RE-ENTRY
Scott's head was clear, a blank canvas of thought. He pictured himself standing in a room of all white, that he could colour in any way. He often did this during his time in the Air Force, when all of the action was so intense he needed to detach himself from reality to bring himself back. Now he was doing it for International Rescue. It never lasted forever, soon he was right back where he left off, but for now he closed his eyes, took it all in, formulated his own plan. Then the explosion shattered his silence. It was so loud he shot up in his seat, but the piercing white light of the blaze was so blinding he had to turn Thunderbird 1 away from the danger zone- he rather cherished his sight. When he turned the craft back round, the entire cliffside was ablaze in an inferno of molten rock and poisonous gas. This was it then, the complex was finished.
"Virgil!" He shouted down the radio, "Virgil, you have to get out of there now! The whole complex has just gone up!"
"Yeah I know!" Virgil responded over the crackling radio link, the rocks causing an imbalance of interference. "I've managed to free the workers but this place is a maze and we can't find a way out."
Another jet of fire shot up into the air, and Scott could see the entire cliff face begin to split into two.
"Virgil, I give you about 30 seconds before this cliff splits in half, you have to get out of there now."
"It's OK Scott, I've f...nd the main t...nnel, we're just exiting the co...lex n..w..."
Virgil's voice trailed off as the interference grew too great for Scott to bear. Grimacing, he turned his radio off.
And the entire complex detonated.
The explosion hit Thunderbird 1 like a 40 tonne jackhammer, sending it spinning wildly off course. The sudden increase in g-force threw Scott out of his seat and against the roof of Thunderbird 1, snapping his neck back as he hit the top. He only blacked out for a couple of seconds, but when he came to, Thunderbird 1 was already spiralling towards the ground in a manic dive.
"No!" He shouted, and tried to walk back to his seat, but stumbled to the floor as his brain rushed passed his body in a blurry head rush. "Aaaargh, come on Scott, you can do this!" He said, motivating himself as he dragged his body across the ground, and into his seat. Fumbling for his controls, he finally found his right hand seat lever, and pushed it into its maximum forward position, and Thunderbird 1 stopped dead in its tracks, hovering just a few metres above the ground. Scott let out a great sigh, slumping back in his seat in relief. Then a thought came into his head:
"Virgil"
"Right behind you" He responded. "We got out just in time. Looks like Thunderbird 1 took quite a beating from that explosion. Brains is going to love trying to fix that mess."
"Thunderbird 1 wasn't the only thing to take a beating" Scott replied wearily, his body feeling heavy and lethargic from the insane stress it had been put under.
"You OK Scott?"
"I think so, I should be alright to get this thing back to base. Just don't tell dad I blacked out or he'll put me on indefinite sick leave like he did Gordon after the Detroit HydroDam rescue."
"You actually...? Jesus Scott, you should tell dad and make sure you haven't done any damage to yourself."
"I'll be fine Virgil, really. Now let's get out of here, you have passengers to drop off."
Floating in space was fun. Really, really fun. For Daniella Brinkov, it had been her dream since she was a little girl, and now here she was. Of course, she wasn't supposed to be 'just floating' in space, but she'd finished fixing the faulty command module and had at least 3 hours left in her oxygen tank, so she thought she might just float around for a bit.
"Dani, you finished fixing the module yet or not?"
'Well', she thought, 'that lasted long'. "Yes Marcus, I've finished fixing the module, all systems should be back online."
"Excellent! Now get yourself back onboard, no point staying outside by yourself and wasting oxygen"
"Yeah, no point to you maybe" She sighed, but she knew Marcus wouldn't let go about it, so she made her way to the airlock and entered the station. KR-13 was a Russian led observation space station that contained 5 crew members. Daniella herself was the engineer of the group, whilst Marcus was overall project leader- though everyone wished he wasn't. He wasn't even properly Russian, as people always liked to point out. Then again, neither was she. The other members of the space station included Igor Crancovic- the communications officer, Dimitri Brokalovic- navigations and experimentations expert, and Valentina Saschenko- data expert of the working team. The 5 of them had been onboard KR-13 for almost 2 months now, watching the world for all of the fun interactions the universe was having with the Earth's atmosphere. Some of them were fascinating, an intricate mix of every colour in the universe, constantly shifting in dimension. Some of them were invisible, explosions of energy that could only be seen by KR-13's incredible computers. Some of them had never been seen before; some of them would always remain hidden; Some of them were deadly.
The sun was shining on Lady Penelope, the beautiful day that it was. But for her, this was not a time to be sitting out and relaxing, this was a time to get down to business. Since International Rescue had first started, she had been tracking down information on The Hood, and now she was ready to report back. Carefully, she twisted the handle of her teapot, and opened the link to Tracy Island;
"International Rescue from Lady Penelope. Come in International Rescue."
"Penny!" Jeff exclaimed. "It's nice to hear from you again. What's the news this time?"
"I've concluded my research into 'The Hood'. I fear he may be someone far more dangerous than we first envisaged."
"I see. What are the details?"
"After consulting a few of my- well, Parker's- contacts, it would seem that this character is very well known in the criminal black markets. He specialises in sabotage stealing technological secrets, and is willing to completely disregard everybody's safety to acquire them."
"That sounds serious. Have the authorities not found this criminal?"
"They've tried, but I'm afraid they've been rather unsuccessful. There's something else though; The Hood supposedly possesses powers of some kind, that can disorientate or hypnotise people, and I fear that is what makes him so dangerous."
"Powers?" Jeff queried. "How reliable are these contacts?"
"Parker trusts them, and therefore so do I. How are the boys?" She said, changing the subject.
"Scott and Virgil are just back from a rescue in the Swiss Alps. Scott's pretty banged up but I think he's going to be fine. Another successful mission."
"That's good to hear. Give the boys all the best from me, and be careful Jeff" Penelope finished with, and shut off the line.
Scott didn't know how long he'd been asleep, but he knew that however long it had been, it was worth it. As he stood up, he felt much better. Fitter, stronger, recovered. After landing he had gone straight to his room and fallen asleep. Virgil, naturally, had told Jeff everything about the rescue, including the fact that Scott had been unconscious. Jeff, the overly concerned father that he was, went to check on Scott, but as he was asleep he decided to leave him alone. Now, Scott was awake again, and ready for action.
"I heard you took quite a beating" came a voice, and Scott almost jumped out of his skin.
"Jesus Penny you almost scared me to death." He said, resting a hand on his chest as a symbol of his raised heartbeat.
"Forgive me for being concerned for your wellbeing." Penny replied, before adding "Are you OK?"
"Yeah I'm fine, nothing I couldn't sleep off. It's nice of you to check up on me. Certainly beats Alan jumping on my bed and asking half a dozen questions about how I almost became incapacitated."
"Well, it wouldn't be very good of me if I didn't, would it? Although I always have faith in your capability to survive your rescues, it doesn't stop me worrying about you."
"I think you should probably get off now before you start to show some emotion." Scott said, and Penelope made an 'unimpressed' face. Just then, Scott heard his door start to open, and hastily shut off the link himself.
"Hey dad" He said as Jeff entered.
"It's nice to see you're awake Scott. Feeling better?"
"Yeah, much better. I sure am hungry though, do you know what Grandma is cooking for dinner?"
"No, but I'm sure you'll like it" Jeff said, and they both exited the room, heading straight for the kitchen.
Alan stood in the hangar, staring at Thunderbird 3. Although he had been on rescues since IR had begun operating, he had yet to take Thunderbird 3 on one, with him as command. He had always been backup to Scott or Virgil, with everything on the ground. He was an astronaut at heart, someone who longed to be speeding amongst the stars. Not like John, who was happy just to be floating around in space. No, Alan had be blasting his way through the cosmos. He knew he had to be patient. One day he would be able to take Thunderbird 3 for a ride.
Daniella was floating in her room. Despite being on a space station, this was the only place she could experience the zero-gravity she so enjoyed other than when she went outside. That was Marcus' fault; As the leader of the team he decided that he wanted normal gravity onboard the space station. As such, this meant Daniella spent most of her time in her small, yet well balanced room. The only problem with that was that she didn't really have very much to do. She might as well go into the command centre and see if she could make herself useful. She exited her room with a graceful drop to the floor, and walked in.
"So what fun things is everyone up to then?" She asked, in English. Despite 4 out of the 5 of them speaking Russian, Marcus was the team leader and he only spoke English. Therefore, they all spoke English whilst he was in the room. It didn't bother Dani particularly, as she could speak English, Russian and Italian perfectly well, but some of the others hated it.
"We're recalibrating the photosphere module and aligning the camera's data stream to that of your new module." Marcus answered.
"What he means to say is we're aligning the data stream whilst he's sat on his fat ass eating Doritos" Valentina added, making sure Marcus heard it. Both Daniella and Valentina often shared their theories about how Marcus managed to land such a prestigious position. Apparently he had 'exceptional success' in previous missions, but Dani reckoned he was probably screwing their boss to get the lead role.
"You might want to rethink your statement" Dimitri suddenly said from his station. "I've just picked up a massive energy signature in our area."
"Let me take a look" Marcus said, walking over. Both Valentina and Igor joined him too, as they tried to decipher what the energy signal was.
"It's too big to be a proton storm" Valentina suggested. "Too compact too."
"Then what the hell is it?" Marcus demanded.
"I don't know!" Valentina shouted, annoyed. "You're supposed to be the one here that knows everything."
"Want to come take a look Dani?" Igor asked, but she shook her head.
"No thanks, I've already seen half your data and it means nothing to me. Just tell me if you need anything fixed."
"OK, no problem. Can you fix Marcus?" He replied, and Marcus shot him some eye daggers.
"Wait a second everyone." Dimitri said, and they all stopped. "Something is not right here. This source, it's too compact to be an energy wave, but too large to be a particle storm. This isn't right."
"I wonder what on Earth it could be." Marcus said, but no one was listening to him, only Dimitri.
"Oh no..." Dimitri then said, frantically, pushing buttons and bringing up screens. " ублюдок! I know exactly what this is. It's a satellite."
"Oh, that's not too bad then." Valentina said, but Dimitri stopped her.
"No, when I saw this, I thought it was an energy spike or something, it would go straight through us... But this is a solid mass... and it's heading straight towards us... готовьтесь!"
The last thing Daniella remembered was being blinded by the brilliant white light of the explosion. Now she was stuck in a state of nothingness- she couldn't see, she couldn't hear, and she couldn't feel. She had no idea what had just happened. Then, suddenly, all of her senses returned at once. She cried out in agony as her whole body contracted from the pain of regaining consciousness. The heat burned the back of her neck, fire raging beside her, smoke filling the command room. But, above everything, it was the loudspeaker's announcement that really brought her back to her senses;
"OXYGEN PURGE IMMINENT. WARNING, OXYGEN PURGE IMMINENT. WARNING..."
Daniella sprung to her feet. Immediately, she spotted Dimitri laying next to her- he was in a bad way, blood covering the entire left side of his face and what looked like it could be a broken arm. He was still alive though, that was the main thing. She hauled Dimitri up and dragged him out of the command room and into the observation chamber, which was still intact. Frantically, she went back to find the others; Igor, Valentina and Marcus were all also laying around, unconscious. The right side of Marcus' body had signs of burns, but the other two looked OK from the outside. She could feel her breathing getting erratic as the oxygen drained from the room, but she forced herself to carry on. Eventually, everyone was out, and she sealed the doors.
"Computer" She rasped, remembering the AI only understood English, another thing that had come out of Marcus' leadership. "What is the oxygen level inside the Obsevation Chamber?"
"There is oxygen in the chamber to last 4 hours and 12 minutes." It replied.
"4 hours" Daniella acknowledged. "4 hours left until we all die."
As Scarlett strode down the walkway and into the conference room, she felt strangely calm. Calm in not only in herself, but in her mission. She had even bought a new, sky blue suit specially for the occasion. Accompanied by a white shirt and black suit trousers, she had even dyed blue streaks into her bleached blonde hair to match the new suit. As she took her place at the head of the conference table, she took a look around at everyone else. Scarlett wondered how much they would be willing to invest in her, in her plan for the future, how passionate they could be for the cause. When the big, bald man at the end of the table nodded for her to begin, she cleared her throat;
"Ladies and Gentlemen, have any of you heard about an organisation called International Rescue?"
There had to be a way out. There just had to be a way off the Space Station. After spending 10 minutes checking that everyone else was still alive, Daniella had decided that she was not going to die onboard KR-13. But how was she going to do it? They were all currently stuck in the Observation Chamber, which was a dead end as far as she was concerned- the only way out was through the now de-oxygenated Control room. She needed outside help, but by the time Moscow had sent a relief shuttle, the oxygen would be gone. Then it hit her, just the inspiration she had needed- she was going to call International Rescue. Frantically, she scrambled to pull her portable radio off her utility belt. It was usually used when somebody wanted her to fix something, but she just hoped that International Rescue could pick up the signal- she had no idea what frequency they worked on.
"International Rescue. International Rescue this is space station KR-13. Please come in, this is an emergency!"
John was asleep onboard Thunderbird 5. He usually had to change his sleeping pattern based on when rescues came in, to the point that he didn't really have a sleeping pattern anymore anyway. To make sure he never slept through an emergency call, he had a system of alarms installed onboard Thunderbird 5. And now, they were going off.
"Uhh come on" He sighed, groggily, as he hauled himself out of bed, and made his way into the comms room. "This is International Rescue, reading you loud and clear. What's the problem?"
"Oh thank god!" Daniella exclaimed. "My name is Daniella Brinkov, Chief Engineer of Space Station KR-13. I don't know what's happened, we've had some sort of collision and now I'm trapped."
"OK" John said, taking in the situation. "Take it slowly. How many of you are there?"
"There's 5 of us, but I'm the only one still conscious. The others are in a bad way."
That's not what John had wanted to hear. "Do you know where you are on the station at the moment?"
"Yes, but we can't get to the airlock without passing through the command and control centre, but there was an oxygen purge in there after the collision so now it's uninhabitable. I can't get the suits because they're on the other side too."
"Is the structure stable?"
"Yes, as far as I can tell, but we only have 4 hours of oxygen remaining in this room because the pumps are offline."
4 hours. They were going to have to work fast. "OK Daniella, keep this line open. We will be with you as soon as possible. Just hang tight."
As soon as John's eyes started to flash, Jeff jumped out of his chair.
"What is it John?"
"We have an emergency call father. Russian Space Station KR-13 is in distress after some sort of collision. There are 5 people onboard that are trapped, and worse still they only have 4 hours of oxygen remaining on the station."
"OK John, thanks." He turned to Scott and Brains, who were also in the room. "Scott, go get Alan, tell him to prep for Thunderbird 3's launch."
"Yes father, straight away."
"Brains, what do you make of this?"
"Well KR-13 is a scientific r-research space station, so it's built of s-strong stuff. I'm hoping it can hold together until Thunderbird 3 arrives and gets them out. It-It actually follows the same orbit as Thunderbird 5, albeit further behind than us. D-Do we know w-what hit it?"
"No we don't" John replied, still tuned in. "The girl I spoke to said she didn't know what hit them, but I get the feeling it was something big."
"It would have to be, to cause so much d-damage."
"OK. John, get me the Russian Space Agency, maybe they can help us out."
John disappeared for a few seconds, but when he returned he said "OK father, you're connected."
Jeff steadied himself, making sure that he pressed 'sound only' on his intercom. So many times he had almost pressed video as he was so used to.
"This is International Rescue calling RSA."
"This is RSA reading you strength 5 International Rescue. My name is Alexi; I take it you're calling about KR-13."
"We are" Jeff acknowledged. "We're trying to work out specifics before we send a rescue team up for recovery. We believe KR-13 was involved in a collision of some sort, do you know what hit it?"
Jeff could hear Alexi shouting something Russian in the background. "We believe that KR was hit by a decommissioned European Space Agency Relay Booster Satellite. We're still working on how it became dislodged from its orbit, but our communications bridge was severed 15 minutes ago, which means the collision likely happened on the south side of the station. We haven't been able to contact them since."
"OK, thank you Alexi. We'll bring you team back, don't worry."
"Thank you International Rescue. Good luck."
Scott returned with Alan just as Jeff finished the call. Alan, naturally, looked excited to be going on his first space mission. Scott looked wary.
"So is it true?" Alan asked Jeff, "We're finally getting to use Thunderbird 3?"
"That's right Alan. Has Scott briefed you on the mission?"
"Space station hit by unknown object, crew trapped onboard, need to be rescued. That about right?"
"Yeah... Just about." Jeff said, hoping Alan's excitement didn't jeopardise the mission. "Brains, any requirements?"
"I've already installed t-the low pressure spa-ace suits onboard Thunderbird 3 that you'll n-need to use. You'll have to locate the other suits onboard the station to get the crew out. Otherwise it's a simple r-recovery."
Alan was already sat on the sofa that would lead down to Thunderbird 3's hangar, but as Scott went to join him, Jeff held him back.
"Are you sure you've recovered enough for this?" He said in his 'concerned' voice.
"I'm fine father, really. Besides, Alan's so excited for this I doubt I'll have much to do anyway."
"Just watch yourself" Jeff said, "Off you go."
Scott always thought Thunderbird 3 had a weird boarding system. Unlike Thunderbirds 1 or 2, you had to ride the sofa all the way down to the hangar, then it would take you up into the rocket itself. After they had docked, Alan and Scott took up their positions at the front of the craft.
"Gravity on or off?" Alan asked Scott as he pushed several buttons on his dashboard, each lighting up a different colour.
"Does it matter? We're not going to be up there for very long." Scott replied, plotting the navigation route on his trusty computer port.
"Fair point" Alan said, and both of them inserted their key into its slot. Thunderbird 3 couldn't take off without both keys, which was mainly to stop anybody stealing it, but also so that Alan didn't go into space by himself. Alan thought it was unfair, Jeff thought it was sensible, Scott couldn't care less.
"Ready for liftoff procedure" Alan said, and they both twisted their keys to the right. Alan ramped up the vertical power lever, and the engines ignited. The entire area lit up orange as the supreme ion thrusters overcame gravity and pushed Thunderbird 3 into the air, plumes of red hot smoke erupting from beneath them as they made their way into space. The thrusters would shut off as soon as they hit the Mesosphere, and then they would drift to the target, guided by Scott's navigation. They would be there in less than 30 minutes.
Daniella had been sat there, deep in her own thoughts, when she suddenly spotted something out of the corner of her eye. One advantage of being on the observation deck was the 360 polarised window, which meant she could see anything outside. And now she could see something, a red rocket ship approaching the station, glowing in the reflected sunlight. It was like nothing she'd ever seen.
"KR-13 from International Rescue" Her radio crackled. "We are on approach, ETA 2 minutes. Request Airlock access for docking."
"Of course." She replied. "How bad is the damage to the station?"
"Er... Bad." The voice replied. "You're lucky you all survived."
"Yeah, just about." Daniella said, looking at the 4 unconscious bodies beside her. She fiddled with her toolbelt for a minute, before finally finding the remote release button for the airlock. Alan and Scott could see it retract as they pulled up, and docked Thunderbird 3 onboard the stricken Space Station.
"Right then, let's find her" Alan said as they disembarked, with Scott following. Both of them had their spacesuits on, a marked difference from the regular International Rescue outfits.
"Turn your lights on" Scott said, and Alan illuminated his suit. The Space station had gone dark, but now they could see the destruction for themselves.
"This must have be the epicentre of the crash." Alan said, pulling metallic debris out of their path. There were small flames all around the room, giving the area an eerie glow, and the ruins of what was the command centre lay strewn across the floor. Alan had to pick up a large dome as he went to retrieve the suits. As he looked at it, he could make out the letters E.S.A. written across it. This was definitely the epicentre.
"Grab the suits" Scott said, preparing to open the doors to the observation room. "Then let's get the hell out of here."
The rescue itself wasn't particularly difficult: After breaching the doors to the observation room, they had managed to get suits on all of the unconscious Cosmonauts, along with Daniella herself. Between them, they managed to get all subjects back aboard Thunderbird 3, which had been made easier now that Alan and Scott had cleared most of the debris away from their path back to TB3. As Alan and Scott sat in their pilot and co-pilot seats respectively, Daniella took up a seat in the back. There was a pause, a silence as they were about to disembark.
The flames should have given it away.
There was an almighty crash.
Scott and Alan were already strapped into their seats; As Thunderbird 3 did a cartwheel, they managed to ride it out. Daniella, however, wasn't, the force of the jolt sending her across the cockpit of Thunderbird 3. Somehow she managed to steady herself, and pull herself back to the boys.
"What the hell was that?" Alan shouted, wrestling with Thunderbird 3's controls to try to steady themselves. Then he remembered they were still enclosed by the airlock.
"I have no idea!" Daniella shouted. "It sounded like some kind of explosion."
"Right now I don't care what it was!" Scott shouted, "Just release us from the airlock!"
Acknowledging his command, Daniella went to her airlock release control, and pressed the button. Nothing. She pressed it again... Nothing. It wasn't working.
"This was only the transmitter" Daniella said when Scott asked why it didn't work. "It used a relay onboard the station to actually open the airlock, which must have been damaged in the explosion. Without it the airlock won't open and we're trapped."
"Base from Thunderbird 3" Alan said over their own radio. "We have a situation."
"What's going on boys?" Jeff's voice came back to them.
"Something's happened onboard the Space Station and Thunderbird 3 is now trapped in the airlock."
"Brains!" Jeff shouted, and the technician ran straight into the room that Jeff was standing in. "Brains, can you bring up a projection of KR-13's orbital path."
"R-Right away, Mr T-Tracy." He stammered, before illuminating the room with a holographic map of KR-13 above the Earth. "It would seem that KR-13 is losing its orbit and heading back into the Earth's atmosphere. The explosion must have knocked it badly out of orbit."
"That's bad, isn't it" Alan asked.
"Yes" Brains and Daniella both said simultaneously.
"If you carry on, the entire unit will burn up, and that includes T-Thunderbird 3." Brains continued. "Are you sure you c-can't detach from the a-airlock?"
"Not at the moment. The relay station onboard is no longer functional."
"What f-frequency does it use?"
"750MHz"
"I t-think I may have an idea. John, you will want to listen in on this too.""
"I already was" He replied, his face appearing where his paining should be yet again.
"KR-13 is in the orbital pathline of Thunderbird 5. As it is falling to Earth, it is also accelerating, and will soon catch up with John. Once it is close enough, John can send a 750MHz s-signal in their direction and release Thunderbird 3."
"That sounds good." John said.
"O-Only one problem. The timing will have to be just right. If you are too early it won't reach them, too late and they'll have already entered the Earth's atmosphere. It has to be p-perfect."
As KR-13 zipped through the upper atmosphere, it left a bright orange burning trail of broken parts. If they weren't about to die, Alan might have seen it as rather beautiful.
"What's wrong?" Scott said, sitting besides his little brother.
"The fact we're about to burn to a crisp might be a start." Alan replied, refusing to look at him.
"That's normal for us. Something else is wrong, I can tell. It's Tin-Tin, isn't it?"
"How did you know about that!?" Alan almost exploded, more out of surprise than anything else.
"I saw the two of you kissing a couple of days ago. I didn't know who knew, so I kept it to myself."
"We want to tell dad, but we're too worried about how he'd react. We haven't been together that long, I don't want to ruin it."
"I'm sure dad wouldn't mind, at least Tin-Tin lives on the Island."
"You, of all people, are telling me dad wouldn't mind. You haven't told him that yourself and Penelope are together, and you've been an item for what, 6 months?"
"That's different" Scott said, and Alan gave him a funny look. "Dad and Penny are almost inseparable. I doubt he'll take kindly to someone taking his time away from her. Besides, we've told everyone else, it's hardly that much of a secret."
"We could always tell him together?" Alan suggested. For once Scott didn't disagree.
"You two do know I can hear you, right?" John's voice came over the radio. "You left the channel open. Sorry Alan."
"Well, I guess that makes it a bit easier."
"It does. And on more good news, I'm almost ready to get you out of there."
"You might want to hurry up" Alan said, his face suddenly growing more worried. "Heat shields have just hit maximum."
"So soon?" Scott asked, confused.
"We're falling faster than anticipated" Daniella said from behind them. "I can feel it."
There was a sudden pop as a panel flew off Thunderbird 3's exterior. Then another. They were starting to feel the heat.
"John you've got to do it now!" Alan shouted.
"No. You're too far away. The signal wouldn't reach."
"JOHN!"
"NO!" John responded loudly. He took a breath, steadied himself. He had to get this right- but they were in trouble, Thunderbird 3 was, to a great extent, on fire.
"John, for god's sake man, just do it. TB3 is about to fall apart." But there was silence. They waited for something, that one word...
"NOW"
There was an incredible high pitched squeal, and Alan slammed the thrusters into full reverse. Thunderbird 3 cannonballed out of the airlock, and KR-13 exploded behind them. Alan balanced the pitch controls, and within seconds they had gone from burning to flying. John had done it. Alan let out a scream of delight and hugged Scott tightly, whilst Daniella applauded them. John, up on Thunderbird 5, gave himself a little celebratory fist pump, whilst, back on Tracy Island, Jeff let out the biggest sigh of relief. They were going to be OK.
"Great job boys" He said over the radio. "I'm proud of both of you. Mission accomplished."
"Thanks dad" Scott replied, "That one was too close for comfort."
Scarlett walked into the dimly lit room, alone in her thoughts. As she sat down, she could see that there was another person sat at the opposite end of the table. He was blacked out, almost a silhouette. Scarlett was under no illusion this was purposeful.
"I have reviewed your proposal Miss Dekker" The man began, calmly and methodically. This was not the first time he had done this. "Whilst I can agree with the ideas and principles behind it, I am somewhat concerned by your lack of skills, resources and funding for the project."
"With respect" She began, then realised this guy probably cared little for respect. "I refute the first part of your concerns. I am more than capable of performing this assignment. You forget that I won't be alone on this mission."
"You'll forgive me for not believing you without any proof."
"You'll have to trust me."
"Trust is a myth." He snapped, cutting her off. "And your 'skills' are useless without the other two points."
"We already have the high resolution camera, and we already know that it works. Now all we need is a sonic disruption device. I believe, if you were to forward some of the money now then we could easily acquire the device and easily solve the funding issue."
"Not a chance. Myself and my partners have fought very hard to keep SkyeTech out of the eyes of the law. Forwarding the money now puts all our investors at risk of exposure. As you can see from my appearance, we take our privacy very seriously." He took a sip from is cup, slower than he should have. He was making her sweat. "Now, tell me about your partner; This wasn't mentioned in your proposal."
"He is a very clever man" Scarlett said carefully, she didn't know how much she should reveal. "He is actually the person who devised this opportunity."
"Why is he not here pitching this idea then?"
"Like you, he values his anonymity. I guess you could call me his mouthpiece, aswell as his partner."
"Have you worked together before?"
"We have, and he has experience with International Rescue too. He may have failed to deliver the information that day, but we learned valuable lessons."
"Such as?"
"International Rescue value their secrets as much as they value other people's lives, but they are breachable. We actually attained photographic evidence of their craft, but it was destroyed. Now, however, we know that it can be done, and with both of us it will be so much easier."
The man didn't respond to that. He just sat there for 10 minutes; Scarlett didn't know what she should do: Leave, wait or speak. She chose to wait, and then he finally spoke.
"You must appreciate the lengths I go to in order to keep myself and my business partners' interests safe, Miss Dekker. On no grounds can I forward you the money, but I am convinced in your ideals. You will have to acquire the resources yourself, but our offer of $200M on completion remains. You have 7 days to bring me technological secrets of the International Rescue craft, along with proof that it is genuine. And Miss Dekker, let me make it perfectly clear to you that, should you and your partner fail, I will have no problem in making sure neither of you walk this Earth again. Do not disappoint me...
Or you will meet you doom."