Recap / Hardy Boys Case Files 07 Deathgame

Case File #7 begins with a paintball game in which the Hardy Boys are trounced by their friend Biff Hooper. Biff is wearing military grade Night Vision Goggles, and he’s been through some high level tactical training. Biff reveals that he is heading to a paramilitary base in Georgia for advanced level tactical training.

When Biff doesn’t return when he said he would, the boys head down to Georgia to investigate the paramilitary base and find him. The base is a faux boot camp where people are being trained in advanced tactics by Army Special Forces Major Oliver Brand, a Vietnam vet. Brand states he never heard of any trainee named Biff Hooper. Joe decides to investigate a “restricted area” expecting to find evidence of Biff’s presence there - only to blunder onto the shooting range. An incensed Major Brand throws them both out. But after someone matching Biff’s description lures the boys away and then tries to murder them with a grenade, the boys suspect that Brand does know something about Biff’s disappearance. The Hardys decide to go undercover as trainees Fred and Jim Cassidy.

During their training, they notice that a climbing instructor Sergeant Collins has a pair of goggles that look awfully similar to the pair Biff owned. The boys sneak into his quarters and find that the goggles are Biff’s - indicated by the initials BH engraved onto them. Soon after, they're drinking some Gatorade in their dorm room, planning to go to the local Sheriff with their evidence, when they realize that Brand drugged their drinks, and black out.

The boys wake up tied to the seats of an airplane, heading to a mysterious island. Brand reveals that this “training program” for paintball players is actually used as a cover to recruit people into a mysterious militia run by a Colonel Hammerlock, who was once Brand’s superior in the Green Berets in Vietnam. Those who’d been chosen are apparently taken to this island to train with actual weapons and live rounds against living targets - with those who refuse the offer to join, being the targets. The Hardys are reunited with Biff, who has been severely beaten and can’t even walk. The three of them are told that they will be sent out into the field for Colonel Hammerlock to practice his own skills on. Two more trainees who refused, Terry and Lauren, will join them.

During the hunt, Brand interferes and reveals that he has a different more sinister agenda than Hammerlock. And now the boys, Biff, Terry and Lauren have to survive the crossfire between two dangerous foes.

Tropes positively identified are:

• Action Girl: Lauren. This is only slightly lessened when a high-caliber round fired from a Desert Eagle grazes her in the shoulder, as even then she's still not completely out of action.
• Assassin Outclassin': When Brand's men eavesdrop on the Hardys and learn that they're not going to drop the investigation and are still looking for Biff, one of them lures the Hardys into a trap by pretending to be Biff, then tries to murder them with a grenade. Joe manages to use one of the bats in the store to bounce the grenade back towards the killer, and when it goes off, the boys are far enough away that they survive, while the assassin does not.
• Big Damn Heroes: Brand and his mooks show up to betray Hammerlock, and prepare to execute him, Joe, Lauren, Terry, and Biff. Just before they open fire, Frank—whom everyone believes at this point to be dead—arrives Just in Time to ambush him, allowing the teens to turn the tables on their would-be killers.
• Big Bad Ensemble: At first it seems like Major Orville Brand is the Big Bad of the book, but halfway through, it's revealed that he's actually The Dragon to Colonel Hammerlock. But then Brand turns out to be The Starscream, and once he openly betrays Hammerlock, the two of them become this for the rest of the book.
• Cassandra Truth: Frank discovers evidence that Hammerlock's team of "soldiers" are being rented out as mercenaries to ruthless dictators around the world; however, when he accuses him of it during the group dinner on Hammerlock's island, the latter coldly tells them he has no idea what Frank's talking about. At the climax of the book, it's revealed that Brand is the one who's been doing this, going behind Hammerlock's back to do so (to his disgust), showing that Hammerlock really was telling the truth about not knowing anything about it.
• Chekhov's Gun: Biff's distinctive octagonal-shaped goggles, complete with his initials, "B.H.", carved into them. Joe later recognizes a similar-looking pair hanging on the belt of Sergeant Collins (who occasionally rips off valuable items from the trainees), making him even more suspicious that Brand is lying about Biff having never attended the camp. Frank and Joe later infiltrate and eventually confirm the goggles are indeed Biff's, giving them the evidence they need for the sheriff. (Too bad Brand captures them before they can report it.)
• Distressed Dude: The book centers around the boys trying to find their friend Biff Hooper, who disappeared after attending a survival camp that he only told Joe about beforehand.
  • The Hardys themselves become this about halfway through the book when they find proof that Biff really did attend the survival camp and Brand was lying, and the latter captures them as a result and takes them to Hammerlock's island.
  • Lauren and Terry as well, whom Brand abducted from his survival camp to "recruit" to Hammerlock's army in a similar vein that he did to Biff.
  • When the five teens are released into the forest to be hunted by Hammerlock, Biff plays this straightest, since, unlike the other four who are at least prepared for combat and ready to go down fighting, Biff is mostly out of commission thanks to having taken a brutal beating from Hammerlock's men, and has to be literally carried around by his friends.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Colonel Hammerlock is absolutely disgusted when Major Brand betrays him and reveals that he's planning to use their strike force as a band of mercenaries for the highest bidder, especially since Hammerlock saved Brand's life a long time ago in the Vietnam War. Though the colonel still does want to kill the kids too, his primary vendetta for the rest of the book is with the major.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Hammerlock refuses to turn his “honorable unit of soldiers” into a mercenary outfit bought and paid for by some Central American dictator.
• The Generalissimo: Brand plans to turn Hammerlock’s militia into a mercenary army hired by Generalissimo Manuel Strosser of the fictional Banana Republic San Marcos.
• Girl of the Week: Lauren for Joe, who is quite attracted to her, though he is still quite haunted by Iola's memory.
• He Knows Too Much: To Major Brand's great displeasure, he discovers that Biff did, in fact, tell someone where he was going when the Hardys show up to the camp looking for him. Once they find irrefutable proof that Biff was there, Brand kidnaps them too before they can tell anyone.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Frank, Joe, Biff, Terry, and Lauren are set loose in the wild for Hammerlock to hunt. He bets that they won't even last long enough to make him miss his breakfast. Against all odds, all five teens survive, ironically in part because of Brand's interference.
• It's All My Fault: Biff tells Joe at the beginning of the book about his plan to participate in the survival camp and asks him not to tell anyone about it; Joe clearly isn't thrilled and outright states it's probably a bad idea, but agrees and keeps the secret against his better judgment. So when Biff never comes back from the camp and his parents are frantic, Joe tells them (and Frank) what's up, and is wracked with guilt that keeping it secret for so long may have allowed something horrible to happen to him. He's determined to never rest until they find Biff and bring him home safely.
• Lured into a Trap: The bad guys use surveillance equipment to eavesdrop on the boys at their hotel and learn their plans, then have an assassin with a similar build to Biff (and a blond wig) let them see him so they think they have a lead to Biff and follow him. He lures to a nearby store after it's closed and attempts to kill them, only for the Hardys to survive and the would-be killer to die instead.
• Mêlée à Trois: After Major Brand betrays Hammerlock and the two become enemies, the conflict becomes Brand vs. Hammerlock vs. the Hardys and friends, who are just trying to survive and escape.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: By the time the Hardy Boys find Biff, he's suffered one of these offscreen when, after being "recruited" (abducted) for Hammerlock's strike force team, the Hardys showed up to the camp looking for him. Brand and Hammerlock had him brutally beaten up while interrogating him to find out how much he'd told the Hardys about it, but he refused to spill the beans and believed in his friends to find him.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Lauren gets shot by Hammerlock while trying to ambush him, but thanks to sort-of-dodging it, she's only grazed by it. It's made clear that it does really hurt, enough so to stun her initially and leave her weakened for the rest of the book, but she soldiers on.
• Quicksand Sucks: Frank gets briefly submerged in “quicksand” before he grabs a branch and pulls himself back up.
• Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: After Frank gets separated from the rest of the teens during Hammerlock's first attack, Joe's fear and sorrow that he may be dead causes him to become suspicious that either Lauren or Terry is The Mole who secretly betrayed them to Hammerlock and got Frank killed, though he keeps these suspicions to himself. By the time the teens take down Hammerlock, it's clear that this isn't the case and both of them are indeed the good-hearted, loyal teens they always appeared to be, with the minor circumstances that made Joe suspect them being just innocent coincidences.
• Spanner in the Works: The fact that Biff told Joe where he was going (while asking him to keep it a secret) before heading to Major Brand's survival camp is the catalyst for the events of the entire book and the Hardys bringing down Brand and Hammerlock. The major has an ironclad rule about only "recruiting" kids from his camp for Hammerlock's army when absolutely no one knew they were there, like Lauren and Terry; however, since Biff truthfully told him that his parents didn't know, and didn't reveal that he'd confided in one of his friends, Brand assumed he was "safe" to kidnap, only for the Hardys to show up later looking for him, eventually forcing Brand to abduct them as well. The boys then proceed to rally Biff, Terry, and Lauren to bring down the whole operation from the inside.
• The Starscream: Major Orville Brand, who is seemingly The Dragon to Colonel Hammerlock, turns out to have been going behind the colonel's back to turn his trained group of soldiers into mercenaries and make a million dollars off of them. Brand eventually shows his true colors when he openly betrays Hammerlock and tries to kill both him and the teens.
• Tampering with Food and Drink: Right after the Hardys find the proof they're looking for that Biff really was at the survival camp, they find out the hard way that Brand drugged their Gatorade, which knocks them out so he can kidnap them before they can tell the sheriff.
• Title Drop: When Major Brand shows up with his men during the survival hunt and reveals that he's betrayed Hammerlock, Joe mocks the latter by noting, "So, the death game comes full circle."
• Too Clever by Half: Terry and Lauren both lament this when telling the Hardys their individual backstories and how they ended up as Hammerlock's prisoners; they were so clever and thorough in covering their tracks to participate in Brand's survival camp—which they knew their respective parents wouldn't approve of—that when they ended up being kidnapped by Brand as "recruits" for Hammerlock's army, they'd made it impossible for their loved ones to track them down, leaving them with no hope of rescue and no way for their families to ever learn what happened to them if they died.
• Trauma Button: Joe suffers unpleasant memories of Iola's death several times in this book:
  • His feelings of guilt over Biff's disappearance (which he feels may have been avoided if he didn't keep Biff's secret for so long) causes Frank to silently note that the last time Joe became this quiet and stoic was after Iola's death, which he also blamed himself for.
  • When Frank gets separated from the rest of the group and they later hear gunshots, Joe seriously fears that he's dead, and when he's plagued by memories of his brother, this triggers flashbacks to Iola's death as well.
  • And then when Lauren appears to be shot and killed while trying to distract Hammerlock, it gets even worse, to the point that Joe's on the verge of a Freak Out. Thankfully, he soon discovers that both Lauren and Frank are still alive.
• Undying Loyalty: Hammerlock saved Brand’s life in ‘Nam, so he expects the Major to show him such loyalty. But Brand is more interested in money.
• Unscrupulous Hero: Hammerlock wants to create an extremely ruthless counter terrorist strike force that is willing to do whatever it takes, including shooting civilians, to take down terrorists.
• The Worf Effect: Lauren, who is a highly skilled tactician and Action Girl, gets shot by Hammerlock, though she's only temporarily stunned and still participates in the fighting afterwards.
• Worf Had the Flu: Biff, who is the strongest of the bunch at full strength, as well as a skilled tactician, is pretty much The Load figuratively and literally during the survival game, as a result of being subjected to a serious beating during interrogation from which he has not yet recovered.
• You Have Failed Me: Sergeant Collins's habit of stealing valuables from some of the trainees comes back to bite him and Brand in the ass hard when Joe recognizes Biff's goggles in his possession and later confirms beyond doubt that they're his, since this is ironclad proof that Biff really was at the camp despite Brand claiming otherwise. Brand later reveals to the boys after capturing them that, upon learning about the goggles, he punished Collins with "a matching scar on the other side of his head".