J.M.J.

Chapter 17

Thompson had protested a little, but he had wanted to get out of the building more than anything, and so he was persuaded to help carry the wounded technician also helped to carry him, since Ned's injured arm prevented him from doing so. Ned, Bess, and George hesitated a little, though.

"What about Nancy?" Ned asked as they reached the stairwell. "We can't just leave her in here."

"How much longer before that bomb goes off?" Carson asked Thompson.

"I don't know, for sure," Thompson insisted. "Meyers is the one who set it There isn't much time."

"I can make a quick search," Ned said.

"We can, too," George offered, volunteering Bess as well as herself. "If we're all searching, maybe we can find her in time."

"More likely, you'll all get blown up yourselves," Thompson pointed out.

Carson chewed his lip. He had seconds to make an impossible decision. If it was him by himself, there was no way he would leave this building until he had gotten Nancy safely out. But it wasn't him by himself. The wounded man couldn't get out without help, and to leave him would be certain death for him. To encourage Ned and the girls to stay and look for Nancy would most likely get them killed, too, and none of it was certain—no, none of it was even likely—to save Nancy.

However, Nancy's friends didn't give him a chance to make that decision one way or another. Ned hadn't been asking permission; he had been telling Carson what he was going to do. Without waiting for Carson to respond, he turned and ran up the stairs rather than down them. Bess and George glanced at each other before they turned and ran after him.

"I saw her in an office on the fourth floor!" Thompson finally relented and shouted after them.

"We've got to get this guy out of here," Carson said finally.

Thompson glared at him for half a second, but then he helped pick the man up and carry him down to the first floor. It took about five minutes.

They were met at the door by Frank and Joe, who saw them coming out and ran to assist them.

"Where are the others?" Joe asked, seeing only the three men.

"They're still inside, looking for Nancy," Carson replied in exasperation. He gestured toward Thompson. "He says she's in an office on the fourth. Which office? Can you point out the window?"

"It's around on the other side," Thompson said. "I'll show you."

Carson directed the Hardys to get the injured man farther away from the building, and then he followed Thompson around to another side.

Thompson pointed out a window high up in the wall of the plant. "It's that one. The one that's open. Now I'm getting out of here. That bomb's going to incinerate the place when it goes off."

He turned and ran, and Carson didn't bother to try to stop him. He cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted, "Nancy! Nancy!"

There was no answer, and Carson felt as if his heart had stopped. The Hardys, joined by Fenton now, ran up to meet them.

"Where are they?" Frank asked.

Carson pointed toward the window. "That's what he said, but no one is answering."

"Even if they are in there, they won't be able to get out," Fenton replied. "Dawson found a rope. Maybe we can rig up a grappling hook. Come on, boys!"

NDHBNDHBND

Nancy stared at the bomb for a second or two. She had been hoping it would be something simple, where she could just pull the wires and deactivate the timer, but this looked like the sort of thing that would explode if she pulled the wrong wires. She glanced up at the struggle that was still taking place between Tom and Meyers. Delvere had jumped in to help Tom, who couldn't afford to be picky about who his allies were at the moment.

Then the door suddenly burst open the rest of the way. Three people rushed into the room. Two of them were the ones on the stairs, and the third was another girl with dark hair. They seemed to take in the scene quickly. The young man jumped in to help Tom and Delvere, while the two girls rushed to Nancy's side.

"Nancy! What's happening? Are you okay?" the dark-haired one asked.

Nancy gestured helplessly at the device in front of her. "It's going to go off any minute. I don't think we have time to get out."

The blonde clapped a hand over her mouth, and the brunette paled. The men had wrestled the gun away from Meyers by now, and the one from the stairs earlier had taken charge of it. He and Tom hurried over to look at the bomb.

"Do you know how to deactivate this, Delvere?" Tom asked.

Delvere shrugged. "Don't look at me."

"You should know," Meyers spoke up. "It was one of your own people who made it."

"I didn't even know any of my people were making any such thing," Delvere insisted. "I want to eliminate suffering, not cause it."

Meyers scoffed.

"Now, look," Delvere said, losing his calm for the first time. "You've taken this far enough, Meyers. Deactivate that thing!"

Meyers smirked. "I wouldn't, even if I knew how."

"What about you, Tom?" Nancy asked. "Can you figure it out?"

Tom looked hesitant for a moment, but then he said, "I guess there's nothing to lose by trying at this point. Do any of you have a pocketknife?"

"I do." The other young man took one out of his pocket and handed it to Tom.

Nancy took a step back to give Tom room to work, bumping into the other young man as she did. She shivered as she noticed the wound in his arm, but then she looked up at his face. She knew him; she was sure of it, but there was no time to figure that out or to do anything save to whisper a feeble "I'm sorry."

He smiled at her, a trifle uncertainly. Then he cautiously reached for her hand. Nancy let him take it. She found it was surprisingly comforting to let him hold her hand just now.

But the next moment, their attention was turned back to Tom, along with everyone else's. The timer showed less than a minute. Tom had gotten the cover off the timer, showing several exposed wires, but he was hesitating about cutting any of them.

Delvere's attention was fixed on Tom as steadily as anyone else's, keeping only a loose grasp on the gun and the back of his head toward Meyers. Suddenly, Meyers jumped forward and made a grab for the gun. The two men struggled for a split second before the gun went off and Delvere fell to the ground. Before anyone else could move, Delvere had the gun pointed at Tom.

"Get away from there!" he shouted.

Nancy glanced at the timer. Fourteen seconds. At the same moment, Ned put his arms around her and pulled her close to him. Nancy closed her eyes as she hid her face in his chest. She was glad to be here for those last fourteen seconds.

Tom had noticed the timer, too. In fact, he barely could see anything else. He had only spared Meyers a quick glance. Then he looked back down at the wires. It didn't matter at this point. If he didn't do anything, they would all be killed anyway. Setting his teeth, he slid his fingers under all the wires and then sliced through them all with the knife. As soon as they were cut, he dropped to the floor, squeezing his eyes shut and expecting an explosion.

It didn't happen. There was a gunshot that must have narrowly missed him. Then Meyers cursed loudly and plunged forward. He tried to shove Bess and George out of the way, but they stood their ground and grabbed at his arms. He tried to pull himself away, but the girls delayed him long enough for Ned to join them. Nancy positioned herself between Meyers and the bomb as a last line of defense in case the others could stop him. But they did manage to get the gun away from him and shove him down to the floor.

"You don't know what you're doing!" Meyers insisted.

Bess cast a worried glance at the bomb as Tom slowly got to his feet again. "Is that thing for sure not going to go off?"

Tom glanced warily at the bomb. "I don't think so, but let's get out of here!"

He started for the door, but at the same moment, someone outside shouted again, "Nancy! Nancy!" He stopped, and as he looked back, he must have re-thought rushing out just then. With Delvere injured and Meyers putting up a fight, they wouldn't have such as an easy time getting out without help, and they couldn't risk Meyers getting at that bomb.

Bess ran to the window and saw Carson and the Hardys, as well as several police officers down below. "Hurry! We need help up here!"

"What about the bomb?" Fenton shouted back, reaching out to stop Frank and Joe who were about to run forward.

"The timer's stopped!" Bess reported. "But please hurry!"

That was all the rescue party needed to know. The plant was so big that it took them a few minutes to reach the office. It felt like forever. As soon as they arrived, however, they took Meyers into custody and evacuated everyone until a bomb squad could arrive. Nancy almost didn't have time to breathe until she was outside, sitting on the grass. Her head throbbed and she closed her eyes, but she opened them again and jumped when someone touched her shoulder. She seemed to be surrounded by people: Tom, the other people who had burst into the room, more people she didn't know. Or did she? It seemed to her that she should. She spotted the young man who had held her hand earlier. She reached toward him and he took her hand. She had remembered his name earlier for a moment, but she couldn't think of it now.

"She can't remember anything," Tom was explaining. "She hit her head yesterday. I don't think she even would have remembered her own name if Meyers and the rest of them hadn't known."

"Nancy, are you all right?"

Nancy had to turn her head to see who was speaking to her. She had seen him earlier, with Meyers. She nearly recoiled from him, but then she didn't. Everything Meyers had said to her was a trick, even what she thought she had overheard in that closet. These people were all friends of hers.

"I'll be okay," she said. "My head just hurts. And I can't remember anything."

The man kept his hand on her shoulder. "It'll be okay. You'll be okay."

Nancy looked up at his face again. She did know him. She was almost sure of it. "Yeah."

Then someone else started talking above her head. Another man was calling for the EMTs to come over here. At once, Nancy remembered earlier, on the stairs…She looked back at the younger man who was still holding her hand and the red stain on his sleeve

"Oh, Ned, I'm sorry," she said.

"Hey, it's all right now," Ned told her. He half-smiled. "Besides, I thought you said you couldn't remember anything."

Nancy did smile then. "Maybe I can remember a few things."

NDHBNDHBND

Nancy scrolled through the photos, pausing at each one as she tried to remember it. She was starting to remember more and more. It helped being at home now, and she was determined to recover all her memories. She would just have to be patient to do it.

It helped that her friends were willing to spend so much time with her, trying to remind her of things that had happened in the past. Even Frank and Joe stayed in River Heights for another week or so. They were a bit disappointed to have missed out on the more exciting parts of the case, to which Bess responded that she would have been happy to trade places with them.

Today, however, things were quieter than they had been yet. No one had dropped in to visit, Carson had gone to work, and Hannah, the Drews' housekeeper, was out running some errands. At first, it had sounded nice to Nancy to have some time to herself where she could relax and think, but she found that she couldn't help thinking about what had happened on the stairs back at the plant. It had been an accident, mostly, but she should have been more careful. No, she shouldn't have been in that situation in the first place. She should have known not to trust Roscoe, and she should have guessed before that that the conversation she had "overheard" might have been planned in advance. Most of all, she should have recognized Ned and Bess. She had, almost, even then. Why hadn't she listened to her better reasoning?

While she was still pondering this, the doorbell rang. Hoping it was someone who would distract her, Nancy hurried to answer the door. She was a bit surprised to find Tom Swift and his father there.

"Hi," she greeted them. "How are you doing?"

"Better, now that I've been released from the hospital," Swift said. "We haven't actually met. I'm Tom Swift."

Nancy smiled and shook his hand. "Nancy Drew. I'm glad to hear you're doing better. Why don't you come in?"

She held the door open to let the two visitors in, explaining as she did that her father wasn't at home at the moment.

"Maybe we can see him at his office a little later, then," Swift commented. "We wanted to thank you, too, for helping us out."

Nancy's smile became rather wry. She didn't feel as if she had really been much help.

Tom must have guessed what she was thinking. At least, he was quick to say, "You know, if you hadn't gotten me out of that room, well…things would have turned out really differently."

"That's mostly because you were able to disconnect that timer without the bomb going off," Nancy pointed out.

Tom brushed the praise aside by asking Nancy whether she had heard what was happening with the suspects from the case.

"I haven't heard much," Nancy admitted. "It's probably going to take some time for the district attorney to sort out whether and how he can charge the people involved. I do know that Meyers and Roscoe and the others involved in their plan are getting charged. I still don't understand where they got that bomb from, though. It was pretty sophisticated for someone who feels the way about technology that they do."

"I suspect that they had one of Delvere's people make it, probably not knowing what they were going to use it for," Swift said. "Judging from the other security measures they had in place—even though Meyers wasn't actually using most of them—it wouldn't be too surprising."

"I don't think I'll ever quite understand what Meyers thought he was going to accomplish," Nancy said. "I understand why he wanted to stop Delvere, but how he thought that he was in the right in the way that he was doing it is beyond me."

"What do you think is going to happen to Delvere, Nancy?" Tom asked. "You know more about this lawyer-y stuff than we do."

"Maybe I did," Nancy conceded, "but I don't remember much of it now. My dad doesn't think that there will be a case against him. At least, not a criminal case. A civil case could definitely be a potential, but that would be up to you to pursue that, Mr. Swift."

Swift frowned slightly. "I don't know. I'll have to think about that. I don't want to make it look like there's anything personal, especially when Delvere is in such a sympathetic position. He's framing his whole idea as being completely humanitarian, and unfortunately, it's getting to where more and more people might actually think that his isn't such a bad idea. Then, too, he's casting himself as the 'little guy' coming up against a 'big guy' like me. That's going to win him quite a bit of sympathy in some sectors. He will probably try to pass himself off as some kind of Robin Hood. Add to that the fact that some of his own people betrayed him and tried to kill him and his people, and that he even was shot himself, he can work up a lot of sympathy for himself."

"But what difference does any of that make?" Nancy asked. "Even if the civil case goes to a jury, they shouldn't be that swayed by arguments like that."

"True, but that's really the least of my concerns. What I'm far more interested in is exposing just how dangerous his entire experiment is," Swift explained. "I mean, the tech itself is obviously dangerous. I doubt would even ever work the way Delvere thinks it would. More likely, it would eventually be abandoned and serve as yet another cautionary tale about cruel and inhumane experiments by self-professed humanitarians, but we have enough of those already. It would be better to stop it before anyone gets hurt because of it. Well, anyone else, that is. But if it did work and it turned out you could control human beings that way, that would be even worse. No one with truly good intentions would even want to control other people that way, and anyone who tried wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to pull the puppet strings any way they wanted. But even they could…Well, I don't believe criminal behavior is all a mental disorder, anyway. It's not something that can be 'fixed' like that, and criminals aren't inherently broken, like that idea suggests. The idea that they are has caused enough harm already. I want to do what I can to help people to see the real horror of what Delvere is actually suggesting. That's the real way to put a stop to it. So I don't want to do anything that will make it look like I'm just trying to get even or anything that would call my motives into question. I know, I can't avoid it entirely—no one can—but I don't want to give them any fuel that I don't have to."
"I can understand that," Nancy replied. "I hope you can do it."

Swift smiled ruefully. "It might be overly ambitious, but I feel like I have to try."

Their conversation was interrupted then by the doorbell. Nancy excused herself and got up to see who it was. She smiled a little shyly when she saw that it was Ned. His arm was still in a sling, of course, but otherwise, he seemed just fine. The first thing he said was to ask how Nancy was.

"I don't currently have a headache, so that's an improvement," Nancy said as she closed the door after letting Ned in. "I'm starting to remember more and more. The doctor thinks I should be pretty well back to normal before too long."

"That's good news," Ned replied. He glanced toward the floor. "I have to admit, I was a little worried for a few minutes."

"A little worried?" Nancy shook her head. "Ned, I don't even know how to say how sorry I am."

"You've already said it. It was an accident, anyway. There's no need to worry about it."

Nancy shook her head. "It wasn't entirely. I…When I think about it…Well, it's one thing I wish I could forget."

"I wish you could, too, so you wouldn't worry about it so much. It was more my fault, anyway," Ned insisted.

Nancy chuckled slightly and shook her head. "You are incorrigible." Her grin faded a little. "I still…"

Ned put his uninjured arm around her shoulders. "I know. And it's okay. Please try not to think about it. Besides, there's another car in your driveway, with California plates."

"That's right," Nancy said, honestly remembering her other guests for the first time since Ned's arrival. "Tom and his dad are here. You haven't actually met Mr. Swift, have you?"

"No. I'd like to," Ned replied. "I'm a little surprised he's out of the hospital already, actually. Besides, I'd like to talk to Tom again. He saved all our lives. We were lucky he could figure out what to do."

Nancy looked up at him. "Yes, we were."

Thank you so much for reading! Most especially, thank you to max2013, ErinJordan, Candylou, and angelicalkiss for your reviews throughout the story! I'm so grateful to all of you, especially since this story has been a little different from what I usually write (at least, so far as being somewhat of a crossover).

I have another story I'm working on. I'm not totally sure when I'll start posting it, but it will hopefully be sooner than later. In the meantime, I wish you all well! God bless!

~Elizabeth