A/N Hello, my darling readers. Apologies for the long wait but I've been swamped with school and what not, however with my recent graduation I now have scads of time to update in.
Thanks to all Reviewers!
Dedication: To PorsheDsgn, my newest reviewer.
Disclaimer: Plot is mine, characters are not.
"Okay, Frank you can set up over by my desk," Charlie began only to be interrupted when he turned to his cousin and noticed a horrified look on his face.
"In order to do that, I'd have to be able to find your desk..." Frank replied, his eyes sweeping past stacks of books, papers, chalkboards, and other miscellaneous items in search of the sought after object. He finally located it in the corner, the surface of the desk was completely covered with Charlie's possessions, and the entire thing was semi-obscured behind a chalk board.
"It is not that bad." Charlie denied.
"Don't mind Frank, he's a total neat freak." Joe began what was clearly a well-rehearsed tirade about his brother's obsession with organization.
"Compared to you, half the world is a neat freak." Frank retorted making his way through Charlie's carefully organized office to sit at the desk. They soon settled down to work, mostly in silence, although they did occasionally offer ideas up to each other. Charlie was currently working at a blackboard, while Joe sat on the opposite side of Charlie's desk from Frank.
"Why would someone want to kidnap a bunch of geniuses?" Joe asked thoughtfully.
"Black market activities, some kind of vendetta, who knows why people make the decisions they do." Frank replied, looking up from his laptop to answer his brother's question.
"Actually, human behavior is predictable to a certain degree with proper data." Charlie remarked. "Unfortunately, we have very little information in this situation." He continued, raking a hand through his curly hair as he thought. "We may not have a lot of insight into who is behind these disappearances, or why they're doing it, but we may be able to identify potential victims."
"Assuming that he is planning to kidnap people gifted in different fields, what are we still looking for?" Joe asked.
"We have an artistic genius, a chess prodigy, a computer expert, a linguist and a musical genius gone so far." Frank recited. "Which means he should still take someone in one or more scientific fields, a mathematician, a literature expert, possibly someone in sports or something else kinesthetic, or maybe a writer."
"So, we have nothing." Joe surmised.
"Technically, we have very little, we actually do know a small amount." Charlie corrected. Joe rolled his eyes at his cousin in response to this.
Their argument came to an abrupt end when the door to Charlie's office was abruptly opened. Charlie, used to random students, government agents, and professors wandering into his office was pretty much nonplussed by this intrusion.
"Can I help you?" The curly-haired professor asked the two men who stood in front of the door to his office. The taller of the two men, who Charlie estimated was about six foot three closed the door to the office with a decisive click.
"Are you Charles Eppes?" The second man, who was probably around five foot eleven asked rather than responding to Charlie's question.
"Yes." Charlie answered hesitantly.
"Just the man we were looking for." The first man said with a grim smile. "And, you, you're Frank Hardy, correct?" He looked at Frank for verification.
The eldest Hardy frowned at the man beginning to feel that something was off about the situation. He was about to respond when Joe beat him to the punch.
"Who exactly are you guys?" The younger Hardy demanded.
"Did we forget to introduce ourselves?" The second of the two men asked. "I apologize for the oversight." He added, and moved forward across the office as though he were going to offer the others a hand to shake.
Instead, upon reaching the other side of the office, he pulled out a handgun and pointed it directly at the two brother's, while his partner motioned for Charlie to move toward him with his own handgun.
"Put your hands where I can see them, and don't make any sudden movements." The shorter of the two men who had dark blond hair ordered. Frank and Joe did as commanded while exchanging anxious glances with each other trying to decide what to do.
"What is this about?" Frank demanded.
"Our boss requires the assistance of Frank Hardy, and Charles Eppes, and we are here to fulfill that request." He replied. Frank looked over the man's shoulder in time to see the taller of their two assailants seize Charlie by the arm and jam his gun into the professor's side.
"Help with what, precisely?" Frank inquired.
"I'm sure he will be happy to explain the particulars to you once we reach our destination. Now, if you would be so kind as to walk around the desk and join your cousin?"
Frank scanned the room wondering if he could manage to attack either of their two assailants before they had time to shoot them, deciding that there was not a good chance of this, Frank walked around the desk and was immediately seized on the arm by the hand which the man was not using to train his gun on Joe. Frank was shoved backward toward the taller man who had already subdued Charlie. The elder Hardy stumbled but did not actually fall.
"Don't worry, we're not interested in harming either of you." The man currently holding Frank and Charlie at gun-point reassured them, making for one of the more paradoxical moments the two cousins had been a part of.
"On the other hand, it's highly unfortunate that you had to be here." The other intended kidnapper remarked to Joe. "Our boss has no interest in you, and we can hardly afford to leave you here to spread what you know..." He continued in an almost apologetic tone.
"Do you honestly think I am going to stand by and allow you to shoot my younger brother?" Frank asked incredulously.
"I don't see how you have much choice in the matter."
"Oh, but he does." Charlie remarked, the math professor eyed the guns trained on them nervously but continued speaking nonetheless. "If I've made the correct deductions, which I'm fairly certain that I have, than your so-called boss is the one who has been abducting geniuses throughout the country, therefore he has warned you against harming either Frank or my self as it might damage the product he desires, thus, if Frank and I decide to fight you have little chance of successfully abducting us without causing damage."
"If, however, you agree not to harm Joe, we'll come quietly." Frank added.
"Hell no." Joe snapped. "If you two think that I'm allowing you to sacrifice your selves, you've been inhaling too much chalk dust."
Their two would-be kidnappers exchanged a long look, as though attempting to decide on something. After a few moments of this silent conversation the man training the gun on Joe pulled a cell phone out of his jacket pocket and was soon engaged in conversation with his boss.
"Boss? We've got a problem." There was a pause, in which the aforementioned employer had probably made an inquiry of some sort, but the occupants of the room, excluding the one who was actually on the phone were unable to hear what it was. "Hardy's brother is here, and he and Eppes are refusing to come quietly if we shoot the brother, talk about unreasonable..." Frank scoffed at this, but was silenced when the kidnapper closer to him pointedly jabbed him in the side with his handgun. "Ah. Great. We'll do that. See you soon." He hung up the phone with that. He nodded significantly at his colleague who extracted a syringe from his pocket.
"This contains a drug which is known to cause short-term memory loss, it will most likely wipe-out your memory of the last several hours." He indicated to Joe. He tossed the capped syringe to his fellow employee who caught it in his free hand.
"How do we know you're not poisoning him?" Frank asked.
"You don't. However, you don't have much choice in the matter."
The man nearest to Joe, swung out with his gun before the Hardy had time to react, Joe slumped to the ground. The man crouched beside him and injected the syringe into his arm, before getting up and dragging Joe around to the other side of the desk, so that he was invisible from the doorway. He then strode across the room toward Frank and Charlie.
"The two of you, are going to walk out of here, nice and calm like. In fact, you Dr. Eppes, are going to even lock your office door so that it seems like you left of your own volition. We don't want to hurt you, but we've been authorized to do so if absolutely necessary." The taller of their kidnappers ordered them. He also searched their pockets confiscating their cell-phones and turning them both off before depositing them on Charlie's desk. Frank and Charlie were ushered out the door, pausing only when their kidnappers turned off the lights and for Charlie to lock the door.
They were swiftly rushed to the nearest exit, their assailants having produced hats which they used to shield their features. A black van with tinted windows, similar in description to the one seen at the other California kidnapping was waiting outside for them. Frank and Charlie were forced to get in the back, with the shorter of their kidnappers, while the other one got into the passenger seat. Frank's left wrist was cuffed to the handle on the ceiling of the car while his right wrist was swiftly cuffed to Charlie's left one.
"No talking."
With this last command the van zoomed out of the parking lot, driven by a third man who had auburn colored hair, which was pretty much all they had ascertained so far as he was driving and had not deigned to turn around to see them. As a result Frank and Charlie were left to their own thoughts on the drive to wherever it was that they were headed to.
A/N: Review! Updates should come quickly since I am on winter break. I'm going to try for once a week as I have an assortment of ongoing stories.