J.M.J.
Author's note: Thank you for continuing to read! Thank you especially to max2013, Candylou, and MargaretA66 for your reviews! So, here's the scoop on the email notifications: FanFiction did an update where you have to opt-in to get the emails. The default setting is to not get emails. You can go to your account settings to opt-in. Actually, in some ways, it's kind of nice that they actually ask permission now before sending you a bunch of emails. There are a few other websites that could take note. Alas, FanFiction is one website that I do want to get the emails for, so I have opted in again. Anyway, I hope you're having a happy Thanksgiving! God bless!
Chapter XXIV
Callie tried to keep her entire focus on the notepad in front of her as she tried to organize everything she knew about the case. She wasn't sure how Frank and Joe managed to keep everything straight and not forget some detail that could change their entire outlook on the case, even though it didn't seem important at first. Even that thought, she tried to push away from her mind. Joe was still missing and now apparently Frank was, too. Callie knew she had to do something that felt useful or she would be sick with worry, so she had set about trying to see whether organization could help her make sense of everything. So far, the notepad was still blank as she tried to think how to lay it out. She wasn't so sure she wasn't going to be sick after all.
She spent several seconds staring off into space. Part of her wished she had gone with the others, promise or no promise. That promise wasn't even really binding, was it? She hadn't realized what could happen when she made it. But Frank had known the possibilities. He knew there was a chance he would get into trouble, too. That was why he had made her make that promise. If he wound up in any danger, he knew that Callie would want to come and try to help him.
If she was really honest and trying to be unbiased, she would have to admit that Frank was right to ask her to make that promise. He wasn't the only one she had a responsibility toward anymore. If their child was already born and the only way she could help Frank was to take that child with her into danger, she would never even consider it. If that was what she would do then, she told herself that was what she needed to do now.
Stirring herself, she looked at the notepad again and admitted this time that it was a hopeless cause. Even if she did manage to write anything down, it wouldn't help her figure anything out. She was a lot of things, but a detective wasn't one of them. She had always figured that was all right. She didn't have to do all the same things as Frank, just because they were married. Right now, though, she was wishing she had his talent for detecting.
With a weary sigh, she stood up and stretched. Walking might help her feel a little less ill, so she started pacing the room. It wasn't helping her feel much better, but she kept at it. There was nothing else to do.
She had left her phone next to the notepad on an end table. She was on the other side of the room when it started to ring. Instantly, she raced toward it, certain that she was about to get some kind of news. But the screen said that it was Phil. Puzzled at why Phil would be calling her, she picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Callie," Phil said. He sounded healthier than she expected, but a little frustrated. "I'm glad you answered your phone, at least. I've been trying everyone else, but nobody will pick their phone up."
"Oh, Phil, you probably haven't heard everything that's happened. It's terrible."
"I know. When Jack Wayne got here, he told me about Joe..."
"It's not just Joe." Callie poured the whole story. She hadn't realized until then how much she had needed someone to talk to until now, but it was a relief to tell it all.
"Oh boy," Phil said when she had finished. "That's worse than I expected. We're going to be leaving here soon. Jack almost has the plane ready to go, and then we'll head straight for Bayport. That's probably the closest airport to Baitesville."
"I can pick you up at the airport," Callie offered.
"Aren't you going to be out looking for Frank?"
"Um…" Callie hesitated. "No. He made me promise to sit this case out as much as possible."
"Why would he do a thing like that?"
"He has a reason," Callie said. "Look, I don't want to talk about it right now. Maybe later, okay?"
HBHBHBHBHB
"This is just great," Biff complained.
He was sitting in the passenger seat of the Mortons' dad's pickup, which was the vehicle they had brought to Baitesville. Chet was in the driver's seat, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel. He had turned the engine on so that they could use the heater, but the pickup was still in park. Iola and Jerry were in the back seat.
"Eventually," Biff went on, "you'd think people would realize we're not kids anymore and that we really can help with these kinds of things."
"Who says we need permission to keep looking?" Jerry said. "They're getting the roads plowed out. I say we start driving around some back roads and see what we can find."
"Probably just a lot of snow and trees," Iola said. "There's a lot of area out there. We wouldn't have much chance of finding anything."
"It would be better than sitting here," Jerry argued.
"Not much," Iola replied.
"Look, we need to think this through logically, the way Frank and Joe would do it," Chet said. "So let's go over what we know."
Biff rolled his eyes. "We've been over it all a dozen times. What good is it going to do going over it again?"
"I don't know. It's what Frank always makes us do." Chet frowned. "Well, one thing we know for sure: they moved Joe to that cabin where they were holding him and then captured Frank and then they moved both of them again. All they had to do was get them to a road and then they could have taken them anywhere. Maybe we shouldn't be searching in this area at all."
"If we can't just go randomly casting around back roads, then we can't go randomly casting around the entire state," Jerry pointed out.
"I have to agree with him on that one," Iola added.
"That's true," Chet admitted. "But there's got to be a clue somewhere. I mean, we've all encountered Black Rose before. There must be something. If we could just think of it."
Everyone fell silent as they tried to think of every scrap of information they knew about Black Rose, no matter how insignificant it seemed.
Suddenly, Iola snapped her fingers. "Lisa."
"What about her?" Biff asked.
"Black Rose has been trying to get at her again," Iola explained. "I know she's told the police a lot, but maybe there's something she's holding back, something Black Rose wants to make sure she never gets a chance to tell anybody."
"I don't know," Chet replied. "I think she really did finally come clean."
"Maybe she did, but she still knows more about Black Rose than anyone else we can ask right now," Iola insisted. "What do we have to lose?"
HBHBHBHBHB
Getting into Lisa's room wasn't easy, but after having Maria—who happened to be at the hospital when the friends arrived—vouch for them, the police officers on guard duty let Iola and the three boys inside. Lisa looked at them rather shyly, as if she didn't know what to expect.
"You look like you've got something important on your minds," Maria observed.
"We do," Iola said, taking charge of the interview since it had been her idea. "First, there's a lot that's happened, and I'm not sure how up to date you are."
As it turned out, Lisa and Maria had heard nothing about the events of the last couple days and were horrified to learn about them.
"There's not a lot we can do," Iola concluded, "so we thought we'd tackle this from an angle nobody else was thinking about. Lisa, do you really have no idea why Black Rose is coming after you again?"
Lisa shook her head vehemently. "I don't. Honestly. If I did—even just a hunch or a feeling or anything—I would have told the Hardys and the police, but I don't have the faintest idea."
"Could there be any piece of information you have about Black Rose that you haven't mentioned before?" Iola insisted. "It could even be something small and insignificant."
"I've told everything I know," Lisa insisted.
"Well, maybe there's something you've already told that's been overlooked," Maria suggested. "What's the thing you've been asked about the least?"
Lisa let out an exasperated sigh. "I don't know. Let's see…Oh!"
"Oh what?" Biff asked.
"I just remembered something. That's weird."
"What's weird?" Iola pressed.
"I don't think I ever mentioned this. I never even thought about it since…well, since I realized what I'd gotten myself mixed up in. Rudger mentioned a road to me one time. I don't remember why or what was on it or anything. I just remember the name and that it was near Gresham."
"Gresham?" Iola repeated, a trifle weakly. The town wasn't far away, and it held unpleasant memories for her, as it did her companions.
"What road?" Jerry asked.
"It was a funny name and it started with an F. Floss…Flossinger? No. Flos…niger. That was it. Flosniger."
"Let's check it out," Chet said. "It sounds like a long shot, but you never know."
"I don't suppose they'd let me go," Lisa commented wistfully.
"Probably not," Maria replied. "We'll tell you all about it."
"You're coming?" Jerry asked in surprise.
"Sure, I am," Maria said. "Just try and stop me!"
HBHBHBHBHB
"It's too bad you can't actually pick a lock with a knife, like they always do in the movies," Joe commented as he examined the lock to the door of the room where he and Frank were imprisoned. He knew that he couldn't get it open simply by staring at it, but there was no other way out of the room, except the window, and they were on the second floor. They had been locked up all day, and now it was beginning to get dark again.
"That wouldn't be much help unless you actually had a knife," Frank pointed out.
"That's a good point," Joe conceded. "It's if you really could use a knife, then there would be other things you could use, and maybe we'd find something in here."
Footsteps came from the other side of the door and then the Hardys heard a key scrape in the lock. Joe jumped back so that it wouldn't be obvious that he had been examining the lock. The door opened to reveal Alyssa and the young man who had driven them here standing on the other side. They were both armed, but Alyssa had her gun tucked into her waistband. She was holding two pairs of handcuffs.
"Put your hands behind your backs," Alyssa ordered.
"What for?" Joe asked, deciding he could be defiant again since Angelo wasn't there.
"You're going to want to do what I tell you," Alyssa said. "You've been waiting for this a long time. You don't want to spoil it by being stubborn."
"You're going to let us go?" Joe asked. "That's the only thing I've been waiting for."
"Funny. If it was up to me…But it's not up to me. You want to see the F.O., don't you?" Alyssa replied.
"You're actually going to let us see him?" Frank asked in astonishment. "You do mean the 'Faceless One,' don't you? The one Shun's been calling the 'Great One'?"
"Yeah. You'll understand when you see him," Alyssa said. "But you won't see him if you don't put your hands behind your backs. In fact, if you won't cooperate, he's given us permission to kill you now. It won't bother me if you don't cooperate."
Frank and Joe glanced at one another. They didn't doubt that Alyssa would gladly shoot them and any chance they might have to get away necessitated that they stay alive long enough to try it. Reluctantly, they put their hands behind their backs and permitted Alyssa to snap the handcuffs on them.
Then they were led through the hallways and to a staircase. They descended it to the basement, where there was another hallway. It was long and straight, with no doors on either side and no electric lights so that it was more of a tunnel than a hallway. Alyssa lit a torch that had been resting in a bracket on the wall.
"Does O Mighty Great One have something against flashlights?" Joe asked as the light from the flame flickered on the walls and their faces.
"Put a gag on this one," Alyssa told her companion. "I don't want the F.O. blaming me for anything he says."
Joe tried to put up a struggle as the driver stuffed a wadded up handkerchief into his mouth and then used a piece of duct tape to cover it. Evidently, they were prepared for this.
Frank hated to stand by while they manhandled his brother, but he knew he couldn't help Joe and any attempts to do so would probably result in Frank also getting gagged or possibly something worse. He didn't want to be at any disadvantage when they went before this mysterious Great One.
The tunnel led a long way until it came to an end with a door in it. Alyssa knocked sharply six times in succession, doing it so deliberately that the Hardys thought it must have been a signal. The door swung inward. Whoever was pulling it stood behind it so that they were invisible. The room inside was dimly lit by a dreary red light, and Alyssa promptly extinguished the torch. Then she and her companion pushed the Hardys right in front of the source of that red light, a sort of pit with an electric light in the middle. They could see nothing in the shadows.
"The Court of the Great One is called to order." The voice was Shun's and Frank and Joe could tell that he was standing directly in front of them, on the other side of the red light and the pit. "If anyone is to speak without being so ordered, he shall instantly be sentenced to death."
Frank and Joe each felt hands on their shoulders, pushing them down. At first, they weren't sure what these unseen people were trying to do and resisted. Then, at the same moment, someone kicked both their feet out from under them and they were forced to kneel. From the rustling they heard, they guessed that several other people had knelt behind them. They wondered how many other people were in the room and how big the room was.
Joe wished he wasn't gagged so that he could say something along the lines of It's all very well and good for you to drag me in front of your stupid Great One, but you're not making me kneel in front of him. Since he couldn't say it, he simply started to stand.
As soon as Frank saw Joe trying to stand, he decided that this was going too far, as well. He knew there would be consequences, but he would rather take them than go along with whatever insanity was at hand here. He stood up, too.
"The Great One orders that all kneel in his presence," Shun intoned.
"We're not kneeling in front of anyone," Frank retorted.
Instantly, something smacked him in the side of the head so hard that he lost his balance and fell against Joe. With his hands cuffed behind him, Joe couldn't help him regain his balance nor keep his own. They both fell to the ground, hitting it hard since they couldn't use their hands to break the fall.
"The punishment for speaking without permission is death," Shun declared. "However, the Great One desires that this court proceed. The punishment will be delayed until the court is finished."
Joe met Frank's eyes in the dim light as they struggled to right themselves. Even without words, they each communicated with the other that they had to get out of here.
They couldn't get up on their own fast enough without the use of their hands, so someone set them up, on their knees again. Their eyes had adjusted to the darkness somewhat and so they could vaguely make out Shun's outline when he spoke again. Something large and bulky sat next to him.
"The Great One is aware of the names and crimes of these two," Shun continued. "They have interfered in the affairs of Black Rose many times. They have sought to learn our secrets. They have upset the balance of power in the sovereign nation of Ziyou, once the possession of the Great One. However, their meddling has resulted in no great harm. They have ever served as a catalyst by which the Great One has determined the loyalty and dependability of his followers and to show where their stupidity and carelessness has weakened the empire that he has built. Even the loss of Ziyou was not so devastating as some here imagine. The Great One gained more than he lost in that incident, and for that, he has always had some admiration and gratitude toward the Hardys. Indeed, he has long considered them amongst his most useful resources."
Even in spite of everything that had happened so far, Frank couldn't help mouthing What? Joe's expression was as astonished as it could be with a gag nearly choking him.
There was a pause in which Frank and Joe thought they could hear a faint whispering. Then Shun continued, "However, the time for the Hardys' usefulness is at an end. Both of you, Frank and Joe Hardy, have previously been sentenced to death, as have your father and Sam Radley. Joe Hardy, you were to be killed a few days ago, with Sam Radley, but through the incompetence of some here, that sentence has not been carried out. Moreover, you have seen the Great One's fortress and you, Frank Hardy, have violated his sacred temple by speaking out of turn. For these crimes, you shall each be punished accordingly."
Silence descended again, and again, Frank and Joe heard the whispering. Again Shun continued, "Joe Hardy, your sentence of death is commuted, so long as you do no violate the terms about to be set forth. You shall be returned to your prison where you shall remain, observing your brother's punishment. In the morning, you shall begin treatments such are necessary to cure you of any desire to have anything to do with Black Rose again. When you have sworn to the Great One with oaths that you would not dare to break that you will never meddle in his affairs again, you will be released and you will tell your father what has happened and what oaths you have sworn. If you cannot persuade him to honor those oaths, he will be killed and his blood will be upon your head. Should you yourself ever meddle in the Great One's affairs again, you shall be put to death in a most painful manner. Be grateful for the Great One's mercy toward you.
"And you, Frank Hardy, shall be returned to your prison with your brother. You shall remain there under guard until midnight tonight. At midnight precisely, you shall be put to death."
Joe made a noise loud enough to be heard past his gag and tried to lunge forward. Somebody grabbed him from behind and held him in place, although he continued to struggle. Then the person smacked Joe on the back of the head with some kind of stick and he fell forward, stunned. Frank saw that the person who had hit him was Angelo.
"Stop that!" Frank shouted, deciding that he had nothing more to gain from silence.
Angelo turned threateningly toward him and raised his stick.
"Wait!" Shun ordered, and Angelo paused.
Frank watched Joe move his head slightly and moan.
"The Great One desires that the condemned look upon him so that they might despair," Shun said.
Frank was still looking toward Angelo and he thought he seemed surprised by this. Then the red light was turned up more brightly and Frank could see more of the room. He started when he saw what was only a few feet away from him. Shun was kneeling next to something shrouded in a thick cloak. Where a head should have been was a monstrous face with bulging eyes, fanged teeth, and horns growing out the sides. For an instant, Frank wondered if the so-called Great One really was some kind of supernatural creature. Then he realized it was made of wood. It was only a man in a mask.