The Secret of Sigma Seven (7 page)

“I think I'll live,” Joe said, straightening up with a groan. “Long enough to get revenge on that guy with the green medallion.”

“I lost him again,” Frank said, joining them. “Every time we meet that guy, he's in a different
costume and manages to give us the slip.” He looked at his brother and Brian. “So, what do we do next?”

“We could check out Morwood,” Joe said. “If we can find out what room he's staying in, we can look around for the missing film.”

“I hate to suggest something frivolous,” Brian said. “But Jack Gillis has been setting up an exhibit of props from the Galactic Saga movies out in the parking lot. It should be open by now.”

“Oh, right,” Frank said. “We saw him in his hovercar this morning.”

“Well, I guess we can take a few minutes off from detective work and look at it,” Joe said. “Anyway, I need some fresh air. Let's go.”

The Hardys and Brian headed out to the parking lot, toward the green canvas tent. They saw a crowd of fans milling around the tent, going in and out of the open flap at one end.

Frank stepped through the flap and into the tent. The hovercar he had seen that morning was sitting on the ground, with a second hovercar next to it. Surrounding the hovercars were a number of items Frank recognized instantly from the Galactic Saga films, including scale models of various starships.

Suddenly a loud bellow caught Frank's attention. A live elephant dressed in battle gear stood to the rear of the tent. A masklike helmet draped over its head made it look like some kind of alien monster.

There was a stir of excitement from the fans. Frank looked over and saw Jack Gillis enter the tent and
walk over to the elephant. “Hello, everybody,” he said. “I see you've already met Bruno. He may look like an elephant, but actually he's a Surriband, one of the giant creatures that live in the desert of the planet Regnay. It's from the latest movie,
The Secret of Sigma Seven.
The one that you unfortunately didn't get to see last night.”

“Is this the elephant that actually plays the part in the film?” someone asked.

Gillis laughed. “No, it's not. This is an elephant we borrowed from a local zoo. We're a little too far from Hollywood to bring the real elephant along with us. They'd probably charge us an extra fare on the airplane. But this
is
the actual costume that the elephant wears in the movie.”

Frank began examining one of the scale model spaceships. It was remarkably detailed, with tiny windows that even had lights inside them and complex machinery poking out of the engines. It appeared to be made out of wood and plastic, though it had been painted to give it a metallic look.

“Are these models of the ships that you use in the Galactic Saga films?” Frank asked the special-effects director.

“No,” Gillis replied. “Those are the actual ships. We use special camera techniques to make them look larger in the films.”

“Incredible,” Joe said. “They look so big in the movies.”

“That's the magic of special effects,” Gillis said, spreading his hands to indicate all the exhibits in the
tent. “It's an art that I've been learning all my life, ever since I was making home movies as a kid. Something can look quite ordinary off camera, but if you photograph it right, it can look as if it's literally out of this world. A spaceship, for instance.”

“Or an alien monster,” Frank suggested.

“Or a whole planet,” Joe said.

“Absolutely right.” Gillis nodded his head. “I think of my job as the creation of worlds, and those worlds come alive on the movie screen.”

“That must be a lot of fun,” Frank said.

“Oh, it is,” Gillis said, a warm grin spreading across his face. “I can't imagine doing anything else for a living.”

“It must be quite an honor to work on the Galactic Saga movies,” Brian said. “Some science fiction fans consider them the greatest SF movies ever made.”

“Unless you talk to Arlen Hennessy,” Joe said.

“I'm
very
honored to work on these films,” Gillis said. “In many ways I regard them as my own creations as much as Simon Devoreaux's. Simon may be the one who puts the actors through their paces, but I get to build the universe around them.”

“I'd like to know more about these hovercars,” Joe said. “I don't suppose you can take one of them apart to show us how they work.”

“No,” Gillis said, chuckling. “But perhaps I can do you one better. Would you like to go for a ride with me in one of these cars?”

“You bet,” Joe said.

“Then come on,” Gillis said, walking to one of the
cars and hopping inside. “We'll take a turn around the parking lot.”

Joe climbed in on the other side and sat down next to Gillis. The hovercar had bucket seats with padding that seemed to mold itself to Joe's body as he settled in. The dashboard looked to Joe like that of a sports car. Joe saw a key dangling out of the hovercar's ignition. Gillis reached up and turned the key. The hovercar jumped to life, rising into the air. Joe was surprised at how smooth it felt.

“Right now we're just hovering,” Gillis said to Joe. “A high-speed column of air blows out of the bottom of this vehicle, holding us aloft. To make the car move, we need to use this.”

Gillis put his hand on a rod that stuck up from the floor of the car and yanked it gently toward the rear. Joe felt a gentle vibration shoot through the car as it started moving backward toward the end of the tent.

“This looks like a gearshift,” Gillis said. “But actually it's more like a joystick. I push it in the direction I want the car to go and . . . it goes.”

He pulled it back more sharply, and the hovercar moved in the direction he pushed it, through the open flap of the tent. Joe felt himself bucked forward in his seat as Gillis guided the car into the parking lot, barely missing a group of fans who were coming in to see the exhibition.

Gillis laughed as he nimbly guided the car around them. “Now we'll go forward,” he said, pushing the joystick toward the front of the vehicle. The car reversed direction, and Joe was thrown backward
into the soft padding of the seat. Gillis raced ahead into an empty area of the parking lot. Joe threw his head back and laughed out loud. Gillis rocketed around a group of parked cars, then swung the hovercar back in the direction of the tent. Joe was swung from side to side in his seat as Gillis changed direction, and it felt as though he were moving at a very high speed. But when Joe looked around, he realized that was an illusion. They probably weren't going any faster than thirty miles per hour.

“I love it!” he cried, the wind blowing through his hair. “This is it. I'm buying one of these as soon as it hits the market.”

“You'll have to wait only about a hundred years,” Gillis said, guiding the car back to the flap of the tent. “We don't have any plans to market these things, unfortunately. It's not a very practical vehicle, I'm afraid.”

Gillis turned off the engine and let the car settle back to the ground just outside the tent. A crowd of fans immediately gathered around it as Joe climbed out.

“That was a blast and a half,” Joe declared, rejoining Frank. “What happened to Brian?” he asked.

“He had to meet some friends inside the motel,” Frank explained. “He'll catch up with us later.”

Several other fans were clustered around Gillis, asking to be given a ride around the parking lot. But the special-effects director begged off.

“I'm sorry, but you'll have to wait until later,” he
said. “I'm knocking off now to get a late lunch. I'll be back in about an hour, with free rides for all.”

“But you just got here,” Joe said.

“I've had a busy day,” Gillis said. “The con committee has been asking me to put in appearances all over the convention.”

Gillis chased the last fans out of the tent, then closed the flap and latched it shut. As the crowd of fans thinned out, Gillis started heading back toward the motel. Frank and Joe glanced at each other, then back at the director.

“Uh, could we speak with you for a moment, Mr. Gillis?” Frank asked. “We'll try not to keep you from your lunch for long.”

Gillis turned and looked at the brothers. “Is it important? I really do want to get something to eat.”

“It's about the theft of that film last night,” Frank said. “We're investigating it for the people who put on the convention, and we'd just like to ask you a couple of questions.”

Gillis's face fell. “Oh, yes. Simon told me that the con committee had asked a couple of detectives to look for the missing film. It's a terrible incident, isn't it? I know a lot of people were looking forward to seeing the premiere last night. I was going to give a speech afterward, with Simon, but we never had a chance. Fortunately, there's still a master negative back in Hollywood. But there's no time to make a new copy to show here at the convention.”

“Do you have any idea who might have taken it?”
Joe asked. “Do you think somebody's making bootleg copies of the movie? Or does somebody have a grudge against Simon Devoreaux? Remember that someone tried to kill him last night.”

“There's always the possibility of bootlegging,” Gillis said. “I remember after the last movie came out, there were bootleg videotapes available from dealers within a week of the release. We've never had a film stolen
before
it was released, though. I should imagine a bootleg copy of an unreleased Galactic Saga film would be worth quite a bit of money.”

“That's what we thought, too,” Frank said. “Do you know of any bootleggers operating in this area?”

“Afraid not,” Gillis said. “I try not to involve myself in that side of the business. And as for anybody having a grudge against Simon, well, that's always a possibility. Simon isn't the most diplomatic man around, and he's made a few enemies over the years, but I can't imagine any of them would strike out at him in this manner. Now, if that answers your questions, I really do have to eat lunch.”

“Sure,” Joe said. “Thanks, Mr. Gillis. You've been a big help.”

Gillis nodded at the brothers and started walking back toward the motel. Suddenly, as he walked away, the Hardys heard a hovercar fan revving up.

Joe turned to see the hovercar he had been riding moments earlier lift from the ground and start to move. The fans that lifted it into the air made a loud
hissing noise as the car floated above the ground. Then, as if it had a mind of its own, it suddenly shot forward at its fastest speed.

As Joe watched, Gillis began to turn toward the sound of the hovercar. He had a stunned expression on his face, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Joe couldn't believe his eyes, either. The hovercar was heading directly toward Jack Gillis!

“Mr. Gillis!” Joe shouted as the hovercar rocketed toward the special-effects director. “Look out!”

Gillis started to turn, but it was obvious that he would never be able to get out of the hovercar's path in time. Frank leaped forward and tackled Gillis around the waist, knocking him to the pavement of the parking lot. The hovercar shot by a few inches overhead and plowed into the wall of the motel. It bounced away, deflected by the rubber bumpers that surrounded the lower rim of the car, then settled back to the ground.

“What happened?” Gillis gasped.

“You were almost the victim of a runaway hovercar,” Frank said, climbing back to his feet. He reached down and helped Gillis stand up.

“What?” Gillis said in disbelief. He turned and saw the hovercar lying next to the building. “Oh, no!” he exclaimed. “It must have gone out of control!”

He rushed over to the hovercar and examined it. “It doesn't seem to have been damaged. I don't know how the car could have gone out of control like that.”

“There wasn't anybody around it,” Joe said. “It just started moving—straight at you.”

“Is there any way to remote-control the car?” Frank asked. “Could someone have started it from a distance?”

“No,” Gillis said firmly, opening a small hoodlike compartment at the front of the hovercar. “It can be started and controlled only from inside. It must have been some kind of glitch in the machinery. Or”— his voice changed tone—“somebody's been tampering with the mechanism.”

Gillis studied the engine carefully. “I don't see anything unusual,” he finally said, closing the hood. “I'll give it a complete checkup later.” He got into the hovercar, started it up, and drove it back to the tent. Then he climbed out and walked back to Frank and Joe.

“Well, I'm a little shaken up by that,” Gillis told the Hardys, “but I still have to eat lunch. Maybe some food will calm my nerves.”

“You'd better be careful, Mr. Gillis,” Joe said. “It looks like somebody may be trying to hurt you as well as Mr. Devoreaux.”

“I'll take care,” Gillis said. He left them and walked back toward the motel.

“He's a pretty cool character,” Joe said as the brothers headed across the parking lot toward the motel, keeping a distance behind Gillis. “I might be too shaken up to eat lunch if somebody just tried to kill me.”

“Somebody tried to kill you last night when you left the party, and I didn't notice it had any effect on your appetite,” Frank observed.

“True,” Joe said thoughtfully. “But I'm used to it. I've been in the detective business for a while.”

“Well, maybe Gillis is used to it,” Frank said. “After all, he deals with complicated mechanical devices like the hovercar every day. Maybe this sort of thing happens a lot in the movie business. Do you believe that thing started all by itself?” he asked his brother.

“No,” Joe said. “Too much of a coincidence. Last night somebody tried to kill Simon Devoreaux, and this afternoon somebody tried to kill Jack Gillis.”