Free Edge of Destruction by Franklin W. Dixon Page A

will be just chicken feed compared to how much we'll rake in once we take over the whole underground. We'll be able to loot any store we want, transport any drug, set up illegal gambling, the works. We'll be as rich as kings. All we need is that twenty million to really put us into business. Just be patient a little while longer."
    "I'll be patient, but still I need more money for my suppliers," said the doctor. "And they deal in cash only."
    "Okay, okay," snapped Trask. "How's this?" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a roll of bills. Slowly he peeled them off and dropped them into von Reich's waiting hand. First hundred-dollar bills, then fifties, then twenties. Trask stopped with over half the roll still in his hand.
    "That's all?" demanded the doctor.
    "I got other expenses," Trask said quickly. He stuffed the roll back into his pocket, but not before Frank and Joe caught a glimpse of the top one.
    It was a single. The boys exchanged glances. They both realized that the bankroll had big bills on top, but the bulk of them were small. It looked as though Trask had a cashflow problem.
    The doctor, though, seemed satisfied. "Okay, for now we are back in business. I will go back to my work."
    "First I got some more of my work for you. A couple of new patients, sons of Mr. Hardy," Trask said. "They need treatment real bad."
    "Treatment A or Treatment B?" asked the doctor, a hint of a nasty smile edging across his thin lips.
    "'treatment A," said Trask. "We'll save B for the big moment."
    With guns leveled at them, the Hardy boys followed Dr. von Reich out of Trask's headquarters. They were escorted down a short corridor and into a room filled with laboratory equipment.
    "You first," the doctor said to Frank... "Lie down on the table."
    Frank glanced at the gun trained on him. He shrugged and then obeyed.
    Furtively Joe looked sideways at the gun trained on him. He couldn't make a move. One of the phony cops strapped Frank down on the table, then stepped back.
    Meanwhile the doctor had filled a hypodermic I with a solution drawn from a tube stored in a refrigerator. Both Hardy boys knew what the solution was.
    Despite himself, Frank grew pale. The doctor, smiling with evident enjoyment, held the instrument in front of Frank's eyes for a moment so that Frank could get a good, long look at it.
    "What's the matter, little boy, afraid of a tiny needle?" the doctor asked mockingly. "Do not worry. You will hardly feel it. And then, I promise you, you will feel nothing at all." Before Joe's horrified eyes, von Reich plunged the needle into Frank's arm. Almost instantly Frank's eyes bulged with shock and then closed just as fast, his face and body going slack.
    "Just lay him on the floor. It will not bother him in the least," the doctor told one of Trask's men.
    Two minutes later Joe was the one strapped on the table.
    He steeled himself so he wouldn’t flinch when the doctor gave him a close-up of the needle. But he couldn't help shuddering inwardly when he heard the doctor's words: "As the saying goes, young man, like father, like sons."

Chapter 12
    BLACKNESS. That was all Joe saw. But he was sure he was awake. He was sure he had his eyes open.
    Maybe this was what Virus A did to you, he thought. Maybe it took away your sight and made you think you were conscious when you were really still knocked out. Was he running a fever? He didn't think so. But to make sure, he put his hand on his forehead. Or at least he tried to. He couldn't move.
    He seemed to be tied up hand and foot, lying on what felt like the concrete-floor of a pitch-dark room. But he had no idea what kind of room he was in. Then the total silence was broken as he heard footsteps moving toward him. He tensed. He felt a foot collide with his side. Next a hand felt his face, forehead, nose, gagged mouth.
    "That you, Joe?" It was Frank's voice that was whispering. Joe felt the gag being taken out of his mouth.
    Before Joe could say anything, Frank said hoarsely,