I laid the papers on the ground and stared at them. Matthias definitely had the stolen goods from the robberies. And he hadn’t mentioned anything to Frank or Joe about it. But he also seemed to be in with ATAC. I tried to piece together what it could all mean. Then it came to me.
What if Matthias was just pretending to be an ATAC agent?
Some of these papers were real ATAC missions, but some of them looked fake. Homemade. Maybe Matthias had made up this mission and committed all the robberies just to lead Frank and Joe down here. If that was the case, they were in even more danger than I had ever realized. From the pictures, it looked as though he had been following them for a long time. The sick feeling in my stomach grew worse. This whole thing had been a trap from the very beginning.
“Nancy, Bess! Come in here,” George yelled from the bedroom. I stuffed the papers into my purse and ran to join her.
The bedroom was nearly as empty as the living room—a bed, a desk with a chair, a lamp, and a chest of drawers. George had clearly already opened all the drawers and checked under the mattress—they were a mess. George was sitting at the desk, which was pressed up against one wall. It was an old-fashioned rolltop, and unlike in every other part of the apartment, its surface was cluttered with stuff.
I peered over George’s shoulder. In front of her was a large machine that looked like a radio from an old movie. There was a huge pair of headphones connected to it, like the kind that DJs wore to block out all the other sound in a club. There was also a stack of blank staff ID cards on the table, as well as some tiny electronics and gadgets that I couldn’t identify.
“What is all this stuff?” I asked George.
“These,” she said, holding up a handful of the small electronics, “are tiny listening devices. And this”—she pointed to the radio—“is the receiver.”
George held up a tiny gun-shaped object.
“Matthias used this soldering iron to place the listening devices inside these staff IDs. See?”
George pointed back to one of the dials on the radio. It looked like a regular station tuner, except instead of normal markings, it had only three, which had been handwritten on Post-it notes and stuck to the machine. One was labeled Joe, the other Frank, and the third, Nancy.
So this was why Matthias had been so crazy about Joe and Frank wearing their IDs! An idea came to me.
“If Matthias used this to spy on Frank and Joe, and now he has them with him, maybe we can use it to find them.”
I picked up the headset and put it on. George flipped the power switch and turned the dial to the place marked Joe. I listened for a second, but there was no sound. Either Joe didn’t have his ID on him…or he wasn’t making any noise.
“Nothing,” I said. George turned it to Frank.
This time I heard something. A rushing whooshing sound, like wind. I couldn’t tell what it was.
“There’s something, but I don’t know what.”
Bess took the headphones from me and listened for a second. Then she shook her head.
“I can’t make it out either,” she said.
She handed the headphones to George. As soon as she put them on, her eyes grew wide with recognition.
“I know that sound!” she yelled. “It’s one of the hover boats. They’re in the swamps! And I bet I know exactly where Matthias is taking them.”
CHAPTER 17
JOE
ALL TIED UP
I woke up from the strangest dream. In it, I was a little kid, and my dad was carrying me to bed. But my bed was one of those carts you use to move food in a restaurant, and my dad was Matthias Dunstock. Nightmare!
I shook my head to try and clear the dream from my mind and wake up. That was a bad idea. The slightest motion made my stomach feel queasy. My head was pounding, a rhythmic pain that surged through my brain every time my heart beat. I opened my eyes for a second, but everything was blurry and indistinct. Having my eyes open made my stomach feel even worse, and I couldn’t make out anything anyway, so I shut them again quickly.
The one glance I had of my surroundings, though too quick and confused to tell me where I was, did tell me where I wasn’t. I wasn’t at home in my room. In fact, I didn’t think I was in a room at all. Wherever I was, I was lying on the ground in a heap. There were all sorts of things under me, pressing up against me. I tried to move my arms and prop myself up, but I couldn’t. At first I thought they had fallen asleep, then I thought they were pinned behind me by whatever I was lying against, but as I struggled to move, I realized they were tied. Adrenaline surged through me as I realized that, wherever I was, I was in danger.
I tried to think. I could feel a breeze blowing, so I had to be in motion. Was I in a car? No…it didn’t feel like a car. We were bouncing more than a car would. A train? No, the engine didn’t sound right for a train, and besides, I wouldn’t be out in the open on a train. Then I had it! A boat. I was in some sort of boat.
I couldn’t remember how I’d gotten there. The last thing I remembered clearly was talking to Nancy and Frank. I remembered heading up to Nikitin’s apartment…but everything after that was fuzzy. Matthias had been there. And Petrovitch?
Suddenly, I remembered.
Nikitin had thrown me off him and I landed in a heap in the corner of his bedroom. Just as I was getting up, he ran right through Frank and out the door. I was about to run out and help Frank, when Matthias called my name. I turned back toward him, and I felt a sharp stab in my arm. I fell to my knees, and Matthias was standing over me with a needle. Then I blacked out.
The pain in my head was starting to die down. The fight-or-flight reaction was kicking in, and my body was becoming more responsive. Tentatively, I opened my eyes again. Frank was tied up to my left, his head rolled back against the side of the boat. I would have thought he was sleeping, except for the fact that, for once in his life, he wasn’t snoring like a buzzsaw.
“Frank!” I hissed, hoping he was just pretending to be unconscious. He didn’t move. Long after I knew he was out of it, I continued to stare at him, hoping he would wake up. But he was down for the count.
I looked to my right. Nikitin was slumped there, tied up as well. Blood was slowly dripping from his forehead, and his skin was a pale color. His breathing was shallow. He didn’t look good. If I craned my head, I could see Matthias beyond him, standing at the head of the boat, piloting it.
What was Matthias doing? He was an ATAC agent! Why had he drugged us?
My blood froze in my veins as I realized…he’d gone rogue! It was almost unimaginable, a fellow agent turned criminal. It was terrifying. He had the resources and training of ATAC behind him. Who knew what he could do. He could be incredibly dangerous…as Frank and I had already discovered, too late.
Matthias didn’t seem to have noticed that I was awake. At least that was one thing in my favor. The element of surprise. Not that I could do much with it right now.
It was dark, but I could just make out the edges of the swamp around us. I had no idea how long I’d been out for. We could be halfway to Cuba by now!
If Frank and Nikitin were to either side of me, then the body I was lying against had to be Petrovitch. I wondered what his role was in all of this. Nikitin had seemed surprised to see him tied up on the bed. Were the two brothers involved in the robberies at all? Was this all Matthias’s scheme? And why was he doing it? So many questions, and no time to get answers.
My fingers were stiff from being tied behind my back, but I started to feel around to get a sense of how I was bound. Rope, not too thick. The thicker the rope was, the easier it was to untie. This stuff would be difficult. I tested it, pulling this way and that, but the knots were good. Of course they were. They were the ones ATAC had trained us to use.
Because it was thin, though, the rope would be easy to wear through, if I could find something sharp to rub against. I felt around behind me, but Petrovitch was so large, I couldn’t reach the edges of the boat around him. I hoped the noise of the boat’s e
ngine would keep Matthias from noticing that I was awake.
My moving around must have tipped off Petrovitch to the fact that I was awake. I felt a slight movement from him too. His fingers grasped mine, squeezed them once, and then released. He was trying to send me a message! But could I trust him?
Matthias cut the engine all at once, and everything flew forward. I slammed my head into Nikitin, but he was like a giant mannequin and didn’t even move. My face was stuck in his side, and I could barely breath. I struggled to right myself. I didn’t live through all my ATAC missions just to be smothered in the armpit of an unconscious giant!
I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head. A hand wrapped around my hair and pulled me upright.
“I’m so glad you’re awake,” Matthias said. “I was afraid I was going to have to kill you in your sleep. And that wouldn’t be anywhere near as much fun.”
He shoved me backward, and I fell hard against someone again. Frank or Petrovitch, I couldn’t tell for sure. Whoever it was didn’t move.
“You’re not going to get away with this,” I said. “ATAC knows where we are. Even if you kill us, they’ll find you.”
Matthias laughed.
“ATAC has no idea you’re down here. Your whole mission was a fake. Do you think it was just chance that brought you down here? I guess the great Hardys aren’t as smart as everyone says.”
Matthias’s voice had a mean, hard edge to it, but also a whiny one, like a bratty kid boasting about his grades. I couldn’t believe he’d faked the whole thing. What possible reason could he have? I could understand his wanting to kill us because we were on to his scheme, but why bring us down here in the first place?
ATAC had trained us for hostage situations. And one of the first things they said was to keep your captor talking. So long as they were interested in communicating, they weren’t ready to kill you. I had to keep Matthias occupied until I could free myself. Or until Nancy could find us.
“Why?” I asked. “Why lure us down here where we could discover your robbery scheme? Why not just take the money and run?”
“You think this is about the robberies? This had nothing to do with money! It was always about you. You and your brother. The golden boys of ATAC. Just because your father started the agency, everyone thinks you’re the best.”
Matthias was angry now, talking fast and low. He leaned in close to my face and grabbed me by the hair again.
“You.”
Slap!
“Aren’t.”
Slap!
“Anything.”
Slap!
“Special.”
My head was ringing by the time he let me go. He had some arm on him.
“Okay!” I said. “I’ll tell you everything. Just stop! Your breath is killing me.”
Matthias’s face turned into a mask of rage, and I thought for a moment I had pushed him too far. Then he just laughed and sat back down.
“You always have a joke ready, don’t you? I’ve been following you for months, you and your brother, learning everything about you. You’d have been dead days ago if that friend of yours hadn’t gotten in the way. So cute—she fancies herself a detective. She’s dumber than the two of you.”
Matthias turned away from me and started pulling things out of a bag at his feet. I saw more needles, a glass bottle full of clear liquid, and a gun. I tried to think of something else to keep him talking.
“And these two? Were they involved at all?” I nodded my head at Petrovitch and Nikitin.
Matthias smiled, a sick, twisted smile.
“Oh, you wouldn’t believe how easy my friend Nikitin here was to manipulate. Money, money, money. ‘My family,’” he whined all the time. “‘They need help.’”
Matthias pushed Nikitin over with his foot. He slumped to the floor of the boat, blood leaking faster from his head now. I took advantage of his momentary distraction to lean back, my fingers stretching out behind me. Quickly, I found what I was looking for—another knot. I began to untie it as Matthias started talking again. I hoped whoever I was freeing was conscious…and on my side.
“His dumb ox of a brother I would have let live. I don’t understand how someone can be so large and yet have a brain so small. He almost told you that I was the last one in Jasmina’s room, you know. Thankfully, I was listening to the two of you and was able to arrange an ‘emergency massage’ to call him away. But then he came across me moving the last of the stolen stuff to Nikitin’s room, and I was forced to knock him out. Luckily, four bodies are just as easy to dump as three.”
I almost had it. I could feel the knots coming apart beneath my fingers. I just needed Matthias to keep talking for another few minutes. He leaned in close to me again, his stinking breath in my face.
“This is one of my favorite spots in the swamp. So private. Do you like it? George certainly did. Maybe, after you’ve gone missing, I can take her out here to console her. We can have a picnic…over your dead bodies.”
Matthias pulled back suddenly. “What is that?”
I had no idea what he was talking about. I looked around, trying to figure out what he was seeing. Then I realized it wasn’t something he saw, it was something he heard. The whine of another hover boat, cutting through the air.
Someone was coming. And I was pretty sure her name was Nancy Drew.
CHAPTER 18
NANCY
NANCY TO THE RESCUE
We must have run the entire way from Matthias’s apartment to the entrance of the hotel proper. We flew past a few startled guests, yelling, “I’m sorry!” and, “Excuse me!” every couple of feet. Who knew how much time Frank and Joe had left. There wasn’t a moment to spare.
There was a dock for the hover boats right underneath the hotel. The main elevators would take you down there. Matthias must have knocked out Frank and Joe somehow, and then carried them out on the room service cart and dumped them into the elevator. From there, it was just down a few flights and they were home free. I had to hand it to Matthias, it was a brilliant way to get them out of the hotel without anyone seeing.
The dock itself was surrounded by a high fence designed to keep people out after hours. There we found more proof that Frank and Joe had definitely been that way: the lock on the gate had been picked and left open, and there were scraps of fabric caught in the sharp edges of the chicken wire at a low height, as though someone had been dragged through the gate.
There were three boats sitting in the dock, their giant fans still. Hover boats skirt the top of the water, unlike conventional boats, which sit in it. The fans are their main method of moving forward. Regular boats don’t work in the swamp because the water is so shallow, a conventional boat motor can shatter its blades on the ground.
“George, do you know where the keys are kept?” I asked, as we looked around the space.
“No! When I came here before, the keys were just in the ignitions of all the boats.”
They must have taken them away to prevent unauthorized people from using them. George and I started searching the small office to the left of the dock, but there was nothing to be found. Then we heard the roar of an engine and the whirr of a fan. We came running back out.
“Bess? You found the keys?” I yelled.
“Who needs keys when you have a set of pliers?” Bess held up some tools she had picked up off the floor of the dock. Behind her, I could see the wires sticking out of the dashboard. She’d taken the ignition apart and hot-wired the boat! She’s a genius with machines—though we were going to have to explain that later to Mr. Thorton. But knowing Bess, she’d be able to put it back together just as easily as she took it apart.
In a few seconds, we were off, zooming through the swamp. It was already dark out, and once we got away from the lights of the hotel, it was hard to see more than a few feet in front of us. Bess flipped a few switches, and two giant floodlights turned on. They were so bright, you could feel the heat coming off them, like spotlights at a theater. They cut two narrow chan
nels through the darkness, but everything else was black as tar.
The swamp at night was a terrifying place. Strange noises came from all sides, high-pitched wailing bird calls, splashing, and creaking. Wet strands of Spanish moss, like cobwebs, only thicker and green, reached down from the trees and caught on our faces and hair. George directed, Bess drove, and I stared off into the night, straining my eyes to catch a glimpse of Frank, Joe, or Matthias.
“I think it’s a left up ahead,” George muttered. “No, a right. Oh, Nancy, I don’t know if I can remember the right way!”
George kicked the front of the boat, hard, her frustration driving her crazy. I reached out and put my arm around her shoulder.
“You can do this, George.”
“Okay. Okay. Go…right.”
We stood in silence at the front of the boat, like the carved prow of an old pirate ship. How easily everything could fall apart. If we were going the wrong way. If they weren’t in the swamp at all. If Matthias had already hurt them. If, if, if. I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
“There!”
It was George who finally spotted them by the glint of our lights off their boat. It was just sitting there silently. Bess turned the wheel slightly, never slowing down, putting their boat directly in our floodlights. We were headed right toward them, but I still couldn’t see anyone on the boat. Were we too late already?
Suddenly, Matthias reared up into the light. He looked insane, his hair wild, his face red and twisted with anger. He might have been screaming, but I couldn’t hear him over the roar of our engine. We were so close to him, I could see the wind ruffling his hair.
He put his hand into the waist of his pants, and I knew from the angle of his wrist and the way he moved, he could only be reaching for a gun.
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