American Teens Against Crime
American Teens Against Crime, (ATAC) is a fictional organization in the The Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers book series.
ATAC is a top secret government agency co-founded by Fenton Hardy and Anmol Gupta. They created it when he realized that there are some places where an adult spy (a FBI or CIA agent) would stand out too much. Because of this the FBI has, on at least one occasion, relied on ATAC to solve a case. The very first ATAC agents were Fenton’s sons, Frank and Joe. The agency sends their agents a video game disc (mission CD) with details on their latest mission; after the disc has been viewed it re-formats into a regular music CD. Each disc is delivered in some undercover way, normally by Vijay who likes to use pizzaboy as a disguise to give them their missions.
ATAC has a secret handshake that only agents know. It goes like this: two hard up-and-down shakes followed by a wrist-grab, then a fist-touch, and one last up-and-down shake. In Mission #4, Thrill Ride, Joe used this hand-shake when they first met Vijay Patel, to make sure that he was a real member of ATAC. Vijay Patel delivers ATAC missions to Frank and Joe Hardy, and is only used as a field agent in one book, where he saves Frank and Joe.
Fenton no longer runs ATAC himself; a man that simply goes by Q (sometimes Q.T.) is the current director of the agency. In the Graphic Novel adaptation of the series, Nigel Penhurst is also a top man at ATAC.
Ranks of ATAC
- Trainee
- Field agent
- Undercover agent
- Mentor agent
- Director
ATAC members
- Ernie Bickerstaff (former member).[1]
- Carl Bruckner (former member) (appears in the graphic novels only)[2]
- Cammie[3]
- Fenton Hardy (former member)
- Frank Hardy (undercover agent)[4]
- Joe Hardy (undercover agent)[5]
- Meet Vyas (undercover agent)...!
- Edward Mundy (undercover agent)[6]
- Vijay Patel (trainee)[7]
- Nigel Penhurst (appears in graphic novels only)[8]
- Q.T. (director)[9]
Non-members with knowledge of ATAC
- Ezra Collig[10]
- Nancy Drew (appears in cross-overs only)[11]
- George Fayne (appears in cross-overs only)[11]
- Claire Cleveland (appears in cross-overs only)
- Adam Franklin[12]
- Bess Marvin (appears in cross-overs only)[11]
- Ned Nickerson (appears in cross-overs only)[11]
- Nicolina Noir (WARD agent) (appears in the graphic novels only)[8]
- Poppa Noir (WARD founder) (appears in the graphic novels only)[2]
- Shira Noir (WARD agent) (appears in the graphic novels only)[8]
- Thomas Orman[13]
- Conrad Reilly[14]
- The McKenzie family
- Ernie Bickerstaff (former trainee)
- Ellery Marks (student at Willis Firth Academy in Undercover Brothers Killer Mystery) (appears in Undercover Brothers)
- Anya Archer (actress for Deathstalker in Undercover Brothers Deathstalker Trilogy)
- Jaan St. John (director of Deathstalker & Dying for a Part in Undercover Brothers Deathstalker Trilogy)
- Janice Lang (Deathstalker superfan in Undercover Brothers Deathstalker Trilogy #1 - Movie Menace)
Footnotes
- ↑ Ernie Captain Creamy' Bickerstaff | The Hardy Boys Encyclopedia
- 1 2 The Hardy Boys Graphic Novel #10 A Hardy's Day Night
- ↑ The Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers #10 Blown Away
- ↑ Frank Hardy | The Hardy Boys Encyclopedia
- ↑ Joe Irving Hardy | The Hardy Boys Encyclopedia
- ↑ The Hardy Boys Encyclopedia
- ↑ Vijay Patel | The Hardy Boys Encyclopedia
- 1 2 3 Hardy Boys Graphic Novel #7 The Opposite Numbers
- ↑ Q. T. | The Hardy Boys Encyclopedia
- ↑ Ezra Collig | The Hardy Boys Encyclopedia
- 1 2 3 4 Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys #1 Terror on Tour
- ↑ Adam Franklin | The Hardy Boys Encyclopedia
- ↑ The Hardy Boys Undercover Brothers #19 Foul Play
- ↑ Conrad Reilly | The Hardy Boys Encyclopedia