Recap / Hardy Boys Case Files 10 Hostages Of Hate

The boys head to Washington DC to observe a counterterrorism seminar and exercise in which Callie Shaw is a participant. Callie is supposed to be a “passenger” on an aircraft that is “hijacked” by actors pretending to be terrorists so that various agencies can showcase their responses to this scenario. Things go horribly wrong when actual members of the terrorist group ANWO (Army for the New World Order) storm the aircraft and fire live ammunition to subdue the passengers.

While all the agencies out there are mired in Jurisdiction Friction and petty bickering, Callie blinks out crucial details to Frank in Morse code with her eyes. This leads the boys on the trail of a new terrorist group called Army for the New World Order.

Tropes identified here are:

• Armor-Piercing Question: Once Fenton Hardy catches up to the boys along with the U.S.E.R. agents, he tries to warn them to stay off the case and let the government handle it. Frank then reminds him how personal this is for him by asking, "Dad, if Mom were on that hijacked plane, what would you do?" Fenton weakly, and very unconvincingly, tries to claim he'd still go along with the government, but everyone hears the waver in his voice, and he tellingly shuts up for the rest of the scene.
• The Big Damn Kiss: A Sexy Discretion Shot version in the denouement, after the day is saved.
  Callie: You know, sometimes you can be a real jerk. (. . .) I was wondering how long you were going to wait before you kissed me.
  Frank didn't need a second invitation.
  Moments later, they headed out of the plane together, laughing.
  Frank: Remind me to rescue you more often.
• Brains and Brawn: The two ANWO terrorists on the plane, Lars and Habib, respectively. Lars is a Soft-Spoken Sadist, normal-sized man, and leader of the pair, while Habib is a giant, Ax-Crazy, Dumb Muscle brute whose main job is to intimidate the prisoners and cow them into submission.
• Covert Group with Mundane Front: The secret government agencies attending the convention all have these. Network agents like the Gray Man are identified as members of the "Council on International Law", and Espionage Resources uses "National Advisory Committee on Terrorism".
• Damsel out of Distress: Despite being one of the prisoners on the hijacked plane and almost being executed early on, Callie still does her damndest to ruin the terrorists' day. She risks her life to send Frank a coded message on live TV containing vital intel about the hijacking; speaks up to talk back to the terrorists multiple times; actively pays attention to her surroundings and remains on the lookout for anything she can do to help stop them; takes advantage of sitting in an aisle seat by tripping Habib when he advances on Frank; and even chokes Habib with her belt to keep him from finishing Frank off.
• Deuteragonist: After previously playing this role in "See No Evil", Callie Shaw does so once again when she's one of the hostages in the airplane hijacking. Multiple times, the narrative jumps to her perspective to show what's happening with the passengers on the plane, and she plays a vital role in helping the Hardy Boys defeat the terrorists.
• Dressing as the Enemy: In a manner of speaking. The boys disguise themselves as “reinforcements” for the hijacker duo, pretending to be delivering food for the hostages.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Pia, who sees "Franz" and "Josef" as her comrades-in-arms and even develops a Villainous Crush on the former, is not happy when she discovers who they really are and that they're working against ANWO, and promptly tries and fails to kill them.
• Everyone Has Standards: Pauline Fox is an Intrepid Reporter who meets directly with the terrorists to broadcast their demands. However, when they're about to kill Callie right there on camera to demonstrate how far they'll go for their cause, she instantly has her cameraman cut the feed and end the broadcast. Even though, as Lars points out, her job is to report the news, and Callie's death would certainly qualify as news, Fox absolutely refuses to idly stand by and watch an innocent girl be murdered for the sake of headlines or ratings.
• Exact Words: In the denouement, Espionage Resources Agent O'Neill takes the heat (as part of a deal with the Network) with Fenton Hardy for getting his sons involved with the case. An irritated Fenton makes the boys promise not to work with "these people" again (presumably meaning government agents in general). They cheerfully agree, "We won't do any work for Espionage Resources", which doesn't prevent them from working with the Network (their main government contact agency) once more in the future. The Gray Man takes note of this with a smile.
• Face Death with Dignity: When Callie is about to be executed on TV by the terrorists (before Pauline Fox saves her), she just closes her eyes, tries her best not to show any fear, and vows that she'll never cry or beg them for her life.
• Girl of the Week:
  • Mostly a subversion, since Callie once again takes the role of Deuteragonist and helps the Hardy Boys defeat the terrorists.
  • Played straight, however, with Olympia "Pia" Morrison, one of the terrorist group members, whom the boys work with for a while when they're pretending to be part of ANWO so she'll lead them to the Dutchman. Pia even develops a Villainous Crush on Frank, who's not at all interested.
• Hostage Situation: It's right there in the title. What's supposed to be a fake airplane hijacking as part of an anti-terror convention turns all too real when a terrorist group called the Army for the New World Order (ANWO) captures the plane, takes everyone on board hostage (including Callie), and threatens to kill them unless their demands are met.
• The Infiltration: Frank and Joe pretend to be new ANWO recruits named "Franz" and "Josef", and help Pia avoid the law so she'll take them right to the Dutchman, the leader of ANWO and brains behind the hijacking.
• It's Personal: The plane hijacking is very personal for the Hardys, especially Frank, since his girlfriend Callie is among the hostages.
• Jurisdiction Friction: Once the hijacking occurs, even after Frank passes Callie's information to the Gray Man and the head of the Network, the former admits that there's not much they can do, since U.S. Espionage Resources is in charge of handling negotiations with the terrorists. Still, the Gray Man agrees to do what he can to assist them, especially since it's a chance for the Network to show up U.S.E.R. (a rival agency).
• Make an Example of Them:
  • Lars and Habib attempt this with Callie, planning to murder her (the youngest passenger on the plane) on live TV to prove they'll kill anyone necessary for their cause, but it's then defied by Pauline Fox. As soon as she realizes what they're about to do, she immediately has her cameraman cut the feed, refusing to be a part of it.
  • Lars then tries to intimidate Fox into cooperating by threatening to kill her or her cameraman instead to set a similar example, but she's quick to point out that this will have the opposite effect of what ANWO wants: if they murder a reporter or cameraman, no other reporters and film crew will give them the time of day, and they'll have no way to get their message out to the world, which is vital for ANWO to keep the leverage they currently have.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Pauline's above-mentioned refusal to broadcast ANWO killing Callie (or anyone else) on television gets her taken hostage by the terrorists as well. Though it's clear she was very well aware that this would probably happen, and while she's shaken by it, doesn't at all regret her decision.
• Obstructive Bureaucrat: Espionage Resources Agent Roger O'Neill spends the book trying to get the Hardys off the case. It's understandable that he's worried they'll screw the whole thing up and cause the deaths of all the passengers on the plane, but he and the rest of Espionage Resources are so incompetent that they make little progress and don't even listen to the information that Callie secretly passes to Frank; this is why the boys strike out on their own in the first place. He mixes this with Inspector Javert later on as he continuously pursues them and tries to bring them in.
• Oh, Crap!: Both of the Hardy Boys' responses when the terrorists are about to execute Callie on the spot, with Joe murmuring "Oh no" and Frank giving a Big "NO!". Luckily for Callie, the reporter has other ideas.
• Pet the Dog: Even though the Gray Man's hands are basically tied from actively working with the Hardys thanks to Jurisdiction Friction, he knows they're not going to drop the case, and promises to do what little he can to help the boys. He's as good as his word, tailing the Hardys and O'Neill and helping the former get away from the latter by covertly tripping him up, and at the end, gets Frank and Joe out of hot water with their dad as part of a deal with U.S.E.R., wherein O'Neill claims to have recruited them to help him with the case. The boys recognize this, and subtly let him know they're not planning to stop working with the Network again in the future.
• Public Secret Message: Callie and a couple other prisoners are forced to speak on live TV with scripted messages from the terrorists. When it's her turn, she takes the opportunity to send a message to Frank using the same eyelid-blinking system that they use to communicate with each other in class at school.
• Spy Speak: In this case, terrorist speak. A couple of times during the book, the Hardys have to give a recognition code to the ANWO terrorists when posing as fellow members of the group, and receive a similarly coded response.
  • The first time, the boys use it at the Hole-in-the-Wall sweet shop to get the store's owner, Lonnie, to put them in contact with someone closer to the Dutchman.
    Code (Joe): The day dawned most promisingly.
    Response (Lonnie): Like a new world.
  • The second instance occurs during the above-mentioned Dressing as the Enemy moment:
    Code: We bring tidings of the new day!
    Response (Lars): Then hurry the dawn!
• Taking the Heat: Thanks to inter-agency politics and a deal struck between Espionage Resources (who gets to take the credit for the terrorists' defeat) and the Network (who ended up doing most of their job for them), Obstructive Bureaucrat Agent O'Neill gets the boys off the hook with Fenton Hardy by claiming that he recruited them to stop the terrorists and they were working for him all along, earning O'Neill Fenton's ire instead.
• Terrorists Without a Cause: ANWO—the Army for the New World Order—is a pretty generic terrorist group willing to murder anyone and everyone as needed to advance their "cause"...which, as their name implies, is to create some kind of "new world order". Thing is, they never go into much detail about what this ideal world order actually is.
• Training "Accident": Actual terrorists use a fake airplane hijack / hostage scenario to actually seize the plane, take hostages and make demands.
• Villainous Crush: Pia Morrison, one of the ANWO terrorists, develops this for one of her new comrades, "Franz" (Frank). It's very one-sided, for many reasons.
• Violently Protective Girlfriend: Frank spends the whole book with his protectiveness of Callie on full display, but she gets to save him a few times, too. She trips Habib from the floor when she sees him menacing Frank with a weapon; then soon after, when Habib briefly overpowers Frank during their struggle and prepares to finish him off, Callie chokes Habib with her own belt long enough for Frank to recover and rejoin the fight.