Disclaimer: I do not own the Hardy Boys or any of the book characters.

Thank you! To Wendylouwho10 as usual for reading for flow and content. Typos are mine and I find them all the time!

Rating/Setting: Rating is T. Started as kinda blue spine with a touch of Casefiles but is now completely AU. Frank is 20 and Joe is 19.

Author's Notes: So that 10th review just came in and so here is the reward. :-) And it's a LONG chapter too! Thanks for the reviews!

Chapter Three

"We'll call you if there are any problems and when we have finished the cleaning and appraisal, Mr. Hardy," Mr. Harsham said as he took the rings from the black velvet tray on the counter.

"Thank you," Joe said with a smile.

"Do you know if the rings are the correct size?" Harsham asked as he placed the rings in a box and began labeling it.

"Um."

"Here, try on the man's ring," Harsham said as he reached for a tool under the counter.

"What do you know? A perfect fit," Joe said as he looked at the ring on his hand.

Harsham was sliding the woman's engagement ring onto the tool. "And what size does the lucky young lady wear?"

"Size? Um, yeah. I think her finger is about the size of my pinky," Joe said as Harsham frowned at him. Deciding quickly that that answer wouldn't do, he added, "I'll find out and call you?"

"That would be a good idea, Mr. Hardy. We could go ahead and resize the engagement ring now and you can have the wedding band resized once you've proposed."

Harsham held out his hand and Joe remembered he still had on his grandfather's ring. Quickly, he pulled it off and handed it to Harsham who placed it in the box with the other rings. Giving the man a lopsided grin, Joe thanked him again and headed out. He had just exited the building when his cell phone buzzed. He stopped under the shade of a tree along the sidewalk as he pulled the phone from his shorts pocket. Grinning at the name on the display, he put the phone to his ear and answered, "Hey, Cassidy! What's up buttercup?"

A strained laugh came through the phone. "I'm fine but Jacob's not."

Joe frowned. Cassidy Reston had been with him at sniper school the previous year along with Jacob Yates. Joe was still in contact with Cassidy and through her he stayed in touch with Jacob and Sam, another sniper student. "What's wrong with Jacob?"

"He's missing," she said succinctly. "Listen, this is going to take some time to explain. Can you talk now?"

Joe looked around. It was late morning and he was on a sidewalk in downtown Bayport. "Give me fifteen minutes. I'll call you back."

"Will do."

Joe pocketed his phone and headed for his mom's sedan. After popping the trunk, he grabbed his tablet, blue tooth headset, and a bag that had a notepad and pencils in it. Whatever Cassidy had to say, he was sure he'd need notes. Slamming the trunk, he set a brisk pace to a downtown park with a fountain and plenty of seating. Fixing the set on his ear, he selected Cassidy's number and dropped the phone back in his pocket when she answered.

"What's going on with Jacob?" he asked as he sat on a black wrought iron bench in the shade. The notepad was ready in a flash as he waited for Cassidy to speak.

"Jacob's been missing since May 28th. He hasn't been seen or heard from since then."

"Was he at home or working?" Joe asked as he scribbled down the date.

"He left work as usual but he never made it home. Lori didn't get a call or anything. His car was found abandoned off an exit on I-94 near Gary. No prints, nothing stolen, nothing. His phone was found in the glove compartment turned off." Cassidy waited quietly.

"Had he and Lori been having any problems?" Joe asked as he continued to make notations and turned on his tablet.

"None that I know of, he always seemed really happy in his emails. You know he and Lori moved in together about two months ago and he's been on cloud nine." Her voice grew quiet. "It just doesn't seem right. He was just moving up in his career and now something random seems to have happened."

Joe stopped pulling up the map of Chicago and picked up his pencil instead. He tapped it a couple of times. "You mentioned his career. He was part of that big SWAT operation in Chicago back in January wasn't he?"

"Yeah, he's the one that took the shot on that guy who was going to shoot the mayor. He was moved up in his unit because of it."

"You think anyone at Chicago SWAT would have a grudge against him?" Joe asked as he noted the operation on the pad.

"He never said anything to me, but Lori would be the one to ask."

Joe sighed and dropped his pencil on the notepad. "Local law enforcement and SWAT—"

"I know they're working on it. But they haven't turned up any clues. Maybe you can pull some strings with that group you're with—"

"Cassidy, it's ATF and we don't do abductions."

Cassidy was quiet for a moment and then she said, "I never pushed you on that ATF thing but we both know you're in something else and that something else might be able to get some info that SWAT can't. Come on, Joe. Jacob is my friend and he was your partner in training." She paused a moment. "I know that you haven't kept up with him as much as me but he always asks about you and he's mentioned more than once that he improved his shooting skills because you were his partner."

"Cassidy— Okay, I'll see what I can do," Joe said as he put the notepad and tablet back in the bag with the pencil. "I'll let you know if I find out anything."

"That's all I'm asking. Thanks, Joe."

"No problem. It's nice to know that you'd do this for a friend," he said with a smile that she couldn't see.

"Anytime you need me, I'm there. It's what friends do."

"I'm glad I have a friend like you," Joe said as he stood from the bench. "Talk to you later."

When he disconnected the call he wondered just what had happened to Jacob Yates.

.**********.

The next day, Joe sat with Frank and looked at information on their tablets. Agent Johnson had gotten permission for the brothers and their father, if needed, to look over the information. Chicago SWAT was looking for any help to locate their missing man and welcomed any insight that ORT under the guise of ATF could bring.

"This doesn't look random," Frank said as he scrolled through the information. "After a traffic cam two blocks from the office he's not seen on another camera. "According to his girlfriend, he should have passed the traffic cam three blocks later. So someone must have gotten to him somewhere between those two locations."

"No one along the route saw anything. No one has come forward with information," Joe said as he looked at a document on the tablet.

"The girlfriend, Lori, checks out." Frank scanned through the background on the girl. "No bills, no outstanding problems… with anyone."

"Same with Jacob," Joe said with a frustrated grunt as he leaned back. "He didn't have anyone that would want to kill him personally."

"Right," Frank said looking up from the screen.

"Right," Joe repeated. "Then let's look at the missions he was involved in." He sat forward with renewed interest. "Cassidy and I talked about a big op he was involved in. Jacob took out a guy that was going to kill the Chicago mayor back in January."

"I remember that," Frank said. "Why don't you go ahead and start looking at who was involved in that on both sides and I'll fix a list of all the ops he was in was in the last twelve months and we'll go from there."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Joe replied and pulled up the January operation. "Hey. Hey!" Joe said with increasing excitement. "It was a drug cartel that wanted the mayor taken out because of the crackdown he was doing on the city."

"You think it was the cartel that took him?"

"I don't know. It seems like the cartel wouldn't want to irritate SWAT and the police like this but if there's no proof that it's the cartel, then they might think that law enforcement won't get personal."

Frank continued making notes of operations. "But if the cartel wanted to make a point, then keeping this secret doesn't do anything for them."

"Yeah, that doesn't make sense. Hmmm, that's not good," Joe said as he frowned at the screen in front of him.

"What's not?" Frank asked looking up from his list.

"The Assassins. They had the hit on the mayor," Joe said as he handed his tablet to Frank and leaned back. "Do you think they'd go after Jacob for messing up their hit?"

Frank looked at the file and then at his own tablet. "The information about the Assassins is on the file obtained from the Network about Assassin operations. Chicago SWAT doesn't have this information." Frank snorted. "Agencies and their need for secrecy." He handed Joe his table back. "SWAT and the local law enforcement don't know about the Assassins but just think it was a small operation that was handling the hit on the mayor." Frank shook his head. "So very far from the truth."

"But going back to my question, do you think they'd go after Jacob for this?" Joe pulled the tablet in front of him but didn't look at it further.

Frank thought for a moment. "I don't know. I guess we'll need to research them and the cartel and see what we find."

"I'll start on that." Joe picked his tablet up and started looking up intel on the cartel. He really didn't want to have anything to do with the Assassins again.

.**********.

Two hours later and the brothers sat back in their chairs.

"So, we've discounted the cartel based on what you've found. It just doesn't seem to be beneficial for them to kidnap a SWAT officer. It's not going to make them any money and all it will do is incite law enforcement in the area," Frank said as he tapped a pencil end over end on the table.

"Most of the operations he's been in have been small scale and nothing that would provoke anyone to a kidnapping," Joe said as he pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes.

"That leaves just one possibility based on the information we have," Frank said quietly.

"But it doesn't make sense for them either," Joe responded as he opened his eyes. "They don't make things personal. It's a business with them."

Frank shrugged. "He got in the way of their business."

"They're also called assassins for a reason. They don't abduct people," Joe retorted.

Frank looked at his tablet and pulled up the ORT database and did a search. "The intel on them says that in successful missions they kill their mark 90% of the time so in ORT or Network operations it's best to assume that is their purpose." Frank allowed the table to lay flat on the table. "It just goes to show that they occassionally do abductions."

"Are any of them recovered?" Joe asked although he thought he knew.

Frank's eyes shifted to the tablet and then back to his brother. "Not alive." He was quiet for a moment and then stood and walked around the table to put a hand on his brother's shoulder. "I'm sorry that we don't have any good information to share with your friend or with Chicago SWAT."

"Yeah, me too," Joe said as Frank exited the room.

.**********.

"So what do we do?" Joe asked as he met with Agent Johnson.

"Nothing but continue to look for him," Johnson said from across the conference table. "The Network also came to the same conclusion as you and Frank—"

"What? Why didn't you tell us?" Joe asked in frustration as he leaned across the polished dark wood of the table. "It would have saved us a lot of time!"

"Time to do what? I've already told you they're looking for him- known Assassin hideouts, past bases. If we knew where they were now, we'd go get him." Johnson said and then leaned across the table himself. "To be honest, we were hoping that you'd come up with something else because we really don't know how to find him." Johnson leaned back. "To tell you what the Network had determined would have only biased your investigation."

"What can I tell Cassidy?" Joe asked after a moment. After all, there wasn't much he could say about that.

"Nothing. You tell her you didn't find anything." Johnson stared Joe down.

"I understand. I won't tell her anything." Joe pushed back from the table and stood. As he walked around the table toward the exit, he said, "After all, there's nothing really to tell." He exited the room and closed the door with a little more force than necessary.