Free Countdown to Terror by Franklin W. Dixon Page B

pacing back and forth. "So, where do the Forte Brothers do business?"
    "I couldn't tell you that," Shauna said, heading out of the park. "But I'll lead you to the nearest phone book."
    They found a telephone directory at a corner cafe a few blocks down from Fort Needham Park.
    "Here it is," Shauna said, paging through the directory. "It's about nine blocks from here, back the way we came, in the Hydrostone."
    "The whozie-stone?" Joe asked.
    "You know those houses behind Fort Needham Park?" Shauna said.
    Frank and Joe nodded.
    "It's a housing project," Shauna explained, "built in an area that was completely devastated. Hydrostone is a kind of concrete block — that's what they used to build the houses."
    "Well, what do you say we head back there?" Joe said.
    The others nodded. "But first I have to pick up a couple of things back at the hotel," Frank said.
    Walking down the street that was listed as the address of Forte Brothers, they passed a line of closed and dark shops. The funeral home was in the middle of the block. No lights showed in the windows or on its porch.
    Frank led the way to the end of the block and made a right. "There's too much street traffic to go in the front," he said. "Let's see how the back looks."
    Joe had been expecting that. "It's the fourth house from the end. We'll just count our way up."
    The stores backed up on a spacious alleyway, which they shared with the rear of a line of houses.
    "Not as crowded," Frank muttered. "But we'll have to be quiet, unless we want the neighbors looking over our shoulders."
    From the windows of one house, they could hear the theme music of a popular TV show.
    "I think they've got other things to watch than us," Joe said.
    "Let's hope so," Frank muttered, "because we're going in."
    It turned out that they didn't need to count houses. Parked behind Forte Brothers was a dead giveaway — the company hearse. They hid behind it as they made their way up to the back door.
    Frank slid the screen door open, bracing it with his knee. Then he knelt by the doorknob, slipping a little box with wires out of his pocket.
    Shauna watched wide-eyed. "What's that?" she asked.
    "It started out as a circuit tester. I made a few modifications." Frank touched the wires to the doorknob, then ran them up and down the space between the door and the frame. A light flashed on the box.
    "Trouble," Frank whispered. "They've got an alarm on the door. Open it up, and a siren sounds."
    "Does this mean we can't get in?" Shauna asked.
    "It means we use the door as a last resort," Joe explained. He backed up to check the windows.
    "Frank, look at the last window on the right — the one behind the bush."
    Frank slid over, reached up, and felt around. "Bathroom window," he whispered. "We're in luck. Somebody left it open." Even so, he checked carefully for pressure pads or contacts in the window frame before he shoved the window up.
    Then he switched on a miniflashlight, and shielding it with his hand, checked the tiled windowsill.
    "People have a bad habit of leaving things on bathroom windowsills," Joe explained to Shauna. "If we knocked anything over coming in, it would land on the tile floor with a nice, loud crash."
    "You think there still could be people inside?" She stared up at the dark windows.
    "We don't know. So we'll play it safe."
    Frank was leaning in the window now, playing his light around the room. He wasn't shielding it anymore. "The door's closed. I'm going in."
    The creeping bush that grew up past the window made the opening quite small, but Frank swung himself in.
    Joe laced his fingers together to make a cup of his hands. "Put your foot in here," he told Shauna. "You're next."
    With a boost from Joe, she made it in silently. Then Joe had to squeeze in.
    He pulled out his own flashlight and glanced around the room. "Doesn't look like they're hiding the bomb in here," he whispered. "Where do we go next?"
    Frank glanced back. "Kill the light." He stood with his ear to the door,