Highway Robbery (4 page)
Authors: Franklin W. Dixon
"The cab is hooked to the trailer with what we call a fifth wheel - that big round thing you can see out the back window, there. See it? Okay. When you back this up into position in front of a trailer, a heavy pin in the trailer - the kingpin - locks into the notch in the wheel, and you're attached. Then you hook up a lot of cables and wires, so you can control the lights on the trailer from the cab. And the air brakes, too, of course."
"Whoa! Slow down a little," said Frank, holding up his hands. "I'm still trying to figure out twelve forward gears."
"Oh, don't worry, Frank," Pat told him. "You won't be driving an eighteen-wheeler for a long time yet." She pointed to some of the controls and gizmos and went on. "This light warns you if your fifth wheel connection is loose, and this shows the pressure in your air-brake cylinders. This toggle switch here controls - "
"Pat - "
"The safety lights. Over here - "
"Pat! Hold on a minute!"
"Am I going too fast?" she asked with a grin.
"Even airplane cockpits aren't as complicated as this," Frank said, shaking his head.
"Learning how to drive a truck like this one isn't like learning to drive your dad's car. It takes years to learn how, and a lot more years to get to be as good as I am."
"How long have you been at it?"
Pat laughed. "Never mind! Quite a while. I've got almost two million miles behind me, if you want to put it that way."
Frank whistled. "Two million!"
"Pat! Frank!"
Frank turned at the sound of the deep voice and saw that Matt was standing by his office door, motioning to them. "In here!"
Frank and Pat climbed down and went to the office. Joe was already there, standing beside Matt's desk.
"Ultratech has a shipment to go tomorrow," Matt told them. "The trailer will be loaded and ready by mid-afternoon. Pat, are you willing to take it out late tomorrow afternoon?"
She glanced at Frank. "Sure, if my helper is."
"I'm game."
Matt asked, "Got any ideas on how to keep the shipment from being swiped?"
Frank shrugged and thought a moment, then he asked, "Have all the trucks been stopped on deserted roads?"
"Yes."
"Will there be any deserted stretches tomorrow?"
Matt handed Pat a sheet of paper, which she studied for a moment before saying, "There are a few spots that are pretty deserted."
Frank met his brother's eyes. "If you and Tony could follow us in the van, we could keep in touch by CB. We might be able to trap this gang."
Joe nodded. "We'd have to stay far enough behind so we wouldn't be seen, but close enough to get to you fast if trouble happens. Maybe a mile behind you."
"Let's say two, just to be sure you won't be spotted. You could still get to us in a couple of minutes."
"Then what?" Matt asked, frowning. "Say there are four guys, like the other times. There'd be four of you against four of them. With the numbers even, how could you be sure they wouldn't get the shipment?"
"We figure the gang counts on overpowering a driver and getting away fast," Frank said. "The first time they run into organized resistance, they're likely to scatter. If we're lucky, we should be able to bag some of them. At the worst, we'll keep the shipment."
Matt didn't look convinced. "That's what you think, huh?"
"Right," Joe replied firmly. "That's what we're here to do, isn't it?"
"Well - okay," Matt finally said. "I just hope you - "
The door to Matt's office swung open, and Frank and Joe watched a man in jeans and a T-shirt stride in. He was tall and well-built, with reddish blond hair and a baseball cap pushed back on his head. His expression was angry and worried.
"What's this about Mike being in the hospital?" he demanded.
"You ought to knock, Hal," said Matt. "He's going to be all right."
"Matt, I told you I should be driving that Ultratech stuff!"
"Then you'd be in the hospital instead of Mike," Matt replied tersely. "Guys, meet Hal Brady, one of our drivers. Hal, Frank and Joe Hardy."
Frank stuck out a hand. "Glad to - "
Hal ignored him. "Well, I'm going to take the next shipment, right? Those creeps wouldn't take my truck, I can tell you that!"
"Pat's driving the next load, Hal," Matt told him. His tone left no room for argument.
Hal's face reddened, and his fists clenched at his sides. "Matt, this is crazy! A woman in a situation like this - "
"Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself," Pat snapped.
Frank looked over at Joe, who gave a slight shake of the head. It was obvious his brother felt just as uncomfortable as he did.
Hal's voice rose. "Matt, you've got to - "
Matt cut him off, slamming his hand down on the desk with a loud thwack. "Enough! As long as I'm running this business, I'm making the decisions around here. And I say Pat is going to take that shipment!" His jaw was clenched tight, and veins in his neck stood out.
For a second Joe thought Hal might leap across the desk at Matt, but he just growled, "You won't have a business if you keep making dumb decisions like this." He turned and left the office.
There was silence for a moment. Finally Pat said, "Well, I've got to get some work done on that engine. Frank, see me when you're done here." Then she, too, was gone.
Frank and Joe were left in the office with Matt, who was staring stonily down at his desk.
"What did you make of this business with the rat out there?" Frank asked after a moment, trying to get back to the case. "If that was meant for you, then you're being warned. What's it about?"
Matt folded his arms across his chest. "It's nothing - not worth worrying about. Just one of a series of bad practical jokes someone's pulling on me - phone calls late at night, that kind of stuff. Probably someone I had to fire who has a grudge, that's all."
"But why did whoever it was leave the rat in the truck and not in your office?" Frank pressed. He wasn't convinced.
Matt shrugged. "Because they could sneak it into the truck easier than they could sneak it in here," he replied, sounding irritated. "They'd know that the message would get to me eventually."
"If you don't mind me asking," Joe said, "why not use Hal? He looks like he could handle himself pretty well in any situation."
"First of all," replied Matt, "Pat is every bit as good a driver as he is. Second, Hal has been giving me a hard time lately. Thinks he should be top driver around here, and I don't. Third - " He sighed and suddenly seemed very tired. "She is family. This gang is getting inside information somehow, and I hate not being able to trust my people, but - I have to go with family."
"Has Hal been with you long?" asked Frank.
"Five years," Matt answered. "Oh, he's not bad, but - "
The phone on Matt's desk rang. He picked it up. "Matt Simone ... Yes ... Right, we're taking it tomorrow afternoon ... " The voice on the other end went on for a while. Matt tried to speak at first, but then he gave up and just listened, a grim expression on his face.
"I understand," he said at last. "Yes, you made yourself very clear. Yes - we will, you can count on it ... Right." Then he slowly set the receiver into its cradle.
"That was the head honcho at Ultratech," Matt said. "I sure hope you guys know what you're doing, because if this truckload doesn't get through, Ultratech is going to find another shipping company - and that'll be the end of Lombard Hauling."
Frank and Joe studied Matt's grim expression. "Somebody once said," Joe began, breaking the silence, " 'It ain't over till it's over.' Don't count Lombard out yet, Matt. It's our turn to call the shots."
Matt smiled wearily. "I just hope you boys know what you're doing."
The next day, by mid-afternoon, the Ultratech trailer had arrived, and Pat was backing her tractor up to hitch on. Her rig was a "cab-over," which meant that the motor was under the cab rather than in front under a hood. Frank watched as she expertly set the big machine in exactly the right place, then hopped out to see to the hookups.
"Before I go out on the road," she told Frank, "I want to be sure that everything is just the way it's supposed to be. Stick around and watch. You might learn something."
Joe, who would be following in the van with Tony, was excused to leave early. It would take another hour or two before they were ready to go, so Joe took the time to talk with Teri Yarnell. Going over to her desk, he saw that she was writing down columns of numbers in a ledger.
"Are you a relative of Matt's?" he asked her. "It seems like half the people here are."
"Not me," she said, smiling up at him. "But I feel like I might as well be. Everyone here is so nice. Mr. Simone is so sweet, except lately, and that's because he's been real worried. And Felix - Mr. Kinney - well, he's been teaching me how to use the computer. He's very patient, and he says that once I know how to use it, I can take some courses and get a better job somewhere else. Although I don't know - I think I'd rather stay here."
"But if you could get a better job - "
"The thing is," she said, giving Joe a serious look, "a better job might mean longer hours, and I don't know if I want to spend so much time at a job. I mean, Mr. Simone works long hours. And Felix - well, it seems like he spends most of his evenings here lately, working with that computer."
"Doesn't leave much time for having fun, huh?" said Joe. "I guess your boyfriend wouldn't like it if you worked evenings."
"No, he sure wouldn't," said Teri.
Joe tried not to look disappointed but didn't quite succeed, and Teri seemed to suppress a giggle.
"If I had a boyfriend, that is," she added, closing the ledger.
Joe shot her a big smile. "Well, since you don't, and since you don't have to spend your evenings at a job ... "
He was interrupted when Felix Kinney stuck his head out of his office. "Teri, come in here, will you?"
"Be right there," she called. Then, turning back to Joe, she smiled and said, "Well - I'd better go. See you later."
"You can count on it," Joe replied.
***
Frank was astonished at how many details Pat dealt with before the truck was ready for the road. Every coupling, electrical system, and warning light had to be tested twice. She checked the brake cylinders, hoses, the eighteen huge tires, the oil and other fluids. Most important, Pat told him, was the way the trailer's cargo was stored and fastened down.
"If your cargo isn't tied down tight, or if it isn't balanced right, you could have some real trouble." She went through the trailer, tugging at the straps that held the stacked cartons in place on their wooden pallets. "These electronics could get damaged, or even worse, you could lose control of your rig. That's never happened to me, and it won't happen this trip, either. But the only way to be sure is to check it all out yourself."
Finally, late in the afternoon, she was satisfied and told Frank to climb aboard. He watched curiously as Pat made some involved maneuvers with the pedals, gearshift, and steering wheel. The big diesel engine under their seats roared to life, and they slowly pulled away from Lombard Hauling. They were on the road.
A couple of hours later, when they were moving smoothly along a stretch of interstate highway, Frank called Joe on their prearranged CB channel.
"This is Big Brother calling Tailend Charlie. Do you read me, Tailend Charlie? Over."
There was some crackly static on the line, but Joe's voice could be heard over it. "This is Tailend Charlie, back at you. You're coming through, but there's some interference, over."
"We passed Exit Thirty-four a couple of miles back, are you in position? Over."
"Big Brother, we are just coming up to Exit Thirty-four now, we will close up the gap a little, over."
"I copy that. Big Brother over and out."
The truck raced through the fading light. "When will we get there?" asked Frank.
"This is a short run. We should pull in at about midnight," answered Pat. "Unless we have an unscheduled delay, that is."
From the passenger seat, Frank sat and gazed out at the flat country dotted with factories and industrial parks. Soon the land they passed through was even less developed, and the traffic thinned out to almost nothing. It was nearly dark, and Pat had turned on all her lights. "We take the next exit," she said. "We'll be on a surface road for a while."
"Why not just use the interstates?" asked Frank.
"Because this way is shorter, takes less time and less gas. That way we keep our cost down. Otherwise, some other trucker would underbid us."
As she turned on her directional signal, she added, "Better make sure your friends know we're getting off here."
Frank picked up the CB microphone. "This is Big Brother calling Tailend Charlie, are you there? Over."
"This is Charlie, over," came Joe's voice. The interference was worse now.
"We're getting off at Exit Fourteen, do you copy? Over."
"Roger, Big Brother. Over and out."
There was almost no traffic, and Frank wondered whether any of the occasional headlights he saw belonged to someone who wanted to hijack their truck.
Pat must have picked up on his uneasiness. Even though she kept her eyes on the road, she said, "Take it easy, Frank. It'll happen if and when it happens."
"Sure," said Frank, "but this just strikes me as a great spot to do it, that's all."
"Could be," she said, "but - " She suddenly stared into the rear-view mirror. "There are some headlights coming up real fast behind us, Frank. Grab that CB!"
Frank did. "This is Big Brother. Stand by. We may have company. Over."
The noisy static over the little speaker was much worse, and Joe's voice could be heard only in snatches. " ... your position ... we are ... keep us ... "
"Tailend Charlie, your signal is breaking up, I can hardly hear you at all, over." Frank's voice was urgent.
A big, bulky step van pulled out directly in front of them from a side road and slowed to a crawl. Pat turned the wheel abruptly, and her truck swerved to the left. She tried to swing around the van, but it shot forward and continued to stay ahead of them. Then it slowed again as another vehicle pulled up beside Pat's rig. This was a large, powerful tow truck, the kind used to tow eighteen-wheelers. It swung its nose against the Lombard rig and tried to force it over onto the shoulder.
"This is it," said Pat. "Hang on, Frank, we're in for a rough ride!"
"Tailend Charlie, do you copy?" said Frank urgently into the CB mike. "This is Big Brother, and we have bad company. Come and get us, over."
Pat turned the wheel and bumped the tow truck, sending it swerving out into the left lane. An oncoming car headed for the shoulder of the road, horn blaring, and then disappeared behind them.
"I'll hold these guys off as long as I can," said Pat. She wrestled with the steering wheel, her feet moving rapidly on the gas, brake, and clutch pedals. "But I hope Joe and Tony are nearby."
Frank fiddled with the CB. "I don't hear them. There's some kind of glitch in the CB. I don't know, they might be picking up our signal just fine - "
He collided with the dashboard as Pat banged into the rear of the bulky step van in front of them. The impact forced Pat to drop her speed. Meanwhile the tow truck continued to hem them in on the left side. Again Pat rammed the step van, and there was a solid thunk. This time Frank was ready and he braced himself with his arms.
The van pulled ahead slightly, but then its brake lights glowed as it slowed still more.
Pat shook her head. "That van has some kind of reinforced back bumper. If we hit it too hard, in a cab-over like this, we could total our engine, maybe even turn over. I'm going to have to stop."
Again Frank spoke into the mike. "This is Big Brother calling Tailend Charlie. It is going down, right now. If you read me, join the party, over."
He heard only static over the speaker.
Pat pulled onto the right shoulder and stopped. The step van stopped right in front of the rig, and the tow truck parked behind them. Frank tried to keep cool as he checked out the window and side-view mirror. The doors to both vehicles opened, and two men got out of each. Two carried baseball bats, one had a tire iron, and one had a long, heavy crowbar. All four wore ski masks. They moved menacingly toward the big truck.