J.M.J.

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Chapter 15

There was no place to hide for cover, and so Bess pressed herself against the wall when the gun went off. She looked up just in time to see Nancy at the top of the stairs, looking very pale. Then the man she was with grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back up the steps. She didn't seem to put up much resistance to going. Bess's first impulse was to run after Nancy, but she was a bit shocked to find herself afraid. After all, Nancy would have never shot at her and Ned unless there was something terribly wrong with her. That was when she realized that Ned was leaning against the banister and he hadn't tried to go after Nancy. Bess hurried up the few steps between her and him.

"Are you all right?" she asked him.

"I'm fine," Ned replied, although he spoke a little faintly.

Bess noticed the red stain just above his left elbow. "You're not fine! She hit you!"

Ned put his hand over the injury. "Just barely. That's not the biggest problem here."

"Maybe not, but don't try to tell me it's just a scratch or anything like that. Let me look at it."

"We'd better get somewhere safer," Ned suggested.

"I don't think there is anywhere safer around here." Bess sighed. "I wish we wouldn't have come here. I don't understand anything that's happening."

She tried to pull back the cloth around Ned's injury, trying to keep her mind on that so she didn't start crying or anything like that. She was tired and confused, all her hopes of this entire adventure ending without serious harm had all been dashed, and there was nothing she could do about any of it and no way to get out of it. But crying wouldn't help, either, and so Bess managed to do nothing more than sniffle a couple of times.

"You're right. It's not very bad," she said after a minute or two. "I guess there's nothing I can do about it, either."

Ned didn't say anything right away, as he was still looking up toward the door where Nancy and that phony police officer had disappeared. "I don't understand. I thought that was the guy Meyers was talking about when he said that there was someone who had defected. If he wasn't really on Meyers' side…"

He was interrupted by the sound of a door opening below them. Bess glanced at Ned wide-eyed, and then she peered over the banister and caught a glimpse of the people coming up. "It's George and Mr. Drew," she whispered. She wanted to melt with relief, but the horrible thought crossed her mind in a split second: What if they've lost their minds, too?

"Mr. Drew? George?" Ned called softly.

"Ned?" they both replied, and their footsteps on the stairs quickened.

A moment later, Carson and George turned the corner just below Bess and Ned and came into full sight of them.

"What happened?" George asked, noticing Ned's arm right away.

"Nancy shot him!" Bess burst out.

"What?" George replied in disbelief.

"It was an accident, I'm sure," Ned added quickly. "It's…I'm not sure what's going on around here."

"I don't think anyone does," Carson replied. "Are you sure you're all right?"

"Yeah. At least, as much as I can be sure about anything right now." Ned almost half-grinned.

"Are you all right?" Bess asked Carson, noticing the bruises on his face for the first time.

Carson reached up and touched one of the bruises. "Yeah, it's fine. Something strange is going on with Nancy. I saw her earlier and she ran from me."

"It's like she doesn't even know any of us," George commented. "Do you think they…did something to her?"

"It's hard to say what's going on, but whatever it is, it's falling apart for Delvere, whether he realizes it or not," Carson said. "It looks like Meyers is at odds with him. He shot one of the techs working in the plant, although I'm not sure why. Speaking of which, we shouldn't have left him, George. We'd better get back to him."

"What about Nancy?" George objected. "She's obviously in trouble."

"I could go after her," Ned offered.

"No," Carson said firmly, to the surprise of the others. "Now that we're all together, we're not going to split up."

"But…" Ned started to say.

"Now that the power is back on, we don't have any way to communicate," Carson insisted. "As long as we don't even know where the others are, we're not gaining anything. Even if you could find Nancy and manage to talk to her, it might not get us in any better position than we're in now. There's a man on the floor below who's been shot. We need to take care of him, and then we can talk about further plans from there."

"There is one problem with that," Bess spoke up. "Ned and I were supposed to wait for Mr. Hardy and that police officer outside. They went to meet the help that's supposed to be coming in soon."

"So you did get a call out while the power was down?" George asked.

Bess nodded. "I called Joe. He said they'd get some help as fast as possible. But what meeting Mr. Hardy? Should some of us go back out there?"

"No," Carson insisted. "What I said about splitting up still holds. You shouldn't have come inside in the first place, but since you're here, we're going to have to make the best of the situation as it is. Now come on."

NDHBNDHBND

The single road in or out of Paradise Valley was flanked on both sides by fields, with small hills or embankments making the only possible cover along the side of it. That made walking along it a risky business. Fenton and Dawson kept looking behind them as they walked rapidly, ready to try to get to whatever cover they could if they caught sight of a car coming. The road appeared to be dead.

"From the sound of it, the security around this place might have bailed out on them," Dawson said. "At least, some of them seem to."

"It would explain the four that Bess and Ned saw drive away and the empty police station," Fenton agreed. "It doesn't solve all our problems, though. There were a lot of people working in that plant. From the look of things, they're all still in that town. That's going to cause us a lot of trouble."

"True." Dawson nodded slowly. "I'm not sure leaving those kids back there by the plant was such a good idea."

"Maybe not, but bringing them here seemed at least equally risky. I didn't know everything would be deserted."

"What do you make of all this?" Dawson asked. "I've never seen anything like what's going on in that town."

"I don't have enough information to even make a guess, but I don't think Delvere would have gone to so much trouble just to run some experiments that might be objected to on ethical but not legal grounds. Swift isn't the only one he doesn't want knowing what's going on here, and I don't think it's just his reputation that he's thinking about."

"You don't think he's making weapons or something like that, do you?"

Fenton chewed his lip, but then he shook his head. "Like I said, I don't even want to try to guess at this point."

They continued walking until they saw a car approaching. They were on a part of the road that was flat on either side. They didn't dare get too far off the road, with the threat of the electronic barrier still looming over them. Essentially, they were trapped.

However, neither of them felt as apprehensive about it as they might have. The car was coming from the opposite direction of Paradise Valley. Their enemies were far more likely to be coming from the town than heading toward it. What was more, as they watched, they saw that there was a line of several cars behind the first one they had spotted. This was how they expected the rescue party to come. The two men stood in the road and waited.

The first car stopped while it was still a short distance from the men. It was head-on, so they couldn't see the markings on it until the doors were opened and the passengers identified themselves as police officers and demanded that the men on the road identify themselves, as well.

"It's Captain Dawson of the State Police," the officer replied. "This is Fenton Hardy, a private detective."

That reassured the newcomers as to the men's intentions, and they were soon surrounded by newly come rescue party, and being asked a host of questions.

"Dad!" The familiar voice caught Fenton's attention, and a moment later, he spotted his sons trying to push their way through the crowd.

"What's going on, Dad?" Joe asked as soon as he was close enough. "Where are Nancy and the rest of them? How did you get away?"

"You're not going to believe what happened, Dad," Frank added. "Or actually, you probably will. We've probably only seen the most sane side of this entire crazy thing."

"I'm afraid so," Fenton replied with a grim chuckle.

NDHBNDHBND

Every inch of Nancy felt weak, and she leaned against the wall for support. Roscoe still had a hold of her arm and was trying to pull her along.

"Come on, come on!" he urged her, but Nancy couldn't seem to make her feet follow him.

"I hit him, didn't I?" she managed to ask absently.

"It looked that way, but I doubt it was very serious. Let's just go."

"But…" Nancy tried to protest again.

Roscoe wasn't listening. He tugged her arm again and guided her down a hallway. After a few minutes, they heard a sound of footsteps ahead of them. Roscoe froze and then dragged Nancy to the nearest door. They dodged inside, and Roscoe slammed the door.

Nancy looked about her in surprise. There wasn't much to distinguish one room from another in this drab building, but this one was familiar. It was the office where she and Tom had been questioned earlier, and that door on the opposite side had to be the one which Tom was imprisoned behind.

"Do you know how to open that?" Nancy asked, pointing toward the door.

Roscoe was still at the door where they had entered, his ear pressed against it. His only response was to shush Nancy and wave his hand at her in annoyance.

Nancy drew in a long, shuddering breath and sat in one of the uncomfortable chairs, putting her face in her hands. She absently realized that she didn't have the gun any longer, but she didn't remember what she had done with it. Maybe she had dropped it or maybe Roscoe had taken it. She just simply had no memory of either thing happening, but that was no surprise. If she could just remember something! She almost thought she did, now and then. It had seemed to her that those people—the ones on the stairs and the man with Meyers—should have been familiar to her, but she hadn't been sure and Roscoe had insisted that she wouldn't know them. But he hadn't known her before this. Maybe he was mistaken. Or maybe he was intentionally misleading her. How did she know that she could actually trust him? After all, it had been more his fault than hers that the gun had gone off. If he hadn't been grabbing at her…But no. She had been careless in that. If she hadn't intended to fire, she should have kept her finger away from the trigger. She had thought at the time that she might need to fire it, but now she realized she never would have—at least, not fully on purpose.

She looked up at Roscoe who was still listening at the door. A moment later, he seemed to relax and let out a long breath. "I don't think they're going to follow us in here."

"What about that other door?" Nancy asked. "Can you open it?"

"We can't get out that way, anyhow."

"I know that. That's where they had Tom a prisoner. If he's still there, we need to get him out."

"I don't he's still there."

"Shouldn't we find out?" Nancy waited a few long seconds for Roscoe's response, but he didn't say anything. She ran her fingers through her hair, pulling much of it out from under the bandage that was still wrapped around her forehead and temples. "Don't you ever think of anybody but yourself?"

"That's not a luxury you can indulge in when you're trying to survive in a place like this," Roscoe retorted. "It's not selfishness. It's just that if you put yourself in harm's way, you can't help anyone else, anyway."

"So if it was in your best interests, you'd betray me, too," Nancy deduced. "Like telling me I couldn't trust those people."

"You can't. The guy on the stairs was the other one that double-crossed me. He's got to be working with Meyers."

"What about the girl?"

Nancy thought that Roscoe stiffened just a little. "What about her? She was with him. That's all I need to know. Look, you already didn't trust anybody before I even said a word to you. You can't blame that on me."

"But that was based on what Meyers said. He's not exactly trustworthy. Though I don't suppose he could have known I was listening in."

"No," Roscoe said slowly.

"Unless he did." Nancy's voice grew sharp. "What are the chances that he would have locked me in a closet with an air vent that ran straight to the room where he was talking? At least, what are the chances of him doing it by accident? Maybe all of that was intentional. He might have known or at least suspected that someone would be coming to help me, and he did it to make sure I wouldn't trust them when they did."

"But those guys who said they were looking for you did double-cross me. You can't argue that," Roscoe insisted.

"Maybe not intentionally. Or maybe not at all. If they came back or went for help, it wouldn't be too hard for Meyers to guess that someone had tipped them off, and if you were the only one who talked to them besides him, then obviously he'd suspect you."

Roscoe tightened his jaw. "Look. I've been trying to help you right along. You can see that. You're going to have to keep trusting me."

"Why are you helping me?"

"What kind of question is that?"

"One that I'd like an answer to," Nancy said firmly.

"It's the right thing to do." Roscoe shrugged helplessly. "What other reason do I need?"

"You didn't seem very concerned about looking out for other people a minute ago," Nancy pointed out.

"Well, maybe all this trouble I've gotten into because of it made me rethink this a little."

"You would have known it was risky from the start."

"It's one thing to know there's a risk and another to have it actually happen."

"How big of a risk was it, really, though? You look like they roughed you up a little, but not very much, especially for being an accused traitor. For that matter, why would they leave you alive anyway? Don't they punish traitors?"

"Meyers probably wants to make a pretense of giving me a fair chance."

"Sure. That's why they didn't search the room where they were holding you when they looking for me, all on your say-so that I wasn't there. That's remarkably trusting for dealing with someone they should consider completely untrustworthy."

Roscoe sighed and looked as if he was about to give up. "And who are you going to trust instead? That guy on the stairs?"

"How can you be so sure I shouldn't trust him?"

"I can't be sure. That's why I don't want to take a chance on trusting him."

"That's not making a very good case for why I should trust you. Besides, if were ever concerned about doing what's right, why would you take a job like this? I know you said you thought it was a legitimate job as a police officer, but how could you not put it together that there was something wrong?"

"So I'm a little slow, so what? It wasn't until they started shooting people and kidnapping them that I knew there was a problem."

"What are they really making in this plant?"

"I have no idea."

"Then why are you so opposed to it?"

"I'm not sure I am. I'm opposed to murder and kidnapping, though. Wouldn't that be enough for you?"

Nancy watched his face closely. He was putting up a pretty good act, but some nervousness was coming through in spite of it. Maybe that was part of the act. Even if he was innocent, he should be a bit nervous with Nancy's questions. So maybe he was innocent. Still… "You didn't seem to care much about murder back on the stairs," Nancy pointed out. "Besides, you've got to look out for yourself. Even Tom's kidnapping falls under that now, and that's the kidnapping you want me to believe made you take all these risks for in the first place. Then, too, you can't take time to just open the door and check, and yet you can take time to stand here and argue with me. Why not just leave me, if you can only think about Number One right now?"

Roscoe turned away from her so she couldn't see his face. "You don't know what you're doing."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You've got it all backwards! We're the good guys here, Meyers and me and the other guys. At least, the ones who didn't leave. You really don't want to stop us."

Nancy blinked, confused by this sudden turnaround. "So you are still with Meyers?"

"Of course I am. Oh, I don't agree with everything Meyers has been doing, and I did almost ruin things by trying to warn your dad and your boyfriend when they came looking for you, but Meyers thought we might still be able to use it to get you to trust me."

"Why did you need me to trust you?"

"To get you out of here. You and Tom. We didn't want anyone to get hurt that we could help, but it's too late now. Your friends cutting the electricity scared Delvere and he had everyone go home from the plant. The place is practically empty now. The police must be on their way—the real police, that is. Everything we've been working towards—there's no way now."

"What are you talking about?" Nancy asked.

"There's a button on the desk over there." Roscoe nodded at the desk in question. "It'll open that door. But if you press it, it will send an alarm to Delvere and it will lock the door to the hallway. The only way to unlock it is with an override passcode, and Delvere and Meyers are the only ones who have that. It's one of Delvere's security protocols."

"And he's not one of the good guys, I take it?" Nancy asked.

"This isn't a joke," Roscoe insisted. "You would have been better off if you hadn't asked questions. Well, you can make your choices. I'm getting out of here while I still can."

He grabbed the door into the hallway and opened it. Nancy asked him to wait, but he ignored her and disappeared out into the hallway.