As she felt Joe’s hands grab hold of her neck, Vanessa immediately brought her hands up. She took hold of his wrists and tried to pry his hand loose. When that didn’t work she raked her nails down his wrists.

Every defense move that Joe had taught her raced through her mind. Raising her hands she slammed them down on Joe’s forearms – still his hold never loosened. Vanessa was starting to feel light-headed when she made her next move. It wasn’t one she wanted to use but it was one Joe had told her to use during desperate times and this was definitely one! With as much strength as she could muster, Vanessa brought her knee up.

She felt Joe’s grip loosen – Vanessa pushed him away from her and he fell down to the floor. Coughing and gasping for air, the young girl stumbled backwards. She tripped over the tray and fell down – Vanessa noticed that the tray was made of wood. She knew she had to hurry – although the pain Joe felt was excruciating it didn’t last very long – it just felt like it did, the young Hardy had told her. Getting to her feet, Vanessa picked up the tray. Standing over Joe, she gritted her teeth and slammed the edge of the tray down on his head knocking him unconscious.

The wooden tray clattered to the ground when she let go of it. Sobbing uncontrollably Vanessa knelt down beside Joe.

“I’m sorry – I’m so sorry!”

Suddenly an alarm bell began to sound, and the room went pitch black. Feeling for the tray, Vanessa grabbed it and held it close to her body; it might not be much of a weapon, but it was one just the same, and the young girl was going to use it against anyone who tried to take Joe away from her!

*****

Frank was curious as to why Charlie was going towards the back where the furnace was. When they found the main circuit board, he could contain his curiosity no longer.

“Charlie,” he whispered. “Why are we here?”

“You heard Gray – I need to disarm the security cameras and the alarms. I need to fry the circuit breaker in order to do that – if I do each individual camera, I could cause a major fire. You don’t want me to burn down the building now – do you?”

“No – I don’t think so. And I’m sure Joe and Vanessa wouldn’t either.”

“Good, I’m glad we agree!” Charlie replied with a smile. ‘Burning this place down is for after the rescue!’ she thought to herself. “Okay, stand back and cover your eyes!”

Frank turned his head and closed his eyes as a bright spark shot out. The building was bathed in darkness for a second until Frank took out his penlight.

“Remember, Frank – stay behind me!”

“You don’t have to worry about me!”

Frank and Charlie carefully walked back the way they came. Charlie found the stairs and they went up to the second floor. As they walked up they could hear gunfire.

“The Network must be here,” said Charlie.

They reached the second floor and found it in total chaos. Frank wasn’t sure who the Assassins were and who were the Network agents. Staying close to the wall, Charlie and Frank ran down the hallway.

“Look, there’s Roger!” Frank yelled as he saw the man come out of a room.

“What do you want to bet we’ll find your brother there?”

Before Frank could reply two more men came out – one carrying Joe over his shoulder and the other dragging Vanessa. Following behind them was a distinguished looking man with silver-colored hair.

“Mr. Xavier, you are not taking that boy!” shouted Charlie.

Frank could feel the temperature begin to rise. He was nervous; he didn’t know what Charlie was going to do. She had promised not to put Joe in harm’s way.

Roger moved aside, signaling to the two men to keep going; he moved closer to Mr. Xavier.

Not sure if they should follow Roger’s orders, the two men hesitated for a second. That was enough time for Vanessa to go into action. Pulling her arm back, she then shot it forward palm up, and hit her captor with an upward motion on the nose. He screamed in pain and released her; Vanessa then shoved the man against his partner, causing him to lose his balance.

Joe slid off his captor’s shoulders – Frank wanted to run over to his brother but Charlie held him back. He saw Vanessa drag Joe away from the two men who were trying to untangle themselves from each other.

“Vanessa, stay down!” he warned the young girl.

The fear in Frank’s voice worried Vanessa – she pulled Joe closer to her, almost covering his body with her own.

Frank was glad to see that Vanessa had managed to drag Joe close to another doorway. His heart almost stopped in fear when he saw the door open – and he let out a sigh of relief when he saw Fenton.

Fenton almost stumbled over Vanessa.

“Vanessa!”

Hearing her name, Vanessa looked up to see Mr. Hardy.

“Joe’s hurt!”

Fenton reached down and took hold of Joe by his upper body – Vanessa quickly scrambled up and picked up Joe’s legs, helping Mr. Hardy carry him out of harm’s way.

“Get out of here, Frank,” Charlie said in a calm voice.

Mr. Xavier, Roger and the two henchmen were beginning to feel the intense heat radiating from Charlie – although they didn’t realize it was coming from her.

Frank wanted to protest but something told him it would be futile, and this was something Charlie was supposed to do.

“Be careful,” he said as he retreated back to the stairway. He walked halfway before turning around for one last look. Frank watched as Roger fired his gun at Charlie only to have the bullet explode in midair.

Roger stared disbelievingly, then dropped his gun, screaming in pain. Frank could see that the gun seemed to glow with an intense heat. The two henchmen slowly moved away in fear, their steps accelerating as they moved away. Mr. X cried out in fear when a fireball seemed to come out of the young woman standing before him. He turned to see his henchmen on fire. Slowly turning to face Charlie, Mr. X knew that he was next.

That was when Frank thought it would be best to run the rest of the way.

Frank made his way out of the building. He was gasping for air, the heat so intense it made it hard to breathe. He looked up and saw flames shooting out of the windows. He hoped that Charlie was okay. He ran down the alley, searching for Fenton, Joe and Vanessa.

“This way, Frank.” The Gray Man stepped out of the shadows and led the older Hardy brother out of the alley and towards a waiting car.

“Get in – your brother has been taken to the hospital. Miss Bender informed us that he was drugged.”

*****

Frank hated waiting rooms – he’d been here one too many times. He felt a hand slip into his – Callie gently squeezed his hand as she gave him a small smile.

“Joe’s going to be okay – you’ll see.”

“I hope so, Callie – but they don’t even know what kind of drug was used on him!” Frank raked his hand through his hair in frustration.

Laying her head on Frank’s shoulder, Callie closed her eyes and said a silent prayer.

Frank turned his head, looking over at his parents who sat close together. Aunt Gertrude sat a few chairs down, knitting furiously while she waited for news of her nephew. Biff and Chet had gone to get drinks for everyone, while Vanessa paced the floor. Whispering to Callie that he was going to speak with Vanessa, Frank walked over to her.

“How are you holding up?”

Vanessa stared at Frank with pain-filled eyes. “How could I have missed it? I should have known they would try and drug us!” she sobbed.

Frank put his arms around the distraught girl, giving her a comforting hug. “From what I heard, you did a pretty good job inspecting the food and water! I bet I would have missed seeing any puncture marks!”

“Yeah, right,” Vanessa snorted.

“These guys are professionals – assassins; they’re trained for that kind of thing!”

Just then the doctor walked into the room.

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Disclaimer

The Hardy Boys belong to Simon and Schuster and the Stratemeyer Foundation. The Hardy Boys Fan Fiction authors of the Hardy Detective Agency have just borrowed them for an adventure or two. The authors promise to put the boys back when they are done with them. The authors do claim copyright to the original characters in this story. Please do not borrow original characters without express permission of the authors.