"We'll have to see about getting a car," Tintin told the boys as they walked through the busy street, "If a truck could make the trip up the hill, so should we."
"And just hope that those goons don't come back and find us before we get there," Jonny added.
"Hmmm," Tintin stopped and thought of something, and he told Jonny and Hadji, "We might be able to get some help from Thomson and Thompson."
"Who's that?" Jonny asked.
"They're the detectives who were assigned the security detail to your father's lecture," Tintin explained as he started looking around for the two detectives.
"Lot of good that did us," Jonny commented.
Tintin looked around at the many faces in the crowd and scratched his head, "They must be around here somewhere."
"What do they look like?" Hadji asked.
"Oh…you'll know them when you see them," Tintin said.
Snowy and Bandit ran between their owners' feet to keep up with them and barked at each other along the way. Then suddenly Snowy stopped and turned his head and growled.
"What is it, boy?" Tintin asked as he looked around.
"Maybe he smells trouble," Jonny said as he and Hadji looked around for any sign of the men who were after them.
"Maybe so," Hadji said and pointed off in one direction, "Look at those unusual men."
"That's Thomson and Thompson!" Tintin announced as he spotted the two detectives making their way through the busy crowds, "Maybe now we'll be able to get somewhere."
The two boys followed Tintin as he went to meet the two detectives.
"Thomson and Thompson," Tintin said, "Am I glad to see…"
"Just the man we were looking for," Thomson said.
"To be precise, we've been looking for you, Tintin," Thompson added.
"For me?" he asked.
"Yes," both men nodded their heads, then suddenly pointed accusing fingers at him and told him, "YOU ARE UNDER ARREST!"
"WHAT!?" Tintin couldn't believe his ears, "What charge?"
"Why kidnapping of course," Thomson told him.
"To be precise," Thompson added, "You are in possession of Dr. Quest's sons after he was attacked and kidnapped."
"Therefore we can draw the only logical conclusion," Thomson said, "That you arranged the attack on Dr. Quest and are holding his sons hostage," and he reached into his jacket pocket and took out a set of handcuffs.
"Oh no you don't!" Jonny said as he kicked Thomson in the leg.
"Yeouch!" Thomson exclaimed.
"Jonny, you need a matching set," Hadji said, and kicked Thompson in like.
"OUCH!" Thompson hopped on one foot, then regained his equilibrium and told Hadji, "I'll teach you to kick me!"
"No thanks, I already know how!" Hadji replied with a big, knowing grin, and to make his point, kicked the detective again, just as hard, in the other leg.
"Let's get out of here!" Jonny told Tintin.
Tintin didn't need to be told twice. He'd already been falsely accused and falsely arrested by Thomson and Thompson more times than he cared to remember, and he didn't have time for it now. The three of them, and their two dogs, took off running through the busy square, and nobody seemed to notice, only when the two bumbling detectives attempted to give chase and tripped and took down whole vendor stands with them.
"Jonny, look!" Hadji pointed to something up ahead. Jonny and Tintin looked and saw what it was.
"A jeep!" Tintin said.
And there was no one tending to it. The three of them hopped in and Tintin got it started and were just starting to pull out when a man came up and yelled at them, "Hey! What do you think you're doing?"
"Stealing your jeep!" Hadji answered nonchalantly.
"Yeah, we'll bring it back!" Jonny added.
Tintin reached into his pocket, took out a handful of bills and said, "Or we'll just buy it now," and tossed them at the man as he stepped on the accelerator and they tore out of there.
They went down a bumpy road that made the jeep rattle from side to side and Jonny and Hadji almost got thrown out the side, but they managed to catch themselves and hunker down in their seats.
"I don't get it," Jonny said to Tintin, "I thought you knew those guys."
"I do," Tintin answered, just as confused as they were.
"Then why'd they think you kidnapped us?" Jonny asked.
"I don't know," Tintin replied, "Unless somebody framed me."
"But how?" Hadji asked.
"I don't know," Tintin answered helplessly, "But that's usually the way it happened before."
"Before?" the two boys asked.
"You mean they've tried to arrest you before?" Jonny asked.
"Oh yes, several times," Tintin answered simply.
"And you're still friends with them?" Jonny asked, totally lost.
"Thomson and Thompson mean well, but they sometimes have a tendency to get the facts mixed up, I'm afraid," Tintin explained to them.
"You know something, Jonny," Hadji said, "I just thought of something."
"Yeah, me too," Jonny said as he looked back, "If those guys were our security, it's no wonder we got kidnapped."
"Quite a character that Colonel Sponsz, wouldn't you say, Doctor?" Race asked once the two men were returned to their cell and locked in again.
"I wish I knew who this superior of his he was referring to is," Dr. Quest replied as he leaned back against the bars and folded his arms against his chest.
"Nothing personal, Doctor, but I'm all for not knowing, all I want to do is get out of here and find the boys and then clean the colonel's clock," Race told him.
"I know," Benton said, "I was just thinking the same thing."
"Well then," Race told him, "Seems to me the only thing left to do is to get out of here."
"But how?" Dr. Quest asked his bodyguard.
Race looked back up to the ledge over the cell door and he told the doctor, "I have an idea."
"Race," Benton said to him, "I just thought of something," the scientist's face turned grim as he told his friend, "And I don't like it."
"I bet I can guess," Race remarked, "What if this Colonel Sponge is actually working for Dr. Zin and that's why he had us captured?"
"Yep," Benton nodded his head.
Race nodded in like and told the doctor, "If that would turn out to be the case, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, and blow it up. Right now we've got to get out of here." He looked back to the scientist and told him, "And I do believe, Doctor, it's going to require a bit of acting on your part."
"What did you have in mind, Race?" Benton asked.
Dr. Quest rattled the cell door and pounded on the bars, and yelled at the top of his lungs for all to hear throughout the building, "You animals! You savages! Bring him back!"
This had been going on for a few minutes and it looked like it was finally getting somebody's attention. Benton could hear a door opening at the top of the stairs and heard the guards coming down to see what the ruckus was all about. Two of the guards he'd seen earlier came to the cell door and demanded to know what was going on.
Benton pointed an accusing finger at them and told them like a man possessed, "You took him away! I don't know what you did with him but you bring him back right now!"
It was then that the two guards made the most disturbing discovery that there was only one man in the cell. The white haired man in the red shirt and gray pants was gone! Confused, shocked, and panicked, one of the guards took out the keys and unlocked the door and threw it open and they went in to see what was going on.
Race Bannon waited until the two men had crossed over the threshold and he leapt off the narrow ledge over the door and took both of them to the ground with him. After a brief struggle, Race knocked their heads together and knocked them out.
"That was spectacular, Race," Benton told him.
"Aw that was nothing," he said lightly, "You should see me work without a net." He grabbed one of the guards by the arms and told Benton, "Let's get them to the far back so they're not immediately noticeable."
However, before they could carry that out to the fullest extent, they heard somebody calling from above, and heard someone else coming down the stairs.
"It must be the third guard," Benton told Race.
Race took a gun off one of the guards and told the doctor, "Let's get to the back, I've got another idea."
Benton took the other guard's gun and prepared himself for whatever might come next.
The back of the cell was not well lit, especially given the whole prison seemed to be underground. The two men crouched in the back with the unconscious guards, and they saw the third guard, younger than the other two, come to the door and called out to his fallen comrades. In the darkness, Race pinched his nose and said in a voice to match Sponsz's, "Get in here you imbecile!"
"Yes, sir!" the guard saluted, and entered the cell and looked around in the dark, "Colonel, is that you sir? What are you doing in here?"
Race held the gun high over his head and watched as the young guard inched his way closer to them.
"Don't ask me stupid questions, you fool," Race told him, "Don't you know you have your orders?"
"Yes, Colonel!" the guard saluted.
"Take off your helmet," Race ordered him.
Without a second thought, the guard complied, "Yes, Colonel."
Race whacked the man over the head with the gun and knocked him out. Then he relieved the man of his gun also and he told Benton, "Let's get out of here, Doctor."
The two men ran for the door and hurried up the stairs. By this time they were spotted by other guards and a chase ensued, but not before the scientist and bodyguard reached the front entrance and ran outside. Race turned back and fired a couple warning shots and told Benton, "We're almost home free, now, Dr. Quest, come on!"
They ran for one of the trucks and found the keys still in the ignition. Retaliatory shots came back at them, but missed, Race turned and fired again, and called to the doctor who was also returning fire to their captors, "Get in, Doctor, let's go!"
"This is ridiculous," Jonny said in despair, "We've been driving around in circles and we're not getting anywhere."
"Maybe we've been chasing a mirage," Hadji suggested as he looked at the sandy scenery passing them by that was all starting to look the same.
Bandit and Snowy stood up in the jeep and rested their short front legs on the side to look out at their surroundings, even they were beginning to seem as lost and confused as the boys were.
"We must be getting closer," Tintin tried to assure the boys, "How far could this hilltop possibly be?"
From somewhere in the sandy midst, a shot rang out and just whirled past the driver side of the jeep.
"Great snakes!" Tintin exclaimed as he swerved the jeep and tried to see who had shot at him, and where they were coming from. Jonny climbed into the back and looked behind them, and his face turned grim, "Oh no! They found us!"
Following behind them in a similar jeep were the two soldiers they'd given the slip to earlier. How they'd finally found the boys again, Jonny and Hadji didn't know, but now they were gaining on them and while the driver chased them, the second soldier stood up on the other side and shot at them with a rifle.
Tintin swerved from side to side to try and make themselves a harder target to hit, but each time the bullets just missed hitting him or the jeep. After another shot, he swerved too much to one side and he was thrown out of the jeep.
"WHOOOAAAAH!" he exclaimed as the jeep tilted to one side and he was flung out and hit the sandy road rolling.
"Tintin!" Jonny exclaimed as the jeep rebalanced itself and they were left without a driver.
"Jonny, do you know how to drive?" Hadji asked.
"No, do you?" Jonny asked him.
Hadji shook his head, "No, I was hoping you knew."
"I guess we're going to find out then," Jonny said as the two of them climbed over into the front.
Snowy stood up against the back of the driver's seat and whined mournfully. Bandit likewise climbed up to see over into the front seat and he also sounded worried at their grim prospects.
Jonny took the wheel and Hadji got on the floor and pressed his hands on the gas and the brake while Jonny steered the jeep. The soldiers were still on their tail, and still firing at them, but they didn't take into account the fact that Jonny was not as tall as Tintin and could easily slide down in the driver's seat, especially since he had a co-pilot manning the pedals.
"More speed, Hadji!" Jonny told his adopted brother as he started to turn the wheel, "We gotta turn around and find Tintin."
Hadji pressed his hand hard against the accelerator.
"Whoa!" Jonny said as the jeep threw itself halfway around and about threw all of them out of it, Snowy and Bandit especially, "Not that hard."
Snowy pushed away from the side of the jeep and dizzily grumbled as he tried to settle down in the seat again. Bandit also sounded like he was getting sea-sick from his owner's driving and collapsed in the backseat beside Snowy, stuck his pudgy little legs in all directions, and went to sleep, hoping when he woke up they'd find themselves standing still for a change.
"Hadji, hit the clutch, we need to back this thing up," Jonny said.
Hadji pressed the third pedal and was thrown back as the jeep lurched into reverse, Hadji crawled back and pressed the gas and they managed to back the jeep up just in time for the soldiers to miss them entirely and continue straight on ahead before they realized what had happened. Jonny glanced to one side and told Hadji, "Hey, there's another jeep heading our way."
"More soldiers?" Hadji asked.
Jonny's eyes widened, "No, it's those detectives again!"
Coming up behind them in another jeep were Thomson and Thompson, one was driving and the other was shakily holding onto his cane and bowler hat as they spend through the earthy terrain, trying to catch up with them.
"Now we've got two of them to lose," Jonny announced, "And we still have to find Tintin."
"Well then," Hadji said as he reached for the clutch, "Forward ho!"
Jonny put it in gear and they sped forward again, giving chase to the two bumbling detectives, who were themselves about the fall out of either side of their vehicle during the entire drive. Their jeep just about collided with the soldiers' jeep when it turned around and zoomed back, they each swerved away from the other and tried to chase the jeep that was currently in the lead. Jonny turned the wheel and they went back in a long circle, and as they did, they saw Tintin running to catch up with it, and he jumped in on the side.
"Thanks for the lift," he told the boys, "Now if you don't mind, I think I'll take over the driving again."
Jonny scooted out of the driver's seat and Hadji climbed up from off the floor and he told Tintin, "Good idea, you watch the road, I'll handle the backseat driving."
"What's he talking about?" Tintin asked Jonny.
Hadji climbed into the backseat and watched the two jeeps chasing them and he decided a little magic was finally in order.
"Sim-sim-salabim!" he called and sent something flying straight for Thomson and Thompson's jeep, which in turn made them swerve to the wrong side and they crashed into the soldiers' jeep.
"Well that stalled all of them for now," Tintin said as he looked back at the wreck, "Now we have to figure out where we're going."
"And find Dad and Race!" Jonny added.
Bandit stood up in the backseat and barked in agreement.