Jonny and Hadji and Bandit ran for their lives through the desert sands with one of the gunmen not too far behind them. The sun was directly overhead and beating down hard on all of them, sweat running into both boys' eyes, but they knew they couldn't afford to slow down for anything. They had to lose the goon in the uniform behind them, and they had to come up with something to do it quick.
"Jonny, follow me!" Hadji called to the boy running two feet behind him.
They came to the top of a small hill and jumped over the edge and ran down to the bottom of it. By the time the soldier cleared the same amount of ground, he couldn't see the boys or the dog anywhere in sight, but he pressed on ahead, determined to find them. A few seconds after he had gone, Hadji emerged from a sand dune and stood up.
"That took care of him for now," he turned back towards the dune and looked around for Jonny, but didn't see him, "Jonny? Bandit?"
"Achoo!"
The sand sneezed, and a small portion of it cascaded down as Jonny emerged from the sand, with Bandit under his arm, each of them equally coated in sand and grime.
"Good trick, Hadji," Jonny said, "But now what do we do?"
"Good question."
"We've got to go back and help Dad and Race," Jonny told his adopted brother.
"I know, but how?" Hadji asked.
"…I'm not sure," he replied.
"Jonny," Hadji said, "Those men don't seem too interested in space travel to me."
"Me either," Jonny said, "I know Dad said every major country is in a race to be the first to put someone on the moon, but this is ridiculous."
"So what do they want with Dr. Quest and Race?" Hadji asked.
"I don't know," Jonny shook his head, "But we better figure out something and quick."
Behind them, they heard an engine roaring, they turned and saw two more soldiers coming after them in a jeep.
"Oh boy!" Jonny exclaimed, "Where's a flying carpet when you need one?"
"Another good question," Hadji said, "Come on!"
"How're we going to lose these two?" Jonny asked as they took off running again.
"I don't know," Hadji confessed, "But if they're going to catch us again, let's not make it easy for them."
"No way!" Jonny agreed, and with that in mind, seemed to gain a second wind.
After running a short ways, they came to a sudden stop at a cliff on top of a hill, and they dropped down flat to the ground to look down and see what their options were.
"Jonny, look!" Hadji pointed down below.
"That's the city!" Jonny said in awe, recognizing the scenery down below despite it being a bird's eye view. "They didn't take us as far as we thought they had!"
"They probably went around in circles to throw us off," Hadji said.
"It sure worked," Jonny said.
They looked back and didn't see the jeep, but they knew those men wouldn't be far off.
"Hadji, you think that jeep can make it down this hill?" Jonny asked.
"No tire tracks," Hadji noted, "They must've gone a long way around."
"Then we'll take the shortcut," Jonny said as he inched himself over the edge, "Let's get sliding. Come on, Bandit!"
"Wahoo!" Hadji cried as he joined Jonny on the bumpy trek down the rocky hill and they skidded all the way down to the bottom.
"That was fun," Jonny said as he grabbed Bandit and resumed running.
"Yes, let's not do it again," Hadji added as he took off right behind Jonny.
"I sure hope Dad and Race are holding up alright," Jonny said as they headed for the city.
"WHOA!" Race lost his footing and almost fell 12 feet straight to the hard stone floor, as it was he grabbed onto the bars of the cell door at the last second, and got his whole body banged against the wrought iron, but he held on so he was only hanging three feet off the ground.
"Race, are you alright?" Dr. Quest asked.
Race sucked in a hard breath after getting his ribs knocked against the door, but answered, "I'm fine, Doctor, just got a little jolt," and dropped down.
In the short time they'd been locked in this cell, Race had gone over every inch of it trying to figure any way they could break out. The door was out because nothing was going to make it or the bolt holding it in place budge. So then he started going around the cell looking for a loose stone somewhere that might open a hole in the wall, no such luck. So then he'd decided to try climbing the wall to see if there was anything higher up that would help them.
"There's a small ledge right over the top of the door," Race explained to Benton, "If we could get those gorillas down here for a minute, I might be able to get us out of here."
"Unfortunately," Dr. Quest replied, "I don't think we could get them down here after my little stunt when we got off the truck."
"Well they'll have to come down here and get us sometime," Race said, "There has to be some reason they nabbed us. The question is what?"
"And who?" Dr. Quest added.
"And why?" Race asked, then thought of something, "I've got an idea, Dr. Quest."
"What is it?"
"Maybe we can kill two birds with one stone while we're here and find out why they want us, and how to escape."
"You lead, Race," Dr. Quest said.
Race grabbed the bars of the cell door and violently jerked it, as if he was trying to rip it off its hinges, causing a great ruckus emanating all throughout the dungeon, and he looked up as if he was trying to see the occupants on the floor above, and called up there, "Hey you heathen monkeys! Let us out of here! If you want a showdown you got one, but come down here and fight like men you cowards!"
He stopped rattling the door and the two men stood there and listened and heard a door above open, and then heard footsteps coming down the stairs. Three soldiers appeared at the door and gazed in at them, and the one in the middle appeared to be the leader of the pack. Now that they could get a better look at their captors, Race took a look at their uniforms and the way they all tended to move as one, and he turned up his nose.
"Look Doctor," Race said cynically, "The Third Reich rises again."
The guard in the middle leaned in towards the bars and said with a sneering accent, "You wish to speak to us, American?"
"No, I wish to get out of here," Race answered as he folded his arms against his chest, "My meter's running and I'm due in Albuquerque at sundown."
"You are not funny, American," the guard told him.
"That's fine, your face will do in that regard," Race responded, "Now why are we here?"
The guard let Race's comments roll off his back and said with a sinister smirk on his face, "The doctor's presence was requested."
"Oh sorry," Race said, "His appointment book's all full up. Requested by whom?"
"You'll find out," he said ominously.
At the top of the stairs they heard a fourth man yell something down to the guards, but the sound bounced off the walls too much, coupled with an accent too thick for Benton and Race to decipher.
All the same the guards unlocked the door and escorted the two men out at gunpoint and marched them up the stairs. Race kept an eye on everything, where they were going, what was in every part of every room, if there were any possible ways out of here that they could escape in a moment's notice. So far there didn't seem to be any, but he kept his eyes peeled for the first moment any one of these gorillas let their guard down. The two men were marched down a long corridor and brought to a door at the end, which looked like some military general's office. A man was seated at a desk at the far end of the room, and he looked somewhat pleased by their presence. A shifty looking man in a green military suit with badges and a sash, with black hair on top of his head and not much anywhere else, except for a full goatee, he wore a monocle over his left eye, and was enjoying a cigarette that the black holder for it was clamped between his teeth.
"Ah, Doctor Quest, do come in, please, have a seat," he said with an air of conceit about him.
As if they had a choice. Still feeling a gun in his back, Dr. Quest walked over and sat down across from the man.
"Who are you?" he wanted to know.
"My name is Colonel Sponsz," the man answered, "I have been eagerly awaiting your arrival."
"Too bad we couldn't say the same," Race offered dryly.
Colonel Sponsz looked at the doctor with indifference, but said to him, "I have acquainted myself with your work well, Doctor…high power lasers, rockets, missiles, high frequency beams, ray guns, all very impressive."
"I try," Benton dryly remarked.
"And it is to my knowledge you've loaned yourself out on assistance in many high profile investigations and expeditions: nerve gas, missing spacecrafts, discovering lost cities, rescuing missing scientists, uncovering lost treasure."
"This whole conversation's lost me," Race spoke up.
"Dr. Quest, I am but a humble servant," Colonel Sponsz told him, though both men could detect a hint of a scoff in his remark, "It is my superior who has wished to bring you in for a conference, that you might assist him in his work."
"Who's your superior and what racket is he in?" Race asked.
"You'll find out his identity in time, gentlemen," Colonel Sponsz said simply, "I don't see it in your ability to refuse, Dr. Quest, not if you care about those boys of yours. A great pity it would be if anything should happen to them because you failed to cooperate."
"Except I happen to know you don't have them," Benton moved in his chair and folded his arms against his chest, "They're not here."
"Two young boys out in the hot desert miles from civilization?" Colonel Sponsz asked, and laughed, "It's only a matter of time, Doctor, rest assure we will find them, and when we do…"
Though Race stood to the side of the doctor, Benton could just feel Race was sorely resisting the urge to jump over the desk and beat the colonel within an inch of his life, probably because he was doing the exact same thing right now. He liked to think that it was a bluff and that if they were going to do anything to Jonny and Hadji, it would've happened before the two had the chance to escape, but he just hoped they managed to get back to civilization and someplace safe.
Jonny and Hadji thought they had it made as they reentered the city limits, but that hope was quickly dashed when they saw two more soldiers running after them on foot. They managed to lose one by taking a sudden turn and causing him to crash into a fruit stand, but the second, much larger and meaner soldier, was still giving chase, and it looked like he would catch up soon. The two boys and their dog ran past hundreds of people in the streets doing business with the peddlers and vendors, and many saw the excitement but nobody knew what it was about, and nobody stepped in to help.
"Come on, Hadji!" Jonny called as they continued to run through the street.
"I'm coming, he needs to be going," Hadji said, and turned so he was running backwards and prepared to try a bit of magic on the soldier and managed to get out, "Sim sim sala-" and was abruptly cut off as both he and Jonny were both grabbed by an unseen assailant and pulled around a corner.
The soldier hadn't noticed this and continued to run in the general direction the crowded street took him, figuring he would catch up with the brats in a minute. Once he was gone, Tintin looked around the corner and told the boys, "That should take care of him for a little bit."
"Who—who are you?" Jonny asked.
"You must be Jonny Quest and Hadji," he said, "My name is Tintin."
"Ah," Hadji said, "The reporter."
Tintin looked at the Indian boy curiously and said, "That's right."
Jonny looked to his friend and asked, "How'd you know that, Hadji?"
"Easy," Hadji said with a big knowing grin, "I know how to read the newspapers."
"Well I'm glad we cleared that up anyway," Tintin said.
"Are you one of the reporters from Dad's lecture?" Jonny asked.
"Not exactly," Tintin answered, "I was on my way to the hall when the attack happened…I tried to follow the path the getaway trucks had gone but after a while I lost the trail. I came back to see about renting a truck or a jeep so I could try finding you guys. How did you get away?"
"It wasn't easy," Hadji shook his head.
"And they've still got Dad and Race, we've got to go back and save them," Jonny said.
"Can you show me the way you came?" Tintin asked.
The two boys looked at each other and looked worried.
"We took a shortcut," Jonny explained, "You'd never be able to get a jeep up there."
"Well, it's still something to start with," Tintin said, "We'll get a car or something and see what we can find."
Jonny looked at Hadji and asked, "What do you think, Hadji? You think we can trust him?"
"I think he tells the truth," Hadji said.
"A reporter? Tell the truth?" Jonny asked.
"If you don't believe me, ask Bandit," Hadji said.
Jonny looked and saw that his dog was getting acquainted with another white dog, and the two seemed to be getting along as they happily barked and yapped at each other in greeting.
"This is Snowy," Tintin introduced.
"Usually when somebody's bad news, Bandit tends to know it right away," Hadji reminded Jonny, "Even before we do."
"Well, I guess it'll be alright then," Jonny said, "Now let's go!"