Stage Fright (Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys Book 6) (2 page)

“Yeah, what?” was Frank’s nonchalant response.
“They’re the Cliffs of Moher. They’re famous.” He returned to
fiddling with his bag, which now looked like some sort of mutant half backpack, half
kite.

“Well right now, they’re famously in our way! We have to
 … What’s that?”

Frank’s bag no longer looked anything like a backpack. In fact, it
looked like a hang glider. The metal frame of the bag had become the frame of the
glider, the fabric was the wings, and the metal box was … a weird metal box
attached at the top.

“It’s an ultralight!” Frank replied.
“Didn’t you read the briefing notes?”

“No!” I yelled back. The cliffs were maybe ten feet away, and
at the rate we were running, we only had a few seconds before we went over. “And
now isn’t the time to lecture me about it!”

“Grab on!” Frank replied, holding the ultralight in front of
him.

Without any other options, I did as he said. Hands latched on the frame of
the ultralight, we ran right off the edge of the cliff. The wind plucked us up, and
suddenly we were gliding out over the crashing waves below.

“Great!” I yelled at Frank. “But what do we do now? This
thing isn’t going to stay in the air long—not with both of us hanging from
it.”

Frank had strapped himself to the bar before we jumped so he could reach
up and flick a switch on the small black box at the center of the ultralight. A tiny
motor kicked on, and we leapt upward. Suddenly, this whole ultralight thing became a lot
cooler.

Bam! Fssst!

A bullet ripped through the left wing of the ultralight, throwing us into
a tight slide to the left. I grabbed Frank’s shoulder with my free arm and we
clung to the ultralight with all our might. We dropped ten feet in two seconds, like a
plane in heavy turbulence, before
the ultralight found a new updraft
and recovered.

I peered behind us. Salt-’n’-Pepper was standing at the edge
of the cliffs, jumping up and down with frustration.

“Careful!” I yelled back at him. “You don’t want
to fall in!”

I stared out at the ocean. Away from the cliffs, the water was smooth as
glass. We were surrounded by a million shades of blue—the water, the sky, even the
clouds seemed tinged with blue. I could get used to this!

“You know, the meeting point makes a lot more sense now,” I
said to Frank, as we flew swiftly out to sea.

“Ha!” replied Frank. “Someday, you’re going to
read an entire mission briefing, and I’m going to drop dead from shock.”

“I would never do that to you … promise.” I smiled at
Frank. “Hey, look!”

A small blue ship had appeared on the horizon, flying a pirate flag with
two crossed video-game joysticks below it. It was maybe twenty feet long and would have
been pretty difficult to land a hang glider on, if we weren’t the two awesomest
spies in the world.

“That must be Vijay!” I yelled, as a small figure waved at us.
Vijay was another member of American Teens Against Crime. He was a field agent, like us,
but he mostly handled the tech side of things. Our job in this mission was to rescue
Kali, his was to make sure she
got back to her rightful owner, the
National Museum of India.

“Taking us down,” said Frank. Carefully, we shifted our weight
back and forth, slowly guiding the ultralight down. Below us, the deck of the ship got
bigger and bigger. Vijay was there, standing next to a big red fishing pole whose line
was bobbing in the water. Behind him was an open hatch that led belowdecks. Aside from
that it was just warm sun, cool breezes, and perfect blue water. A guy could get used to
this!

“Hey guys,” said Vijay, as we landed on the deck with a thump.
“Yes!” he yelled suddenly, pumping his fist in the air.
“Twenty–pound rainbow trout, for the win!” He waved a black handheld
video game in the air.

“Are you playing a fishing game?” I asked, as Frank began
dismantling the ultralight. “You’re standing on a boat in the middle of the
Atlantic Ocean. Next to a fishing pole! Why don’t you actually, like,
fish?”

Vijay shot me a cold look.

“One,” he said. “Do you know how hard it is to catch
fish in the ocean? The ocean is big, my friend. The fish? Small. Very small.”

He paused to slip the game system back into the pocket of his jacket. Then
he picked up the fishing pole and began reeling the line in.

“Two,” Vijay continued. “Look at these hands. Do you
know how much they’re worth? ATAC insured my
hands for a
million dollars last year. Or did you think that ultralight made itself?”

The fishing line reached the surface of the water, but instead of a hook,
there was a metal sphere at the end of it. Vijay picked it up, removed a key from his
pocket, and opened the top of the sphere to reveal a waterproof chamber inside.

“Three, this fishing pole is really just a docking station for a
homing submersible I built last week, which will get this”—Vijay paused and
plucked the statue of Kali from me—“all the way back to India without
sending it through the mob-controlled Irish customs department.”

Vijay slipped Kali into the sphere, where she fit perfectly. Then he
flipped the lid back down and turned the key all the way around in the lock twice. A
small blue light appeared on the top of the sphere, and somewhere inside it a motor
began running.

“Want to do the honors?” Vijay asked, holding the sphere out
to us.

“You go for it,” Frank said. I took the sphere in my hands. It
weighed barely more than the statue alone. I hefted it high. I glanced at Vijay, just to
make sure. He nodded, and I threw the submersible as hard as I could through the air. It
landed with a splash, bobbed in the water for a second, and then rapidly motored
away.

“So that’s it?” I asked, sitting down on the deck.
“We’re done here?”

“Yup,” said Frank as he joined me.
“Go team! As a reward, I say we stay here for the rest of the weekend.”

Vijay cleared his throat. I knew from the sound that he didn’t have
good news.

“Sorry guys, I have to send you back out on a mission. But there is
a silver lining….” Vijay raced below decks and came up with a large pizza
box.

“Give it here!” I yelled, scrambling for the pizza. Missions
have a way of making me hungry.

I flipped open the lid and there was a piping hot, fresh pizza covered in
sausage and onions—my favorite.

“How do you do that?” I asked. Vijay often hid our missions
inside pizzas, and somehow, no matter where we were, his pizzas were always fresh and
hot. If I wasn’t certain before, I knew it now: Vijay was a genius.

“Shhh!” responded Vijay. “Trade secret. If you knew,
I’d have to kill you. Now check out the screen on top.”

I looked at the lid of the pizza box. Sure enough, inside the top was a
flat screen TV! Frank scraped some cheese off the glass and we sat down to watch.

“This is Claire Cleveland,” the narration began, showing a
photo of a pretty girl with long brown hair.

“Oh, I know her!” Frank yelled out. “She’s on that
show,
Joy!
”

“Claire is the star of the hit musical show,
Joy!
” continued the narrator, and I whacked Frank on the shoulder to
get him to be quiet. “She’s also set to star
in a new
Broadway musical,
Wake
, which tells the story of one of World
War II’s most decorated female spies, Nancy Wake. The show opens this
week—or at least it will, if the two of you are able to stop the mysterious
accidents that have plagued the show throughout rehearsals.”

A blond man and woman—obviously related—appeared on the
screen. They were young, richly dressed, and seemed too perfect looking to be real.

“This is the brother-and-sister Broadway team behind
Wake
—Laurel and Linden von Louden. Last night Linden
called ATAC for help. It seems the ‘accidents’ have been getting worse, and
as of last night, he has confirmation that they aren’t really
accidents.”

A new shot appeared on the screen, a close-up of a cell phone. Across the
screen, in big letters, was a text message that read “You will die
here!!!!!”

I bit down hard in surprise, and the pizza burned the roof of my mouth,
badly.

“Ow!” I mumbled, trying to stay focused on the briefing.

“This message was sent to Claire late last night,” said the
narrator. “Claire refuses to go on without adequate protection. This is where the
two of you come in. It’s up to the two of you to make sure the curtain goes up
without a hitch. Good luck, boys.”

The screen went blank.

“So … does that mean we don’t get to
spend the weekend on the boat?”

A strange noise began to grow in the distance, a sort of
whump-whump-whump
sound.

“’Fraid not,” said Vijay. “In fact, I’d
scarf that pizza down quick, because unless someone else called the helicopter taxi
service, that’s your ride!”

I noticed a distant dot on the horizon starting to grow bigger. I looked
at Frank. He nodded at me. Together, we reached down and grabbed a slice of pizza in
each hand. I looked back at the helicopter. It was maybe two minutes away.

“We got this under control,” I said. Then Frank and I
fist-bumped our pizza-filled hands and laughed.

Spy life was the sweet life, for sure.

CHAPTER
2

NANCY

THE WRONG WAY

“Drive!” I yelled at Bess, as I ran full speed toward my car, a sky-blue drop-top convertible hybrid. Bess was just shifting out of park as I leapt into the backseat.

“They’re right behind me!” I yelled. “Get us out of here!”

Bess peeled out of the parking space like a cheetah on fire. Behind us came the sound of doors slamming and men shouting. It was nighttime, and their loud voices echoed through the empty parking lot. The Cross County Galleria Plaza, River Heights’ newest mall, was set to open in six weeks. Until that time, it was a haven for skateboarders, kids with nothing to do on a Thursday afternoon, and local government officials looking to take bribes in order to vote a certain way. Can you guess
which of the three had Bess, George, and me out there at midnight on a Tuesday?

“Did it work?” asked George from the passenger seat. “Did you get everything?”

I pulled the heavy black plastic glasses off my face. “Oh, it worked all right. I got the lieutenant governor on tape taking the cash in return for his vote on the new oil tax bill. It’s all right here,” I said, tapping the glasses against the back of her seat. George had built them in her garage, and they contained a pinhole video camera that recorded everything I saw.

“Woohoo!” yelled George, holding her hand up for a high five. I left her hanging.

“But you forgot to mention there was a playback button …” I continued. The deal had been finished, the lieutenant governor had his suitcase full of money, and his three goons were just opening the door for me to leave, when I accidentally brushed my hand against the frame of the glasses. Suddenly, our secret deal was projected on the wall, bigger than life and twice as illegal. I hightailed it out the door while they were still standing there stunned.

“Guys, we got a problem,” said Bess. I peeked behind us. Sure enough, a black Mercedes with tinted windows was riding up on us. It wasn’t hard to guess whose car it was. Aside from the new mall, everything else on this road was corporate office parks and large retail outlets,
all of which were closed for the night. If we saw any other cars all evening, I’d be surprised.

“Drive faster!” I yelled. Those bodyguards meant business, and if the bulges in their jackets were any indication, they were carrying some pretty big weapons. Thankfully, Bess was driving my getaway car. She was seriously some sort of car whisperer.

“Sorry about that,” said George. “Give them to me and I can upload the video straight to the police server.”

I reached out to hand the glasses to George, when suddenly, the Mercedes slammed into the car from behind.

“Ahh!” yelled Bess, as she yanked hard on the wheel, desperately trying to keep us on the road.

“Ow!” I screamed as my hand hit the door. My fingers went numb instantly, and the glasses shot forward out of my hand. “No!” I yelled. If after all that had happened we lost the evidence, it would be a total disaster.

Luckily, the glasses hit the antenna on the hood of the car. The frame hooked onto the antenna, and the glasses spun around like a top before coming to rest at the base. Those glasses were the only proof I had of the lieutenant governor’s bribery scheme. I’d been working this case for months. I couldn’t afford to blow it now. By morning, I’d bet the lieutenant governor would have covered up his tracks. Either I got those glasses back, or he got off scot-free.

“Avoid them!” I yelled, as I began to clamber into the front seat.

“Easy for you to say,” responded Bess. As the Mercedes geared up to ram us again, she tapped the brake and spun the wheel to the right. I slammed into George, but the Mercedes missed us by half an inch.

“Fancy steering, cuz!” laughed George. As usual, I could tell she was enjoying this. If anybody in the world could make this sort of thing fun, it would be Bess and George. We’d been friends for I-don’t-know-how-long, and between the three of us we’d gotten out of much tougher situations than this.

But that didn’t mean I was going to enjoy what I was about to do.

“Hold her steady,” I said as I pulled the belt out of my jeans. I looped it around my left hand and pulled it tight.

“Nancy, what are you doing?” asked George. “I don’t like the look of this!”

“Hold this,” I said, handing her the other end of my belt. She grabbed it automatically. I took a deep breath and tried to clear my mind. I needed to be focused for this to work.

“I don’t think this is—Nancy, stop!”

But it was too late. In one quick motion, I stepped out of the car, over the windshield, and onto the hood. The wind buffeted my face at such high speed that I
could barely see. The car rattled and shifted beneath me, and the only thing that kept me from falling was George’s grip on my belt.