J.M.J.

Author's note: Thank you for reading and reviewing! The next chapter will be up tomorrow. God bless!

October 3 – Tuesday

Ned was waiting near the baggage claim carousel in the Auckland Airport. Nancy had texted him to say that their plane had landed, so he knew that the girls would be coming. They had to get through customs, but they would be coming before too long. That day in August when he had flown out here felt like a long time ago, and there were still two and a half months left of the semester. He was sure he would have never made it through this semester if it wasn't for this visit.

Anticipation made the wait seem even longer, but finally Ned caught sight of a familiar trio of girls. He waved to them, but they didn't see him right away. It was a few seconds later when Nancy turned her head and spotted him. Her face lit up with a smile so that she was breathtakingly beautiful and she waved as she hastened her steps. Ned began walking as quickly as he could in this public space toward her. He greeted her with a brief kiss and a long hug.

"It's good to see you again," he said. "How was your flight?"

"Long, but good," Nancy replied. "How have you been?"

"I've been fine," Ned assured her. Bess and George reached them then and he greeted each of them with hugs. "Thank you all for coming," he told them.

"You don't have to thank us for coming," George told him. "I've been wanting to come here for years. As long as we get to Hobbiton, I'm good."

Bess rolled her eyes teasingly. "We'll literally never hear the end of it if we don't get to Hobbiton."

"I mean, what other reason would we even have for coming?" George went on.

"I can think of at least one other reason," Nancy said, smiling at Ned.

"Ah, right," George said, realizing her mistake. "Sorry, Ned. No offense?"

"No," Ned assured her with a good-natured grin. "I just hope it's okay that I've been figuring that would have to wait until Saturday. I'm sure you want to make a whole day out of it and not have to wait while I'm in class."

"Four more days to wait?" George replied. "Well, I guess that would be okay, if it gets us a whole day to spend there."

"Right now, I need a long walk, some food, and a nap," Bess said. "Maybe not in that order. I'm not sure."

"I could go for all three of those myself," Nancy replied.

"Well, then, come on." Ned grabbed the handle of Nancy's luggage case in one hand and Bess's in the other. "We'll get you fixed up."

HBNDHBNDHB

"I'm sorry if the clothes don't fit that well," Longheim told the boys as they met the next morning for breakfast and to talk about leaving the island. The sailors had some extra clothes along, and so they had all donated some to the castaways.

"Our old clothes were practically rags, so it's better than that," Tony assured him.

Most of the boys were watching as Weston was frying bacon and eggs in a pan over the fire.

"I think it's the most beautiful thing I've ever smelled in my life," Chet declared.

Weston laughed. "The rest of you guys can't tease me about my cooking anymore."

"A guy would have to be starving to enjoy eating anything you cook," Ream retorted with a guffaw. "They won't think much of it once we get them back to civilization."

"We're not exactly starving here," Joe said.

"But we're ready to leave any time you are, once we find Katina, at least," Frank added. "I think the six of us are going to have to look for her ourselves, though. We're going to have a hard enough time getting her on the cruiser. I don't think she'd let the rest of you get close to her."

"Probably not, from what you've told us," Longheim agreed. "Well, I'm sure you guys are more than ready to be headed home. Ream, you and I will go on back down to the Kapperdahl after breakfast and make sure she's ready to go ASAP."

"Where did you come up with Kapperdahl as a name for your cruiser?" Tony asked.

Longheim shrugged carelessly. "It was my mother's maiden name. It seemed to fit her. The boat, not my mother."

It didn't take long to fry bacon and eggs over the campfire. They had no seasoning besides that salt that the castaways had discovered, but that breakfast was the best any of the boys could ever remember, except that it made them feel even more homesick. They ate the meal with zest and then they were determined to find Katina as quickly as possible.

At least, five of them were. Joe was still suspicious of their would-be rescuers, and he requested the castaways stay together until they had gotten out of earshot of the men at the cabin.

"Please tell me I'm not the only one who thinks there's something wrong about all this," he said.

"What's wrong with it?" Phil asked. "We're finally going to get off this island."

"I don't trust those guys," Joe insisted, crossing his arms.

"Why not?" Biff asked. "Just because we don't know them? We couldn't really expect to get rescued by somebody we know."

"No," Joe replied. "Well, I mean, that is part of it, I guess, but it just doesn't feel right."

"What doesn't feel right about it?" Phil asked.

Joe hesitated. That was the problem: he wasn't sure. "I'm just going off instinct," he admitted. "Something is just off about those guys and their broken radio. Frank, what do you think?"

"I think I have to side with the other guys on this one," Frank admitted slowly. "If those guys wanted to hurt us, they would have done it by now."

"Maybe they're not after us," Joe pointed out. "Maybe they're after Katina."

"Oh, come on," Frank argued. "It's pretty obvious that nobody know Katina is here."

"I don't see how it's obvious," Joe insisted. "We know someone's been coming to this island periodically. Maybe it's these guys, coming to look for Katina and they just haven't been able to catch her. They figured if they could get on our good side, since Katina already trusts us, we could help them finally get her."

Frank considered that. "It seems a little unlikely, but what do you suggest we do in case that is what's going on?"

"We can tell them that we don't think we'll all fit on their boat or at least that we don't think we can get Katina on it," Joe explained. "We tell them to go back to Hawaii and call Dad and tell him where we're at. He'll come right here, and when he does, we know we can trust him. If he doesn't show up, we know these guys were up to no good and that we dodged a bullet."

"And let them sail off in possibly boat that's ever going to come here," Biff protested.

"I don't really see what we can do about that," Joe replied.

"I say there's way too much at stake to risk not trusting these guys unless we have proof they can't be trusted," Biff insisted. "Sorry, Joe, but I need more than just your instincts on this one."

"But if they're honest, there is no risk," Joe said. "If they're not, then we're not getting home if we get on that boat with them, not unless you're planning on stealing their boat."

"I'd rather do that than risk losing the chance to get rescued," Biff maintained.

Joe turned to his brother with a pleading expression.

Frank hesitated. He had a sneaking suspicion of his own that Joe might be on the right track, but at the same time, he agreed with Biff. They couldn't let that cruiser sail away unless they knew it was going to get them help. "We have to find Katina before we can do anything, anyway. We can keep thinking about it while we look and we can keep an eye on those guys. By the time we find her, we might have a better idea than any of those."

HBNDHBNDHB

"I'm starting to hope I never have to see this place again," Jack Wayne commented as he and Fenton walked into the police precinct where Hikialani worked.

"Most people aren't especially thrilled about going into police stations," Fenton commented dryly.

"I meant the entire state," Jack replied.

"I know. I was trying to make a joke." Fenton half-smiled. It wasn't easy to make jokes at the moment, so it was probably better to not even try.

They were soon in Hikialani's office, explaining the situation to the police detective. He listened with a frown and then shook his head.

"This case is too messy," he said finally. "No one could have planned it to work out like this. At least, you can feel sure that you've made someone nervous. But was it a good idea for you to come here? Wouldn't it be best to try to rescue those two girls? Surely you don't think they were brought here to Hawaii."

"No," Fenton agreed. "The police are looking for them, as is Sam Radley. I'll get in contact with him if I pick any hints from the girls where they might be when they call again. I thought it would be best to at least appear to be cooperating. If the men who have them are in league with Pavel Morales, I don't think they're playing around."

"No, I suppose not," Hikialani agreed. "Well, what can I do?"

"I just wanted to let you know what was happening so that you could be on standby," Fenton replied. "There has to be a particular reason they wanted me to come to Hawaii. If they only wanted me off their case, they would have told me to go home."

HBNDHBNDHB

Iola had found a piece of glass on the floor. It had broken out of the one window in the room, which was too high up for either girl to reach. Currently, she was moving it back and forth in the light from the window, hoping that the sunlight would reflect off it and someone might see the signal. She knew it was a small chance, but she thought it was worth a try. It was definitely better than just sitting around and doing nothing.

Callie had spent her captivity trying to think what Frank would do in a situation like this. He would be able to come up with some plan, she was sure. Despite her headache, Callie was trying to formulate a plan. The kidnappers let her talk to Mr. Hardy. True, they told her the contents of what she was supposed to say, but they didn't give her the exact words. If she tried, maybe she could work out some kind of coded way to give Mr. Hardy more information. There were two problems with that, though. First, she wasn't sure if she could think of something that Mr. Hardy would understand, and second, she didn't have much more information to give him.

She was still trying to think when the door opened and the two captors came in again. Iola immediately stopped her flashing and tried to hide the piece of glass behind her Like yesterday, Number Two didn't say a word. Number One did all the talking.

"We have had a report that Hardy is in Hawaii," Number One announced without preamble. "You will give him more information now, as he is in a position to use it. You must understand and you must tell him that this is not all the information we have. We will give him the rest when he has done everything he can with what we will give him now."

"Wouldn't it work out better for him to have all the information right away?" Iola asked.

"The information we are withholding won't prevent him from capturing the people who are responsible for his sons' deaths. That is what we all want, is it not?"

"Why would you care?" Iola demanded.

"About Hardy's troubles?" Number One asked. "Frankly, I don't care. However, someone is trying to put the blame on us. We want to make sure it is clear that we had nothing to do with the deaths of those boys."

"Maybe you'd better tell everything you know from the beginning," Callie requested.

"Yes. Pay attention. You will have to repeat all of this to Hardy. Pavel Morales believes that Hardy already knows this, and so there is no reason to keep it quiet. He is a freelancer who takes contracts. He has taken contracts both for the cartel which Gaspar Santana works for and for a criminal organization in Hawaii headed by a man named Devin Reynolds. Reynolds built up his empire in nearly complete anonymity. The only member of his organization who knew who led it was a man named Reese. Reynolds sent all his orders through him. The FBI attempted to infiltrate the organization by planting a female agent who used the name Dallas Ermington. Reynolds knew who she was and contrived to make it appear to all his followers that she was the real head, mostly to confuse your government's investigators. He was clever enough that this agent never did find his identity, until she convinced Reese to turn against his boss. She was able to do this because despite his cleverness, Reynolds had one flaw: he didn't prevent his people from killing anyone who got in their way. Reese realized he may well end up as the victim one of these times. He went to the FBI and turned himself in, giving them the entire story.

"They an airtight case against Reynolds, until Reese became afraid that he would be killed before he could testify. Everything rested on his testimony, and so he thought Reynolds would not rest until he was sure that Reese was silenced. He wanted Reynolds to be arrested immediately, but the authorities wanted to check his story thoroughly to make sure that once Reynolds was arrested, he would not get out again. Reese decided that his only chance was to kill Reynolds himself. He escaped the marshals who were guarding him and went to Hawaii to do exactly that. Reynolds found out and had his men capture him. The Hardys and their friend unfortunately witnessed this capture. Reynolds wasn't in Hawaii at the moment then, Reese was a traitor, and Dallas, unbeknownst to the members of the organization, had never really been one of them at all. There was no leadership, so one of Reynolds' people named Weston decided to take matters into his own hands. He ordered the witnesses to be killed, not realizing who they were.

"Reynolds arrived in Hawaii and took charge of matters. He sent Reese back to the mainland, thinking that the marshals wouldn't be looking for him there now that they knew had been captured in Hawaii. He didn't have Reese killed yet, though, as he wanted to question him about how much he had told the authorities. While they were still holding him, he escaped once. Weston thought he could take matters into his hands once more and blundered once again by kidnapping Carson Drew. He thought that Hardy and his associates had found Reese and helped him escape. However, Reese was recaptured and ordered to be executed, but then Hardy did interfere and prevent it from happening.

"Then another of Reynolds' people betrayed him. Brock Garret turned himself into the police and began the collapse of Reynolds' entire empire. It is essentially all finished now. In revenge, Reynolds contacted Pavel Morales to have him kill Garret, but by that time, Morales wanted nothing to do with entire mess. He refused. Reynolds was furious and tried to put out a contract on Morales, but Morales was too clever. The assassin failed and Morales planned to turn evidence against Reynolds over to the authorities. Hardy got in the way by investigating too closely, however. That was one of the few things Reynolds did right in all this. He had gotten to one of the FBI agents working on the case and bribed him into arranging for Hardy to get onto Morales' trail. This agent's name is Chris Hammon. You must remember that and tell Hardy. He'll recognize the name.

"Even as that plan was being put into effect, though, someone killed Reynolds. It was nor Morales or anyone connected to him, although we do know who it is. That is one of the pieces of information that we will withhold until Hardy has done what we want him to do."

"And what's that?" Callie asked.

"We want him to discredit Hammon and make him confess that Morales, Santana, and anyone connected to them had nothing to do with all these murders."

"Why do you care about Santana?" Callie inquired. "Are you part of the cartel?"

"No. We work for Morales, but Santana has paid Morales to take him under his protection, and that is what he will do."

"You just admitted that both of them have committed other crimes," Iola pointed out. "That's not very good protection, if you ask me."

"It is nothing that the authorities do not know about, and once Hardy has all the information we have to share, I don't think he will be very interested in causing us any more trouble. However, this is enough for now. Reynolds' murderer and one other piece of information can wait until Hammon has confessed and cleared us all of involvement in this debacle."

"How do you know any of this?" Callie asked. "If you're not involved, you shouldn't know."

"You'll understand that later," Number One told her. "For now, you will make another call to Hardy and tell him everything I just told you."