Chapter 7
Disclaimer: The Hardy boys don't belong to me. Simply borrowing them for the story!
When Joe woke up the next morning it was with a groan. His body was aching in places that he didn't even know muscles existed. Hauling his stiff body out of the bed with a curse he got through the morning routine and made his usual call to Frank. After the previous night he had decided that video calling might be a better option all the way round. Frank could see that he was doing alright and it might keep away the homesickness in his case. Staying away from the video just seemed overkill on hindsight.
Frank on his part deigned to not dwell on the pale banged up look that Joe was sporting and instead concentrated on listening to Joe. Thankful for whatever force of nature that had stayed his brother's overprotective mode Joe quickly ran through the details of the apartment and the men in it.
"Joe, I am running a search right now based on your description" Frank instructed …"see if you can recognize it" he said turning the phone to the computer screen in front of him. There were pictures of a few apartments from different areas and then Joe did see it. "Frank the one on the right hand corner ...I think that's it" he confirmed before adding "it was the eighth floor".
The phone refocused on Frank's face "got it and good work Joe. I mean it…you have moved really fast but please be careful while we confirm if it is the apartment indeed" he said and watched Joe nod. "Now, onto the other issue at hand. What are you going to do about the girl? If I know you, you don't want to be leading her on and you don't want her to be a casualty" Frank commented watching Joe closely.
Joe sighed and ran a hand across his face "I really didn't want to do it but I could not let the opportunity pass. I mean two lives versus a broken heart…and I had to do it. But one good thing came out of getting beat up yesterday in case you don't remember" he grinned ruefully "I have been warned off her and I intend to stay away from the girl legitimately and chivalrously leave the field for those guys to play" he winked.
Frank smiled in response "I know and imagine what I would have to tell Vanessa otherwise? That she has competition from a teenager" he teased. Joe groaned in response with a "hey! If you even breathe a word of this you are so going to regret it". Frank just grinned wider "well every secret has a price" he singsonged as Joe pouted grumpily. "Well name it then" he groused as the reply came promptly "Lunch for a week…your treat" .Joe cursed under his breath "you are evil. I mean are we even sure that dad didn't adopt you?…and you better hope that I get a big fat financial paycheck at the end of all this".
After some more casual banter Frank once again asked Joe to take care of himself and signed off with a smile on his lips and worry in his heart. Only then did he let the smile drop from his face as he rubbed a hand over his face. He didn't need his brother to voice his pain…it was written all over his face and Frank knew that Joe really needed some rest. But unfortunately there was nothing he could do about it and neither could Joe. Instead there was something else he could do and he was determined to do it. He was done sitting in a chair and feeling useless. There were somethings he could do without compromising anything else and apartment recon was one of them. The fact that Joe would be mad didn't enter the equation right now, he was an exceptional field agent with emphasis on the field and besides he had big brother privileges.
At the office he quickly filled in Russell and his partner on his plan and made his way to the makeup dept. Half an hour later it was not Frank Hardy who walked out but a bent old man wearing a white shirt with suspenders and checked cap over white hair. Spectacles adorned his eyes over his bushy white eyebrow and lined wrinkled face. In his hand was a walking stick and when he walked it was not the fast Frank Hardy walk. It was the pained shuffle of a very old man. Not even his family would have recognized him in that moment…maybe Joe would have but only Joe he acknowledged. And that was more to the fact that Joe had practically been his shadow and knew him almost better than he did himself.
In another half an hour he was at the apartment entrance and he casually rode the elevator to the eighth floor without stopping anywhere. He came out on the eighth floor to see that the corridor was conveniently empty. That would be good for his plan he thought and mentally thanked the stars that decided to help him out. It would have been very difficult to explain his presence and the resultant trouble to a stubborn forbidding younger brother. In the equation somehow the prospect of trouble was far less daunting than facing Joe when he was mad. Both of them had tempers, yes and while his was a simmering boiler Joe's was a tempest and anyone who got in the way tended to be blown away.
Putting away the delightful thought for the moment however, he made his way to the apartment on the left side (Joe's input) and rang the bell confidently. When the bell was answered by a mountain of a man Frank was pretty sure that this was the right apartment after all. He let his glance slide over the inside of the hall (it matched Joe's description rather nicely) and plastered a confused look on his face.
"Hi, I came to see Peter" he drawled out in a thin reedy voice. When the man did not respond, he accordingly changed his expression to one of bewildered confusion "Isn't this Peter's apartment?" he enquired with an innocent expression. "There aint no Peter here old man...so beat it" the muscle man rasped as Frank did not move "are you sure young man? My Peter did say that he lives on the seventh floor of Pearl apartments" he insisted in the way that most people who think they are right do.
By now another man came out to the hall and addressed the big guy "what's going on here?" he demanded. "The old geezer has the wrong address that's all" the thug answered as Frank made sure to look totally lost.
"Look here old man you heard my partner and we have work to do so you better scram. Go look for the address somewhere else" the man spoke harshly to Frank as he stepped forward and gave him a shove. Frank pretended to stumble away more than the shove warranted with an offended look and quickly shuffled away to the elevator with a smile. He had his confirmation and now it was just a matter of following the thugs to zero in on the distribution area.
He made his way back to his van unimpeded and parked the van a block away. He then updated his partner on the events and requested the offenders be tailed. Within the next fifteen minutes he saw the unassuming cable van swing into the street which was his cue to leave the place and get back to his listening station.
Yet another half an hour later he was back in his chair, to his usual persona and discussing the practicality of slipping Joe a button camera. This would get them a visual on the events and it would be easier to accomplish than setting up a camera in the godown which would be a lot more dangerous. In the meantime the follow up team to his act were doing their job and they had followed the thugs to the alleys behind the Residency College where the students would be prime game. This seemed to be their distribution zone and Frank was sad to see so many young people targeted.
"Okay now that we know this is one of the drop spots let us tentatively plan for a raid tomorrow. Yes, I know that it may cause some suspicion to fall on Joe but we can divert it if we have a person at the spot to guide the police and claim that he made the call. What do you say?" Frank's partner turned to him sounding out his theory.
"No..." Frank replied thoughtfully before explaining "the way I see it there is a chance that Joe might be asked to distribute the drugs soon. Let the bust happen when he is on the road and if he is also taken by the police or at least on the scene when it happens it will make his cover more solid. It will establish his loyalty and might be the key to getting to the next level of penetration."
"You have a point, good thinking Hardy. I agree...and yeah we hold on until Joe gets put on distribution detail" he confirmed as Frank fought to control the queasiness that had settled inside at the plan. So much depended on Joe and Frank wondered at the pressure his brother might be under but then Joe never over thought things. That was his blessing as well as a curse…which one this would turn out to be they would know soon.
Joe on the other hand had been treated by at the garage who confirmed that he had indeed been lucky and left to some rest at his pace. However by three he had made his way to the pier where the boss as well as the entire group of workers were already assembled. It turned out that there were only five or six crates left to be taken from the ship and the better part of two hours were spent shifting the drugs from the toys to the duffel bags.
They were then paired off into twos by the boss and instructed to deliver the bags to various destinations. To Joe's chagrin he was paired with one of the guys who had beaten him up last night and he followed the man with a neutral expression. It was all in the game he reckoned if he could get to another link in the distribution chain. This time again it was an apartment albeit in another part of town and this time Joe made sure to note down the route and the area of the apartment. Once the drop was made they came back to the godown where the boss dismissed the girls and a couple of other boys while retaining all the others.
Joe had not gone out of his way to talk to the other man and had refused to rise to his underhanded threats and now he wondered what the meeting was about. "Boys now we get to the other part of our operation. Open the crates marked fragile" Alex instructed and everyone scrambled to do the same. What now? Joe wondered looking at the piles of glass items wrapped in protective covering staring at him from the box.
"Lift out the glass items and retrieve the items that are underneath. That is the true cargo my boys" the boss's words resounded in the air. Joe did as instructed and sucked in a breath at what lay underneath the glass. Rows of top notch rifles lined the bottom of the crate and Joe cursed under his breath. Was there anything that this gang did not do? If involvement of a terrorist ring was in doubt earlier it was no longer so. These were state of the art weapons and Joe had no doubt that they were either going to or coming from somewhere.
"Al, Chris and Luke" the boss called and the three of them looked up from their seated position. "You three will load up the weapons into separate crates which will get taken to a different location by Nick. Got that?" he asked and the mentioned people nodded to show their understanding. The next half an hour was spent taking out the unnecessary glass items and moving all the guns into three separate crates. The crates were then loaded into the truck and the man named Nick drove away leaving Joe and the others with the boss in the garage.
"Well, the work is done for the day. I expect all of you to assemble at the usual time tomorrow" the man said looking at Joe. Joe nodded to show that he understood and soon left the place after collecting the pay for the day. He grinned ruefully, if nothing else came out of all this at least he had the money to pay off Frank's lunch.
That evening after he made his customary appearance at the diner he got on the phone with Frank making sure that each time he erased the history of the calls. The conversation was enlightening to say the least. "So did you get the right apartment?" Joe enquired lounging against the pillow as Frank's voice replied "yeah we got it and we got the drop zone as well". "Cool" Joe replied "tell me one thing. How come none of the agencies got the dope on this gun trade right under our noses?" he asked with an edge to his voice.
Frank let out a breath "that's the million dollar question isn't it? I am beginning to think that the drugs is just to divert attention from the guns. I mean we were looking at drug trade and a possible connection with terrorists and that was by pure chance. If not for the two agents who clued us onto the terrorist connection this would be just another drug case with some other agency. They would be just looking to stop the drugs while the weapons dealing would have moved on none the wiser".
"You are right. This whole thing is mushrooming Frank, what do I do?" Joe asked exhaustion leaking into his voice and letting down his guard completely. Frank knew that this side of Joe was reserved exclusively for him and not even their parents were privy to that. This was his baby brother reaching out to him and he knew it was an honor to be held in this regard. Sometimes he wondered if he measured up to the expectations but now was not the time. Now it was big brother time.
"Just take it one step at a time ok. Once you get into the drug distribution which is what I am hoping for we will spring the raid. You play by the scenario …either get arrested or escape from the police whichever works then and hopefully that should be good to push you up in the loyalty ladder" Frank spoke quietly and added "and don't forget I am here. Anytime this gets too much I will find a way to spring you out" he promised as much to himself as to Joe.
"Hmm ok" Joe hummed blind trust evident in his voice "I still haven't heard even a whisper of the missing agents Frank. Do you think they are even alive?" he asked despondently. Frank hesitated hearing the weariness in his brother's voice. There was a distinct probability they were dead but this was not the time for brutal honesty. "I don't know Joe" he hedged "but even if that goes south look at the Intel you are gathering. If we can put away this ring for good don't you think it counts for something?" he said gently.
Joe heard the unspoken words but this was not the time to mourn or give up. He sighed and his spirits lifted a little at Frank's words "you are right. This does mean something. Thanks, I needed the pick me up" he said quietly before Frank smiled mischievously.
"Sure, you can thank me with the lunch plans" he teased. Joe smiled back and mimed hitting Frank before laying back down on the pillow "you know I might just be making the money for that if nothing else" he quipped before adding "and by the way I got the info on the next drop zone for you".
"Okay" Frank quipped back uneasy with the idea of how the money was being earned while making a note of the apartment address that Joe was rattling off. He could also sense the increasing exhaustion that was creeping into Joe's voice. "Fine, I got that. Tell you what, you have had a long day and after yesterday you must be feeling like a robot. How is the rib holding up Joe? With all that crate work I hope you have not made it worse".
Joe yawned and lifted up his shirt to see how he was faring "well it's not worse. That doctor you sent did a good job and robot is right. So I will crash out if you don't mind and let's keep our fingers crossed that I get into distribution detail soon" he said. "Yeah, I am not sure how I feel about that but I will think up something to try and make that happen sooner rather than later" Frank said taking advantage of Joe's sleepy state and quickly signed off with a good night. He wondered idly whether he was a coward for not telling Joe about his tryst at the apartment but decided that it was called being prudent. Now was not the time for any kind of explosion, small or big.
Still mulling over things, he walked to his bedroom and slid into the bed shrouded in thought. Make the distribution detail work for Joe soon, yeah that was the next course of action and he knew what had to be done next. He did not particularly like the idea but the greater good and all that ideology actually fit in this case. Mind calmer as he froze on the thought he turned over and snuggled in closer to Callie. She had become his personal demon chaser for the nights in this case he acknowledged ruefully. Maybe he was getting to be a coward after all he mused as he dived into the calling of the night.
Author notes: Hi everyone. Sorry for the slight delay but sometimes the computer decides it has a mind of its own. So here's the next instalment and I do hope you like it. As ever thanks for the reviews and the follows and DO not forget to send me a line. Apparently I have a goofy smile on my face the whole day and my kids are preferring the 'good mood me' as opposed to the "usual regulating mummy me". So do I tell them they owe it to the reviews (ha-ha!) and in the meantime stay safe! Have fun. Ciao.
