“What are you doing home?” Aunt Trudy asked when I walked in the door. “Aren’t you supposed to be at karate class?”
“Hy-yah!” Playback squawked. “Hy-yah!”
“Yes, Aunt Trudy,” I said quickly. “But I forgot my gi. Can’t do karate in jeans.” I gave her a wink and raced for the stairs. I took them two at a time, then hurried down the hall and burst into my father’s office.
“Dad, I need help!” I cried.
He took one look at me and closed the door. “What’s going on?”
“It’s for our ATAC mission,” I told him. I pulled the unmarked bottle of pills out of my pocket. “We need to know what these things are, stat.”
Dad’s forehead creased with worry. “Are you boys in any danger?” he asked. “Between that killing yesterday and now—”
“Dad, don’t worry,” I interrupted. “We can take care of ourselves. You know that.”
“Hmph,” he said.
“Listen, I gotta get back to the Rising Phoenix,” I said. “I don’t want to leave Joe and Chet alone.”
“Chet?” Now Dad really looked worried.
“He’s not too involved,” I assured him. “I mean, he thought he was, but . . .”
“I don’t want to hear about it,” Dad said, shaking his head. “You make sure he gets un-involved, right away.”
“We will.” As I left the room, he was already on the phone to ATAC, setting up lab time to test the pills.
I barreled down the stairs and headed for the door.
“Where is your gi?” Aunt Trudy cried from the kitchen. She gazed at me as if I’d lost my mind.
“Oh. Uh . . . I guess I didn’t leave it at home after all,” I said. “I must have left it in my locker at school.”
“Honestly, Frank, that sounds more like something your brother would do,” Aunt Trudy said. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine, Aunt Trudy,” I promised her. “But I have to run.” I gave her a kiss on the cheek and bolted.
By the time I got back to the Rising Phoenix, class was half over. I just hoped Joe was okay in there. I pulled my motorcycle in next to his.
Samantha was still hanging out in the parking lot. She rushed over, her face filled with worry. “What happened?” she asked. “What are those pills? What is this all about?”
“Samantha, it’s too soon to know,” I told her. “The pills are being tested right now. You should go home and wait. I’ll call you when we find anything out.”
“Oh, no,” she said. “My brother’s entire personality was changed by this place, and I intend to find out why. You guys don’t have any right to keep me out of the loop.”
“Okay, but I need to get inside,” I insisted. “Joe and Chet could be in danger, for all I know. We think Huang suspects that we’re, uh, snooping around.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why do you think that?”
“Because the student teacher attacked me earlier this afternoon,” I blurted out. “Now, please, go home. I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Are you kidding me?” Samantha cried. “I’m absolutely not going anywhere now. You could be in trouble!”
“Fine. Stay. But I’m going inside.” I couldn’t argue anymore. As long as she didn’t go near Huang or Marty, she’d probably be safe. They didn’t know she was Russell’s sister, so they wouldn’t pay any attention to her.
I pulled open the front door and took two steps down the hallway.
Huang was dragging Billy into his office. I saw the kid’s frightened face for a split second, and then Huang slammed the door shut behind them.
Uh-oh.
I turned around and went right back out the door.
“What are you doing?” Samantha asked.
“Huang’s got Billy Lee in his office,” I said. “Something’s going down.”
“So why are you back out here?”
“I happen to know where the window of Huang’s office is. We can listen in to his conversation from there.” I led the way around the back of the building and down to the window I’d climbed out of a few days ago.
It was open a few inches. Perfect! We’d be able to hear everything. I ducked down below the window so they couldn’t see me. Samantha did the same.
“. . . gone too far,” a voice said. “You’re cut off.”
“Is that Huang?” Samantha whispered, putting her lips right up to my ear.
I shook my head. “It sounds like Finn Campbell,” I told her. “He’s the bookkeeper.”
“What do you mean?” Billy asked, his voice thin and scared.
“We’re not going to give you any more,” Huang replied. “You haven’t been paying, so you don’t get any more pills.”
“But I need them!” Billy said loudly. Not exactly frightened anymore—more like desperate. “I can already lift twice as much weight when I work out, and I’ve only been taking the herbs for two weeks. You can’t cut me off!”
I felt as if someone had just smacked me in the head. Why hadn’t I seen it sooner?
“Steroids,” Samantha whispered in my ear.
I nodded. That’s what the pills were. I didn’t need a lab test to confirm it; Billy’s description was enough. Herbs to help him “bulk up”? More like illegal steroids that enabled him to lift more weight and put on muscle fast.
“You don’t have to stop taking the herbs,” Finn said. “But you do have to start paying for them. For real, not just a twenty here and there. The pills are fifty dollars a week.”
I glanced at Samantha. Her eyes were wide. Fifty bucks a week? That was pretty steep. Who could afford that? It’s not like Billy had time for a job in addition to school and all the karate classes he was taking. He was probably too young to work, anyway.
“But I don’t have that much money,” he said, echoing my thoughts.
“Well, you’ll have to find it somehow,” Finn told him.
“If you don’t pay up, I’m afraid we’ll have to talk to your mother,” Huang added in that calm monotone of his. “And I doubt she’ll be very happy to hear that you’ve been taking steroids. They’re illegal, you know. You’re breaking the law.”
“But . . . but you said they were just herbs. . . .” Billy’s voice cracked. It sounded like he was crying.
My head spun. Finally I got it.
Billy had been totally up front with us—he thought he was taking Chinese herbs because that’s what Huang had told him.
“Huang gets kids hooked on steroids,” I whispered into Samantha’s ear. “He says they’re harmless herbs. Then, once the kids get used to taking them and like the results, he makes them pay.”
“Not just that. He’s blackmailing this boy,” Samantha whispered back. “If he doesn’t pay, Huang will tell his mother he’s taking illegal drugs. He’ll get in huge trouble—but he didn’t even know he was doing anything wrong!”
I nodded. Huang was nothing more than a drug dealer, preying on kids who were weak and lacked self-confidence. What a lowlife.
It was time to call the cops. I reached for my cell phone—
—and someone tackled me from behind.
I fell to the ground, my face in the dirt. He was on top of me, pinning me down. I couldn’t move!
“Hey!” Samantha yelped. She balled her hand into a fist and swung at him, managing to land a punch before his hand shot out and grabbed her by the throat. He shoved her back into the wall, her head smashing against the brick.
I recognized that move. It was how the mugger had killed that private investigator. This was the same guy!
Samantha’s eyes rolled up in her head and she dropped to the ground. Had he killed her?
I crawled over and grabbed her wrist, feeling for a pulse.
She was alive.
“You’re next,” the guy growled.
I jumped to my feet and turned to face him.
It was Duke.