Joe nodded. “We’ll be all right,” he added.

  “You are your father’s sons,” all three men said.

  “I think Darren’s waiting for you to raid the kitchen,” Mrs. Wilkerson said.

  The Hardys grinned. This was the last night they’d ever spend with their friend, so they were going to make the most of it.

  15 Witness Protection

  It was almost 5 A.M. when the Hardy boys finally got back to Bayport. In three hours they’d be back in their classrooms at Bayport High School.

  Just as Joe started to unlock the front door, it opened. Mr. Hardy was there to welcome them home.

  “It’s great to see you, Dad!” the Hardy boys whispered.

  “It’s great to see you, too, sons,” Mr. Hardy said. “I had a telephone call from Rupert Kitimat late last night. Although he didn’t give me all the details, I understand you’re lucky to be here at all.”

  “We’ve always known that the Hardy name was respected by a lot of people around the world, Dad,” Frank said, “but I don’t think that either Joe or I realized just how deep that respect went.”

  Joe nodded.

  “Do you want to sleep some more,” Mr. Hardy asked, “or do you want to have a little breakfast and tell me about what happened?”

  Frank looked at Joe. “I think it would probably take me a while to go back to sleep,” he said, “and then I’d feel miserable when I woke up—so I say we eat and talk.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Joe agreed.

  Frank and Joe followed their father into the kitchen and were immediately surprised by the spread they saw on the table.

  “Is Mom up?” Frank asked.

  “Not yet,” Mr. Hardy said. “I did this myself!”

  “You did this?” Joe said, looking at the pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, and slices of cantaloupe.

  “How in the world do you think I survived before I married your mother?” Mr. Hardy said. He looked admiringly at the food on the table. “Frankly I was quite pleased to find out that I hadn’t lost my touch.”

  “Well, it certainly looks good,” Frank said, “but the ultimate test is how it tastes”

  “I’ve already tasted it,” Mr. Hardy said, smirking. “It’s pretty good, if I do say so myself.”

  “Well, then, with a recommendation like that,” Joe said, “what are we waiting for?”

  The three of them sat down at the table, and the boys began filling their plates.

  After Frank and Joe had taken several bites of their food, they pronounced their father a gourmet cook.

  “Parents are full of surprises,” Joe said.

  “Well, so are children,” Mr. Hardy told them. “Why don’t you tell me about everything that happened?”

  For the next hour, Frank and Joe took turns telling their father everything that happened to them, from the time they left Bayport until the current moment.

  After they were told by the Supreme Council of Hidden Mountain that they could return home, they had spent a fascinating evening with Darren and Jonathan and some friends. When they had been outside the houses in Hidden Mountain, they had felt transported back in time, when certain civilizations lived in similar circumstances on the sides of mountains. But when they had gone inside the various buildings, they were once again in the twenty-first century. Jonathan had taken them to a large sports complex with ice skating and tennis and basketball courts. They had watched professional soccer and baseball games beamed to them by satellite. When school was in session, Jonathan had told them, he played several sports himself. Without being asked, Jonathan had admitted that sometimes he thought about what life was like off of Hidden Mountain—but when he thought about leaving, he hadn’t wanted to.

  The next morning Frank and Joe had said a sad farewell to the Wilkersons and were taken to the Hardesty’s house. They left through the door they had first used to enter Hidden Mountain, and were soon making their way back into the woods.

  When they reached the huge pile of boulders that they knew had entombed Willy and Jersey, they hadn’t stopped. Instead they had quickly found the river, followed it until they were out of sight of Hidden Mountain, and then started up the side of the next mountain. Within a couple of hours, they had reached the peak, then started their next descent—and that’s when they had run into Detective Kitimat.

  “It was like finding a long-lost friend,” Joe said. “He was really glad to see us.”

  “I can imagine,” Mr. Hardy said.

  “We didn’t know where we’d find him,” Frank said, “or even if we’d find him.”

  “He said he felt totally helpless when he watched us go down the side of that mountain with the Wilkersons and the two phony FBI agents,” Joe said, “but there was no protection, so he couldn’t follow us.”

  Since they still weren’t fifty miles away from Hidden Mountain, they’d had to walk farther down the mountain. Then Detective Kitimat had used his cell phone to radio the FBI helicopter, which had picked the three of them up and had taken them to Dawson Creek.

  From there Frank and Joe caught a flight to Vancouver, British Columbia, connected with an Air Canada flight to Toronto, and then boarded another Air Canada flight to JFK.

  “You hold a great secret, sons,” Mr. Hardy told them. “Will it be too heavy a burden for you?”

  “We’re Hardys, Dad,” Frank said seriously. “We can handle it.”

  Joe nodded. “We certainly can,” he said.

  Just as they started to get up from the table, Mrs. Hardy came into the kitchen.

  “Oh, it is so good to see you boys,” Mrs. Hardy said. “I’ve missed you. But I guess you had a really exciting time, hiking in the woods and everything!”

  “‘Exciting’ would be one way to describe it, Mom,” Frank said with a grin. Clearly, his dad had kept the mission secret from their mom—probably so that she wouldn’t be too worried. Frank and Joe gave her a big hug, then they went to their room and started getting ready for school.

  As they pulled out of their driveway, Joe noticed a black car start up and began following them. He mentioned it to Frank.

  “Government?” Frank said.

  “Could be,” Joe said. “Maybe they just want to make sure we’re all right.”

  After a few minutes, Frank said, “Maybe.”

  But Joe didn’t think he sounded too convinced.

  When they got to the school parking lot, Frank pulled into a space next to Chet’s car, and he and Joe got out of the van.

  “Don’t look at the car,” Frank whispered. “Just act normal.”

  As they started up the sidewalk toward the front door, Joe said, “There’s something about this that doesn’t feel right, Frank. I think we need to let Dad know about it.”

  “I agree,” Frank said.

  When they got inside the school, Joe took out his cell phone, turned it on, and dialed their father’s office phone. Mr. Hardy answered it after several rings.

  “Someone followed us to school, Dad,” Joe said. “There’s a black car parked on the street at the edge of the student lot. Could you have it checked out? Something about it doesn’t feel right to me and Frank.”

  “I’ll do it as soon as I hang up,” Mr. Hardy said. “You did the right thing to call.”

  The boys parted in the main hall. Joe headed to English, and Frank headed to social studies.

  When the lunch bell rang, Joe went to the cafeteria to meet Frank. Just as he got there, the principal walked up to them and said, “Your father’s in my office, boys. He needs to see you.”

  Frank and Joe followed the principal to his office. When they stepped inside, they saw their father and two other men.

  “I’ll leave you alone,” the principal said.

  “Thank you,” Mr. Hardy said.

  Frank and Joe sat down in a couple of side chairs.

  “This is Agent Collins and Agent Morrow,” Mr. Hardy said. Frank and Joe nodded.

  “The two men in the black car have been taken into custody,” Mr. Hardy continued. “They were members of the same crime syndicate that was trying to find the Wilkersons. The FBI is sure that they were planning to kidnap you two, to try to force you to tell them how to get to Hidden Mountain.”

  Joe felt a chill go through him. “What does this mean?” he asked.

  “Unfortunately, it means that the two of you will have around the clock FBI surveillance until we’re satisfied that no more members of this particular crime family will try to kidnap you,” Agent Morrow said.

  “Well, what about other crime families?” Frank said. “Will it end with this particular one, or will they give the information to other people?”

  “That’s not the way it usually works,” Agent Collins said. “There’s no history of that happening.”

  Agent Morrow nodded his agreement. “They don’t usually share this kind of information,” he said. “We see no reason to believe it’ll happen this time.”

  “You boys will have to be very vigilant for a while,” Mr. Hardy said. “It’ll certainly mean an adjustment to your lifestyle, but I have faith that the FBI will make sure nothing happens to you.”

  The boys shook hands with the men, said goodbye to their father, and left the principal’s office.

  “How are we going to handle this?” Joe asked as they headed toward their next class.

  “Well, first I need to stop at the snack machine to get something to eat, since we didn’t get to have lunch,” Frank said. “I can’t fight crime on an empty stomach.”

  Joe laughed. “I guess it’s good that we can have a sense of humor about this,” he said.

  “Well, I’ll tell you,” Frank said, taking some money out of his pocket for the machine, “we’ll just watch our backs. Because the only alternative is going to live at Hidden Mountain. It might be a fun place to visit—but I wouldn’t want to spend the rest of my life there.”

  “I agree,” Joe said. He took some coins out of his pocket and put them into the machine. “We’ve been fighting crime long enough to know how to survive,” he added. “We can outlast this family of crooks.”

  Frank took a bite of his candy bar. “You said it!” he said.

  “I’ll meet you in the parking lot after school.”

  Joe nodded. “Just be careful,” he said.

  “Sure will,” Frank said.

 

 

  Franklin W. Dixon, Hidden Mountain

 

 

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