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

tables by the door had caught on fire.
    "We'd better get out of here," he said, getting to his feet.
    "Out the back way!" Shauna grabbed Frank and Joe's arms, leading them away from the rapidly spreading fire.
    The doors from the kitchen burst open, and a heavyset guy with a big bushy beard came charging up, holding a fire extinguisher. A quick look told Frank that wouldn't be enough to beat this blaze. He followed Joe and Shauna through the swinging doors and found himself confronting the whole kitchen staff.
    "What's going on?" asked a young guy with carrot-colored hair. He wore an apron over jeans and a T-shirt and held a knife in his hand. Frank figured he must be an assistant cook.
    "You wouldn't believe us if we told you," Shauna said.
    "Have you called the fire department?" Frank asked.
    The guy stared. "Why? Bob's out there with the fire extinguisher."
    A moment later Bob came swinging back in through the doors, coughing his head off. "Too much," he gasped. "Call the fire — "
    A blare of sirens cut him off. Someone else must have noticed the smoke.
    "Out, out." Bob made shooing gestures, and the kitchen staff meekly headed out the rear door. Wisps of smoke were now coming through the thin gap between the swinging doors.
    Frank and Joe followed Shauna out the door as the first wave of fire fighters arrived.
    "Well," said Joe, "I don't think there'll be a party tonight."
    Shauna nodded, a little forlorn. "Tonight— and quite a few other nights," she agreed. Then her face became furious looking. "Imagine the nerve of that guy! He could have killed us."
    "I think that was the idea," Frank said a little dryly. Then to his brother he said, "Those other six guys must have sneaked back on the boat when we weren't looking."
    Then his face grew even more serious. "Too bad we didn't get a look inside that case," he said. "I'd have liked to see if that bomb had a Fellawi loop."
    "A who - what?" Shauna asked.
    "My brother's a bomb buff," Joe told her. "He knows everybody's trademarks." More to Frank, he pointed out, "If you'd gone to take a look, the bomb would have blown up in your face."
    Shauna poked them both. "So—what do we do now?"
    Frank grinned. "That's usually Joe's line— and what do you mean, 'we'?"
    "Well, these terrorists or whatever they are have just put me out of a job," she said. "It seems only fair that I should get a shot at revenge. Besides," she pointed out, "you really need someone who knows the town. Otherwise, you'll just waste more time looking at empty forts."
    Frank looked at Joe. "Looks like we've got ourselves a native guide."
    "A very pretty native guide." He turned to Shauna. "Okay, lead us to Fort Needham — a nice, confusing route, to give anybody following us a headache."
    "Right." Shauna led them around the block, where an ancient stone facade hid an ultramodern hotel. She led them through the elegant lobby, past a row of shops, then up an escalator. They found themselves on another shopping arcade, with a walkway at the end leading to another building.
    As they walked above the early evening traffic, Frank and Joe looked back to see if they could spot a tail. Nobody was there.
    "I've seen a lot of these walkways downtown," Joe said. "Why do you use them instead of walking in the fresh air?"
    "If you were here in the winter, you wouldn't ask," Shauna replied. "Besides, it beats climbing up and down hills, which isn't fun in ice and snow."
    In the next building she led them through several shops and made a couple of unexpected turns, again to shake or isolate any tails. None showed up.
    Shauna then took them out a back entrance, around the mall, down several streets, three-quarters of the way around a churchyard, and then finally to Gottingen Street.
    Joe shook his head in defeat. "If that didn't turn up anyone following us, I'd say we were in the clear."
    "Right," said Frank. "Let's head for the park—and keep our eyes open."
    They reached Fort Needham without seeing anything out of the