!'

When they went out on the hallway red warning lights were blinking.

'Oh, great. We better move on' Tony said.

'Yeap. Let's run!' Joe said and started running.

His partners did the same thing and two of them dragged Nancy and Randy with them, they're hands were tied behind their backs and they were gagged too.

They ran all the way down the hallway, on the end of it there was a big steel door.

Julia typed some secret code on a palm-small computer affixed on the wall beside the door.

After a moment it began to move and slid aside.

Just then a group of people came running down the hallway.

'Shit!' Tony rasped out as everyone went into the hall quickly, he followed but because the door was very slow he had time to destroy the computer with one of the baseball bats and pull it and his arm back in.

Julia shot a few bullets out so Luise's people couldn't come closer 'til the door slid softly into it's place.

They threw themselves on the door but that only hurt their shoulders.

Then they tried to shoot the door down but the bullets bounced back at them and they just managed to move away from it.

The two who were guarding the door inside heard the sound of their curses, they just grinned.

Inside the hall, two helicopters stood in the middle, ready to fly.

Tony walked around and smashed all the surveillance cameras in there, with loud sounds and sparkles. He didn't forget one.

Joe came out of the other helicopter. 'Everything's ready!' he announced.

'Leanne, you'll come with us, you others take Randy and go first' he ordered.

They only nodded and did what they were ordered, they were like robots without feelings and sense.

There was a big computer there, contained a whole wall, and it was used to open and close a huge trapdoor in the ceiling.

The pilot started the helicopter so terrible noise resounded inside the hall.

Joe opened the trapdoor.

The helicopter lifted from the floor and flew up and out.

Tony and Julia carried Nancy to the other helicopter without any resist. The woman, named Leanne, followed and sat in the co-pilot seat.

Joe finished doing, whatever he was doing, in the computer. He stood up, put something into his pocket and ran to the helicopter.

'Quick, quick! We've got 5 minutes' he muttered. 'Go, go, go!' he urged the helicopter.

He sat in the pilot seat and after a minuet the helicopter joined the other high in the air.

'Just in time' Joe muttered when he looked down.

At least five police cars were down there by the river. An ambulance and a fire department car. And Fenton Hardy's car.

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If someone would have seen Luise in the control room he would have thought somebody threw a bucket of red paint over her head.

'Jerry!!!' she yelled in the microphone. 'Get back here!!! They're out!!'

Jerry commanded his people to return to the control room.

When they came there, Luise was watching the later helicopter fly away.

All the police officers were looking up.

'Oh, great, the police' Jerry said in a low voice.

'What the hell is so great about that!!??' Luise nearly screamed.

No one said a word. Luise stared at each and everyone of them.

Now they finally saw the madness in her eyes and the cloud of money(which they had been focusing on the whole time) faded from their own eyes.

'We've got to get out of here' was their first thought.

Luise seemed to read their mind. 'Well, we're all stuck in this together' she said and was about to continue when a big explosion ribbed through the air.

'What was that?' Elaine asked.

'Are you people slow!!?' Luise yelled and lost control again. 'The police...' she looked at the screen to the surveillance camera outside and shut her mouth. The police hadn't cast their bomb. They were all looking terrified, watching over the river...or maybe they were watching the river itself...that meant...

'That f%+#-ing son of a b----!!!' Luise said to herself. 'We can't get out.'

It took a moment for her subordinates to realize what she had just said.

'What do you mean?' Jerry asked, his voice shaking.

'After a while the whole place will be under water' Lusie answered quietly.

Jerry shook his head hopelessly. He made his decision.

'I'm going up, anyone coming?' he asked and looked at his partners. Luise spoke before anyone could answer.

'Up? The police is there, you'll go to jail' she warned.

Jerry sighed and looked to the ceiling. 'Rather that, than death' he said. 'Bye.'

He went out of the room and ran up the hallway. He heard the water flow.

A few seconds, after Jerry left, the others decided that they'd rather spend some time in jail too. So, they followed Jerry and left Luise to face her destiny.

------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ok, that was way to dramatic end...