Thunderbirds: Hostage

[Bea]

Chapter 1- Big Trouble

Thunderbird 1 slowly changed from horizontal to vertical flight and slid effortlessly into the hole vacated by the swimming pool. "Thunderbird 2 is sooo 18 minutes behind me." Scott called over the com and he shut down her engines. He did his post flight check so that he was sure she would be ready instantly for the next rescue. He couldn't wait to hit the showers. This was a messy rescue, a mudslide started when the big tanker planes dropped water on a fire on a hillside. So he had to deal with smoke, soot and mud to help get several people out of a building that slid down the hill. As he entered the lounge on the way to his room, he could feel Thunderbird 2 engines vibrating through the floorboards of the house. It wasn't strong, but he recognized the feeling.

Virgil landed Thunderbird 2 with the precision a surgeon uses when performing microsurgery. He was very comfortable with TB2, and he flew her by feel, not just instrumentation. He always hated when one of his brothers needed to fly her. They couldn't feel her like he did. He always thought they handled her too rough, jarring her during landings and flying her over or under the correct power needed for the job. He kept his thoughts to himself though because he didn't want Gordon and John upset with what he thought about their flying. He lifted her up off the pod then powered down. He couldn't wait to get into the shower. He felt disgusting. He looked at his two brothers and they looked like he felt. Gordon wrinkled his nose when he took a deep breath. "Sweet mother of Moftan, I can't even stand the smell of me....aim me towards the showers." Good thing they all had private showers. In this business, you could find all the showers going at once when then returned from a rescue. The three brothers walked past their dad, waved, and said, "See you after we've cleaned up." Jeff just nodded.

When all had showered and been refreshed, they piled into the lounge. Jeff started the conversation. "This is one of the smoothest, albeit messiest, rescues we have had. No loss of life and the injuries were minimal. There weren't even any close calls or near misses."

"Except when Gordon fell on his butt and started to slide towards that huge mud puddle. That was a close call! He stopped inches away." laughed Virgil. They all had a good laugh on Gordon. Being good-natured as he was airheaded, Gordon took it all in stride.

Jeff continued, "Is there anything you need or want to discuss? Any problems nagging you, anything stressing you?"

There was a silence and slowly each son just shook his head no. This was not one of their more stressful rescues. There were no mistakes, no missteps, no wrong guessing. Like Jeff stated, it was one of their smoothest rescues. He wished that all rescues went that smoothly. It went smoothly because each of his sons was doing what they do the most and have the most practice in. This thought led to another though that they just don't switch around enough. When they have to take another Tbird other than the one they are used to they feel uncomfortable. He pushed that thought to the back of his mind. He watched his sons head off to bed. It was late, he decided to head there too.

****************************************************

Jeff looked up from his paperwork and at several of his sons relaxing in the lounge. He has to send someone to Tracy Industries for a week to put in appearances and do paperwork. International Rescue didn't survive on good wishes alone. He knew Scott will fight tooth and nail, Virgil had already gone the last 3 times because he was more willing to do it than any of his brothers. He hated sending Gordon because if Virgil doesn't go, Gordon was the one that ends up going. John was getting ready to replace Alan tomorrow in TB5....and Alan, he hated to admit it, but at aged 14, Alan just didn't have the maturity to make the right decisions. He had cost the company plenty of money more than once. International Rescue depended on the money from Tracy Industries. Sometimes he wished Virgil wasn't so mature about things. Virgil usually ended up with a lot of the worse jobs because he didn't complain and still did a good job. Gordon wasn't far behind Virgil in this respect. To be fair, he should send Scott and just prepare for the long fight he'll get. He looked up at the portraits of his five sons. His eyes came to rest on John. His eyes then shifted to where John was sitting. He never got to go to Tracy Industries. And even though it was a desk job and work needed to be done, it was still in the city of Los Angeles and away from International Rescue. But he was due to go up to TB5 tomorrow. Alan would have had a fit if asked to stay up there longer. Gordon didn't do well up there. He has come back more than once sick. The old astronauts had a term for it, 'space sickness'. He then came up with an idea.

He looked to Virgil. "Virgil, when was the last time you were up in Thunderbird 5?"

"Hum, what? Me? Uh." Virgil stammered. John looked up from his book at the mention of TB5.

Jeff said, "I thought so, it has been so long you can't remember. John needs some more earth time and he only gets to be with Alan when they are meeting for an exchange. I want you to go up tomorrow for two weeks to replace Alan." Jeff continued after a pause to listen to Scott snicker softly, "Scott will replace you for the second two weeks before Alan goes back. This gives John some earth time, time with the one brother he doesn't get to be with, more rescue time, more practice time in Thunderbirds 1, 2 and 4 and time at Tracy Industries. John's smile which been growing wider and wider as Jeff spoke, suddenly broke with the last statement. Jeff suddenly heard a cacophony of complaints. Both Scott and Virgil were voicing their dislike about going to TB5, but Scott definitely over powered Virgil. And John complained about 'going to the office'.

Jeff held up his hand and silenced the throng. "Scott, would you prefer to go to the office?"

"No way, Jose." Scott replied.

"Virgil, do you want to go for a forth time in a row to the office?"

"No thanks, Dad, 2 weeks in TB5 will be fine." Replied Virgil.

"John, you don't think 1 week at the office is a good trade off for 3 months down here?"

"No problem, Dad, I will go to the office, just say when." John said blushing slightly at his complaint. He got a good deal.

The only voice who didn't complain was Gordon, he had his face buried in his 'Teen Team' magazine and the broadest smile he could muster. No office duty, no TB5 duty and he got to tease his older brother mercilessly for 2 more months. Because John didn't spend as much time with them, he was easier to play jokes on. It took almost the whole month before he started to catch on, and even then, he was still an easy target.

The next day, Jeff told Alan to expect Virgil and to remain there for a couple of hours to make sure Virgil was refreshed on everything up there. John will be ferrying Virgil up.

Virgil was packed and ready to go. He walked past Scott who was wearing a Cheshire grin. "You know, Scott, you're going up in 2 weeks when I get back." Virgil quipped. That studded Scott's grin quickly. He headed for TB3. John was already inside doing the pre-fight check. "Yo, Virg, I do appreciate you taking a turn up there, I really would like to spend more time on actual rescues instead of constantly listening to them from miles above the earth. I hate it when you guys need help and I sit helpless up there."

"I guess I will find out soon enough how you feel, huh?" Replied Virgil knowing full well that he wasn't going to be able to handle it very well sitting up in TB5 listening to his brothers on a rescue. Good thing it was only 2 weeks.

John said over the intercom to Virgil who was on the lower level, "Strap in, Virgil, we are going for launch in a moment." Virgil asked, "Mind if I sit up with you? I don't often ride in TB3, and it would probably be a good idea if I get refreshed on how she runs." "Yeah, sure, come on up, I usually am with Scott or Alan who know all about flying TB3."

"TB3 to base, ready for liftoff." John said into the microphone. There was a pause. Then Jeff replied, "all clear John. Good luck, Virgil, see you in 2 weeks." And with that TB3 blasted off.

Meanwhile, Gordon was plotting with Scott to pull a trick on John when he returned with Alan. He was on the comlink with Alan before John and Virgil got there. He wanted to make sure Alan was in on the plot. Alan didn't have to do anything but go along. Scott said, "Gordon, there is one huge flaw in your plan. How are you going to convince Dad, Kyrano and Ohano to join into this? Everyone has to be in on it if we are to let John think he was abandoned."

"Sheesh, Dude, Tin-Tin'll get Kyrano busy in the garden, Brains'll join in on the fun, and I think I can convince Ohano to hide. Dad's gonna be the difficult one. Can't you help me with him? Can't you bring him into the hanger of one of the Tbirds? Or how about taking him out in one of our jets for a spin. Something, anything!" Gordon said. "Yo, isn't Virgil's birthday next month? Why not convince Dad to go shopping now that Virgil is on TB5. Say you have to go now, because heaven knows when we will get a call."

Scott thought about that. "Dad would probably want to wait until John and Alan returned so that we have a crew here for an emergency. But I bet Ohano can get him to go to the mainland sooner than I can."

"I'll go talk to her now." Gordon squealed with delight.

Scott waited for what seemed to be an eternity when Gordon came back into the room with a mean glint to his eye. "She said 'yes'. I didn't tell her everything, I just explained that I wanted to pull a joke on John but didn't want Dad around. I convinced her that I never pull anything that hurt anyone. She thought about it a while and said that when John and Alan call in to say they are leaving TB5, she'd ask Dad to take her shopping over at the mainland. She won't even have to give him anymore information. Just that she needs to go shopping. Ok, let's go get Brains and Tin-Tin in on this."

As the two brothers were scheming away, Alan was on the com to Jeff, letting him know that he had gone over everything with Virgil; where emergency equipment was, where spare parts were, what backups are for what and that he and John were going to leave in about 15 minutes. Ohano walked in just as Jeff was signing off with Alan and said, "Oh good, perfect timing. Now that the boys are on their way back home, can you take me to the mainland? I need to pick up a few things. I have been waiting and waiting to try to pick a good time, but you know, in this rescue business, it just doesn't happen. So can you take me now, Jeff?" Jeff looked up, thought about it a while and said, "Ok. John and Alan will be back here in a couple of hours, it won't hurt to leave Scott, Gordon and Brains in charge for a couple of hours. I will let Scott know that we are leaving."

Jeff and Ohano had just taken off in his private jet when Virgil's portrait started blinking. Scott was hanging around for a little while before he needed to go into hiding. The two brothers in TB3 are due in little over an hour, they are half way home so he had time before he disappeared. He answered Virgil's call just as Gordon stepped into the lounge. "Yo, Virgil, lonely already?" Scott asked.

Virgil said, "Not yet, give me another hour. Anyway, I have an alarm going off up here. It is one of the newer items that Brains had put it since my last visit. Alan pointed it out, but didn't say what to do if it went off. I need to know what it means." At that moment Scott watched as an explosion came from the right side of the portrait, blowing Virgil out of the picture before it went dead. Scott and Gordon had a blank portrait to stare at. No video, no audio.

[Bea]

Chapter 2- That Was A Short Stay

John and Alan we chatting quietly, anticipating spending some rare time together in the next month. Of all the five brothers, these two were the least close. But it was just because of the circumstances surrounding their jobs. They were going to enjoy the next month. They were snapped out of their idle chatter by a frantic call from Scott.

"John, Alan, get back to Thunderbird 5 ASAP! There as been an explosion and communications have been lost."

"An explosion." Alan said. "What could possible explode on TB5?"

John was already concentrating on turning TB3 around and racing back to the satellite. When they ferried back and forth between base and TB5, they did not use full afterburners, it was a waste of too much fuel. The average time one way was generally 2-3 hours and they have been homeward bound for about an hour. But if John kicked it up to full speed, he could be back at TB5 in about 30 minutes. He powered on full and punched it.

At base, when Scott saw Virgil's portrait go blank after seeing a fraction of the explosion, he immediately contacted TB3 to get them turned around. He then looked at Gordon. "We totally need to get Dad back here." He said. Gordon was ghost white. His father would be here right now if he hadn't planned on pulling a prank. Not that it would have prevented the explosion or really change anything other than his dad not being here. But he knew he father would be mad at not being at home during a family disaster. Gordon went to the radio that connected home base to the jet, which would be a different frequency since it was considered their 'public' life and thus open and available during Operation Cover-Up.

"Dad, come in, Dad, this is Gordon."

Gordon looked at Scott when he didn't get a response from his father. "Do you think they could have reached the mainland already and landed?"

Scott looked at the clock, "No, I don't think so. Maybe you just hit a pocket where radio contact is poor. Give it another try."

"Dad, come in, Dad, this is Gordon."

"Go ahead, Gordon, what's up." Came the reply.

"Dad, you need to return immediately. There had been an explosion on TB5. We have lost contact."

Jeff asked, "Where is TB3? Was she still there? Are they on their way back there? How far away were they?"

"John and Alan were about halfway home when it happened. They already have TB3 turned around and headed back to the satellite. John's estimating that at full speed, they should be there, in." Gordon looked at his watch calculating the difference in time from when John told them ½ hour, "about 20 minutes."

Jeff said, "I've already turned around, I'll be there in little over an hour. I want an update every 15 minutes."

"Ok, Dad. Gordon out."

"Thunderbird 3 from base, John, can you read me?" Scott called into the com.

"Alan here, Scott, what can we do for you?"

Scott said, "I just want to know how close your are?"

"We're about 12 minutes away. We've got a visual on the screen but not through the viewport yet." Alan answered. A few minutes later, Scott heard, "We can see her through the viewport, Scott. She doesn't look damaged from here."

John called to Alan, "Start docking procedures, we're almost there."

"Scott, John just called for docking. I'll contact you as soon as we're docked and get inside. If we've got trouble getting inside, I will call first. Alan out."

The docking was fast and furious. Not something done under normal conditions. But John was very good at piloting TB3. He and Alan were almost even with the number of hours flying her. He slid her into the docking portal as precisely as William Tell shot the arrow into the apple on his son's head. Alan was the first to the door and unhatched it. When they entered, they immediately found Virgil.

Jeff's voice boomed over the radio, "Scott, Gordon, are there any updates yet? I wanted to be kept informed every 15 minutes, you're late."

Gordon got on the radio to his dad, "They're docking as we speak, Dad. In fact they could even be inside by now. Scott? Any news?" Gordon asked Scott while he still had Jeff on the radio.

Scott turned back to the communication link with TB3 and asked, "John, Alan, what up, what's happening? Are you inside yet, have you found Virgil? C'mon guys, let us know down here!"

Alan ran to Virgil while John used his watch com to communicate with Scott. "Scott, we found Virgil, Alan's checking him out now, call you back shortly."

Virgil was sitting with his back against the wall, knees up and arms resting on his knees. His head was back and his eyes closed. When he heard Alan call his name, then John's voice, he lifted his head up and slowly opened his eyes.

"About time you got back here, word. YOUR Thunderbird blew up in my face!" He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the wall.

John looked around, "What exactly blew up, Virgil?"

Without opening his eyes, he said, "I don't know. It came from the left of the console. Knocked out communications as well as me."

John walked over to the left of the communications console and found the area of trouble and began to study it. Alan who was still over Virgil noticed a small trickle of blood going down the side of his face. "Hold still, Virgil, you're bleeding." Virgil sat quietly while Alan tried to find the source of the blood. "You have a hole in your head, Virg." Alan said. Then John quipped, "Since when was that news?!"

Virgil opened his eyes, found what he was searching for, grabbed the baseball size piece of debris and flung it at John, getting him between the shoulders. "Dude!" John said, "Be nice or we'll leave you up here alone to fix what you broke and to sew you own head up."

"Well, he can't be hurt that badly if his aim was that good." Alan said. Virgil answered, "I missed, I was aiming for his head!"

Alan had already pulled down the First Aid kit and started to clean up Virgil's wound when they could hear John, "hmmm, uh huh. Mmmm. ohhhh, I see. Hmmmmm". Virgil looked over to John, "What are you 'um-humming about, John? Find out what happened?"

"Virg, hold still, I need to get a good look at this cut." Alan scolded.

John answered Virgil, "Well, this is only a preliminary find, but oxygen tank #7 blew. I don't know why yet. But you are lucky. If it had blown towards any of the other tanks, it would have set off a chain reaction. I had better let Brains know of this weakness. We also need to find out why this tank just blew on it's own. You didn't do anything did you, Virg?"

"I wasn't here long enough to do anything. I was just checking in with Scott when it blew. SCOTT?! Has anyone contacted him yet? God, he probably thinks I am floating out in space somewhere." Virgil said.

"Base from John, come in, Scott."

"Scott here. How's Virgil, is he Ok. What happened, did you find out what blew?" Scott said, then turning to Gordon, "Get Dad on the radio and you can update him as we find out."

John said, "We found Virgil. He's got a gash on his scalp..Yo, Alan, is he hurt anywhere else?...Ok. Scott, we don't know if he is hurt anywhere else, but he is conscience and awake and sitting up. In fact we found him sitting up against the wall. Looks like an oxygen tank exploded. Communications between TB5 and base has been affected. I think some wires have just been torn loose. There is not a lot of damage. All other oxygen tanks seem Ok."

Jeff, who had been getting the feed from Gordon, asked, "What tank number is that?"

The question was relayed to John who answered, "7".

Jeff then asked Scott through Gordon, isn't tank 7 the one that was slightly damaged in that incident up there a few months ago when TB5 was hit by a meteor? Didn't it get dented or something along those lines?"

Brains had just walked in not realizing that there was a problem up at TB5, as he had been hiding in his lab (per Gordon's instructions). "U-u-uh, yes, Mr. T-t-tracy, oxygen t-t-tank #7 was damaged not t-t-too long ago. Why is there s-s-something wrong with it?"

Scott answered, "It blew up, Brains, taking Virgil with it."

Brains' eyes went wide, "Is V-v-virgil ok?"

"Yeah, he just has a bad gash on his head. TB5 communications are out too."

Jeff then interrupted, "Alan, bring Virgil back home. His stint up in TB5 has been shortened. Brains, go up and help John fix the damage. Scott, you go up too and take over once John and Brains are finished with the repairs. I still want John to go to the office."

Alan said, "Virgil, you ready to get up yet?"

"Yeah, I'm Ok."

Alan proceeded to help Virgil on his feet when Virgil turned into a limp bag of Jell-O and fell into Alan's arms. "John, help me get Virgil into TB3. He's dead weight, quick before I drop him!"

[Bea]

Chapter 3- Fixing Thunderbird 5

WHUMP!

John's eyes widened and his mouth dropped. "ALAN!" he screamed, "You totally dropped your brother!!"

"Dude, I called to you for help! I couldn't help it, he's dead weight!" cried Alan.

John ran over to where Virgil laid on the floor. He examined him again, "For Pete's sake, lookit that goose-egg he's getting! Boy, is he gonna be angry at you." John said looking at Alan.

"John, we don't have to tell him. We can just tell him he got it in the explosion. Besides, he's the one who said he was Ok and got up." Alan was rambling as the thoughts of Virgil coming after him flooded his brain.

"But, Alan, did you have to drop him on his HEAD?!" John stated with a gleam in his eye, hinting of blackmail in the future.

"Let's just get him back into TB3 and on the way home, will ya?" Alan pleaded.

The two blond-haired Tracys gently picked up Virgil and carried him to the sick room of TB3. Alan belted him into the cot, checked the original scalp wound, then at the large swelling on the other side of his head. He felt sick to his stomach thinking of what Virgil will do to him if he finds out. He either has to bribe John with something irresistible, like, WHAT, he didn't know? Or find something on John as counter-blackmail. He has at least 2 - 3 hours alone with Virgil to try to think of something. He may have more time depending on when TB5's communications are fixed.

"John, will you be ok up here? Once TB3 is out of range, you won't be able to bounce off of her communications with your watch. You will be without communications for about 5 hrs as we do a round trip." Alan asked.

John replied, "Don't worry. I can work on getting the communications up here working again while you take Virgil home. I sure hope he doesn't remember where that lump on his head came from. So long ...have a safe journey."

As Alan closed the hatch as he heard a 'snork-snork' coming from John. "Oh bummer." he thought, "I'm NEVER going to live this one down." He could tell John was already planning something using this incident as fodder. As Alan set TB3 on course there was nothing more to do than to worry about what John saw him do to Virgil. He placed his forehead on his hand and just shook it from side to side.

Once Alan left, John completely forgot the incident and went about repairing the communications. That was his first priority.

Scott received the hail from Alan. "Base from TB3, come in, Scott."

"Go ahead, Alan." came the reply.

"I've got Virgil strapped into the cot in the sick room. He passed out before we got him into TB3. I think he'll probably sleep on it the whole way. He'll need a couple of stitches or staples for the cut he has on his scalp. He didn't seem to have any other problems. No broken bones or anything like that." Alan hesitated...."Should he even mention the lump? No way! They can see it when he arrives home." He thought.

Scott asked when he heard the hesitation in Alan's voice, "Was there something else, Alan? Has Virgil got another problem?"

"You are so not gonna believe this, he's also got a knot on his head too, probably from hitting the wall or the floor after the explosion" Alan lied. He sure hoped that Scott didn't notice how red his face was getting. He could FEEL it turning red. It was times like this that he hated being so fair. Turning red in the face has gotten him into trouble more than once.

Scott answered, "Okay, we'll be expecting you in about 2 hrs then. Dad should be home by then."

Phew! He didn't pick up on my red face! thought Alan.

Brains brought the gurney to TB3's hanger, then went to prep the sick room. Scott was apprehensive and kept contacting Alan every few minutes asking about Virgil. Virgil was still out cold and Alan was fretting more and more about what was going to happen to him when he finds out.

Jeff contacted Scott, "I'm 2 minutes away, Scott, permission to land."

"Go ahead, Dad, TB3 is still about ½ hour out". Scott replied

When Jeff landed, he hustled to the lounge and contacted Alan. Between Virgil not waking up and the non-stop calls from base, Alan was turning into a basket case.

Alan finally reached home and slid TB3 into her hanger. Brains, Jeff and Scott were there ready to get Virgil on the gurney, while Gordon, Tin-Tin and Ohano were in the sick room ready to receive him. While in transport on the gurney, Virgil woke up. "OWWW!" and he raised his hand up to his head and felt a large lump where there wasn't one before. He opened his eyes and immediately wished he hadn't as all he saw was the ceiling flying past him in a blur. He closed them again as he listened to his father say, "Just relax, Virgil, you're back home and on your way to the sick room." When everything stopped and he was gently moved over to the bed, he tried opening his eyes again. He was staring at several worried faces. But why was Alan's face so red? He was distracted away by Jeff who was right beside him. He patted him on his arm and asked, "What happened up there, son?"

"I'd just contacted Scott, to let him know that I was settling in when there was an explosion from my left. I believe John said it was oxygen tank #7. But truthfully that is all I know."

"Other th-th-than the knot and l-l-laceration on you head, d-d-do you hurt anywhere else?" inquired Brains.

Virgil turned to look at Brains. "My shoulder's a little sore from where I hit the wall, but other than that, no. But where did I get this goose-egg? I don't remember hitting my head." And he winced as he felt it.

"Hold s-s-still, Virgil while I-I-I staple your h-h-head." Brains said and he got to work cleaning out and closing up the laceration he had. Once he had finished, he got out an old fashion ice bag, filled it with ice and placed it on the lump. "This s-s-should bring d-d-down the swelling a b-b-bit. But let m-m-me know if you g-g-get dizzy."

Scott stopped in to see Virgil before he went up to TB5. "Yo, Virg, if you really didn't want to do time up on TB5, all you had to do was ask me to take it. You didn't have to go get blown up to get out of it."

"Very funny, Bubble Butt. Can't you come up with anything more original than that?" Virgil smirked holding the ice bag on his bump.

"It was all I could come up with in such short notice. I've got to run now, take it easy." Scott turned and left. Brains had finished with the doctoring part of his sick bay duties and Tin-Tin took over while he went up to leave for work on TB5. He asked, "Do y-y-you need anything else b-b- before I go, V-v-virgil?"

Virgil shook his head no. He just wanted to sleep. Scott and Brains headed for TB5 to fix the damage and bring John back home. When they were 30 minutes away they heard a crackle over the radio and then John's voice came through. "TB5 to TB3, come in, Dudes."

"Yo, Brains, has the communication working?" Scott said to Brains, then into the comlink, "John, good to hear from you. Is TB5 back online?"

"It's put together with spit and bubble gum, Scott. Brains and I will need to put some new parts into it." John replied.

Scott docked TB3 more gracefully than her previous docking several hours before. When Scott and Brains entered through the hatch they caught John just coming out from under the com. He was filthy, as he had been working underneath the console on his back trying to fix the com. Brains had with him several new pieces in the repair kit and a new oxygen tank. He instructed Scott to take out what was left of #7 and put on a new tank. He was to also check the valves and tubing to make sure that they weren't damaged as well. While Scott got to work on the tanks, Brains and John got down and dirty with the communications console. TB5 went off line again as they removed some of the re-wired parts and replaced them with new parts.

It took only a short couple of hours and TB5 was good as new. Scott stowed his stuff away, noting that Virgil's gear was still there. He picked up the bag and tossed it to John. "Here bring this back for Virgil. I don't know if he needs anything in it, and I also am not sure if he is coming back in two weeks or not, Dad didn't say." John grabbed the bag and said, "Okay, have a good stay, Scott and try not to blow anything up. Once is enough." Scott gave him a dirty look with a smile hiding behind it.

With that Brains and John left Scott alone in TB5. They were chatting quietly, there was only about an hour left in the ride. John was thinking of some of the things that he and Alan could do to spend some quality time together.

Back at base, Scott's portrait beeped and Jeff hailed him, "Hi, Scott, what's up?"

Scott answered, "Nothing, Dad, just checking in."

[Bea]

Chapter 4- At The Office

Scott continued, "Yo, Dad, how's Virgil doing?"

Jeff answered, "He's sleeping right now. He was given a strong pain pill because of his headache."

"Thanks for the update, Dad. I'll call back later to see how he's doing. Scott out."

Jeff said, "Okay, Scott, try not to blow anything up. Jeff out."

Scott fumed to himself, "That is sooo the second time I was told to not blow up anything. I didn't blow anything up the FIRST time!"

TB3 slid smoothly into her bay at home. It was morning already. When John found his dad, Jeff said, "Feel like going to the office tomorrow? We can meet after dinner tonight to go over some details that you will need. It will give you most of the day today to relax."

"Sure, Dad. I'm going to freshen up a bit now, eat a bit of breakfast then take a nap. It was a long night." Although going to the office was not one of John's favorite things to do, it was a change from TB5. He was going to get a total of three months away from her. Mind you, he liked being up there, but sometimes the loneliness got to him. It was nice to be on earth for a long stretch of time. Also, there is a lot to do in the city. He could hit theaters, displays, and museums of art, natural science and even space museums. Who knows, maybe even meet someone. He could also feast on different foods, he had to admit he wasn't the best cook. Well maybe he was a good cook, but he got tired of his own cooking. He was actually looking forward to a week in the city, just not the part behind the desk making decisions.

He checked into the hotel and familiarized himself with his surroundings. He was in walking distance of Tracy Industries, so he didn't need to bother about a car even though one would be provided for him whenever and wherever he wanted to go with or without driver. But he was looking forward to doing a lot of walking. There is just so far that you could walk up in TB5 and even on the island for that matter. For dinner he turned left out of the hotel and just started walking. It was a nice evening. After a 15 minute stroll, he finally stopped at a Mongolian BBQ. He was alone tonight, but he didn't mind, considering he ate alone most of the time anyway. He had a good book with him and sat quietly reading, eating and periodically people watching. He liked to watch people but tried not to look like he was studying them. Half way through his meal he started to feel uncomfortable. He had the feeling that he was being watched himself. There was no reason for him to feel like that. He looked around at the other customers, but none of them seemed suspicious. He couldn't shake the feeling through the rest of the meal. On his walk back to the hotel he kept more vigilant than usual. He kept looking behind him expecting someone to be there. But there wasn't. He was glad to be back in the safety of his hotel room. That was creepy, he thought to himself.

Virgil awoke without a headache for the first time in 3 days. He lightly touched the laceration, and it was healing nicely. The staples could come out in another 4 days. He then felt for the goose-egg, and that too was subsiding. He still doesn't remember where that came from though. He knows he didn't get it from the explosion because he was sitting against the wall, awake and lucid, for at least 30 minutes before John and Alan showed up and he didn't have the lump then. He got up and showered and went to breakfast. "How are you feeling today, Virgil?" asked Jeff.

"Pretty good today, actually. I was going to go to TB1 today and refamiliarize myself with her again. See if she needs any maintenance."

"Good," said Jeff. "Gordon's going to work with Alan in TB4. They're both comfortable enough with TB2, that they don't need any refresher from you. But when John comes back, I want you to work with him in TB2. If we have a call before John returns, you'll be in TB1, Gordon'll handle TB2 and if it is a water rescue, Alan will be in TB4."

"Dude, what about when John's back?" inquired Virgil.

"I'm still thinking about it. I most probably want him on TB2. But he needs more time on TB1 as well. If we have any water rescues, I'll still leave that to Alan I think." Jeff replied. "I'm still working the details out. I might have John do TB4 and put Gordon in TB1, that will give both more experience in another Thunderbird other than their own."

John walked to the office the next day. It was an overcast day, so he carried an umbrella. He refused the ride when security called asking if he wanted a car brought around front to take him to Tracy Industries. He really enjoyed stretching his legs and setting a good pace. Something he couldn't do either in space or on the island. But he wasn't looking forward to sitting behind the desk meeting with managers and other businessmen face to face. But that was part of the package. He walked into the outer office and was greeted by Mrs. Greenville. Although he just barely remembered her because he was there so infrequently, she greeted him as if he had been coming there everyday for the past 20 years. She even remembered how he liked his coffee. He never asked her to get him a cup, she did it because she truly liked the Tracys and wanted to do small favors for them. She gave him 15 minutes to settle in, log into his computer, and pull up his e-calendar then she walked in with his coffee and a hard copy of his calendar.

She sat down and started, "Good morning, Mr. Tracy, it's been a while, but I'm glad to see you back. Do you have your calendar up on your screen?" John nodded "yes". She continued, "Good. The first appointment is with Carosel Brothers Corp. They are long time business partners. They want to discuss funding for their new project. Did your dad update you on this at all?" Again he nodded "yes". "Good. The next appointment is with your project managers. They need to discuss priorities, the direction the industry is headed and how Tracy Industries fits into the new picture. Your next appointment after that has screwed my mind up constantly. They said they're old friends but I don't recognize their names. If you want me to cancel that one, I will." John looked at the names. They didn't look familiar to him either. Maybe they didn't realize which Tracy was in today, they could be Virgil's friends or Scott's friends, even friends of his dad. He didn't want to be rude, so he said, "I'll see them. They might be friends of my dad or brothers."

She said, "Fine. Your first appointment's in ½ hr. Can I get you anything?"

John answered, "That'll be all for now, Mrs. Greenville, thanks."

The morning was long and boring with the first two appointments. As soon as the three men from the last morning appointment came in, the supposed 'friends', John felt that something was not right. He had a very bad feeling about them. They walked in with big smiles on their faces. Hard, fake smiles. They eyes were very dark. Even the man with blue eyes had a darkness to them, a deadly look. John stood up and welcomed the three strangers into his office and when he sat down slid his hand back nonchalantly and turned on the intercom one way so that Mrs. Greenville could listen in. It was a subtle move. He hoped that she wouldn't come in to let him know of his 'mistake'.

"Yo, dudes, I don't believe I caught your names. You said you are acquaintances of the Tracy family?" John began.

"Mr. Tracy," the blue-eyed creep stated, "I can tell you already know we're not friends of you or your family. But we do know who you are. You're one of Jeff Tracy's sons. Truthfully, it didn't matter which one of you showed up, it'd still feed our purpose."

"And that would be?" snapped John.

"Why money, of course, Walnut head. I'm sure your old man would pay plenty to have you back safe and sound and alive." Blue-eyed creep sneered.

Mrs. Greenville was puzzled at first when she started to hear the conversation going on in Mr. Tracy's office. But the conversation went sour so fast that she decided to sit and listen. As soon as it became apparent that it was a kidnapping in progress she called security. Then she left the office as per protocol. They can't force John to do anything by threatening her and they can't force her to do anything by threatening him. So company protocol was to call security then vacate the office. Because of the vast amount of money that flowed through the company and highly confidential projects that they frequently handled, Tracy Industries security was the best around. The desk guard hit the switch that locked all the doors. He then pressed the blue button on the console indicating trouble. It would at least alert all the guards that something was wrong even if they didn't know what. Using the security cameras, they deducted that Mr. Tracy was still in his office on the top floor. So the guards normally stationed on each floor performed a lockdown and told everyone to stay where they were. The elevators at this point would work only from the top floor. Mrs. Greenville had contacted the head of security and told him what happened, and it was relayed to each individual guard via radio, similar to what the police use. The police were then contacted. The plan was to catch them in the lobby. It was a foolproof plan. It would be only the guards, John and the three kidnappers. Watching the cameras they saw the four leave the office and get into the elevator. The guards stationed next to the elevators and hidden in crevices and behind plants were prepared. But the elevator never opened. It stopped on the floor above them. They hadn't realized that they the kidnappers had a radio too and heard the conversation all the security guards just had.

The kidnappers were panicking. They got off the first floor above the ground floor, dragging John along. He was trying to think of something, anything. They hadn't tied him because they were planning on just walking out the front door. That plan went out the window. Just at that moment one of the larger conference rooms opened up and out poured 28 people for their lunch break. That was when the situation went from a kidnapping to a hostage situation. One of the kidnappers, the darkest one, shot his gun off into the ceiling yelling at the people to file back into the conference room. The gunmen filed in behind the hostages dragging John. They pushed John into the middle of the noisy crowd then they huddled together off to the side of the large group of people. Another shot was fired, a woman screamed, and the blue-eyed creep told the woman to "SHUT UP!!"

Jeff answered the called, "Go ahead, Scott, what've you got?"

Scott's face replaced his portrait, he was white as a ghost, "Dad, we haven't been called directly but I heard of a hostage situation.."

Jeff interrupted Scott, "Scott, I know we rescue people, but that is from natural disasters. We are definitely not set up for hostage negotiations. The police and professionals need to handle that one."

"Dad, the hostages are in the Tracy Industries building. John's one of them."

[Bea]

Chapter 5- Hostages

Jeff sat there, pale. After several minutes Scott said, "Yo, Dad, Dad, are you Okay?" It snapped Jeff back to the present and he answered, "Uh, yes, yes I am, Scott. What details have you got? Wait a minute, let me get everyone in here first before you continue." Jeff turned to the many buttons on the intercom and hit the WHOLE HOUSE entry. "I need everyone in the lounge right away."

He sat there quietly waiting, hands clasped, for everyone to appear. Kyrano, Tin-Tin and Ohano were the first there because they were in and about the house. Brains came next from his lab and the other three boys were scattered in the Thunderbird bays. Gordon and Alan came in together since they were working together in TB4. Virgil came in last wiping his hands on a dirty rag.

"What's the haps?" asked Virgil when he noticed he was the last one in the lounge.

"Okay, Scott, start from the beginning." Said Jeff.

Scott started, "There was chatter on the line that caught my attention. It caught my attention because I heard the name Tracy. There seems to be a hostage situation at Tracy Industries. John's also been taken hostage." He paused for a moment to let that sink in. "While I was waiting for all of you to gather, I picked up some more information from the police band. They've been in contact with our security people. There are approximately 30 people in the main conference room on the first floor. It seems that the original plan was to kidnap John and ask for ransom. Security picked up on it and prepared to catch them when they came out of the elevator on the ground floor. Somehow the kidnappers got wind of it, got off on the first floor above and caught the group of people coming out of the conference room just breaking for lunch. Dad, you'll be receiving a call soon. I’ve picked up the talks between those dudes and the police and they're demanding that they talk to you. They'll probably want money."

Everyone in the room just sat there, mouths agape and white faced. Virgil was the first to move. "Dad, I'll take Thunderbird 1, I can be there..."

"No you won't!" yelled Jeff.

Everyone just looked at Jeff, "What in the void?" Gordon said almost under his breath.

The phone then rang.

Jeff looked at the caller id and it indicated the police were calling. He ignored it until it stopped ringing. "We can stall them if no one can get hold of me. Now back to the situation. Everyone there knows us as the owners of Tracy Industries. We can't just barge in there as International Rescue. That would be the end of International Rescue."

Virgil said, "You not going to just leave the cops to handle this, are you?"

Jeff looked at Virgil and a small smile cracked his face. "No, I've got no intention of letting the police handle it. That's my building, those are my employees and that's my second oldest son they have. We're going in as the Tracy family. We'll take the larger corporate jet to the Tracy Industries airfield, and from there pick up a helijet. We'll land on the roof and proceed with our plan from there. Gather around the desk, I've got the building plans here. Let's formulate the rescue. Scott, contact John."

"Suppose he's not in the best position to get hailed right now?" Scott inquired.

"Just sent a vibration through. Let's hope they didn't collect valuables or take his watch. Only give it one short burst, Scott, just in case he doesn't have the watch anymore."

"No problemo, Dad." Scott kept his portrait communication open while he switched to John's watch. He wanted to hear what was happening in the lounge to put in his two cents. "Dad, I've sent the signal, but so far nothing from John."

The failed kidnappers were discussing what to do amongst themselves. Between the gunshots and yelling the hostages were all very quiet. They were all seated at the tables which just moments earlier they sat at learning New Management Techniques in a Corporate Environment. John sat as close to the kidnappers as he dared without bringing attention to himself. He saw the dark one head to the wall phone and make a call. He wasn't close enough to hear and he feared that if they thought he was listening in, they would shoot him on the spot. They have plenty of other hostages to hold for ransom and could probably fool his dad into thinking he was still alive. John felt his watch vibrate. He was not sure if his family used the vibration because they knew about the kidnapping or because they weren't sure if he was in a business meeting. He started to cross his right hand over to turn it on when the blue-eyed creep turned and looked at the hostages. "You'd better calm down if you want to all get out of this alive." He then looked straight at John, a sinister grin growing across his face and a mean glint lighting up his eye. "You better hope daddy takes care of his employees, eh, Johnny? How many billions are you worth?"

The quiet one, with a very bland description of medium build, medium brown hair, brown eyes, medium height, medium skin color, the nightmare description for cops, swatted the blond guy and simply said, "Shut up". He went over to the dark one, who was on the phone making his demands known to the police. They were trying to get Mr. Jeff Tracy on the phone. So far no one seemed to be able to find him.

When John saw Creep looking around the room, he very slowly returned his arm to the armrest of the chair and froze. He knew that when the watch vibrated, there would be no picture showing. It would still look like a watch. He decided, when he had the chance to set it on one-way audio/visual. He would not be able to hear what they were saying to him, but they would at least know what the situation was.

"WE'VE GOT A PICTURE." Scott yelled, almost sending everyone jumping out of their seats. He sent it through to John's portrait. It was sideways, at waist height or thereabouts. It was a little disconcerting as it was slowly moving around the room, mostly sideways, but sometimes at a harsher angle, then sometimes flashing back to show just a wall, ceiling or floor. Ohano said, "Let me know what you come up with, I can't look at that picture without getting dizzy." and she closed her eyes.

It was so quiet that at first they didn't think audio was on. But then they heard the faint sound of someone coughing. The picture settled on three men huddled together near the wall. The Tracy clan watched carefully. "Do you think those are the kidnappers?" Alan asked. "They're the only ones standing."

"Dude, look," pointed out Gordon, and when one of those three men turned ever so slightly they noticed he had a gun. "I guess that answers your question, Alan."

Jeff said, "Hmm, they look like they have semi-automatics. Not good. But we knew they couldn't have hostages without some kind of firepower." Turning back to the discussion they were having he said, "Okay, I think we've got a plan here, does everyone agree?" They all nodded yes in agreement. "Good, go get the items from Thunderbirds that we need. Brains, get the thermal imager from your lab. Boys, go get changed into business casual. It looks like the people in that room are dressed in business casual. We will meet back here and take inventory to make sure we have everything we need. Remember if we can't carry it, we can't use it."

Virgil looked at the video some more. It would periodically flow across the room before returning to the three men. He looked closely at what all the male employees were wearing. He said more to himself, "I know exactly what to wear," and he turned and left. Jeff turned to Scott after the room emptied of the young men. "Scott, monitor John's watch closely, turn up the volume in case he needs to whisper something. We will only be able to communicate through the watches since we will be without the Thunderbirds." He turned to his manservant's wife, "Ohano, ignore the phones for about an hour. Then when you do answer, tell them that I'm travelling. You don't know where I am at the moment. But get a number from the police where I could contact them if I should 'check in' with you. Ohano, Tin-Tin, we'll get John home safe and sound. These men have no idea who they are dealing with. Today'll end up being the worst day of their lives. I will make sure of that. I'll send a message that no one can get away with kidnapping a Tracy." The end of the sentence was emphasized with a pound of his fist on his desk. The young men started to filter back into the lounge. Virgil had changed into a navy blue polo shirt, khaki pants, and topsiders. Although the clothes were nice, it still afforded him mobility, and the shoes had a rubber sole for grip and silence. After reviewing all of the items that the men had gathered, Jeff said, "Let's go." And they all headed to the hanger containing not only TB2, but also the corporate jet that seats 10, plenty of room for the 5 men and rescue paraphernalia. Kyrano, Tin-Tin and Ohano watched out the window as the jet took off with a roar and headed towards the city.

The phone rang again.

"Where's Waldo?" the blue-eyed creep asked. The boring one said quietly, "Don't let him hear you call him that, you know how much he hates that name." The creep retorted, "Hey, don't yell at me, his mom named him that!" After a deep laugh, "He got named after a hotel! Ha, maybe we should start calling him Mr. Astoria. Or how about Dorf?!" And he started to laugh harder. The darker fellow, who seemed the obvious leader snarled at the creep as the conversation was getting out of hand, "Knock it off, just shut up." He then walked over to John.

John's heartbeat sped up when he saw one of the kidnappers heading towards him. He thought his heart was going to explode out of his chest. The man walking towards him had fire in his eyes, he wasn't happy.

"Where's the heck's your father?" he snarled and he grabbed John by his tie knot and yanked him up onto his feet. Even though John was taller than this dude, he was not built as big. This dude was strong. "I don't know." John responded softly, then to strengthen that answered, he said, "That's why I'm here, he likes to go off on trips all over the world. I got stuck this time to watch his company." John was trying to make it sound like he was on the best of terms with his father. It would make what he said more believable. He knew his father and the rest were coming. But he couldn't let on to the kidnappers that fact.

Scott was watching the screen and could see one of the men come towards John. Suddenly the picture did a whoosh and seemed to swing around in circles. Scott had a hard time watching it, it was making him seasick. Then the pictured stilled showing the back of the chair. He heard that man yell at John followed by John's reply. He was glad the way John was replying, it worked in their favor buying more time. Scott was upset that he was stuck up in TB5. He wanted to be there, knocking that dude's teeth out. He started pacing around TB5 but always had view of the screen. He kept watching very carefully. The picture seemed to return to the steadier side view that had been dominant through most of this ordeal. He saw the dark haired guy leave John and head back to the other two. Then in an almost inaudible voice he could hear "Scott, if you saw that, send me another vibration."

Scott did.

John was relieved to feel his watch vibrate. It removed any doubt that they were coming. Now, all he could do was help stall.

The Tracys landed at the airfield and quickly transferred to the newest helijet. This particular helijet had a new system that could muffled sound for short amounts of time. No one would hear them coming. They would be at the building in less than 5 minutes. According to Scott, no one has left the room, so the roof should be clear.

The leader of the pack looked to the boring one, "I think they're stalling. Do they have a helipad on the roof? The cops could be planning to land on the roof right now. Do you still have the C4?" Boring fellow nodded yes and padded the bulge in his pocket. "Go wire the roof. If any cops try to land up there, KABOOM!" Boring fellow nodded and left.

[Bea]

Chapter 6- In From Above

Scott was glad that he was recording everything from John’s watch. When he heard "kaboom", he decided to rewind the disk and play it back at a higher volume. They had very sophisticated audio equipment on TB5 just because some rescue calls are so hard to hear. He activated the special noise filters, put the headphones on and listened to the playback very carefully. He could barely make out what the three men were saying. But he definitely heard the command to go set explosives on the roof.

He quickly called his father. "Dad, I just heard that those dudes are planning to booby-trap the roof so that no one can land on it. Do you have the jammer?"

Before Jeff could answer Scott, Brains had the small electronic jamming device on his lap. He also brought out the thermal imager. He checked the one, checked the other then looked up at Jeff. "H-h-he’s in the e-e-elevator right now".

Jeff said, "Perfect. We can stop the elevator and with him stuck in there, he'll be out of the picture, at least for the time being. Turn off the power to that elevator."

With a flick of a switch, Brains turned off that elevator halfway up to the roof. The boring one was stuck between the 41st and 42nd floor. Now they know the kind of people they are dealing with, smart, ruthless, greedy, very dangerous men. If they start to threaten the hostages, Jeff had no doubt that they would probably make good on their threats.

2 minutes away from the roof.

John had heard the leader yell ‘kaboom' and figured he was talking about wiring something to blow. He couldn’t risk anyone hearing Scott’s voice so he didn’t switch the watch to 2-way communication. He waited a few minutes then softly whispered, "Did you find out what they are planning on blowing up? If yes, send through a vibration." He felt a vibration, good. He continued, "Were you able to handle that problem?" Again he felt another vibration. He took a deep breath and let it out.

Virgil landed the helijet on the rooftop as gently as he often did with TB2. Even if someone stood on the roof with their eyes closed they won’t have heard him land, it was that soft. They gathered in the passenger compartment for one last review. Jeff was staying as was Brains. Jeff was going to contact the police, get put through to the gunmen and start negotiations stalling for time. But he had to have it quiet so that the kidnappers couldn’t tell where he was calling from. All he needed was to have a noisy jet or a car horn go off and the guy on the other end could hear the noise in stereo. Brains was staying there to man the electrical stuff. He could play with different electrical sections of the building, turning things off and on with just a flick of a switch. He could also see where people were inside the building. He gave each of the Tracy boys (who already had a walkman each) a tracker so that he could identify each of them. Even though most of the employees were still in the building, locked into their sections by security, the stairways and elevators were empty. So the thermal scan would pick up anyone taking those routes. Unfortunately he couldn’t pick out the gunmen from the other people in the conference room. That was not within his capability.

"Okay, boys, good luck and be careful!" Jeff said to his three sons. They all carried small packs with them holding the items they would need. Only Virgil had the larger laser cutter, which was slung over his shoulder. They paused for a moment then they exited the helijet and headed to the door. Brains communicated that there was no one behind the closed door and no one on the stairs. They headed down the stairs for one flight then went inside to the equipment room. The top floor was not the location of the big offices, as most people expected, they were one floor below. This floor contained generators, watertanks and air conditioning units. There is one freight elevator that traverses the entire length of the 90-floor building. They did not want to take the regular elevators because they are too close to the conference room and did not want to alert the gunmen that someone was using them. But the freight elevator was on the other side of the building. Unless the gunmen decide to walk around, they shouldn’t hear it. The three Tracy men rode the elevator down in silence each of them sure that the other two could hear their heart pounding. It was a long ride. The silence was a nervous silence. They were used to going against Mother Nature not hostage rescue. The elevator stopped at the 2nd floor, one above the conference room. Virgil was going into the men’s lavatory and cutting through the floor. Gordon and Alan were going to each of the stairwells on either side of the conference and wait just inside the doors. Brains would give them enough warning if anyone left the conference room heading towards the stairs so that they could put at least one flight between them. On the signal they were both to enter the conference room simultaneously and hopefully between them and their other two brothers, they would be able to subdue the armed men. According to John’s watch, there were only two of them in there right now. Gordon was at the door closest to them right now. He should have been able to slip right in and put the drop on them. The doors had electronic locks and Brains can release them at anytime. If the hostages weren’t in there, they could have simply just locked those men inside.

Jeff waited about a minute after his sons left. Then contacted the police. He got the number from Scott. The police patched him through to the dark haired man. "Mr. Tracy, you kept me waiting a long time. I don’t like to be kept waiting."

Jeff answered in as deep and grizzly of a voice he could muster, "What the heck do you want?"

The leader replied, "Now, now, Mr Tracy, be nice. You don’t want your handsome son here to get hurt, would you?" He motioned John over to the phone.

Jeff, sounding impatient, said, "I want to speak with him."

The phone was tilted towards John in such a way that the kidnappers could listen in. So in keeping with the character he was portraying, that of getting along with his dad, he said, "Dad, get me out of here."

Jeff was shocked at the response. Luckily Scott had filled him in with the discussions going on in the conference room including John’s responses. He responded with, "Listen, young man, if it were just you in there, you would be dead right now and you know I'd be rather worried. Let me speak to the man in charge."

"I sense a little too much closeness in the family." He said to Jeff with a smirk. "But no matter, if you don’t meet my demands, he will be the first to go. My demands are simple: 50 million and a helijet by midnight tonight. No cops. Only you. I want you to be flying that jet. And don’t say you can’t, I know you can fly just about anything under the sun, Mr. Air Force Astronaut Tracy." And he hung up without waiting for a reply from Jeff.

Jeff sat there. He said to Brains, "He didn’t give me much time to stall. I sure hope the boys work fast. I will call back in a couple of minutes and try to argue." Brains looked at Jeff and said, "You m-m-may not b-b-be a professional hostage n-n-negotiator, Mr. T-T-Tracy, but I would t-t-trust you with my l-l-life anyday."

All Jeff could say was, "Thanks, Brains."

Virgil knelt on the floor in the last stall of the men’s lavatory above the conference room. According to the building plans there was an identical one just below him. He was going to cut through the floor, but not the ceiling below that. He opted to cut the floor into small pieces instead of one large one that could break under it’s own weight and crash through to the stall below. When he finished cutting the hole, just big enough for him to fit through easily, he listened very closely, trying to determine if anyone was in the room below. When he thought the room was cleared, he slowly lifted a ceiling panel up a ½ inch and put a small monitor through the opening. He saw that it was empty. He quickly lifted the whole panel, slid down to stand on the toilet, he left his bag up inside the ceiling and replaced the ceiling panel. Now at least it doesn’t look like he came in through the ceiling.

He sidled over to the door and knelt down. Slowly he cracked the door open. He could see John standing next to two men by the wall right next to the phone. He recognized them as the gunmen. He was going to open the door just enough to squeeze through and sneak to the nearest chair but luck wasn’t going to be with him. Blue-eyed creep looked in his direction just as the door was about 4 inches open. Virgil quickly backed away and let the door close on it’s own. He quickly got up and headed to the corner of the room.

When he saw the door slightly ajar, blue-eyed creep bolted towards it leaving John and the leader confused. Creep barreled into the door full force flinging it open with a bang. When he saw Virgil standing near the last commode, he flung himself at him, pinning him up against the wall. With his forearm at Virgil’s throat he used his other arm to search him for weapons. He growled, "What the heck are you doing in here, pal?" Virgil choked, "I had to go." Creep growled some more, "Where the heck did you come from?" Virgil again tried to reply through the chokehold, "I was sitting just outside, Dude. Where do you think I came from, the ceiling?" Virgil sure hoped that by saying the truth he would throw this lousy punk off. The creep looked up at the ceiling then back at Virgil giving him a dirty look because he was made to look up at the ceiling. "Get on with your business and get back outside."

Virgil’s heart was pounding as the creep was just standing there. Virgil started to go through the motions then looked at creep with a seductive smile across his face, "Are you ‘interested' in what I am doing?" The creep just looked at him, saw a handsome, well built man in a tight shirt, then suddenly his eyes flew wide open in anger. Virgil hoped this guy wasn’t going to blow him away with that statement. He just wanted him to leave. Creep leveled his gun at him and Virgil threw his hands up in the air, "Yo, Dude, I’m sorry, but you were just standing there, and there's no other way out of this place? It really is just a misunderstanding." Being the true weirdo that he was, Creep backed up to the sink furthest from Virgil, scrubbed his hands while watching Virgil the whole time. He flashed another angry look in his direction. Then with that creep turned and stormed out of the lavatory. Virgil collapsed against the wall. "That was too close." He thought to himself. "Dumb idea! Remind yourself NEVER to pull that stunt again." He washed his hands and looking over his shoulder towards the door reached up for the paper towels. But instead of pulling out a towel or two, he reached further in to where he hid the two guns. When he saw Creep heading towards the door earlier, he had seconds to remove them from his person and stash them someplace where he hoped no one would look. Now he put them back in his ankle holsters and exited the washroom.

John saw Virgil exit out of the room that just minutes earlier the creep had blasted into. He tried to hold back any hint of recognition. Virgil just looked in their general direction and sat down in the closest chair he could find. Creep was just explaining to the dark haired fellow what happened. Virgil rubbed his neck a little. It was a bit sore from the stranglehold. John took advantage of that and asked the leader if it would be ok if he checked on his employee. He looks to be a bit shaken up. The leader hesitated, was about to say ‘no' but couldn’t think of what wrong could happen. "Ok, but make it fast. I don’t want you there long enough to plan anything."

John walked over to Virgil. Virgil looked up at John then over at the gunmen. During the split second that John obscured his vision, he said, "gun in ankle holster". John then knelt down beside Virgil. In looking like he was comforting him, John put his hand on his brother’s hand. Creep saw that and went "ewww". The dark haired man looked at him and said, "What the heck do you mean by that?" To keep the ‘advance' that Virgil made at him in the men’s room a secret, he just said, "Oh nuthin'" They saw Virgil nod his head yes, rub his neck, then John got up and left. They didn’t see John reach down and remove one of the guns from the holster. Since he had a suit on, he could put it in his pants pocket and the jacket would hide the way they hung with the extra weight. Virgil couldn’t say much to warn John what was going on, but John would take his cue from Virgil when the time was right. Virgil was now ready to give the signal to Brains to unlock the doors and let the other two in.

Suddenly they heard a muffled bang.

[Bea]

Chapter 7- In The Airwell

The quiet one felt the elevator stop. He pushed some of the buttons to see if it would start again. He took out his cell phone to try to call the dark haired fellow, but he couldn’t get a signal. He looked closer at the panel and saw both 41 and 42 buttons lit up meaning he was most probably between floors. He checked around for some kind of release button but couldn’t find one. He then tried to pry the doors open with his hands. When that failed, he took out his pocketknife and unscrewed the panel. He traced several wires to what looked like the elevator brakes. He wanted to leave them alone. He traced the floor wires, and then he found what he was looking for. The wire to the latch keeping the doors closed. He didn’t know enough to be able to unlock the door by cutting or overriding the wires, but he could see the actual lock itself. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out the C4. He looked it over, pulled a pinch off, molded it between his fingers, studied it, and pulled off a pinch more. He placed this on the level that held the elevator doors shut. He tore out 2 two-foot pieces of the wires to the floors knowing he wasn’t going to need to use this elevator anymore. He wanted to save what he had in his pocket for the roof, if it wasn’t already too late. He wired the C4, then stretched the two pieces as far as he could and touched his ends together.

There was a resounding bang as the C4 destroyed the lever that locked the doors. He took a peek at the lever and found it gone. He grabbed the doors and they slid open with ease. He found that indeed he was halfway between two floors. Angered about the whole thing, he hoisted himself up onto the 42nd floor. He looked around and decided he had better head back downstairs first to see what has happened if anything. He started taking two and three steps at a time not daring to get stuck in another elevator.

Brains had been monitoring Virgil and was waiting to receive the go ahead from him, when he realized that the guy in the elevator could have a phone. He pulled up the jammer and with less than a second to spare, he jammed all phones. He could undo individual phones, like Jeff’s as needed, but he would have needed much more time to jam only the gunman’s particular frequency. He was working on opening up Jeff’s line again for another round when they heard, or more like felt, the small blast. Brains studied the imager trying to see if anything in particular was going on. Jeff was on the line to Scott who was watching the room through John’s watch and told Jeff that the blast did not come from there. But the gunmen did react when the blast occurred. Brains then saw the once stationary figure of the elevator on the move.

Gordon’s watch com vibrated. Gordon opened up the link, "What’s up?" Brain’s face appeared on the watchface. "It s-s-seems that the g-g-guy stuck in the elevator has g-g-gotten out and he is h-h-headed d-d-down your stairwell. H-h-he was 40 flights up, b-b-but he seems to be m-m-moving at quite a c-c-clip."

Virgil whispered into his watch, "Is everything Okay? One vibrate for Okay, 2 for not Okay." He felt two vibrations. "This whomps" he thought to himself. He felt himself sink. He felt deflated, he had been all set to go. He had no idea what was happening outside this room. If necessary, he and John would be able to take these two dudes alone, but the chance of a firefight was increased. That increased the chances of a hostage getting hurt. Now it was hurry up and wait. He was a man of action, waiting was not one of his fortes. John looked over at him. Since Virgil could see the gunmen behind John, he just looked past him until he saw that neither of them were looking in his direction. Then almost imperceivably, he shook his head ‘no’.

The two kidnappers were discussing what to do. Creep said he would go see where the other guy was. But the leader said no. Maybe that was what the cops were trying to do, split everyone up. No, they were to stay here and wait for the boring guy. He shouldn’t be back yet, it would take longer than that to rig the roof. But he couldn’t understand why he hadn’t heard from him on the cell phone. But just in case the cops had him, he didn’t want to do the calling. He’ll wait to hear from him. He also didn’t want to tie up the line when he might get some good news from Mr.Rich-beyond-belief Tracy.

Gordon replied, "Ay carumba!" He turned off his watch and listened. He could just barely hear him. He wasn’t trying to be quiet, but he was still several floors up. Gordon looked through the window in the door to the first floor. He quickly deducted that there was no place for him to hide. He didn’t want to go downstairs and face all of the security guards and police sitting in the lobby. He looked up and decided to climb one flight and hoped he got into the 2nd floor before the kidnapper made it down far enough to witness the door closing. He took off up the flight of stairs making not a sound. He opened up the door to the 2nd floor…’squeeek’. "Sweet mother of Mufton!" he thought. He stopped dead and just held the door still trying to see if he could still hear the gunman flying down the stairs. Nothing. That guy had heard the door. Gordon looked around. He knew he was going to have to face the gunman now or else he would make it back to his friends and let them know that there was help on the way for the hostages. He quietly hailed his watch, "Brains, is the gunman just flying down the stairs or his is stopping to look on each floor?" Brains watched the figure in the stairwell that he knew wasn’t Gordon. "He is g-g-going straight d-d-down, uh, no w-w-wait a minute, he is s-s-starting to check e-e-each of the f-f-floors."

That was all he needed to know. He scattered down the hall, while still holding the door open. He then backed into the stairwell letting the door squeal shut. He went ½ flight down. He sure wished his pounding heart would quiet down. He felt that for sure the gunman would hear it.

Boring guy wasn’t trying to hide his whereabouts. Whoever was in the stairwell already knew he was coming. He decided to start checking several flights down. He could tell that the squeaking door was not near. He started looking through the windows of the doors on each floor. He wasn’t going to open each door because he could get clobbered before he saw the other person. He came to the second floor looked so quickly that he almost didn’t see it.

Gordon thought for sure that the gunman was going to keep on coming down the stairs and shoot him before he could climb up to him. He didn’t have his own gun drawn because he didn’t want to alert the other two gunmen by using it and if he wanted to get this dude, he needed both his hands free. His luck depended on surprise. Gordon ducked just out of view for that split second that the gunman rounded the corner. Then the gunman backed up. This is what Gordon was waiting for. The gunman was studying the hallway through the glass. He strained to see if there could be someone hiding just on the other side and was satisfied that no one could hide outside is line of vision. He turned the knob, slowly opened the door, and heard the squeak. He knew he now had the right floor.

Gordon flashed up the stairs, not making a sound. He reached the gunman just as he was preparing to peer through the open door. Using his momentum and elbow, Gordon plowed into the gunman using his elbow to smash his head against the metal door. As the gunman recoiled from the hit, Gordon used the Aikido moves he had mastered and used the gunman’s own force against him. Gordon sent the gunman flying back into the stairwell. He followed the gunman across the landing and bodyslammed him against the wall. At the moment of impact the C4 came flying out of the gunman’s pocket. Having worked in underwater demolition, Gordon recognized the plastique immediately. The gunman also realized right away that the explosive compound left his pocket. He dove for it, as did Gordon. They were grappling on the ground knocking the C4 around as they tried to make a grab for it. Gordon got an elbow in the face, knocking him away. But he recovered before the gunman could get the C4. Gordon dove for it just as the gunman tried to knock Gordon’s hand away. But he missed the hand and hit the C4. It flew over the edge and down the central opening all the way down to the basement. The fraction of time that the gunman was stunned at losing his explosive Gordon reacted. They were both still prone on the floor but Gordon raised himself up and came down hard with his fist into the side of the gunman’s face. The gunman’s vision blurred, then turned black. He was out cold.

Gordon sat back against the railing, fighting to catch his breath and trying to get his heart to stop pounding so hard. It was now that he realized he wasn’t getting as much air through his nose as he thought he should. He put his fingers up to his nose, then looked. Oh, man, he thought, that butthead broke my nose! He got out his tissue and tried to stop the bleeding fast so that they could get on with the rescue.

After just a moment, he hailed Brains. "I got the gunman in the stairwell" "G-g-gee, your n-n-nose doesn’t l-l-look in that good of shape, G-g-gordon." Brains said upon seeing his face in the monitor. "A-a-are you O-o-okay?"

Gordon nodded yes then said, "Let’s get this show on the road. Give me a few seconds to get back to the first floor."

Virgil felt the watch vibrate. He checked to see if the gunmen were paying attention to him or not. When he saw he was clear he hid his arm with the watch under the table out of their view but where he could see it. He kept it on mute, but still wanted to see them. Brains’ face showed. He gave the thumbs up sign. Virgil whispered, "Are we ready to go?" Brains nodded yes. Virgil whispered, "three, two, one…"

[Bea]

Chapter 8- Firefight

The phone rang.

As the leader went to pick it up, Virgil dove sideways away from the hostages and rolled over several times on the floor. He had his gun in his hand. John dove straight towards the gunmen landing almost at their feet. Gordon blasted through the main doors that were next to the phone, crouching low, yelling, "DROP THE GUNS, BUTTHEADS." Alan quickly but quietly opened up the doors at the far side of the conference room.

Jeff had timed his call to the kidnappers perfectly. He and Brains were watching closely. When Virgil counted down to one, Brains sent a vibration signal to the other three Tracy boys and Jeff dialed the phone in the conference room distracting the gunmen. He had it on autodial so that it took a fraction of a second to go through. He hung up when he saw that the action had already started. Unfortunately Virgil's watch went dark after a few seconds into the fight. They could see John's but it was just a dizzying blur of movement. Jeff's heart skipped a beat when he heard the automatic gunfire.

Virgil landed near the side wall but facing the kidnappers. He had his gun pointed in their general direction. John was in an awkward position right in front of and underneath them. He would need to twist upward to shoot his gun. Alan was at the far door, down on one knee, waving to the hostages to move out quickly. He ushered them out on their hands and knees.

The gunmen were caught completely off guard. The creep started shooting his automatic in Virgil's general direction since Virgil was the first in motion and caught creep's eye. Bullets were spraying off the floor and wall all around Virgil. Gordon, seeing that Virgil was in danger, took aim and shot the creep in the arm. The creep lost control of the automatic weapon and the bullets are flying in everywhich direction. The creep tried to bring his numb arm in the direction of Gordon so Gordon, the best shot of all the brothers, took aim for the gun and shot. Satisfaction filled Gordon briefly as the shot causes the automatic to jam. Not to wallow in his success, Gordon then stepped in and swept the creep's foot from underneath him at the same time shoving him in the shoulder, dropping the creep like a sack of potatoes onto the floor. He then dropped onto the creep who is face down and pinned his arms over his head against the floor.

A female hostage stood up and just started screaming hysterically. The leader felt her more than saw her and he swung his gun arm in her direction without looking and simply shouted, "I'll kill her." Gordon was busy with the creep and John was not at a good enough angle to shoot the leader. It was up to Virgil to get the shot. In a nanosecond, the vision of him missing the first shot when Lady Penelope was tied to the railroad tracks flashed before him. He was lucky then, he had time for a second shot. But, not here. This is a one shot only deal. He had to make it. Virgil aimed and fired.

The leader felt the gun jerk in his hand as the bullet hit the hammer. He didn't need to look at it to know that it was now useless. He automatically reaches across his body with his other arm to draw out a second gun. John needs to take this guy down, so he takes aim and shoots him through the leg. The leader drops on top of John and a struggle ensues. Virgil was already up and running towards Gordon who was struggling with creep. Virgil reaches inside Gordon's bag and pulls out a plastic tie, the kind the cops use as handcuffs nowadays and loops it over one of the creep's wrist. With that help Gordon can now finish containing the blue-eyed creep.

John braced himself for the hit when the leader fell on him. John had slid his gun in Virgil's direction because he knew he was going to need both hands to try and wrangle the gun from the leader. John rolled to his side as the gunman fell. His arms already reaching for the gun still partially tucked in the gunman's waistband. When the gunman landed on John, he was slightly winded but since he had prepared for the jolt, it didn't slow him down. He wrapped his leg around one of the legs of the leader and was able to roll over on top of him. But the leader shifted his weight and John lost his position and ended up back underneath him. All four hands were on the gun between the two struggling men.

Alan propped the door open with a chair and kneeling on one knee, encouraged the hostages to file out quietly on their hands and knees. He didn't need to worry about speed, they were flowing out like water through a pipe. When he had about 3/4 of the hostages out, he headed towards the fight. Everything stopped when there was a single gunshot.

The gun that John and the leader had been fighting over had gone off. They stopped struggling. Alan looked at them and thought, "This is just like the Hollywood cliffhangers. No one moves for about a year before someone finally succumbs to the bullet and dies. I can't believe no one is letting on who got hit!" He was frantic as this thought passed through his mind. Virgil, who had been standing close by, looked down as his pant leg, which gently swayed with the breeze. "Oh man, these are my best khakis" he thought, as he looked at the neat small bullet hole in his pant leg. "My dad's going to have a heart attack when he see a bullet hole in them." Luckily it missed him and just got his pantleg. He quickly looked up and saw that the leader was on top of John ready to give him what for with the gun. Angered by the fact that his pants were just shot up and John's imminent danger, he takes aim and launched himself at the leader. He tackled the dark haired man with such force that even Mean Joe Green would have cringed. The gun went flying as the gunman and Virgil each rolled separately towards the table legs and chairs. The gunman was dazed from the hit.

Alan watching it all, sees the gun fly through the air when Virgil tackled the man. He jumped for it and is able to grab it in midair. "Just like playing catch or frisbee", he thought to himself. He tucked the gun in his waistband and ran to the gunman. He had his hand in his bag grabbing for one of the pairs of the plastic handcuffs that he had. He aimed for the dazed man laying face down on the floor and landed with a knee in the center of the gunman's back. He grabbed both of his wrists, pinning them behind his back, threw the plastic straps around them, and pulled it tight. He raised both his hands yelling, "3.5 seconds, a new world record. WOO HOO!!!!!!!!"

The police and security guards downstairs heard the automatic gunfire and feared the worst. This was followed seconds later by a throng of panicking hostages pouring through the stairwell door. As the police herd the frightened people together and pull them to safety, they were asking them what happened. Several of the people were saying that they recognized some of the rescuers as the Tracys. They said they recognized at least three of the sons but they didn't hang around to make sure. They scattered at the first sounds of gunfire. They continued to gather more information from the hostages and were preparing to contact Jeff.

Virgil stood up smiling at Alan's imitation of a rodeo cowboy roping a calf. John was rolling over into a sitting position and Gordon who had just finished binding the wrists of creep still sat on creeps back. Virgil was smiling at the thought that the only injuries were to the gunmen and no one was killed. This all happened in a time frame of less than three minutes. He was still smiling as he looked around the room to see if any of the hostages were left. There was just one man left in the room and he was facing them.

He raised his arm and fired!

[Bea]

Chapter 9- Where's Waldo?

Jeff and Brains were contacted immediately by Gordon when the two gunmen were down and tied. In fact they could hear Alan's mimic of a rodeo cowboy in the background. They were both thrilled and relieved when they heard the news. Then they heard the gunshot then silence. Brains immediately looked at the imager. He could see where the four Tracy brothers were, and two untagged figures near them. It was the lone figure in the center of the room that caught his attention. Jeff was studying his watch as he was still in contact with Gordon. He was trying to see anything through Gordon's watch. Brains used his watch to contact Scott. Scott was the one with the open communication with John. Gordon's watch unfortunately didn't reveal anything. But John was trying to aim his at the newest threat. Scott informed Brains, "John gave me a brief scan of the room. I caught a glimpse of someone in the middle of the room. I'm getting the disk to replay in slow motion so that I can get a better view. Hold on." Scott looked at the 'instant replay' and saw a blurred figure standing in the center of the room, holding a gun. He couldn't make out the person, but he sure could make out a gun. Scott contacted Brains, "He has a gun alright. The guy standing in the middle of the room, one of the hostages... ..he's got a gun."

Jeff said, "C'mon, Brains, let's get down there. They have no idea that there's two more Tracys left to deal with. They exited the helijet and ran towards the doors. Brains kept the imager with him, but left the jammer behind, it was too big. Brains said the coast was clear and they went through the door, down the flight of stairs and to the freight elevator just as the others did. Unfortunately freight elevators are not automatic like passenger elevators. The person who exits that elevator needs to close the door. The Tracy boys did not bother, at that time they didn't think it necessary. So the elevator was stuck on the second floor where they left it. Jeff and Brains were going to have to hoof it all the way to the 1st floor. They looked at each other. The only other option was to take the helijet down then go up through the lobby. They would need to go through the police, but it would be faster.

Virgil didn't feel the bullet hit him. He suddenly felt very weak and just slid to the floor. Alan, John and Gordon turned their heads to look at the shooter and just froze where they were. The hostage-turned-gunman said, "Slowly raise your hands and get off my buddies."

The three brothers did as they were told. The 4th gunman motioned at them to step away. John was aware that from his vantagepoint the gunman could not see the gun that John had slid to Virgil just before his wrestling match with the leader. Virgil had never picked it up. When he stood up, he tried to stand in the direct line of vision to the gun. The dark haired man was groaning and starting to come around. Creep was straining his head to see the other gunman. John asked, "Who are you?"

He answered, "Just call me 'Waldo'." Creep cringed when he heard that. Even though his name was Waldorf Emerson Jackson, he preferred to be called Jax. He knew how much Jax hated to be called 'Waldo'. If Jax decided to cut his bonds, he was most probably going to get the crap beat out of him when this was all over. He knew Jax well enough that he was wondering if maybe it won't be better if the cops caught them now. That would put bars between him and the very angry, built like a brickhouse, Jax. He had long thinning light brown hair in a ponytail and steal gray eyes could pierce a hole in you as easily as a knife. He was not one to fool with.

"C'mon, Jax, get these things off, my hands are losing circulation." he pleaded with the 4th man. Jax looked at creep and said, "Yeah, you want me to free you?" The tone of voice he used made creep cringe even more. The leader was clear headed enough now, "Jax, where the heck did you come from?"

As Jax was patting his pockets looking for a pocketknife or some semblance thereof, he said, "I was in the stairwell coming down when I saw the commotion on this floor through the door window. When I saw you guys I slipped into the crowd," looking around he said, "Didn't Dick come back yet? Hasn't he called in?"

The two, still tied up gunmen, had rolled over on their backs then up to a sitting position. Creep said, "Dunno, you know him, he is probably still rigging the roof. He's been gone only about 10 minutes." The two men were still tied and the leader growled, "C'mon Jax, get these things off of me!" Jax snarled back, "Alright already, I ain't gotta knife." He then looked at the three Tracy brothers, "Any of yous got a knife?" The three boys looked at each other, shrugged and shook their heads, "no". When it looked like Jax was going to come over and use one of their body parts as a knife, Gordon piped up, "We traveled light. We weren't planning on hand to hand combat." Just then creep said, "I got a switchblade in my back pocket, Jax." Jax yelled, "Why the hell didn't you say so when I first started looking for a knife, you butthead?" He was growling as he approached the creep. He got down on his haunches sticking his hands inside creep's pockets looking for the switchblade.

Gordon had stepped back far enough that he stepped on the 'tossed away' gun. He froze, then stood directly in front of it. John was almost directly between him and the 4th gunman. Gordon whispered ever so softly, "Stay right where you are, John, I've got the gun right behind me." John whispered back, "All we need now is a distraction." As if on cue Virgil who was half on his side moaned and rolled onto his back. Jax turned around on his haunches to face Virgil. At that moment Gordon using his toes to grab the gun, tossed it up in one fell swoop. The leader yelled for Jax's attention since he had turned his back on the brothers. In a split second, Gordon had the gun pointed at Jax. Since he was still on his haunches behind the creep, none of the three brothers could see his right hand slipping to his waistband for the gun that he placed there when he started searching for the switchblade. He slowly raised his left hand showing that he was preparing to drop the switchblade, which he had just found. Gordon yelled for him to show his other hand. Jax was a split second away from pulling out the gun and shooting at that 'airheaded redhead'.

Jeff and Brains opted to fly the helijet down. They quickly ran back up the stairs and out to the helipad. Jeff got behind the controls and quickly started her up in the silent mode that Virgil had brought her in with. She lifted quickly up and over the side of the building. Jeff chose the side away from the conference room to make sure that no one saw them. They landed quickly in the parking lot. There were barely inches between the helijet and the surrounding parked cars. But Jeff landed her with the precision that any of his sons had. Brains and Jeff quickly exited the helijet and ran through a side door that needed one of those electric card reader keys, which of course Jeff had. They entered into the main lobby where they were stopped and held by several police. The security guards immediately recognized Mr. Tracy. The main guard there asked, "Mr. Tracy, what are you doing here?!" The officer holding Jeff's arm said, "You know this guy?" The guard said, "Yes, he owns this company. He's the one the gunmen are trying to extort money from. The guy who's been on the phone with them." The officer let go of Jeff and asked, "Okay, your security guard has stated that your are Mr. Tracy, can I see an ID to verify, please." Jeff, in hurry, but realizing that cooperation at this point is faster, showed him his Tracy Industries card. The officer was now satisfied. Jeff immediately took charge. He pointed to several of the men there, a mix of guards and officers and said, "You, you, you and you, follow me. You, you and you, follow Mr. Hackenbacker here" pointing to Brains. Jeff conferred with Brains on the location of the people. He saw that three of his sons were standing together right near the main front door. Off a little bit were three more people, the gunmen they presumed, then behind them was Virgil. It was an odd configuration. Why would Virgil be behind the 3 men and the other three sons in front? None of the Tracys were moving, just the one gunman that was near the other two gunmen. Jeff suddenly became worried. What if the gunshot they heard... ...Virgil... ...he couldn't even complete the thought. "OKay, Brains, buzz me when you are in position. Then we will go in. We know where everyone is, so we have the advantage." With that, Jeff ran towards the closest stairwell, followed by four police and guards. Brains went up the back stairs where the hostages previously poured from earlier.

When Brains reached the top of the stairs he stopped and looked through the glass. He saw that the door to the conference room was still open. With his back to his entourage, he covered his watch and whispered, "Mr. T-t-tracy, the c-c-conference room door on this s-s-side is already o-o-open." Jeff, doing the same thing as Brains whispered back, "That's ok. The door is closed on this side, but we are in the stairwell. Are you ready?" Brains answered, "Yes."

Jax was a split second away from giving Gordon a hole in the center of his forehead when he heard the soft click of a cocked gun. He froze with his hand on his gun. He slowly moved his hand about an inch away from the gun and said softly, "Now, you won't shoot a teenager in the back would you?" Virgil, pointing his own gun, which was tucked in his waistband on the side he fell on, said, "Dude, I hurt too much to care. Now put both of your hands up then stand up."

Gordon saw Jax complying with his demands. No one had heard Virgil, he had spoken so quietly. John and Alan quickly went around each side of Jax then they saw Virgil with a gun pointed at his back. Virgil quietly said, "He's got a gun in his waistband." Alan grabbed the gun as John grabbed one of Jax's wrists to put the plastic stay on. Alan grabbed the other arm and brought it down and helped John strapped that one too. While John held Jax, Alan frisked him. He then decided it would be a good idea if he checked the other two gunmen too. When Alan was starting to frisk the creep, Virgil quipped, "He's a severe butthead." Alan looked over at Virgil, and had a real mean twinkle in his eye.

Both Jeff and Brains, along with their teams, heard a blood-curdling scream followed by, "GET HIM AWAY FROM ME. THAT WHOLE FAMILY IS WEIRD!" With that, the two groups of armed men bounded into the conference room to find that the Tracy boys had everything under control. In fact all four of the boys were laughing hysterically. Virgil rolling on the floor holding his injured shoulder, half in pain, half in uncontrolled laughter. John had forced Jax to his knees. He had one hand on Jax's collar, but his other hand was on his own stomach from laughing so hard. Gordon was doubled over tears flowing from his eyes. And Alan was straddled over the creep with both hands up in a 'what did I do' gesture. He said, "I was just frisking him for weapons." The innocence in his voice not quite hiding the smirk.

When everything had quieted down. The police gathered up the three gunmen, and escorted them out of the conference room. They picked up the forth one in the stairwell, where Gordon had left him. Alan grabbed Virgil by his good arm and helped him up. He turned to John and said, "Hurry up and get over here before I drop him again."

Virgil looked at Alan, who suddenly turned beet red, John collapsed on a nearby chair, once again overcome by hysterical laughter. Jeff and Brains looked at each other in confusion. Virgil asked, "What do you mean, again?!"

"Is THAT how I got that goose-egg on my head?! You DROPPED ME?!!!" Virgil yelled. Alan turned to Jeff and said, "Dad, I think you had better handle Virgil, his wound's making him wanna go puke." He grabbed his father by the sleeve and yanked him closer so that he could hand his irate brother over. He continued, "I have some stuff to get, I'll see you later." And he bid a hasty retreat out the door.

Gordon just came back in. He looked back at Alan rushing away. "What was that all about?" he asked. Jeff answered, "I'll tell you later. Listen, there are too many media types outside waiting for us to come out. If this hits the airwaves there may be a few people that we have rescued as International Rescue who may recognize us. The media can use old still, archival photographs of us in their newscast, less chance of being recognized. Anyway, I want you to go downstairs and bring the helijet back up to the helipad. Brains and I used that instead of the elevators to get down to the first floor. Try not to let anyone get a picture of your face." Gordon rushed out after saying, "Sure thing, Dad."

Jeff and John supported Virgil to one of the still working elevators with Brains right behind them. They headed up to the top floor and out onto the roof. By the time they got there, the helijet was just landing. They got Virgil seated comfortably in the helijet and Brains checked over his shoulder wound making the decision whether or not he needs to go to the hospital first or if he can go home to the sick room. Brains turned to Jeff and said, "The b-b-bullet went right through. T-t-there is no severe b-b-bleeding. I think h-h-he can g-g-go straight h-h-home, Mr. Tracy." Just as Brains was giving Virgil a little pain medication, Alan slunk in and sat up front with Gordon. Gordon fired up the helijet and they headed home.

A few days later, Jeff was in the lounge finishing up some paperwork and phone calls to the police cleaning up after the hostage situation. He had sent all employees home after that for the rest of the week. He also had to explain to the police how the Tracy boys got into the building in the first place, how come they were so good at covert operations then where they disappeared to afterwards. But Jeff was able to smooth over the ruffled feathers of the police and hostage negotiator, citing the military training that several of the boys had. As he was concentrating on this cleanup task he heard Alan scream bloody murder. He came in dripping wet, wrapped in a towel and royal blue from top to bottom. Jeff looked up at Alan, shocked, but smothering a laugh and said, "What happened to you?!!" Alan almost in tears said, "Someone put blue dye in the shower head! He then turned and stomped off to find Grandma. She would most probably know how to take dye off. Jeff looked up then over at Virgil, who was sitting on the sofa with his arm in a sling, reading the paper. Virgil looked up over the top of the paper to Jeff and simply said, "Payback's a disaster." He went on with his reading, hiding the smirk on his face.