A Game Called Chaos by Franklin W. Dixon Page B

looked around. “Say, where did she go? Chelsea, did you see where Sam Rockford went?”
    â€œIs she the woman in the trench coat who was with you? I was so worried about you guys, I didn’t pay any attention to her after you pushed her out of harm’s way,” Chelsea said. “Who was she?”
    â€œA PI working for Rosenberg,” Frank said. “Maybe.”
    â€œShe seemed to know Royal was missing, though we didn’t tell Rosenberg that,” Joe added.
    Chelsea sighed. “As if we didn’t have enough trouble!”
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    The police took Royal’s disappearance much more seriously now. They impounded the wreck of Royal’s car and took it to the police lab for testing. They also spent a couple of hours talking to Frank, Joe, and Chelsea. During the course of the interrogation, the Hardys learned that the police’s new theory was that Royal’s disappearance was part of a publicity stunt.
    They didn’t seem to believe that Chelsea and Viking Software had been trying to keep Royal’s absence secret. “After all,” the lead detective told Chelsea, “you’ve been camped on our doorstep making a fuss for most of the last week. You’ve done your jobs as concerned citizens; now let us do our jobs. The only thing you should worry about at the moment is keeping your noses clean. If any of you are involved in this stunt, then you could all be in big trouble. Let the Jewel Ridge PD worry about Steven Royal. This car wreck proves he’s lurking around here somewhere.
    â€œAnd you, Hardy boys,” the detective continued, “make sure you stay out of the way of our investigation.Maybe the police in Bayport need help from amateurs, but in Jewel Ridge, we do things by the book.”
    Frank and Joe silently decided not to turn the mechanical spider over to the cops, though they did mention the ransacking of Tochi’s house. By the time the trio got back into Chelsea’s apartment, the pizza they’d ordered had been cold a long time. They stuffed it into the fridge and went straight to bed.
    They were awakened late the next morning by the repeated ringing of Chelsea’s doorbell. Joe roused himself from the couch and answered the intercom. “Yeah,” he said sleepily. “What is it?”
    â€œIt’s me, Phil,” said a voice on the other end of the intercom. “Buzz me in, will you?” Joe pressed the buzzer and a minute later Phil came through the door, looking well-rested and eager to begin working. Frank got out of the recliner and Chelsea joined them from the other room.
    The four friends sat around Chelsea’s dining room table and had granola and milk for breakfast. They brought Phil up to date on everything that had happened the last two days. The Hardys also pulled out the remains of the mechanical spider for Phil to see.
    â€œSeems to me,” Phil said between mouthfuls of cereal, “that you could buy most of the material in this spider at an electronics supply store.Though some of it looks like it might have been scavenged from toys.”
    â€œWhich could point to Tochi’s involvement,” Joe said.
    Phil nodded as he ate. “Mm. Or someone with that amount of skill.”
    â€œChelsea,” Frank said, “what do you make of the clue we found inside the spider? I thought the forest reference meant the Forest of Chaos game and the caverns meant the Caverns of Chaos game. That would make sense since Caverns was the first game and primeval means ‘original.’ But I can’t imagine that Royal hid clues to finding the prototype in those old games. No one thinks that far ahead.”
    â€œCould the forest and the cave be real places?” Joe asked. “And if they are, where are they?”
    Chelsea’s eyes lit up. “They could be,” she said. “When I was reading up on Royal when Viking brought him on board, I read a lot