Another big thank you for the reviews - they really do make my day! Whirlgirl - thanks so much for all your comments - you're right, 'stray details' are much more fun than simply telling the whole story!

Chapter Ten

Virgil awoke late the next morning with a pounding headache and the feeling that something was very wrong. Carefully opening his eyes and squinting across the room he wasn't surprised to see Scott's bed empty, but the fact that it was unmade was more of a puzzle – it may have been years since Scott had left the Air Force, but his old habits of leaving his quarters immaculately clean and tidy hadn't disappeared. Virgil didn't have the energy to wonder about it right now, though. Lying back he closed his eyes again, but something nagged at him and he couldn't settle back down to sleep. Then he realised what was wrong. Grateful as he was for an uninterrupted night's sleep after his adventures of the night before, he knew that it shouldn't have happened. Why hadn't Scott woken him periodically as he'd intended? And where was he now? He wasn't on duty at the pool until later that afternoon. Suddenly Virgil was worried. He called out for his brother,

"Scott? You here?"

There was no reply. Virgil was just about to put out a call via his watch when he heard a faint moan. His headache forgotten, he was out of bed and at the bathroom door in an instant, shocked to see his brother leaning against the wall with his head in his hands.

"What's wrong?" Virgil asked with concern, noting how pale his brother looked.

Scott only managed another groan before he crashed to his knees and began to be sick. Virgil could only watch helplessly.

"Scott? What's the matter?"

It took Scott a minute to recover enough to answer.

"Sick."

"I can see that. What's brought this on?"

"Don't know. Something I ate, maybe. Didn't feel so good last night." Another wave of sickness hit him and Virgil ran a facecloth under cold water, handing it to his brother when he'd recovered.

"Thanks," Scott gasped, holding the facecloth over his face for a moment, grateful for its coolness.

"How long have you been like this? You should have told me."

"Couple of hours. Didn't want to worry you." Scott said weakly. He looked up at his brother and Virgil could see that his eyes were barely focusing. "You okay? Meant to check on you but I guess I must've fallen asleep."

"I'm fine. Better than you anyway." Virgil sat down beside him trying to work out what to do. "I'll get you a doctor."

"Don't need a doctor," Scott insisted through gritted teeth. Virgil wasn't surprised by the comment and he felt a little reassured. Scott was still his normal self. Even so, he knew his brother couldn't be left like this.

"Stay there, I'll get help."

"Don't want a doctor," Scott slurred again. Insisting he felt a little better he started to get up. A wave of dizziness swept over him and Virgil caught him as he stumbled. He helped his brother back to the bed and looked down at him anxiously.

"You look terrible."

Scott didn't reply, having drifted into semi-consciousness as soon as he'd hit the bed. Virgil sat back down on his own bed, watching his brother uneasily. Suddenly his watch vibrated. It was Penny.

"What is it, Penny? I'm a bit tied up at the moment – Scott's sick."

"Scott too? Half the staff seem to be collapsing. Something's very wrong. Are you alright, Virgil? You look awfully pale."

"I'm fine." Well, apart from the headache, but he wasn't going to tell Penny about that, not when there were more important things to worry about. "Does anyone have any idea what's wrong?"

"Well, Connie thinks that only the staff who live on the premises are affected. They all seem to have eaten in the canteen last night."

"That would make sense. I didn't eat anything last night, but there was nothing wrong with Scott's appetite. It could just be food poisoning, I suppose, but it seems a bit of a coincidence don't you think?" Virgil was inclined to suspect the food had deliberately been tampered with.

"You're probably right. The local hospital is sending a team of doctors down here so they'll run some tests. I'll let you know when they arrive. You'd better stay with Scott."

"Okay. Let me know if there's anything I can do."

"Well, at this rate Connie might have you cleaning the rooms and cooking dinner, but we'll worry about that once we're sure everyone's going to be alright."

Virgil frowned as he ended the conversation. Checking on Scott who appeared to be fast asleep, he sat back and wondered what to do next. Whether this was just another one of those incidents designed to hurt Connie, or whether it was a deliberate attack on Scott he didn't know. But following the attacks on Penny and himself he had to assume that their true purpose in being at Bailey's had been discovered. Even so, poisoning half the staff just to get as Scott seemed a bit drastic. Maybe this really was just another one of the incidents designed to make life difficult for Connie. Pondering the possibilities made his head hurt though so he gave up, getting himself a glass of water and some painkillers before calling Tracy Island to break the news to his father. As Virgil had anticipated, the news didn't please Jeff, especially coming so soon after the attack on his middle son. His father was frantic with worry about both his boys, but Virgil was starting to feel better and he reassured his father that he was fine, promising to keep him updated on Scott's condition before signing off.

Checking his brother over once more he was dismayed to see that he was deteriorating rapidly. He didn't respond to Virgil's increasingly desperate attempts to wake him.

"Scott? Scott!" Virgil was shouting now but Scott didn't seem to hear him. He shook his brother's shoulder, then, when that didn't have any effect, grabbed both shoulders and shook him more violently. Scott didn't stir. Virgil could feel how hot he was and as he listened to his breathing become louder and harsher, he knew something was terribly wrong. Hands shaking, he activated his watch and put in a frantic call to Penny, demanding that she get a doctor over as soon as possible.

Virgil could tell that Penny's legendary calm had been shaken by his call and there was the hint of a tremor in her voice as she promised to get help straight away. All Virgil could do then was wait. He debated whether to call his father again then decided there was no point worrying him further until he had more concrete news. Returning to Scott, he continued to try to rouse him, panic starting to take hold as his brother failed to respond.

Back on the island Jeff was discussing the situation with Gordon. Concerned about both Scott and Virgil, he'd been debating whether to take a trip to Bailey's himself and the two of them were considering the practicalities of running International Rescue with so many operatives away from base.

"I think-"

Jeff was cut off mid-sentence when Alan burst into the room.

"Dad! There's a problem at the hotel!"

"Calm down, Alan. What problem? Something other than the food poisoning?"

"You know about that?" Alan stared at him, his dismay obvious.

Jeff looked at him curiously. "Yes, I know. I've just been speaking to Virgil. But how do you know?"

Alan hesitated. The pause was long enough for Jeff to become suspicious.

"Alan?"

Gordon came over to his brother.

"Al? What's going on?"

Alan drew in a breath. "The thing is... You know I was supposed to go through the information we got from the bugs in Richard Bridges' office..."

"Yes." There was a sharp edge to Jeff's voice. Like Gordon he hadn't failed to notice the word 'supposed'.

"Well, I guess I must have got... er... side-tracked last night. I kind of forgot to check to see if anything had come up. I've just been going over it now and I found something. You need to hear this, it's from yesterday afternoon."

He turned to his father's computer, well aware that Jeff was just biding his time to interrogate him. 'Side-tracked' didn't quite go far enough to cover what he'd really been up to, but he'd missed Tin-Tin when he'd been away and one thing had led to another...

Jeff and Gordon listened as Bridges' voice filled the room. The voice on the other end of the phone line was indistinct and no names were mentioned, but as the conversation went on it became clear that their suspicions of Bridges had been justified.

"All set?" Bridges asked. "I'll head up to the canteen later and put the stuff in the food."

The other voice – a man's, but that was all they could work out – said something, causing Bridges to raise his voice in reply.

"I know what I'm doing! You know yourself those berries aren't fatal. But let's see Connie run her hotel with half the staff off sick. Just don't forget to eat a little bit yourself – you can exaggerate the symptoms, but it's best not to arouse suspicion. If we're seen to be affected then no one will think we had anything to do with it."

There was a pause as the other speaker went on at some length. When he spoke again Bridges sounded shaken but no less adamant.

"You'd better hope he finds it. We need that evidence – sooner or later we're going to have to make a run for it. The more money we get before then the better."

The call ended as Bridges replaced the phone and Alan stopped the playback.

Jeff was silent for a moment and Alan watched him nervously, bracing himself for the explosion he knew was imminent.

"What time did he make this call?" Jeff finally asked.

"Just before four pm," Alan told him. He could see Gordon shaking his head out of the corner of his eye, but he kept his gaze fixed on his father.

"Four pm!" Jeff was obviously making an effort to keep his temper under control. "So if you'd picked up on this when you should have done instead of hours later, we'd have been able to warn Scott and Virgil. They could have got to Bridges and found out exactly what was going on."

"They can go now if you tell them though, can't they?" Alan asked tentatively.

"Well, Virgil might, if he's up to it, which right now I very much doubt. He was attacked last night. Parker had to drag him out of a burning building."

Alan looked alarmed, glancing over at Gordon for reassurance. It wasn't forthcoming. Gordon knew what was coming next. He understood his father's anger at his younger brother – right now he didn't feel too kindly towards him himself. Jeff went on,

"And as for Scott – he ate in the canteen last night. He's sick, just like half the other staff. Alan, if we'd known we could have stopped this."

Alan felt even worse than he had before. Scott poisoned along with any number of other people? If he'd done his job properly they'd all be okay. He wanted to say something but the words wouldn't come and he just looked dumbly down at the floor.

"So what exactly were you doing which was more important than your job?" Jeff finally asked.

Alan was lost for words, looking over to Gordon once again, hoping for salvation. For once though, his brother was quiet, not even meeting his eyes. Disapproval from Gordon was a rare experience and Alan knew he was in real trouble.

"Let me guess," Jeff went on coldly. "Tin-Tin disappeared yesterday evening – Brains wanted her to give him a hand with the modifications to Three. Am I right in guessing that she was with you?"

Alan nodded miserably, unable to meet his father's eye. Of all the times to have this conversation... he'd assumed his father knew about their relationship, just as his brothers did, but until now no one had ever said anything. Of course, until now his relationship with Tin-Tin hadn't been an issue.

Jeff exploded in fury, something he rarely did, usually preferring calm discussion or cutting expressions of disapproval.

"What the hell were you thinking, Alan? Oh, I forgot, you weren't thinking were you? Thanks to you Scott could be in all sorts of trouble."

He registered Gordon taking a call from Penelope but all his attention was on Alan.

"I've not said anything about you and Tin-Tin before this – it's not been an issue until now. The only people who might have a problem with your relationship are your brothers – heaven knows it can't be easy for them watching the two of you carrying on when they have no hope of meeting anyone right now. And what about Kyrano? Does he know about all this?"

Alan shook his head. "Are you going to tell him?" he whispered.

"No," Jeff said. "I think it should come from you. But I think perhaps I should have a talk with Tin-Tin."

Alan couldn't have gone any redder. "Dad! Please..."

"Dad!" Gordon's interjection couldn't have come at a better time for Alan. Hoping his brother was going to help him out Alan was horrified as Gordon continued,

"That was Penny. Scott's in a bad way. They're taking him to hospital."

"What?" Jeff and Alan were stunned.

"Virg called her to say that Scott was getting worse so she sent a doctor over. I told her what we found out so at least she can tell the doctors what they're dealing with. Apparently there's some kind of plant with poisonous berries which is native to the island. It grows wild around the hotel grounds and the guests are warned about it when they arrive. Penny thinks it's probably that."

Jeff leaned back in his chair, rubbing a hand over his eyes. He looked over at Alan who looked utterly distraught.

"Alan-"

His son interrupted him before he could continue.

"Don't say it, Dad. It's all my fault. Like you said, if I'd done what I should have the boys and Penny could have stopped all this happening and Scott wouldn't be sick."

Jeff agreed. "That's something you're going to have to come to terms with yourself, son. But in the meantime I'm more concerned that you start thinking seriously about your behaviour. Maybe I should send you up to Five. Perhaps when you're free of distractions you can get a better idea of how you should conduct yourself from now on."

Alan stared at him in desperation. "Five? But I'm not due up there for another two weeks." Worse than that, it was Tin-Tin's birthday next week. They had tickets for a festival on the mainland and they'd been looking forward to it for months. He guessed that was another reason his father was sending him away. No more fun with his girlfriend until he worked out how he was going to combine his work with his personal life. As if he didn't feel bad enough that Scott was ill when he could have prevented it from happening.

Jeff had already turned away from him, putting in an anxious call to Virgil.

"Virgil? I'm on my way. This is getting serious. First you get attacked, now Scott's sick. I want to see what's going on for myself. Book me a room, son."

Virgil could hear the sound of another voice in the background.

"Actually, make that two rooms. Gordon insists on coming with me."

"What about International Rescue?" Grateful as he was for his father and brother's support, Virgil wondered what they'd do if there was a callout.

"We're quiet at the moment and it won't take Thunderbird One long to get over to us if we're needed. Right now I'm more worried about you boys." Jeff studied his son carefully. "Are you sure you're alright, Virgil? Maybe you should get yourself checked over when you get to the hospital."

"I'm fine, Dad. I'm more worried about Scott. Let me know when you get here."

"I will. I'll get Alan to take us over in One – we'll be there as soon as we can. Let me know if there's any change in Scott's condition."

He sat back as he disconnected the call then looked up at Alan. "Pleased with yourself? Not only are your brothers out of action because of your carelessness, but if a call comes in for International Rescue there will be no one here to take it."

Alan stared at the floor once more, his face scarlet. His father really knew how to pile on the guilt – as if he wasn't feeling bad enough as it was. And he didn't even want to think about what Tin-Tin would say when she found out, especially after he'd assured her that he'd finished his work and really did have the time to spend with her.

"Right, make yourself useful. We need to pack. Have Thunderbird One ready to leave in an hour. Oh, make sure you check the rest of the information from Bridges. Let's hope there's nothing else you've missed."

Jeff stormed out of the room, leaving Alan to look miserably at Gordon.

"Sorry," was all he could say. He could tell by Gordon's uncharacteristically stern expression that an apology wasn't going to be good enough, but he didn't know what else he could do.

"Guess you'd be better off apologising to Scott – and the rest of the staff," Gordon told him grimly before heading off to get himself ready. He'd been desperate to get himself to Bailey's, but not under circumstances like this.

A disconsolate Alan turned back to the computer to review the rest of the information transmitted from the bugs in Bridges' office. Ten minutes later, feeling even more useless and guilty than he had before, he was on his feet and yelling for his father.