Nightmare in Angel City Read Online Free Page B

It didn't look like anyone was chasing me, so I stopped at the first phone booth and called you. I thought I'd better get some help."
    "Then what?" asked Frank.
    "Then, right after we talked a minute, I saw the cop coming down the road toward me. I dropped the phone and ran. Late this afternoon when I got to school I heard a policeman had been nosing around looking for me. How he traced me to school I can't figure."
    "But once he found out who you were it · must've been easy to learn where you were staying. With Emma," Frank said.
    "Aunt Emma? I forgot to call her!" Callie said, covering her mouth with her hand. Now she looked more like the Callie that Frank and Joe remembered. "Has anything happened to her?"
    "No," Frank said hesitantly, deciding not to say anything about the firebomb. "She's worried sick about you," Frank said very pointedly.
    "Has she called my parents?"
    "No, but she'll have to if she doesn't hear from you soon," Joe informed her.
    "I'll call her right away," she said. "I haven't been home for a couple of days," she explained.] "When I got in with these people, I felt I had to stay."
    "Now, listen, Callie. You've got to go back to Bayport on the next flight out. You're in more danger than you know."
    "Frank Hardy!" Callie snapped. "Are you telling me to give up on a case?"
    "I'm not telling. I'm asking," Frank replied sternly. "You're very important to me, and I want you out of — "
    "Sorry to break you two lovebirds up," said Joe, "but do you smell something funny?"
    Frank sniffed. "Gas," he said, surprised. He listened. Beneath the drone of voices he could hear a soft hiss. "Everyone out!" he shouted. "There's a gas leak."
    Everyone crawled out of their beds and ran for the main door. "It won't open," one of them shouted. They all beat on it with their hands, then rammed it with their shoulders, but the steel door held.
    Joe began to cough and looked up where the windows had once been set. They were boarded up now. "This place is filling up pretty quickly," Joe said, blurting out his words between gasps. "The gas must have been leaking for a while. We have to get out soon — this place is going to blow."
    He barely heard his brother say, "It's no good. We're trapped." Joe tried to answer, but he felt suddenly dizzy.
    Then Joe Hardy's legs gave out, and he pitched forward into darkness.

Chapter 5
    FROM SOMEWHERE JOE heard his brother's voice. "Joe, get up! If you go to sleep, you'll die. Wake up!" He felt a sharp pain in his cheek. Frank had pinched him.
    Groggily, Joe opened his eyes. He wanted only to sleep. But he fought the lack of oxygen, and by sheer willpower forced himself to his feet. All around, everyone was scrambling to get out. But the other exit was jammed too. It was no good. Several people had collapsed as Joe had.
    Joe's vision blurred as his eyelids started to close again. He shook himself awake. "Put something over your mouth and nose," Frank said, "It'll help filter out the gas." Joe ripped his sleeve from his shirt and tied it around his face.
    Frank looked up at the boarded windows a good fifteen feet above his head. He started to sway on his feet, and Joe could tell the fumes were getting to him too. Callie sat down, and Frank harshly pulled her back to her feet. "Gas is heavier than air," he warned. "Down there you're finished." He stared at the windows again. "Up there I could breathe long enough to figure a way out—maybe."
    Joe studied the factory. "The windows are too high up, Frank. Even if we made a pile of everything in this place, we couldn't reach them."
    Frank tried both doors again. They didn't budge. "Something's blocking them outside." He gazed at the windows again. "They're our only hope, but how can we reach them?"
    Callie brightened. "A human ladder." She ran to the others — the few who were still standing.
    Two of the people started forcing their groggier companions to their feet, and soon they were all on their feet and shambling over to the