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: LOL Thanks to Cherylann for reminding me that it was time for another chapter. I am off my mental calendar after the holidays! :) We are having snow and school has been canceled so I might get this story all the way finished soon! I think I'm on chapter 26 now or maybe it's 27. :) Oh, and thanks again to JoeNeal for her help in choosing Maya's name and giving me the meaning. :)

Chapter Eighteen

The day before the events of chapter 17…

Joe looked at himself in the mirror turning his head slightly from side to side. They had allowed him to use a bathroom with a real shower and he had stayed in it until the water ran cold. He looked in the mirror and studied his reflection. He was not allowed to shave his beard which was about an inch long. His hair was of a similar length but maybe a little shorter. He looked nothing like the man he was. There were dark circles under his bloodshot eyes and his cheeks had hollowed somewhat from the meager diet he was given. He glanced down at his body and saw he was just skin and muscle though he had lost some muscle tone. However, his body fat was gone and he knew that the clothes at his house would hang on him in his current state. Home. He shook his head and looked at his body again. The bruises were fading from the last beating he took from the Assassins but there were shadows on his body indicating what he had been through… at least on the surface. The needle marks in his arm troubled him because he had no idea what was in the shots he was given or in the food he ate. But all in all if he were clothed and if he didn't have the dark circles under his eyes no one would suspect. No one would know that he was a killer and that at the moment he would like to kill his brother.

He pulled on gray and black camo pants over his boxers and zipped them up. They hadn't given him a belt. They were smart not to. He sat on the toilet and put on his socks and shoes tying up the laces to the boots in double knots. The long-sleeved matching camo shirt was last. Standing again he looked into the mirror not at Joe Hardy, ORT agent but at Joe Hardy, killer. As he opened the door, he flipped off the light.

Joe stopped dead in his tracks at a voice he heard. He knew that voice. Scanning the room his eyes fell on a young man not much older than himself. "Gary?"

Gary smiled and said, "Hi, Joe. Wasn't sure if you'd remember me."

"What-?"

"What am I doing here? Why, I'm working. I've taken a job with the Assassins."

Joe could feel all eyes on him and to be honest he didn't know how to react so he stood silently.

Gary laughed and the man and woman turned to him. "You see that he's ready," the woman said.

"Yeah, I think he is. I don't think the guy that I met at school would have reacted that way to my admission." Gary looked to the woman. "The plan hasn't changed any?"

"No," she responded. "He will be taken to the cliff cave this evening with his weapons and one of us will watch him tonight to make sure he doesn't deviate from the mission."

Gary nodded. "I'll make my call in the morning after my run. I think everything will go smoothly."

"If it doesn't; you know what to do," the man said.

Gary nodded.

Joe figured that they expected Gary to take cyanide like the other Assassins. He wanted to laugh. The guy he met at the training and the man who would so easily betray his friends and countrymen wouldn't be taking any cyanide. He hoped Gary was caught and he'd love to help with the interrogation. He closed his eyes. But he had to survive first and right now he had a lot of anger and adrenalin flowing through him and he wanted nothing more than to punish Frank and Vanessa. Stop. It's lies. They would never betray me. He kept saying the words over and over.

In the dark of the night Joe was blindfolded, cuffed and put in the back of an SUV with tinted windows. The man and one of the Assassins who beat on him took him to a small parking area for a scenic overlook just half a mile past Barmet Beach Park. When they helped him out of the vehicle and removed his blindfold he felt wind on his face for the first time in weeks.

Everything smelled fresh and he closed his eyes until he was prodded by the man. Opening his eyes, he held out his arms in a gesture that indicated he wanted to be uncuffed.

The man laughed. "I'm afraid we can't trust you, Joseph."

Joe looked ahead at the narrow path and drew a deep breath. This path was just yards from the spot where Camille had tried to kill him. Boy, the Assassins know how to screw with my mind, Joe thought. To die trying to get to the cave would defeat their purpose, but then the man was right. He knew the soil and the cliff from his time as a younger teen. He could easily knock them off or cause them to lose balance. But handcuffed he had no chance. He walked forward and onto the path that descended toward the sound of the breaking waves.

The area was very familiar to Joe. The cliffs rose to their highest about a half mile further south. Their height similar to a four story building in places. The cliffs themselves moved in and out in a wavy pattern from the bay. The beach at the bottom of the cliffs was about thirty yards wide at low tide. During storms similar to the one the night he and Camille were here, the bay could beat against the bottom of the cliffs in places and at high tide the beach narrowed greatly.

The cliffs are parallel to the beach but in many spots they angle back some allowing for pathways going up from the beach and from the top down. The paths weren't wide, maybe a yard at their widest with some brush growing along the trail and from the cliff-face. The caves that dotted the cliffs for a mile, ranged from just over a yard high to around six feet in height. The caves weren't very deep nor were they very wide but they were enough.

Joe glanced north toward Barmet Bay Beach Park. It was located where the cliffs sloped down toward the city of Bayport which is much closer to sea level than the cliffs of the area. He wondered how everything would play out. He heard pebbles as they fell from the path and bounced down the stone and he returned his attention to the path in front of him.

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

A short time later the three of them were in the cave and once everything was put down, the thug left leaving Joe with the man. Joe sat propped against the back of the small cave. "What is your name?"

The man considered the question. "Hassan."

"The woman?"

Hassan laughed. "It is not my right to give away her secret but her name means 'illusion.' I'm sure you have known about her dislike of you." The man moved slightly probably because of the rough rock behind him. "For me this isn't personal. This is all about business. For her it is personal."

Joe didn't answer. Why would it be personal? he asked himself. She's an Assassin. What have I done to harm her? He thought about her accent and her look. She was Indian.

And then it hit him as words from his time at Camp Perseverance came back to him. He was wrestling with a dog when a female Assassin walked toward him while he was saying stop commands in European languages. She had said, "You should have learned Hindi." It was her sister or relative that died on the mountainside that night. Now he understood why she wanted him to kill Frank and somehow that thought made his mind a little easier. He closed his eyes and waited for the morning.

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

Joe sat up suddenly; his breathing heavy and his heart rate elevated. He looked around him and saw the dark rock walls and Hassan sitting on the opposite side of the cave which wasn't very far.

Hassan laughed. "It isn't a bad dream, Joseph."

It was surprising that Joe had fallen asleep, but then he had that bottle of water and it was probably drugged by the way he felt. He shook his head heavily back and forth as he blinked slowly.

"Don't worry, it will pass. You will be fine when it is time."

"Are you staying here?" Joe asked as he pushed himself so his back was against the wall.

"No. In just a few minutes I will leave."

Joe's eyes moved to the weapons beside Hassan.

"I will tell you where the keys are to your cuffs and when I leave you will uncuff yourself and check your weapon for readiness." Hassan checked his watch. "Gary will be making his call in about an hour so in less than two hours you will have the opportunity to pay your brother back for betraying you."

Joe looked away because he did feel betrayed even though he knew it was a lie. The drugs and weeks of being tortured with the audio, video, and pictures had damaged him but he wouldn't let it rule his actions. Joe focused his attention outside instead. It was maybe seven a.m. Whatever would happen would happen and it would be over by mid-morning.

He leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Images from the Assassins' video filled his head and he prayed that it would go away.

It wasn't long before Hassan stood. "It is time for me to leave. The keys are located in this yellow box with a speaker. The combination is 061." Hassan wrote it in the sand next to the box. "Check your weapon, Joseph. Listen for the order to get in position on the speaker. Do not try to deviate from the mission. You know the penalty for abandoning the mission."

Joe nodded. "Death."

"We will be watching." Hassan put the box down and left the cave.

Joe didn't rush, he wouldn't be able to get the cuffs off in time to get Hassan and he was certain there was an Assassin with a gun trained on the path that would take him out if he tried to leave. After a few minutes, Joe retrieved the box and removed his cuffs.

The gun was nice. It was the same model that he had and he checked the ammo. It had just one bullet. He checked the handgun and his hand shook slightly. It was the same model that he had held to his own head just days earlier. He closed his eyes as the terror of that moment washed over him anew. He slowed his breathing and opened his eyes. The Assassins would not break him. The gun held one bullet. That's all he'd need to kill to himself. Two bullets for the mission: one for Frank and one for himself. But that wasn't going to happen.

Placing the weapons on the ground, he crawled to the cave entrance and looked out. The air was warm on his skin- different than the cool dampness inside the cave. He looked around. As they had gone over with him for days, the beach gazebo was in range. It was angled to his position because of the position of the cave to the beach. But the shot would not be difficult. The breeze off the bay was slight this morning and it wouldn't alter his shot. For him, taking out any of the visitors to the beach would be a piece of cake. He moved back into the cave to sit and think. Now he just had to wait for the order.

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

"It is time, Joseph," Hassan's voice came over the speaker startling Joe. He had been lulled by the quietness of the cave. The only sounds he could hear were the waves and the birds as they flew around. Joe moved forward and picked up his rifle.

Joe got into an angled prone position with the rifle outside of the cave and along the path where he had a clear view of the gazebo. He drew a deep breath as he watched his brother and father cross the sand. He closed his eyes as anger flooded him. He opened them and looked through the scope but they were in the gazebo. The plan was that Gary would get Frank to come out in the open for Joe to take the shot if he didn't get him on the way to the gazebo.

It wasn't long before he saw Gary crossing the sand with a man that had to be ORT. His finger itched to take Gary out right now but he needed to wait. He needed it to be obvious that Frank was not the target and that he wasn't just a crazy guy shooting everyone on the beach.

Less than five minutes passed and Joe saw both Frank and Gary through his scope. Gary was pointing to a spot on the cliff that was nowhere near his location. Joe picked his spot and fired. It was with a sense of satisfaction that he watched Gary fall back. He didn't shoot to kill which would be another sign to his father and brother. They knew he didn't miss.

Joe moved back into the cave and brought the rifle with him. He put it beside him and picked up the Beretta and closed his eyes. He would not kill himself though the thought was there. Maybe it would be easier just to do that. Frank was alive. Vanessa was alive. He wouldn't have to face them and face the fact that they may have cheated on him together. The gun tapped his thigh nervously. No. They didn't.

His heart began to race again. Frank would be coming. He knew it. He still had a loaded gun and he was still angry. Not a good combination when he had to face his brother. And there were still Assassins out there. They'd be coming for him too because they knew that he only fired one shot. And Joe knew the code. He failed the mission and he was not to be captured. He needed to die and the Assassins would be happy to oblige by killing him and Frank.

Joe waited with the loaded to gun to see who would come to the cave first and prayed he'd make the right choice.