J.M.J.

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Chapter 19

Katie watched as Weston aimed his gun. "No!" she shouted and then clapped her hands over her mouth in alarm.

Weston's gun came up and he looked around, apparently trying to determine where the shout had come from. Katie ducked her head back behind a tree, afraid that Weston had seen her.

"All right. I know you're out there!" Weston called. "Come on out!" When Katie stayed where she was, he added, "If you don't, I'll shoot these two!"

Katie pressed her back against the tree, wondering what she should do. The one thing she knew for sure was that if she tried to go anywhere, Weston would see her right away. She looked around her, thinking maybe she could find something she could throw, but the only things at her feet were old sticks.

The soft crunch of gravel told her that Weston was approaching. "Come on out. You're only dragging this out."

The steps came closer. Katie pulled her arms up next to her, trying to make herself as small as possible in the futile hope that Weston would somehow not see her. The steps were just on the other side of the tree now.

All at once, there was a crack of a gunshot. Katie had been expecting one right behind her, but this was a little farther away.

"What the…?" Weston began, pausing his advance.

Fenton had also turned to look in the direction of the shot. He couldn't see anything, but he could also see that Weston was distracted. He quickly sat up and got his hands in front of him. Then he pulled Joe to his feet and pulled him behind the van.

"Hey! Wait!" Weston shouted, running toward them.

Fenton quickly stooped and picked up a handful of gravel. As Weston rounded the corner of the van, Fenton flung the gravel into his face. Weston let out a cry and brought his hands up in an attempt to shield his eyes from the assault of small rocks and dust, but in the momentary distraction, Fenton was able to grab the gun away from him.

"Where's the key to these cuffs?" Fenton demanded.

Seeing he was out of options, Weston pulled the key from his pocket and held it out toward Fenton, although Fenton was too far away to reach so that Weston couldn't try to reclaim the gun.

"Take it, Joe," Fenton told him.

Joe reached out and took the key, which he quickly used to unlock his own handcuffs. Then he snapped them onto Weston's wrists before unlocking his dad's handcuffs.

"We wouldn't be in too bad a shape if we knew where Mom and the girls were," Joe commented wryly.

"We know where one of them is, anyway," Fenton said grimly. He gave Weston a small shove on the back of his shoulder. "Get into the back of that van."

While Fenton was helping Weston into the back of the van, Joe looked around him. "Katie?" he called.

There was a little pause, and then Katie came running out of the trees. "Is it safe?" she asked.

Fenton pulled the gate of the van closed and turned to look at her and Joe. "Relatively," he said. "Let's get out of sight in the trees. Maybe we can catch a few more of them."

NDNDNDNDND

Ned ran straight toward the sound of the shot, fearing what it might mean. When he found the spot where the shot had come from, it wasn't what he expected. A figure was lying face-down on the road, but he could tell from the hair and the clothing that it wasn't any of his friends. Cautiously, he remained where he was a few moments longer. The shooter probably was gone by now, but someone else might have come to investigate the source of the shot. A minute passed, and no one appeared, so Ned approached the figure carefully.

The figure didn't move, and Ned bent down to check for a pulse. He didn't find one. Carefully, he turned the figure over and saw that it was Norrell. He frowned at that. The only ones who would have shot him in the back were the kidnappers, but that didn't make sense if he really was in league with them. Then there was a crack of a twig somewhere in the woods, and Ned decided he'd best get out of the open. After a momentary debate, he decided to follow the road toward where the van was supposed to be, although he would be careful to stay in the trees. There had only been one shot, and most likely, Joe and Fenton were still alive.

About fifteen minutes later, he spotted the van, but he didn't see anyone around it. Looking around him carefully, he stepped out onto the road to check it out.

"Ned!"

He whirled around when someone called his name, but he relaxed when he spotted Fenton just inside the woods. He jogged forward and found Katie and Joe with Fenton.

"You found us, Daddy!" Katie threw her arms around him as Ned picked her up.

"Thank goodness," Ned replied. "Are you okay?"

"Uh-huh. Just scared," Katie said.

Ned laughed. "I don't blame you for that." He looked at Joe and Fenton. "What about you two?"

"Thanks to Katie, we are," Joe told him. He glanced down at his knee. "Well, mostly, anyway."

"We'd be better if we knew where Laura and Audrey were," Fenton added.

"They're with Nancy," Ned reported. "Are there keys in that van? We could take it to go and pick them up and then get out of here."

NDNDNDNDND

This room was much less pleasant than the other one, not that any hospital room can manage to be truly pleasant. At least the last one had the blinds drawn on the windows, but even with the overhead lights, this one felt dark and stuffy. Frank understood the reason for it, and he really didn't care to have any more snipers taking shots at him, but it was still dismal.

There was a knock on the door, and Frank watched as the nurse went to answer it. She admitted Sam Radley into the room, and from the look on Sam's face, Frank didn't think this was merely a casual visit.

Fearing bad news, Frank quickly asked, "Sam, what happened?"

"Possibly nothing," Sam replied. "Nancy has some suspicions and she wants to try to find out about them. It's going to need checking with the Network."

Frank made a face, but then he said, "Okay. If it's important, I can see what I can find out. What do we have?"

"She needs to check on whether a man named Calvin Mace is really a Network agent."

"I've never heard of him, but that doesn't mean much. I can check with my contact, but even if this Mace really is a Network agent, he could have given Nancy a fake name."

"She got a picture of him, so that should identification enough." Sam pulled up the picture that Nancy had sent on his phone and showed it to Frank.

Frank caught his breath as he saw the face in the photograph. It was in profile and slightly blurred, but Frank recognized it at once.

"Do you know him?" Sam asked, watching Frank's face.

"Yeah," Frank admitted. "He is a Network agent, as far as I know, but his name isn't Calvin Mace. Maybe the name he gave me wasn't real either, but he at least sometimes goes by Spencer Hale. Are Nancy and Ned with him?"

"Yes. Is that a problem?"

"Yeah. Call them back and tell them to get out of there."

NDNDNDNDND

Audrey kept her arms wrapped around Nancy's neck and gave no indication that she ever intended to let go. For her part, Nancy didn't want to let Audrey go, either, but she did need to attend to Laura's cut. She didn't have any bandages, but since Laura's jeans weren't worth much anymore anyway, she cut them off at the knees and tried to make do with that.

"Hopefully, we can get out of here soon and get some real bandages," Nancy commented.

"Yeah." Laura nodded grimly and glanced in the direction Ned had gone. "You've seen Frank? How is he?" she asked to change the subject.

"He's all right. He's still in the hospital, and he did give us all a bit of a scare, but he seems to be getting much better."

"What happened?" Laura asked.

"We're not completely sure," Nancy admitted. "It seems he was hit by a car, but he doesn't remember it. In fact, he doesn't remember anything after you and Fenton were captured and brought to that barn."

"He doesn't remember?"

"It's not all that unusual in an accident like that," Nancy tried to assure her.

"Just how badly was he hurt?"

Nancy could imagine how hard it would be to hear about something like this happening to one of her children, and she tried to relate the news as gently as she could, assuring Laura that Frank really did seem to be all right now. "How did he get away, without the rest of you?" Nancy asked, hoping that giving Laura something slightly different to talk about would help her.

"It was strange," Laura said. "The men who kidnapped us said that they wanted facts about an old case of Fenton's. Honestly, most of it was declassified, and so there was no reason for Fenton not to tell them. There was no reason to kidnap us, either, since they could have just looked it up for themselves. In spite of that, they seemed to just want to hurt us. We started to think that they were either after something else entirely or they were completely out of their minds. We didn't even know where we were since they had brought us there by plane and it was so far out in the wilderness. We realized our only chance was to escape.

"Frank and Joe had gotten a few boards loose in the side of the barn, and then Fenton managed to get hold of a length of rope. We thought we could climb down the side after dark. At least, Fenton and Frank and I thought we could. Joe had sprained his knee, and even he admitted that he didn't think he could climb down that rope. It wasn't an easy decision, but we finally decided that the only thing we could do was to send just one of us to get help. Frank didn't want to be the one to go, but it made the most sense. He knows more about surviving in the wilderness than I do, and Fenton absolutely refused to go without the rest of us. He got a good head start—it was hours before the kidnappers realized he was missing. They panicked when they did realize. It was a couple of days later that they came back and said that they had found him, and that they'd…killed him. We didn't quite believe it even then. Then they packed us up in that van and drove us for hours on back roads."

They had been talking softly, but Nancy suddenly held a finger to her lips as she heard the sound of footsteps behind her. They had relocated to a fairly well covered area. Nancy turned slowly, but no one was in sight yet. It was possible, of course, that the sound had been made by someone in their party, but it would be dangerous to find out for sure. All three of them were absolutely silent, even Audrey understanding the need for silence.

Whether it was because he had overheard their voice or just sheer bad luck, a man came into sight of them and looked directly at them. He was carrying a gun, and so there was no chance for escape.

"Well, what's this?" he said. "You got away from Hale, huh, Ms. Drew?"

"What?" Nancy replied in confusion.

"Spencer Hale. I think he was calling himself Calvin Mace." The man shrugged. "Figures he would make a mess of this in the end."

"Am I supposed to know who you are?" Nancy retorted.

"He's one of the bad guys," Audrey spoke up.

The man chuckled. "It's a matter of perspective. My name is Ryan White."

"I thought you were supposed to only be getting framed," Nancy said.

"I am getting framed." Ryan grinned. "I won't even try to explain it to you, Ms. Drew." He looked down his nose at Nancy, holding her daughter close to her. "Oh, but I forgot. That's not your name anymore. You're Mrs. Nickerson now." He scoffed. "It makes you sound like some old gossip. But maybe that's all you are now. Hale told me about how all you do is work on small cases now, just sticking your nose into other people's business. It's almost sad in a way. They say you used to be a pretty good detective."

"Mommy is the best detective ever," Audrey asserted. She didn't quite follow exactly what Ryan was saying, but it was clear to her that it was meant to be an insult.

"And now the great detective is just 'Mommy.'" Ryan shook his head and chuckled again.

He only stopped when Nancy laughed. "Do you have a point or do you just think I'm insecure enough to be bothered by you criticizing my life choices? No offense, but I don't really care about the opinion of someone who rented land out to terrorists for them to store their weapons, and then when the Network got too close, made a deal with a disreputable Network agent to make it look like the entire situation was a frame, without even noticing that everyone else involved absolutely planned to get what they wanted and leave you holding the bag."

"What are you talking about? You're just guessing."

"Yes, but it's an educated guess, and it's the only way I can think of to make it all fit together. There's no reason you needed the Hardys. Oh, I'm sure Hale must have told you that you did, butthere is no possible way that personally committing more crimes is going to help convince anyone that you were framed. Besides, I doubt you were able to approach Hale yourself. He must have been the one to approach you about this plan. I don't see why he would take a risk like that for the probably small pay-off that you'd be able to offer him, especially without knowing for certain that you would offer it. On the other hand, if he already had a generous offer from someone else concerned in the matter, it would make sense for him to take the chance of approaching you."

"And who would be so concerned about this?" Ryan scoffed.

"The terrorist organization that you were renting to, of course. If the Network was sniffing around, they would be just as eager as you are to get them off their trail, and if this isn't the first time Hale let himself be bribed, then they would know to go to him. In that case, it's not really about keeping them away from you or even shifting the blame to anyone else. It would be about them staying one step ahead of the Network while they relocate. Of course, the Network isn't stupid. They would find out that they have a leak, so to protect himself, Hale needed to provide a probable leak. That's where you and the Hardys came in. If he could persuade you to kidnap the Hardys and rough them up, then the Network would probably buy that they had given the information to the terrorists. Even if Fenton doesn't really have the information, Hale could arrange to make it look like he did. It would be a tough sell to make them look like traitors, but Frank and Joe certainly don't have any loyalty to the Network anymore, and Hale clearly knows that. It did throw a wrench in the works when Frank escaped, and the attempts to either recapture or kill him failed, but Hale had expected that might happen, so he had previously arranged to have someone in the hospital who could finish the job. The added benefit was that Serene being your sister, it would immediately put attention right on you. After all, it was always part of the plan that the Hardys be found, just not alive. When I got called in, Hale figured I'd be a useful pawn to lend some legitimacy to his pretended search for the Hardys, where we would be successful just a few moments too then I spoiled that by agreeing to stay in Vancouver and let the police in Clay Ford handle the search. He needed to force me to move, so he had you drag my daughters into this. That was a mistake, for all of you."

Ryan stared at her for a moment, evidently trying to work out whether she was correct. Nancy silently prayed that he was convinced and in his disgust for Hale would decide to cooperate with Nancy instead.

Her hopes were quashed when Ryan shook his head. "You're still just guessing. You don't have a shred of evidence for any of that."

"I do. There's simple deduction: that despite whatever he promised you, Hale has given you and, more especially, Serene no real means of getting out of this unpunished. Secondly, there's the key."

"What key?"

"The key that Frank and Joe found in Clay Ford. Its loss sent you and your people into a panic, since you knew that it was evidence against you. It opens the storeroom that those terrorists have been using, doesn't it? One that's on your property. But my husband and I found it, and another agent named Mace saw us find it. He's never tried to get it from us. Clearly, he doesn't care about it."

Ryan chewed his lip. "But if he's setting me up, I'll be able to tell the Network all about what he's up to."

"I'm not sure he meant for you to get out alive. Or maybe he figured that his superiors wouldn't care much about yet one more criminal screaming about being framed. It's also possible that he's trying to make it look as if some other agent is actually the dirty one. Mace told me there was a dirty agent, calling himself Spencer Hale. He probably has the groundwork laid to make it look like someone else is using his name. Mace is clearly either Hale himself or he's working for Hale."

"He is Hale," Ryan admitted reluctantly. "That was going to be the final step in this plan, for all of us to pretend to be agents and then 'find' the Hardys and your girls, but then the Hardys had to pull their little escape plan."

"There's no point in cooperating with Hale anymore," Nancy said.

"Maybe not," Ryan admitted, not lowering his weapon, "but since cooperating with him means letting myself captured, apparently, I'm not going to let that happen. I can still clear myself. I just need the lot of you out of the way."

Audrey buried her face deeper into Nancy's shoulder as Nancy held her tighter. She felt rather than saw Laura scoot closer to her.

"Ryan, if you do this, you'll only make things worse for yourself," Nancy told him seriously.

"It can't get any worse," Ryan claimed.

Then, all at once, a voice shouted from behind Ryan, "White! Drop that gun!"

Nancy looked up and saw Ned and Fenton in the trees behind Ryan. At the same moment, Ryan stiffened, but he didn't look behind him or lower his weapon.

"White, there's no escaping now," Ned told him. "Don't do anything stupid."

Ryan snorted. "I'll bet you wouldn't mind shooting."

"You'd better believe it," Ned muttered.

There was a long pause, and then Ryan finally sighed and lowered the gun to the ground. "All right. All right. I'll give up."

Nancy breathed a sigh of relief as Ned and Fenton hurried in to take care of Ryan. Fenton had a pair of handcuffs which he put on Ryan's wrists. Once Ryan was subdued, Ned ran to Nancy and Audrey and clasped them in his arms, asking if they were all right.

"We're not hurt," Nancy assured him.

"Were you really going to shoot that guy, Daddy?" Audrey asked.

Before Ned had to come up with an answer, Nancy quickly asked, "Did you find Katie?"

"Yes. She's all right. She's with Joe. We'd better get back there. There are still at least three of the gang out here."

Fenton had already asked Laura how she was and decided that he wasn't going to make her walk back to the van. He picked her up and then he turned to Ned. "I'm going to need you to take charge of White."

"Okay."

They made their way back to the van, securing Ryan in the back along with Weston once they arrived. Nancy hugged Katie tightly, but there wasn't time to relax too much. The van had only a single bench-style seat, with room for three people comfortably. It was clearly going to be quite a squeeze, but it was the only vehicle they had and no one was going to ride in the back with Ryan and Weston. They hoped that the car they had found registered to Rod would still be there, but when they reached the spot where it had been parked. It was gone. Apparently, the last of the gang must have come back for it and taken off.

"They could be waiting for us farther down the road," Joe suggested.

"I doubt it," Fenton said. "They must have realized everything has fallen apart, so they must be in a hurry to get away from here."

"I hope so," Nancy replied. "I'm ready for this to be over."