Free The Lazarus Plot by Franklin W. Dixon Page A

they relaxed as he made his decision. But the grim look on his face made it clear that he wasn't happy with what he had decided to do.
    "We can't waste time talking, Mr. Gray," he said. "We have to take more direct action."
    Joe stared with shock as Frank stood up and hauled the Gray Man to his feet. In the same motion, he grabbed the Gray Man's arm and bent it behind him.
    The Gray Man couldn't hide a grimace of pain as Frank gave his arm a slight twist.
    "Frank!" Joe protested. He didn't mind doing what he had to do in a fight, but this was different. Torture wasn't his thing. He could take it and he had. Handing it out, though, was something else.
    Frank ignored him. "Make up your mind fast," Frank said to the Gray Man. His voice was rock hard.
    "Look, Frank, we can't - " Joe began.
    Frank cut him off sharply. "We do it this way. We don't have a choice." "I don't see why," said Joe, giving his brother a searching look. Maybe he had been right the first time. This couldn't be Frank, who hated to see anyone or anything suffer. "I've got a hunch that what our doubles are planning has to be stopped fast," Frank said impatiently. "If it means playing as rough as they do, that's the price we have to pay. We can't afford to lose time. It's a rotten trade-off, but it's the only option we have."
    Frank's words didn't make Joe feel any less queasy, but they did tell Joe that this was his brother. He recognized their logic, the kind of logic that made Frank so different from him. Joe went by his feelings, and told him that torturing a man for any reason was dead wrong. But Frank believed in using his head, and arguing with the way Frank summed up a situation was as hard as arguing that two plus two made five.
    All Joe could say was, "Maybe you're right, but I can't watch this." And he turned his face away.
    "Okay, Mr. Gray," Joe heard Frank say. "Tell us what those guys wanted, and spare yourself a lot of pain."
    "Not on your life," the Gray Man shot back.
    "Then don't say I didn't warn you," replied Frank.
    His eyes still averted, Joe winced in anticipation of what he would hear next.
    But what he heard was his brother's defeated voice, "Okay, Mr. Gray, you win. I can't do it. I thought I was tough enough, but I guess I'm not tough that way."
    Letting out a deep breath of relief, Joe turned to see that Frank had let the Gray Man go and was standing with his shoulders slumped and a defeated look on his face.
    Then Frank's face brightened as the Gray Man put his hand on Frank's shoulder and said, "You win, too, Frank. You've convinced me."
    "We have?" said Frank, totally puzzled.
    For once Joe could see something that his brother couldn't. "I get it, Mr. Gray. You figured that real imposters wouldn't mind torturing you to get the information they wanted. But we wouldn't. And you were right."
    "I know I'm right," said the Gray Man, his usual decisive authority returning to his voice. "You boys have a lot of courage, but there are some things you can't bring yourselves to do which is one of the reasons the Network can never completely rely on you. We, like our enemies, sometimes have to play dirty to win."
    "And that's one of the reasons we'd just as soon not get hooked up too tightly with you," said Joe. "We'd rather fight crime our own way, with our own rules." "But right now we're in this fight together," said Frank. "And we have to stop our doubles." "First of all, tell me about those doubles," said Mr. Gray.
    "It's a long story," replied Frank. "But to make it short, there's an organization that makes doubles for clients who need them for crime. They made doubles of us, even down to our fingertips, and they forced us to tell them how to contact you."
    "But I made you swear never to - " the Gray Man began, and then paused. "I suppose they used torture.” Frank shot Joe a quick glance, then said, "Right, torture. I'd rather not go into the details."
    "Don't feel bad," said the Gray Man. "Everybody has his breaking point. Now tell me