Countdown to Terror by Franklin W. Dixon Read Free Book Online Page A

open, and the pert face of Shauna MacLaren appeared. "Sorry, we're closed — getting ready for a private party."
    Then she recognized the Hardys. "Aren't you the guys who gave me a ten and left most of your dinners on the table last night?" she asked. "Are you hoping for a refund?" She grinned at Joe with a flirtatious look in her eye.
    "Actually, we were hoping just to come in and finish a meal," Joe said. "But if you're closed — "
    "Oh, come on in. I can make you a sandwich at least. I mean, we have a reputation to protect," she said, tossing the words over her shoulder on the way to the kitchen.
    With sodas and two thick sandwiches of something called "smoked meat" in hand, Frank and Joe were soon sitting with Shauna in the empty restaurant. Most of the staff were still working in the kitchen, but she'd finished her chores.
    They chatted for a few moments before Shauna asked, "So how do you like Halifax?"
    The Hardys glanced at each other for a second, then Joe said, "It's not the easiest city we've ever visited." He went on to explain why they'd come there and what misadventures they'd had.
    Shauna shook her head. "I heard about that car exploding on the news. And you've been checking out forts ever since? I wonder if you met my friend Charlie Bell — he's a corporal in the Seventy-eighth this year. We go to school together."
    Her face grew more and more serious as she heard about the incident on the excursion boat. "So you think he poisoned himself?" She shuddered.
    "What I don't understand is how they found us so quickly," Joe said. "We changed hotels and didn't even get our luggage. When we started out today, we took a long walk, just to see if we did have a tail. And I'll swear we didn't."
    Frank nodded. "I've been thinking about that, too. They couldn't just have picked up on us at the Citadel. There wouldn't have been time to rig that bomb. They had to have tailed us, or they just happened to see us at Fort Needham Park. And then they overheard our plan to go to the Citadel. It had to be that they just stumbled on us."
    Frank turned to Shauna, an idea forming. "What's that area like?"
    "By the park?" Shauna asked. He nodded. She shrugged. "I guess you'd say it was the poor side of town."
    "Well, that's where I think we should start looking."
    "For what?" Shauna wanted to know.
    "Our attackers. Maybe their headquarters is near Fort Needham Park."
    Frank looked down at his empty plate. "Whatever that sandwich was, it was great. Are you sure we shouldn't pay for it?"
    "Just come back," Shauna said with a grin at Joe. "And, of course, tell all your friends."
    Joe grinned back. "I don't know—the last time we brought people in here, they turned out to be pretty rough."
    That got a laugh from Shauna.
    Right then they were interrupted by a knock on the glass door. Shauna jumped up to answer it. A businessman in a blue suit and briefcase stood there.
    "Sorry," Shauna said, shaking her head, "we're closed."
    The man shouldered the door open, pointing to Frank and Joe. But Shauna just shook her head more determinedly. "Closed," she said.
    That seemed to get through. The man shrugged and set off down the street.
    "Sometimes I have to be pretty firm." Shauna looked a little embarrassed, especially since Joe kept looking after the guy.
    "There's something not right here," Joe said abruptly. "That guy left his briefcase right by the door."
    Leaping up from his seat, he hustled them away from the door and windows — just in time.
    The briefcase went up in a roar, filling the space where they'd been sitting with a hailstorm of jagged glass.

Chapter 9
    THE BLAST NEARLY caught Frank, Joe, and Shauna in a part of the room that had been cleared for dancing. Joe managed to haul his brother and Shauna behind a table. Shards of broken glass rattled against it, points sticking into the wood.
    Frank Hardy shook his head, his ears still ringing from the concussion. Then he began to hear the crackle of the flames. The wooden floor and