A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who reviewed the second chapter -- I appreciate everyone's feedback and comments! And extra thanks to msnancydrew, my wonderful beta! I hope everyone enjoys this new chapter -- it's definitely longer than the last one. I'll try to update as regularly as possible, but with the holidays, I won't make any promises. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, and happy reading!

Disclaimer: I don't own Nancy, Frank, or Joe, but can I add them to my Christmas list? (Oh, and all the legal mumbo-jumbo from the last chapter still applies)

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"Frank, are you okay? I thought I heard someone back here…"

Joe Hardy's hushed voice stopped mid-sentence. His brother was standing at the back of the warehouse with a woman enveloped tightly in his arms. The sight was so extraordinary that all Joe could do was stare. Frank, unflappable, all-business-all-the-time Frank, was with a woman instead of casing out the building like he was supposed to. Wasn't that what Joe normally did on the job?

Joe's blue eyes flashed with humor at the role reversal, and he started toward his brother. As he drew closer, however, he caught the glint of reddish-blond hair.

Nancy?

Desperately wanting to give them their privacy, but knowing that they didn't have the luxury of time, Joe cleared his throat. His brother and Nancy pulled apart abruptly, and Joe couldn't help but grin at the guilty looks on their faces. He closed the distance between them, and when he reached Nancy, he pulled her in for a hug of his own.

"Hey, Nan -- fancy running into you here."

Nancy returned his smile with one of her own, her blue eyes sparkling. "You've gotta admit, of all the strange places that we've run into each other, this one seems pretty normal in comparison."

As she said that, thoughts of her father and the reason that she was there came flooding back, and she sobered abruptly. Turning back to Frank, she asked, "Did Janna call you?"

Frank looked at her in confusion. "Who's Janna?"

Now it was Nancy's turn to be confused. "If Janna didn't call you, then why are you here?"

Frank and Joe exchanged a quick glance. "Joe and I both received phone calls this morning from an unknown caller telling us that he had our father, and that we were to meet him at this warehouse at 6:00 this evening if we ever wanted to see him alive again. Joe and I called around -- Dad's office, home, some of his friends -- but no one had seen him or heard from him all morning. So we caught the first available flight out from D.C. and came here."

Nancy's face paled as she heard Frank's story, so similar to her own. "Oh no, he's got both of them," she whispered, more to herself than to the brothers.

This time, Joe was the first to respond. "What do you mean by both of them, Nan?"

Nancy met his gaze levelly. "This morning, I received the same phone call -- an unknown caller telling me that he had my father, and that I was to come to this warehouse at the same designated time. Just like you, I called around trying to find my father, with pretty much the same results. So I came here. When Frank, um…found me, I was trying to find a way into the building undetected, so that I could have the element of surprise on my father's kidnapper. I never expected to run into the two of you here!"

Joe nodded and began to respond, but before he could, his brother cut him off.

"You're telling us that you came here, by yourself, to face a kidnapper. Alone!"

Hearing the note of censure in his voice, Nancy's eyes flashed dangerously, and her chin titled upward. "Don't you dare start lecturing me about going anywhere by myself, Frank Hardy, considering how much you used to do just that! My father's been kidnapped -- I wasn't about to sit around and wait. And you know damn well I can take care of myself!"

Frank grabbed her arms, shaking her slightly.

"I don't care how well you can take care of yourself! You know better than to go into a potentially dangerous situation without backup. Just now, I was able to sneak up on you without you even seeing me. And thank God it was me -- if it was one of the kidnappers, who knows what they would have done to you! Where's your common sense, Drew?"

"You know what, Frank? You can take your common sense and shove it up your…"

"Whoa!" Joe stepped in between the two of them, opting to face Nancy. He knew better than to turn his back on an angry woman, especially one who, from past experience, could take him down without even breaking a sweat.

"Cool it, you two! I don't know if this is your way of getting reacquainted, or a really twisted way of saying that you missed each other, but we don't have time for this. Right now, we need to get into that warehouse and go get our fathers. You two can either go a few rounds, or kiss and make up, later."

With that, Joe started walking towards the back door that Nancy had noticed earlier, without even sparing them a backward glance. Frank looked at Nancy, the earlier anger in his eyes now replaced with wry amusement.

"Mom won't admit it, but he was dropped on his head a lot as a child."

Nancy grinned at him, knowing that whatever had flared up between them had, for the moment, passed.

"That would explain a lot."

Frank grinned back at her, and for a moment, their eyes locked and held. Nancy was the first to break eye contact, turning to follow Joe, who was already working on picking the lock on the back door. She stopped midway and looked back at Frank over her shoulder.

"Wanna be my backup, Hardy?"

He smiled and started after her.

"Anytime, Drew."

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"Got it!" Joe whispered excitedly.

"Took you almost three minutes. You're losing your touch," Nancy whispered back, with a grin.

Joe glared at her. "We've still got two minutes to spare till six, thank you very much."

Frank chuckled softly -- some things just never changed. "As many fond memories as watching the two of you bicker brings back, we should probably get going."

Joe nodded, and he and Frank flanked either side of the door. As Nancy watched in amazement, they both withdrew their service revolvers that had been tucked into their waistbands and held them in the standard officers' stance. Their movements were precise and methodical, and it struck Nancy that despite knowing about their careers in the FBI, she hadn't thought about this aspect of it. Seeing the guns in their hands was a cold splash of reality. This is the real thing, she thought to herself. We're not kids anymore.

Frank saw the expression on Nancy's face, and he gave her a reassuring smile. Seeing that, knowing that like always, he understood what she was thinking without any words, warmed her. Gun or no gun, this was Frank. She smiled back at him, determination replacing the uncertainty in her eyes.

"Let's go."

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They opened the door slowly, and fortunately, it didn't make any noise. Frank and Joe entered first, guns held at the ready. Nancy followed right behind, holding a small flashlight that illuminated the hallway they had entered. There were doorways on either side of the hall, presumably offices. Joe looked at Frank, then back at Nancy.

"Should we check out the offices?" he whispered.

Nancy shook her head at him and whispered back, "If I were the kidnapper, I wouldn't want to be found in an office with only one way out. My guess is he's going to be in the main floor of the warehouse, with multiple escape routes."

Frank and Joe nodded in agreement, and the three of them silently continued down the hall. At the end, the corridor turned off abruptly toward the right. As they stepped forward, they realized that they had ended up in the main part of the building, the area large and open. Nancy shone her flashlight upward and saw that the roof was at least three stories up. As she continued to follow the Hardys toward the center of the room, she frowned at what the tiny light of her flashlight revealed to her. She reached forward to tap Frank's shoulder, but as he started to turn towards her, the main lights of the room suddenly turned on.

Nancy blinked rapidly as her eyes tried to adjust to the brightness. As soon as she could focus, the sight that met her eyes made her freeze in her tracks. Her father and Fenton Hardy were on the floor against the wall in front of them, their hands and feet bound tightly and their mouths gagged. A trickle of blood ran down the side of Fenton's forehead to his cheek, and her father had a nasty bruise on his right cheekbone under his eye. Both men were conscious, but as Nancy looked more closely, she realized that their eyes were glazed over. Drugged, was her first thought, and as she looked over at Frank, she knew from the look in his eyes that he had reached the same conclusion.

But what had made Nancy stop cold wasn't just the sight of their fathers' condition, it was the two masked men that were pointing guns at each of their heads, aimed to kill. The look in their eyes was cold-blooded, ruthless, and Nancy knew instinctively that they wouldn't even blink when pulling the trigger.

The man on the left who had his gun trained on Carson turned to look at the three detectives, a maniacal gleam entering his eyes.

"Hello, kids! So glad you could join us!" Nancy recognized the voice of the man who had called her earlier that morning. The glee in his voice disturbed her. From her experience, she knew that crazy people were often a lot more unpredictable, and a lot more dangerous, than people who were simply evil.

"Now, now, no need for you to have guns. Just put them on the floor slowly, and kick them towards me. We're just here to have a friendly chat."

Frank and Joe exchanged a quick glance, and their hands tightened on their weapons.

"I have another idea. How about we shoot you and your pal over there, and then head on out of here and grab a few drinks with our fathers?" Joe's voice was flippant, but Nancy could see the hard gleam in his eyes.

The kidnapper who had spoken cocked his gun, and the sound echoed deafeningly through the room. The earlier glee was gone from his voice as he spoke, now replaced with an even more chilling calm.

"Do you really want Mr. Drew's life to depend on whether you can shoot faster than I can?"

Nancy's heart caught in her throat at those words, and she prayed, prayed that Joe wouldn't do anything rash as he was prone to in their teenage years. But Joe surprised her as he slowly laid his gun on the ground, and then kicked it away. Frank did the same. As they did, Nancy released the breath that she hadn't even realized she had been holding.

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Frank heard Nancy's sigh of relief behind him, but he didn't dare turn to look at her. The man holding the gun on Carson was definitely unpredictable, and although the second kidnapper had yet to speak, Frank was certain that he was just as likely to shoot his father without a qualm. From the glance that he had exchanged with Joe, he knew that his brother's words to the kidnapper had been to gauge the seriousness of the threat to their fathers. Unfortunately, after seeing the man's reaction, they had had no choice but to put their weapons down. Now, unless one of them could come up with a plan, it seemed that they were at the kidnappers' mercy until they could figure out why the three of them were lured there and what the men wanted with their fathers. Fortunately, the first kidnapper didn't keep them in the dark for long.

"I'm glad that we've reached an understanding. Following instructions is going to be important to the little exercise that we have planned for you three -- the better you become at it, the longer your fathers will live."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?" Joe demanded angrily.

"Ah, the younger Hardy -- still the hot-headed one, I see. Although your question was put rather rudely, I'll still give you the benefit of an answer. You see, my friend and I," he nodded at the other kidnapper, "have heard great tales of your escapades as detectives. How you trample all over people's lives in your search for clues, all in the name of solving the mystery, but really for your unquenchable thirst for glory."

The kidnapper paused, drawing in an angry breath. "Oh yes, I've heard all about the great Hardy boys and the unstoppable Nancy Drew. But now it's time for the true test. Let's see how great detectives you are when the stakes of the mystery are your fathers' lives, when the lives that you trample over are your own."

"Why are you doing this?" Nancy's voice was controlled, but Frank could hear the undercurrent of horror in it.

"Why, you ask, Ms. Drew? Because you three have meddled in other people's lives long enough. Now it's time someone meddled in yours."

"You said that we would have to follow instructions. What are they, and what exactly is the exercise that you mentioned?" Frank asked calmly.

"Ah, the older Hardy finally speaks. Still the rational one, I see. Pity you didn't rub off more on your younger brother over there." Joe's eyes flashed, but he remained silent. The kidnapper noticed this and laughed. "Then again, maybe you did teach him some restraint. But, I digress. The exercise is rather simple. I have planted a series of clues that will ultimately lead you to your fathers. The first clue will be given to you here, which will lead you to the next, and so forth. If you manage to find all the clues, and follow them to the end, you will then find your fathers. Consider it a scavenger hunt of sorts." The kidnapper chuckled, amused at some private joke. "Of course, you will have to figure out how to stay alive first."

"What makes you think we're going to let you walk out of here in the first place?" Nancy demanded angrily. The kidnapper only chuckled again.

"I don't 'think', Ms. Drew. I know." With those words, he lowered the gun that he was holding and stepped over to a large object that was covered with a grimy drop cloth, obscuring it from view entirely.

Frank glanced at Joe, and he knew that his brother had noticed the same opportunity as he had when the kidnapper lowered his gun from Carson's head. Frank spoke up to distract the kidnapper as Joe slowly inched forward towards his gun.

"So what exactly is this clue that we're supposed to be getting?"

The kidnapper didn't even turn to look at Frank as he fiddled with something behind the large object.

"Patience is a virtue, Mr. Hardy, as I'm sure you've learned on your numerous cases. All will be revealed in due time. As for you, Joseph, I strongly recommend that you stop right where you are. My associate over there has a rather itchy trigger finger, and I'd hate for any sudden movements to cause him to accidentally pull the trigger and blow your father's brains out."

Joe froze in his tracks and turned to look back at his brother and Nancy. From the frustrated looks on both of their faces, he could tell that neither of them had any other solutions.

"Now, where were we? Ah yes, I was answering Ms. Drew's question. As I said, I know for a fact that we will be leaving this warehouse." As the kidnapper made this statement, he yanked the cloth off the object that it had been concealing. "And there isn't a thing you can do about it."

The three detectives gasped at the sight of the bomb that had been hidden under the cloth. As they stared at it, transfixed, the LED display counted down the time to the imminent explosion. Four seconds…

The kidnapper ran back towards the two hostages and the other kidnapper. The motion snapped Nancy out of her shock, and she yelled, "Dad!" She started towards her father, but before she could take a step, the bomb exploded and the world shattered around them.

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A/N: My first cliffhanger! I know, it's mean, but I have to admit, it was kinda fun writing one!