On the Palace Deck above, Frank shouted "No!" when Joe hit the water and disappeared under the surface.
A hand grabbed Frank's shoulder roughly. It was Baron von Hoffman. "Where are the life preservers?" the baron asked. "There must be some we can throw."
But Frank wouldn't budge from the rail— not until he saw Joe bob to the surface. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Joe's head did appear, and Frank sprang to life.
"There's no time to lose," said the baron. "The water is very salty—it increases buoyancy. He'll float. Believe me."
But Frank was already moving. He ran to a storage bin with the word Emergency stenciled across it in big red letters. Inside there were several round white life preservers.
"Faster, faster," the baron shouted as Frank grabbed two life preservers and ran back to the railing. "His enemy is fatigue, not the water. It may take an hour for the rescue boats to reach him. We'll be miles away in minutes."
The ship slowed. Nancy and George could only stand at the rail and watch the sailors lower three long orange-painted motor launches into the water. Rescue teams scrambled into life jackets and leapt into the boats. As soon as the boats hit the water, they began motoring back to Joe.
A Nancy Drew &> Hardy Boys SuperMystery
"There he is!" George shouted, looking through borrowed binoculars and pointing.
A figure, a small dot on the water's surface, rode the waves, clutching a white life preserver. Frank sighed, relieved, when he saw Joe inside the life preserver he had tossed into the water.
"Joe's a super swimmer. He'll make it," George said.
He'll make it, Nancy thought, if he didn't break an arm or his neck in the fall. And if he doesn't run into a shark.
She and George watched silently, and so did Frank. He couldn't afford to let the whole crew know that he and Joe were brothers. It was hard not to show his feelings, but the brothers had been undercover before. They knew how to keep up a front.
Half an hour later the announcement came from the captain. "Ladies and gentlemen, the rescue operation has been successful. The young man, I'm happy to say, is unharmed. And we'll be sailing again in just a short while."
When Demetrios heard that Joe had lived through the fall, he backed away from the rail and disappeared. Nancy started to go after him but stopped. Where can he go to? she thought. I can catch him anytime. Besides, Joe's fall was an accident—wasn't it?
Double Crossing
Or was it a diversion? Nancy wondered if she had fallen for the oldest trick in the book. Did the CIA disk transaction take place behind her back while she and everyone else were watching Joe fall into the water?
Were David and his friends really the children of CIA professionals? She didn't know for sure, but Nancy promised herself that from then on, she would treat them as if they were—and as if they were willing to sell government secrets.
"What now?" George asked when the rescue operation was over. She lowered her voice. "Do you still think there's a chance Pipeline is going to show up?"
"No, it's over for now," Nancy said. "Either it didn't go down or we blew it. I don't know which. But there's no point hanging around here any longer. I'm hungry—want to get something to eat?"
"Definitely," George said. "I've got about twenty minutes before I have to teach a class."
They walked to the dining room, and while George ate a light high-protein breakfast and Nancy nibbled at her sweet roll, they tried to figure out what had gone wrong.
"A girl with CIA secrets to sell and a man with a Spanish accent were supposed to meet this morning," Nancy said. She leaned forward so that George could hear her in the loud,
A Nancy Drew &> Hardy Boys SuperMystery
crowded dining room. "But did they meet? We really don't know what happened. Now, what's the worst scenario?"
"We were in the wrong place, and they met somewhere else," George said.
Nancy nodded. "But I heard them make the appointment. They agreed to meet on the Princess Deck at six."
"But obviously they didn't show," said George. "Could they have overslept? Or been seasick?"
"It's too much of a coincidence that they both didn't show," Nancy said. "I think the buyer was there. He sounded like a pro, as if he knew what he was doing."
"You mean we actually saw him?" George said. "Well, who do you think it was? The first mate? The guy in the Bermuda shorts? The Romeo, who went for the world's record on kissing?"
"There were a lot of guys—but no girls. At least not the right one," Nancy said. Then she noticed that George's attention had drifted away. Nancy followed her friend's gaze— David Carlyle had just walked into the dining room with three of his friends. With David were Demetrios, the blond girl, Gail, and another boy, Connor, the one who wore tortoise-shell glasses. The group sat down som-
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berly, staring at the tablecloth as the waiter filled their cups with steaming coffee.
George's brown eyes were fixed on their table. "He doesn't see me," she said, smiling softly.
"George—" Nancy began. "I know how much you're attracted to David, and I think that's great, but I really hope you're being careful—"
George picked up a piece of whole-wheat bread and looked steadily at Nancy. "What are you trying to tell me?"
"Well, David and those other kids—there's a good chance they're CIA kids. And there's a possibility they could get hold of some pretty heavy government secrets to sell if they wanted to."
George's eyes widened. "Wait just a minute. You're not saying that you think David's involved in all this spy business, are you?"
"I'm not sure," said Nancy. "Anything is possible. And I'd hate for you to get hurt. It makes sense to me that it was Gail or Marcy I heard on the steps last night. And then I have to ask myself what was David doing there at the same time? And why was Demetrios on the Princess Deck this morning just when a disk was to be sold? Was he supposed to create a diversion so no one would see the computer
A Nancy Drew &> Hardy Boys SuperMystery
disk being exchanged? And why isn't Marcy sitting with them right now? You see? I've got a lot of questions, George."
George slumped back in her chair. "Why is this happening?" she moaned. "I meet a guy who makes bells ring for me, and my best friend thinks he may be a traitor! This is driving me crazy. Come on, Nancy. I have a class to teach, thank goodness. Feel like working out? I know / do!"
Nancy sighed with relief. George sounded like herself again. "Sure. Let's go for the burn."
Meanwhile Frank Hardy was in Joe's cabin, watching his brother get into his busboy uniform.
"You've got enough tape around you to be a Christmas package," Frank said with a whistle.
"Everyone should start his day off with a swim in the sea and a couple of bruised ribs. I recommend it," Joe said. He was moving stiffly, but his sense of humor was in good shape. "Did you find out which cabin Demetrios is in? He and I have to finish our 'conversation.'"
"If you really want to know, you can look it up. He's on the passenger list," Frank said. "But I think you ought to cool out for a while
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first. Besides, we have a lot to do today. Remember why we're here. We have to nab a thief. The captain's counting on us, and he expects results."
"Yeah, you're right. First things first," Joe said. "So how's it going with our plan and our imaginary buddy, the millionaire? Do you think the crew will believe Maxwell Schweidt is real?"
"While you were getting your ribs taped, I started to set the trap," Frank explained. "I put some clothes in an empty stateroom, E two seventeen, and I hooked up a silent alarm on the door." He showed Joe a small electronic beeper in his pocket. "This will go off if anyone opens the door—even if a passkey is used. I also entered Maxwell Schweidt's name on the passenger list and put him at the captain's table in the dining room. And this afternoon I've scheduled an appointment to take his photograph."
"Great," Joe said, taking a
crisp fifty-dollar bill out of his wallet and putting it in his white jacket pocket.
"What's that for?" Frank asked.
"Maxwell Schweidt's a big tipper, didn't you know?" Joe said with a wink. "I'm going to tell the crew I got this for bringing him a newspaper and a couple of magazines. Sounds like pretty good bait, doesn't it?"
A Nancy Drew &> Hardy Boys SuperMystery
"Let's hope our cabin thief thinks that Maxwell Schweidt is a target he can't resist. Then when he breaks into Maxwell's room and the alarm goes off, we'll be there to grab him. Is this all sneaky enough for you, younger brother?"
"Frank," Joe said, smiling, "it's great to see that I'm finally having an influence on you!"
"According to rumor, you know," said Frank, "Schweidt made his fortune in a South African diamond mine—"
"Right!" replied Joe. "That explains all those diamond rings the guy has—"
"And why he always carries money in several different currencies."
"Well, when you own banks, you do that."
Frank Hardy had his hand on the door. "Very convincing, Joe. I believed you, and I know Maxwell Schweidt doesn't exist!"
"Come on! Stretch it out—one and two and three and four!"
The music in the health club was pounding, and George had to shout to be heard. She was leading a group of about two dozen passengers in a grueling aerobics routine.
Nancy stood at the back of the class, bouncing in time to the music, hoping the exercise would help to clear her head.
It was more than two hours since the fiasco
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on the Princess Deck, and still she had only questions. Who? Why? Where? What, she knew—CIA secrets. Codes, maps, plans, the girl had said. Real people get hurt, Frank Hardy had said. But where were the answers? Just then the mirrored door to the health spa opened, and David Carlyle walked in. He was with his friend Gail. What a break, Nancy thought. This would be the perfect time to try to hear Gail's voice. But if Gail were Pipeline, would Nancy recognize her voice after so much time?
Nancy watched George in the front of the room move in time with the music, but she noticed George's eyes were fixed on David. She gave him a smile, but David seemed to ignore her. His face looked tight with worry. He and Gail were scanning the room as if they were searching for someone. Finally George appeared as if she couldn't take it anymore.
She stopped the routine, and with her hands on her hips, she called to them loudly, "Can I help you?"
David looked up and seemed to notice George for the first time. "George!" he said, surprised.
"Come on, David," Gail insisted, yanking him by the arm. "Let's get out of here!"
David looked as if he wanted to say more to George, a lot more, but finally he shook his
A Nancy Drew & Hardy Boys SuperMystery
head in frustration and followed Gail out the door.
Nancy fell out of the line and rushed through the swinging doors. "David!" Nancy called, catching up with him and Gail in the hallway. "Is something wrong?"
"Uh, I hope not. We were just looking for someone. Marcy, that is," David said, his voice sounding strained. "But she wasn't there. That's all."
Nancy looked at Gail. The blond girl shot her a bored look and tossed her hair. But Nancy could tell that she was trying to hide her feelings. Her eyes had a kind of panic in them.
"Can I help?" Nancy offered.
"No!" said Gail, a little more fiercely than she intended to, thought Nancy. "I mean, it's okay—"
"Did you guys argue or something?" Nancy suggested. "Maybe she just wanted to be alone for a while. Or maybe she met someone—"
"Oh, stop it!" Gail blurted out. "You don't know anything about us!"
"Oh?" asked Nancy. "Like what?"
Angry tears welled up in Gail's eyes. "We stick together—and we don't need you or anyone else!" With that, Gail broke down, sobbing.
"David," Nancy said, "let me help you. You can hide, but you can't disappear on a ship. I
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know some of the staff—they may know hiding places—"
'The trouble is, Nancy, we've looked everywhere. Everywhere. Marcy's gone. Vanished." David was completely pale.
"It's worse than that! Something horrible has happened to her," cried Gail with absolute finality. "I know it! Marcy's dead!"
Chapter Six
M
.arcy's dead?" Nancy asked. "How do you know?"
Gail shook her head and rubbed her hands across her face. "I don't know —it's just a feeling," she murmured. "Just forget it, okay?"
"Forget it?" Nancy asked incredulously. "How can I do that?" But Gail had shut herself off from Nancy, and she turned to David with an icy stare. "Come on, let's go," she said, tugging on his arm.
David shot a look of distress to Nancy, but he went along with Gail. "I guess we'll keep looking, Nancy—"
"David! Come on!" Gail insisted, irritated
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now. That voice was definitely not the voice Nancy had heard on the steps that day. And if Gail wasn't Pipeline, Nancy was almost positive that Marcy was.
"I'll have the captain make an announcement, David," Nancy called after them. "Don't worry, we'll find her."
Unless she's fallen overboard, of course, thought Nancy with a shudder. Or unless she was pushed .. .
To Nancy's surprise, she found the captain in his office when she knocked on his door at noon.
"Come in, Ms. Drew," Captain Helgesen said from behind his desk. His office was filled with computers and navigation equipment as well as antique nautical compasses. "Any news about our cabin thief?"
"No," said Nancy, taking the chair opposite him. "Captain Helgesen," she began, her bright blue eyes meeting his steely gray ones. "I hate to tell you this, but something very dangerous is happening on the Duchess — something potentially more dangerous than theft."
The captain listened glumly as Nancy filled him in on everything that had happened so far, from the conversation on the stairway to Marcy's disappearance.
A Nancy Drew &> Hardy Boys SuperMystery
"Her friends have searched all the public areas. She's nowhere to be found," Nancy ended.
"And this was the same girl you heard on the steps?" the captain asked, concerned.
"I don't know that for sure," Nancy said. "But there are very few young people on board. And the voice was definitely young. I think she could have been the one. And if I'm right, there's a good reason to suspect she may be a victim. Is there any chance of making a room-by-room sweep?"
"That would be all my passengers need," the captain muttered. "Between Miss Hallock and her attacker and Joe Hardy falling overboard—" But as he spoke he was furiously scribbling something on a small piece of paper.
Then he hit the intercom button on his telephone. A first mate appeared instantly. "Make this announcement over the P.A. system every half hour," the captain said.
"Aye, aye, sir. 'Will Marcy Durbanville please come to the captain's bridge,'" he read.
"That's right," the captain nodded. "If she's anywhere on the ship, this should get her attention."
It should have, but it didn't. For a while Nancy waited in the captain's office, hoping Marcy would show up. Finally she couldn't sit
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still any longer. She left and, one by one, found Frank, Joe, and George, and filled them in on Marcy's disappearance. Then she checked around all the dark and deserted places on the ship—hoping to find someone who wanted to get lost. But there was no Marcy.
The fourth time she heard the message on the loudspeakers, Nancy went back to the bridge. It had been more than two hours, and no Marcy.
"All right, all right. We'll make that sweep," said the captain before Nancy could say a word. "I'll send two of my crew to work with you. There are six hundred and thirty-two cabins on the Duchess. It's going to take hours to search them all."
Nancy's solution to that was to break the search
into two teams. Frank Hardy and a second mate took the two upper decks, and Nancy, along with a purser named Elliot, took the lower ones. It was like another scavenger hunt, except there was only one item on the list: Marcy Durbanville.
The search was slow, monotonous, and difficult. Following the captain's orders, they knocked at each door twice and waited half a minute or more before using the passkey to enter.
As Nancy and Elliot approached Marcy and
A Nancy Drew &> Hardy Boys SuperMystery
Gail's cabin, Nancy hoped they'd find it empty. It would be a perfect opportunity to take a look.
The purser knocked on the door. He had lost his smile twenty cabins earlier. For a couple of minutes there was no answer.
Then the door opened a crack.
"What's going on?" Gail asked, frowning.
Nancy peeked around Elliot. "Gail, we're searching every room for Marcy," she said.
Gail didn't open the door any wider. "Well, she's not in here," said Gail with a sarcastic laugh.
"Can I come in?" asked Nancy.
"No, not now," Gail answered, shutting the door rudely.
Elliot went right on to the next cabin door, which was David and Connor's. He knocked. No one answered.
Great, Nancy thought. At least I'll get to look around in there.
But when Elliot opened it with the passkey, someone pushed the door closed again from the inside. "Nobody home," a voice called. It wasn't David's voice, so it must have been Connor's.
"Real friendly group of passengers," Elliot said, shaking his head.
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Meanwhile Frank and his partner, a sailor who was called Slow Motion Moe by most of the crew, were searching cabins on the two upper decks.
Frank looked at the passenger list on his clipboard and sighed. The next cabin belonged to Baron and Baroness von Hoffman. Ever since that morning on the Palace Deck, the baron had been hounding Frank to talk to him about photography. "Moe, you've got to do me a favor."
"Oh, yeah?" Moe challenged in his deep voice.
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