A Game Called Chaos Read online

  Frank looked in, being careful not to let McLean slip away. The floor of the vehicle was strewn with papers; some of them had Steven Royal’s letterhead on them, others bore the seal of NCU. “I think,” he said, “we may have found out who ransacked Royal’s condo and Tochi’s house—it looks like she took a few souvenirs.”

  “I didn’t ransack anything,” McLean complained. “Those aren’t souvenirs, they’re clues. You’d have done the same thing.”

  “No, we wouldn’t,” Joe said. “And we’ll let the police decide if those papers are evidence in this case, or evidence that you’re a thief.”

  Frank smiled grimly at McLean. “I think you may have some trouble explaining the lock picks. If you were better at using them, you’d have left fewer clues.”

  “I’ll get security,” Chelsea said, heading for the building.

  “You’ve got to listen to me,” McLean said. “I didn’t do anything wrong. I’m only trying to help Steven Royal. He’s in big trouble, I just know it. He’d never disappear like this before the release of a big game. He needs that game.”

  “Needs it how?” Joe asked.

  McLean looked around furtively, then said, “He’s almost broke. He made some bad investments.”

  “And I suppose you learned that from some of those papers in your car,” Frank said.

  “It doesn’t matter how I know,” McLean said. “I was just trying to protect him, but it didn’t work. Something terrible has happened to him, I just know it. I’m looking out for him. . . .”

  “Following him, you mean,” Joe interjected.

  “He slipped away from me last Monday,” McLean continued, “and he never came back. Didn’t he know I was just trying to protect him?”

  “Was he driving his car when he got away?” asked Frank.

  “Yes,” McLean said. “He was heading north, but he lost me on an interchange. I think he did it deliberately. I didn’t know anything was wrong until he didn’t come back for a few days. That was when I decided to take things into my own hands.”

  “So, you used those lock picks and looked around in his place, and Tochi’s, just trying to protect Royal,” Joe said.

  “Yes. I know he’s in trouble. He’s been nervous lately, but I don’t know why. I just want to help.”

  “I’m sure you do,” Frank said. McLean had become calmer, and he hoped to get more information out of her before the police arrived. “So, what do you think happened to him?”

  “Anne Sakai’s ghost got him,” McLean said matter-of-factly.

  Both Hardys tried not to look shocked. “Sakai’s ghost?” Joe asked skeptically.

  McLean crossed her arms over her chest. “She’s out to get him for driving her out of the country. She decided she couldn’t compete with him, so she ran away. Then she got killed. So her ghost blames him for it. Now she’s done something terrible to him.”

  “And you’ve actually . . . seen this ghost?” Frank asked.

  “Only once,” McLean said quietly. “After she died on St. Cecile.”

  Just then Chelsea returned with the building security guard. He took custody of McLean and escorted her into the building to wait for the police.

  “So,” Joe said watching her go, “do you think she did something to Royal?”

  Frank shook his head. “I doubt it—though I couldn’t rule it out. I think it’s more likely that she had something to do with Sakai’s death. She confessed to being on the island around the time of Sakai’s plane crash.”

  “Do you think Sakai took that fatal plane trip to get away from her?” Joe asked.

  “Could be,” Frank said. “We know McLean followed Sakai all the way to the Caribbean. What we don’t know is, why? Is she just a crazy fan, or was she trying to get in good with Royal? Maybe she sabotaged the plane somehow. With Sakai out of the picture, the Chaos series is all Royal’s.”

  “Oh!” Chelsea said. “That’s one of the things I came out to tell you. This business with McLean had me so rattled, I almost forgot.

  “You asked about Sakai’s heirs the other day,” she continued. “I checked and she did have one heir, Regina Cross. Sakai’s proceeds from the Chaos games go to Cross Enterprises in Switzerland. She has a piece of all three games, but I’m not sure about the new game.

  “That’s the other thing I needed to tell you. Dave turned up something funny in Royal’s contract. Just a few weeks ago Royal had a minor change made.”

  “What change?” Frank asked.

  “Well, on the last contract anyone who helped Royal with the programming for the game was paid directly by Viking Software. Now, though, Royal is the only one we pay, and then he pays anyone who works under him. Since he didn’t have any collaborators, our lawyers didn’t think it was a big deal to change it.”

  “No collaborators that you know of,” Joe said, frowning.

  “Can you find out if Sakai’s heir, Cross, has a stake in the new game?” asked Frank.

  “Sure,” Chelsea said.

  “We’d better get going,” Joe said. “It’ll be dark by the time we get back.”

  Frank nodded and both of them headed toward the van. “We’ll keep in touch,” he called back. Chelsea waved as she walked back into the building.

  • • •

  Three hours later the Hardys pulled off the main road and onto one of the trails crisscrossing Kendall State Park. The man at the gatehouse couldn’t tell them where to find the cave. He said that many people had searched for it before, but never found it. Personally, he thought it was just a myth. He wished the brothers well and gave them a map of the park.

  Getting some help from Chelsea on their car phone, the Hardys picked a parking spot in a location that seemed to match the geography of the Chaos games.

  “You know,” Joe said as he got out of the van and hefted his backpack, “I wish I’d played Forest of Chaos. It might have helped now that we’re in the same woods.”

  The two of them consulted their map and picked a trail that would take them by the Kendall River. “There was a river in the game,” Joe said. “It flowed through the cave. It’s not much of a lead, but it may be our best shot.”

  “Any monsters in the river?” Frank asked.

  “Yeah. Some kind of cave octopus thing.”

  “Well,” Frank said, adjusting his backpack, “let’s hope we don’t run into it.”

  “You know, if we can find an eagle head-shaped rock we should be able to find the cave—” He stopped abruptly to glance back toward the parking lot.

  “What is it?” asked Frank.

  “I thought I saw another car,” Joe said. “It’s gone now.”

  “Probably just sightseers,” Frank said. “This place is beautiful.”

  “Well, it won’t be as beautiful when it gets dark in a couple of hours,” Joe said. The two of them walked in silence for a while after that, Joe keeping his eyes peeled for any landmark clues from the games.

  Suddenly Frank stopped.

  “What is it?” Joe asked.

  “Shh! Listen.”

  Joe listened and heard a faint rustling in the woods behind them. He and Frank turned and looked.

  About thirty yards away, through the underbrush, they could just make out the form of a huge gray wolf.

  “He’s stalking us!” whispered Frank.

  10 The Cave of Chaos

  * * *

  “I’ve got my pocketknife,” Joe said softly. “And a hand ax in my backpack.”

  “Not enough,” Frank replied. “Maybe we could take him, but we’d get badly mauled in the process.”

  “No way we can make it back to the van,” Joe said. “Look at the way he moves through the woods.”

  “He’s lived here all his life, probably,” Frank said. “Though I don’t remember gray wolves being in this part of Massachusetts.”

  “Well, one’s here now,” Joe said. “At least he’s not closing in.”

  “Not yet, anyway. If we can’t go back, we should press to look for s
helter. Come on, Joe. We’ll just keep a careful eye on him.”

  “I’ll keep two careful eyes on him,” Joe said.

  The Hardys ventured deeper into the woods. Occasionally, they would spot the wolf trailing them, or ranging off to one side. All at once, though, the creature was in front of them, barring their path.

  He stood on the path about a hundred yards away from the brothers, growling menacingly.

  “Looks like this is the end of the road,” Frank said. “Unless you want to tackle Tall, Dark, and Furry.”

  “At least he’s not a bear,” Joe replied. “Chelsea said there were bears in Forest of Chaos.”

  “Well, I don’t want to fight either a wolf or a bear if we can help it—unless, of course, it was Bombo Bear,” Frank said. “I’ve got a feeling Bombo would be a pushover.”

  Despite the tense situation, the quip brought a smile to Joe’s lips. As Frank watched the wolf, Joe checked their map. “If we leave the trail here,” Joe said, “I think we can still get to the river.”

  “I guess that’s our best bet,” said Frank. “Assuming Mr. Fuzzy agrees.”

  Joe nodded and the two left the path and stepped into the woods. Joe fished out his compass. “You know, I’d love to have one of those Global Positioning Systems right about now,” he said.

  “I’d settle for a phone,” Frank said.

  The wolf didn’t move any closer, but the brothers could still see him through the woods, ranging off to their left. Kendall State Park was quiet for the summer, Frank thought. The only noise was the sound of their footsteps, the soft padding of the wolf, and the whistle of an occasional bird.

  As the sun started to dip low in the sky, the Hardys continued to play cat and mouse with the wolf. The wolf didn’t get any closer to them, nor did he veer away. He seemed to be watching and waiting.

  “You know,” Joe said after a while, “that doesn’t look like any wolf I’ve ever seen before.”

  “Yeah,” Frank agreed. “I was thinking the same thing. His face isn’t shaped quite right. Maybe he’s a wolf-dog hybrid. Sometimes people keep hybrids as pets.”

  “And sometimes they get loose,” added Joe. “That’d explain what a wolf is doing in this part of the country. Guess that’s why they have leash laws.”

  Frank cocked his head. “Joe, do you hear that?”

  Joe did the same. “Those birds singing?” he asked.

  “Not that,” Frank said.

  Joe listened again, harder this time. “Running water. The river. Sounds pretty close. I didn’t notice it before.”

  “Let’s go,” Frank said.

  The wolf-dog didn’t prevent them from reaching the water. Kendall River was about twenty feet wide and ran swiftly, babbling over numerous rocks and small boulders.

  “Good whitewater, if it’s deep enough,” Joe said.

  “Mm,” Frank said. With his eyes, he was tracing a line of boulders that crossed the river. “Hey, Joe,” he said, pointing. “What’s that look like to you?”

  Joe looked where Frank indicated. In the woods nearby a large configuration of jumbled rocks cropped up out of the ground. From where the Hardys stood, the rock formation looked like the profile of a huge bird.

  “Wow,” Joe said. “I’d say that must be Eagle Rock. According to the information Chelsea gave me, the eagle’s head is supposed to point toward the Cave of Chaos.”

  Frank squinted and peered into the woods. “I think I do see a large rocky mound that way,” he said. “Let’s try it. Keep an eye on that wolf, though.”

  The Hardys cautiously made their way through the woods to the rock mound. It jutted out of the landscape like the back of a whale. Several smaller boulders lay beside its base, but to one side of the mound the brothers could see an opening just big enough for a person to squeeze through.

  “That’s it!” Joe said. “We’ve found it!”

  Frank glanced back the way they had come. He didn’t see anything, and when he listened, all he heard was the faint singing of birds. “I think our wolfish friend has given up on us,” he said.

  “You know,” Joe said. “We ought to thank that wolf. If we hadn’t left the path, I doubt we’d have ever spotted Eagle Rock.”

  Frank and Joe squeezed inside the opening. Just beyond the entrance, the cave opened up into a small “room,” with one narrow passageway leading back deeper into the rock.

  “Did you notice those boulders near the entrance?” Frank asked.

  “Yeah,” Joe replied. “Looked like they’d been moved recently: the ground around them was disturbed and the moss was growing on the wrong side of them. What I wonder is, who moved them and why?”

  “Maybe to open up the entrance to the cave. Those boulders could have prevented anyone from discovering it,” Frank said.

  “I suppose one guy could have moved them with a decent lever,” Joe said.

  “Royal, you mean,” Frank said. “The question now is, is there anything in here, or is he just leading us on a wild-goose chase?”

  “Only one way to find out,” said Joe. He pulled his flashlight from his backpack and switched it on. Then he and Frank ventured into the passageway beyond the room.

  “Looks like a glacial cave,” Joe said, running his hand over one rough wall. “Formed by the movements of rocks during the last ice age.”

  “Yeah,” Frank said. “Nothing like Carlsbad, or the Cave of the Mounds. No stalactites or stalagmites. Pretty big for a glacial system, though.”

  “Not too big, I hope,” Joe said. “I’d still like to get out of here before dark. Hey, Frank, I’ve been thinking.”

  “Yeah?”

  “About something Chelsea said earlier. Didn’t she mention the ghost of Katherine Chaos’s sister being in the new game?”

  “I think so,” Frank said. His eyes lit up. “Are you thinking that maybe McLean isn’t so crazy after all?”

  Joe nodded. “We know that she couldn’t have seen a ghost, but maybe she did see someone who looked like Sakai.”

  “A relative, you mean,” Frank said. “I wonder if Regina Cross is related to Sakai. Usually people’s heirs are their relatives.”

  Suddenly Joe stopped walking. “Of course, it may not matter.”

  “What do you mean?” Frank asked, shifting his gaze from his brother to where Joe’s light was shining into another “room” ahead of them. His eyes followed the flashlight beam to a gold disk resting atop a small pillar of rocks. “The prototype disk!” they said, and rushed into the chamber. With their flashlights, they could even pick out words printed on the disk in plain block lettering: “A Town Called Chaos: Master.”

  Just then a loud hissing caught the Hardys’ attention. Not more than two yards away, a large yellowish snake sat coiled and poised to strike.

  “Cobra!” Joe whispered.

  “In this cold, damp climate?” Frank said. “I don’t think so. Stay here.” He took a few steps back down the tunnel and picked up a large rock with both hands.

  “What are you going to do if you’re wrong,” Joe asked, glancing nervously from Frank to the snake and then back again.

  “Run,” Frank said. “And try to figure out a better plan. Do something to distract it, will you?”

  Joe tossed his flashlight near the snake. As the reptile turned toward it, Frank heaved his rock at the cobra. The snake reacted, but not in time; Frank’s rock hit it with a loud crunch.

  Frank and Joe stepped carefully forward, making sure no more snakes were around. Joe leaned down to retrieve his flashlight and examine the carcass. He picked up the snake’s tail; a few bits of metal and small gears fell out of it. “Mechanical,” he said. “Just like the spider.”

  “I thought so,” Frank said. “I would have been surprised if there wasn’t one last trap before the treasure.”

  “So, let’s get the disk and vamoose,” Joe said. He sauntered forward and plucked the golden computer CD from its resting place. He turned back toward Frank and smiled, holding the disk up.


  As he did, the chamber began to shake. Dust fell from the ceiling and a low rumbling sound filled the space.

  “Look out, Frank!” Joe cried.

  Frank turned in time to see a huge boulder separate from the other rocks above the entrance-way to the chamber. The boulder fell straight toward him.

  11 Treasure and Treachery

  * * *

  Frank dove toward Joe, and the boulder missed him by inches. It did, however, seal off the entrance to the chamber. Frank and Joe put their shoulders to the rock, but it was too heavy to move.

  “A pretty shoddy way to treat your publisher’s agents,” Frank noted.

  “There must have been some kind of trigger system connected to the disk,” Joe said. “I should have looked.”

  “No sense worrying about it now,” Frank said. “I thought we’d seen the last of Royal’s tricks as well.”

  “Well, this one seems pretty final to me,” Joe said. “I don’t see any way out of this cave.”

  Frank looked around. Joe was right. The chamber they were in appeared to be a dead end. “I can’t believe that Royal would lead us all the way here just to trap us,” Frank said. “What would be the point?”

  “Maybe he thought he’d be trapping someone else,” said Joe.

  “Could be. But with all the careful planning that’s gone into this scheme, why leave to chance who gets trapped? If it was someone who worked with him, or one of his old ‘friends,’ I’d understand. But I can’t believe we could get this far without his knowing it was us—or at least, that we weren’t who he expected.”

  “Yeah. Seems crazy to set up a complicated game like this and not know who’s playing against you.” Joe stooped to examine the pillar that had held the CD. He uncovered a transmitter unit. “Here’s what set off the trap. More technology. If Tochi was right about Royal’s skills, someone else must have helped him set all this up.”

  “Maybe Tochi himself, you think?” Frank asked. “He seems most likely. Could be he and Royal have made up and are working on some kind of video game together—despite what Tochi said.”