Jake was getting board sitting up in the room. He wasn't exactly a hostage, but there was always someone close by, making him very nervous. He knew that Mike was here; he had seen his GTO pull up, but before Mike had even gotten the chance to get out of the car Jimmy had ordered him to do something. He hoped he'd get a chance to talk to his brother before he got sent away again.
Jake got up from the computer chair and stretched. Like he expected, his shadow, a tall, beefy guy who was always no less the forty steps away, got up as well.
"Relax Bruno I'm just stretching." The big guy glared at him, but as always said nothing and sat down. Jake walked to the doorway of the room. His shadow watched him and cleared his throat.
"Can a guy take a piss or do you need to come along for that?" Jake asked dryly, getting annoyed with his babysitter.
"Down the hall, to the right," grunted the man, still glaring at Jake. He was just as annoyed with Jake as Jake was with him.
"Thanks," Jake said and he walked out of the room to the bathroom. He took his time, wanting his freedom to last as long as possible. When he was finished and ready to start heading back, he heard Jimmy and one of his goons coming up the stairs.
"So with that last part that Mike just delivered, will everything be ready to go?" Jimmy asked.
"Yes, in fact we're ahead. We'll definitely be ready by the time the money arrives," said the other.
"That's great. So the stuff that I had our friend Mr. Williams bring won't be needed?"
"No, that has been added to the batch that will be put in the hot spot, but the other batches won't be added. Which is ok, because the other stuff is going where it can be touched. The hot spot stuff is airborne."
"So it will have the same affect?"
"Yes, we're sure of it. And even if it doesn't, it'll still have an affect."
"That's great. And what do our contacts say about the Hardys?"
"They said they just watched the tape, and that everyone is shaken up. The guys out in the field say that the kid has about thirteen hours left. They say he's been in and out of conscious for the last two, but now he's pretty alert, and pretty calm. He's only flipped out about twice."
"Will he live long enough for them to find him?"
"Don't think so. This farm is pretty well hidden. And they have no sure proof that it's us."
"Very good. Things are going well. Why don't you get back down to the lab?"
"Yes sir."
With that the two men parted, Jimmy continuing on to the computer room, and the other man headed back to the lab. Jake stayed motionless in the bathroom for another minute, trying to calm himself. 'These guys are nuts! No they're worse, their evil! They're fucking terrorists!'
No one said anything, they couldn't. Horror clung to them, weighing them down. Each person in the room was trapped in their own thoughts, and barely noticed Fenton leaving the room.
He walked slowly down the hall to his son's room, looking at the pictures that lined the wall.
"Daddy! Do you see this place? It's gigantic!" exclaimed an eager young boy, who had brown hair and brown eyes. He was standing in the middle of the hall, excitement radiating from him.
"I know Frank. Have you found your room yet?" Fenton asked as he walked up the stairs. They had arrived only ten minutes ago, and already his six year old son had begun exploring. And if it wasn't for his wife keeping a firm grip on his four year old, soon to be five, both boys would be running around.
"Nope, I'll get lost in here!" The brown eyes shone in wonder as he looked around again. After living in a two room apartment for all of his life, he was floored to finally have his own room and a backyard.
Fenton walked over to him and scooped the young boy up, "Well, lets go see if you and I can find it. That way, we won't get lost…"
Fenton sighed as he reached Frank's room and entered it. He had remembered taking Frank in there for the first time and Frank laughing with glee. Fenton looked around the room, a sad smile forming. Throughout the years he had watched as the energetic boy had changed the clutter in his room from toy cars and robots, to legos and model kits, on to computers and chemistry sets.
Everything was in place as always in the room. The desk was organized, nothing was scattered on the floor, the shelves were neat, and his bed was made. A far cry from Joe's, which contained what Fenton would swear, was every single possession he had on the floor.
Frank had posted pictures on the wall of his friends, family, Callie and Nancy. Fenton saw a picture of him, his father, Joe and Frank on one of those rare days when they weren't on a case, or working. They didn't have to be worried about anyone coming after them; they were just having fun. The boys were about thirteen and twelve, and they were all covered in mud and laughing. It had been raining hard the day before, but they still wanted to play soccer. Laura and his mother had nearly killed them when they had come home that day.
Fenton let his mind wander back to that time.
It was late in the afternoon, and they were on the third game. After running circles around the two older men, Joe and Frank had been separated and Fenton and Joe were on the same team.
Frank was on offensive and making his way up the field. Joe had met him in the center, and matched him stride for stride. It wasn't long before Joe saw an opening and went for to the right, but Frank dodged to left and before Fenton knew it was already taking aim at the goal. Fenton was no match for his son and the ball went sailing into the goal, with a triumph shot from Frank.
"Oh, you think that's impressive? Huh, you think you're hot stuff, huh?" Fenton said as he started walking up to Frank, a glint in his eyes.
Frank began to back up slowly, still laughing. Fenton made a grab for him and Frank tried to dodge, but crashed into Joe who had been sneaking up behind him, and the two boys fell into the mud laughing. Instantly they began to wrestle, and Fenton and his father couldn't help but join in.
They had never finished their third game, but it didn't matter. When Laura and his mother had came to the park with dinner, all the boys had been scolded and told they'd get no dessert. But of course once the boys had turned on the puppy dog face, they all had received apple pie.
Fenton laughed at the memory then thought about his wife.
'I have to tell her before anyone else. It should be me.'
With a deep sigh Fenton pulled himself away from Frank's room and went down the hall to his own, where he knew Laura was. Laura was seated on the bed reading. She looked up at her husband, who had his head bent down. She knew something had happened.
"Fenton," she said as she stood, letting the book drop, and walked over to him. One look into his eyes and she knew the situation was dire.
"I don't know if I can save him, Laura…." Fenton began as tears threatened to escape.
Laura pulled him into her arms and began rubbing his back, like she would do with Frank or Joe when they were younger and had a nightmare. "What's happened Fenton? What's wrong?"
Fenton was silent for a moment, not knowing what to say, "They buried him Laura. He's alive and they buried him…" Laura pushed him away so she could see his face, hoping for some sign of a lie, but it wasn't there. All she could see was a horrified, terrified father, and she felt her own tears begin to fall. "I don't know if I can find him in time, I don't think that I can," he said.
"Nonsense. Why would you say that? You've found hundreds of people, solved thousands of supposedly unsolvable cases. You'll find him Fenton, if anyone can find him it'll be you and Joe," Laura spook soothingly to him.
"But Laura, there are no witnesses, no clues, no leads…" Fenton trailed off as a sudden thought hit him, "It takes a lot of space to bury someone."
Mike took the box down to the cellar were Slim was waiting, "This is the stuff from the Doc. Jimmy said you'd know what to do with it."
Slim took the box from him, giving Mike the chance to look around. What he saw made him nervous. It was a makeshift pharmaceutical lab. There were beakers and test tubes and about a lot more equipment he didn't recognize. There were about four other people in the lab, pouring liquid into tanks and then mixing some more of the yellowy colored stuff.
"What's all this for?" Mike asked as he watched them.
"Better if you don't know," Slim said. "Why don't you go up to the second floor? Jimmy'll tell you what to do next." With that Slim turned his back on Mike, dismissing him.
Mike did as he was told and went up the second floor. He heard Jimmy Kolplay at the end of the hall and headed for that direction, when he crashed into his brother.
"Jake!" Mike exclaimed as he caught his brother. Worry filled him as he saw how pale and scared his brother looked. "What's wrong? Did they hurt you?"
"No, no, but Mike, we've got to get out of here. These people, they're, they're crazy sons of bitches. They're terrorists. They're…"
"They're coming down the hallway," Mike warned his brother as he noticed Jimmy, as well as Jake's babysitter coming towards them.
"There you are Jake," Jimmy said in his annoyingly fake cheerful voice. "See, I told you he wasn't trying to get away. He just ran into his brother. Did you do as I said Mike?"
"Yeah, the stuff's downstairs. The guy sent me up here for marching orders. What's next on your list?"
"Well, why don't we all head to the computer room? The next phase will require everyone."
Biff, Chet, Phil and Joe all sat in the hallway outside Fenton's office, listening to the conversation. Each boy was still in shock from what they had seen on the VHS. They all knew that Frank hated the dark. It was the one childhood phobia that he still had. They couldn't imagine what it would be like for him to be buried alive; hell they couldn't imagine what it would be like even if he wasn't afraid of the dark. They didn't want to think about it, but it couldn't be helped.
Every time Joe closed his eyes he saw his brother trying to calm himself down, trying to regain the control that Joe had rarely seen him without. He saw his brother desperately trying to escape, knowing exactly what had happened to him. One look at his friends faces, and he knew they were thinking the same thing.
For the last five minutes the adults had been arguing over what they could do.
"We don't know where they have him! We aren't even sure who has him!" Said Detective Reynolds.
"The hell we don't! Fenton and Jess are working on the same case, Frank was taken and the damn ransom note was left in Jess' apartment! I think we can all put two and two together." Con said.
"Yeah, but that's not enough to get a warrant, and you know it!" Reynolds said.
"The kidnappers said that it takes a lot of land to bury someone. The Kolplays have a whole new camp ground at their disposal," Fenton stated, a little louder then necessary.
"But it's still all circumstantial. We can't get a warrant." Reynolds said, getting just a little annoyed.
"There has to be something…" Jesse trailed off, a trace of hopelessness clear in his voice.
"No, unfortunately there isn't. Reynolds is right; no judge would let us near the Kolplays." Collin said, tired.
"A judge won't let you near them, the police right?" Fenton asked, knowing that Joe was now paying closer attention.
"No, and I don't suggest you or Jess going over there ether, since they know who you are," Collin said, not catching on to what Fenton was doing.
"Don't worry Ezra, I have no plans on going, but in case you want to send a detective down, just to question them, you know, fully voluntary, there are directions on Frank's computer. He looked it up for me; he's so much better at that sort of stuff then me. But I assure you I have no intention on going there."
Frank lay motionless in his coffin. He had long stopped caring about the pain in his body and had instead started forcing his memory to work over last night's events. He spoke up loud, not only to break the eerie silence, but because he was betting that the camera had a microphone. Knowing that they were probably toying with his family, Frank decide to use it against them. Frank would give a timeline to his father, while making the men think that he's just talking to himself, trying not to go insane.
"Callie and I went out for dinner. Then I dropped her off, it was about nine, she had to go to her grandmother's, a party I think. She's going to call me when she gets home tonight. Then I went to the Juke Box, yeah, yeah that's right. Joe's CD, My Chemical Romance, he's going to crack up when he sees it. Then I started heading out to the van, I got hit in the head I think…."
Frank arched his back the best he could, trying to get some blood flowing through his limbs. "My head still hurts. The storage shed or closet, it was freezing…." 'Here comes the hard part,' Frank thought, 'how do I tell them where I'm being kept with out clueing the assholes in?' Then Frank had an idea, "Camp Sunshine meets Hitler, such a wonderful place, this world that you live in, with a deceptive face. It's got lots of cabins, all pretty with white lace, one side for people, the other for your evil." Frank half sang, half spoke, hoping that his Father or Joe could pick up the description. "They take you on a long drive, then thirty minutes of unpaved hell. The men they all beat you, the women all smile, and when you're no good, they bury you with no style," Frank choked slightly. 'Please God, let this work.' His voice drifted slowly into a coughing fit, and blackness began to overtake him.
Outside the office Joe had been listening almost dumbfounded to his father. 'Is he really saying what I think he is? He gave a weak smile and shook his head, which didn't go un-noticed by Biff. "What's so funny Joe?" he whispered, now drawing in Chet and Phil.
Joe motioned for them to be quiet and to follow him to Frank's room. Joe shut the door after they were all in, and quickly powered up Frank's computer, the smile still on his face.
"Joe are you going to tell us what's up? What's got you so happy?" Biff asked semi annoyed.
"Didn't you hear my father?"
"Yeah, the Police said that they can't go on the Kolplay's property, and that your dad isn't going over there either. I don't know why though, I mean we know it's them," Chet said from a perch on Frank's bed.
Phil, who had been looking over the pictures on Frank's wall, responded, "You heard the chief, the Kolplays know that Mr. Hardy and Jess are on the case, if they go over there and start demanding answers from the Kolplays, well it could be really bad."
"Yeah, but that doesn't mean my Dad's giving up. He's not going over there," Joe said as he printed the directions to the Kolplay land, "We are."