TARGET
The Hood loved being in the shadows. He was a chameleon, blending into his surroundings. Nobody would ever know that he was there. But to complete his task, he had to emerge from the shadows and walk into the light. The cool air-conditioned breeze blew over him as he walked down the corridor, and approached a door at the far end. The door was guarded by two heavily armed personnel, but that would never deter him.
"I must enter this room and see my patient" The Hood said to the guards, feigning ignorance.
"Identification, sir" One of the guards said, completely deadpan. "This is a restricted zone."
"Of course" The Hood said, reaching his hand into his pocket. He slowly drew out a laminated card, all the time staring the guards down with his piercing yellow eyes. The guards seemed unmoved, so he focused harder, the dark slits across his eyes narrowing until they were just a line across his iris.
"Of course sir" The same guard said eventually, opening the door for him. The Hood grasped his head, trying to shake off the awful feeling he always got when using his power, then walked through the door. Showtime.
Scarlett recognised The Hood the moment he walked into her room. She wanted to scream out, attract someone's attention, but she couldn't. She couldn't move. She couldn't do anything.
"Don't struggle" The Hood said, standing infront of her bed with a blue-black sphere in his hand. "It'll only make the containment field work harder against you, which in turn will be more painful for you in the long run."
Scarlett completely ignored him, trying with all her will to break free. She was screaming in her own mind, but it just would not come out. Her head began to hurt, pounding against the rest of her body.
"You're still struggling" The Hood said. "I can tell. There's nothing worth struggling for anymore, you've lost. I had always enjoyed working with you Scarlett, you were one of the few people who truly understood the art of espionage. But you know how SkyeTech work; It's a minor miracle that you managed to survive this long after being caught, but now we really must end this. And, I know, you would want to warn me about SkyeTech, to tell me that they're just using me for my skills and then they'll stab me in the back like they have with you. But don't worry, I'm only using them to further my own goals. Soon I will be rid of them and I will have the Thunderbirds. I've gone on long enough. It's time to sleep now Scarlett, for one last time."
The Hood walked over to the side of Scarlett's bed, where her IV line was, and took a little silver container out of his pocket. When he opened it up, there was a syringe inside, filled with a blue liquid. He jammed the syringe into the line, then watched as what had been a clear liquid changed in colour and smiled.
"I'm afraid this will be very painful" The Hood said, walking back away and heading towards the door. "I suppose you expected nothing less. I wish this could have ended another way, but I suppose I will have to live on in the knowledge that we could have done great things together. What I do next, I will do in your memory, I promise you that. Goodbye Scarlett."
Scarlett could only watch as The Hood walked out of the door, leaving her there as her body burned up. The containment field was gone now, but she was in so much pain that there might aswell have been no difference. He body was seizing up. She wanted to screech and shout in agony, but there was nothing. There was nothing left for her anymore.
Only oblivion.
Leviathan looked out of the window, admiring the view over Washington DC. It was a beautiful place, one he had grown quite fond of during his time there. He wished he could stay there longer, but he was always busy one way or another. Running the world's largest conglomerate was not a task to be taken lightly, not when people were trying to take you down from the inside and out. But there were more threats that just people that wanted to take you down. People that would not conform, who would not join, they were just as much of a risk, because they could turn people against you. Leviathan was at the end of his patience with those people. So he was going to make a point by attacking the largest non-conformer of them all- Linden Ashton Sr. But he wasn't going to kill him, no. He wanted to send a message to everyone else out there, that they had the potential to take them out. Besides, Leviathan had another, much more lucrative target out there. He was just going to have to bide his time.
John Colazo liked to think he was very good at his job. Of course, being an assassin for hire, John Colazo was not his real name. His real name had been lost to the records a long time ago, so much that he considered the person he was then and the person he was now to be completely different people. Being an assassin was fun. It wasn't even the murder that was the fun part either, it was the planning, the preparation. It was seeing the plan being put into action. He always enjoyed taking assignments from SkyeTech, because they were the most extravagant or interesting to execute. What he hadn't expected, however, was to be asked to target someone but not actually kill them. It was something different. He liked that. He also liked Linden Ashton's penthouse office inside Ashton Tower; There were plenty of places he could hide explosive charges and nobody notice the fact they were there at all. That, and the fact Linden Ashton owned a very comfortable chair. Barring the 3 minute break he had taken in said chair, John Colazo was in and out of Ashton tower in 5 minutes flat, giving nobody time to question why there was a gas technician in a building that ran exclusively on solar power. Sometimes, the perfect disguise was one that shouldn't work at all.
Whenever Jeff Tracy called for a meeting, something important was about to happen. It wasn't for a rescue mission, because otherwise they would have been told so straight away. Scott watched Virgil, the last of the group, walk in, then turned his attention to Jeff, who was still sat behind his desk.
"Today marks 3 months since International Rescue began operations" He began. "That means today would also have been the day that John would have relieved Alan from satellite duty and begun his 2 month stint. Of course, the events at Tayohama have changed things, and therefore a decision has to be made; Somebody has to man the satellite at all times. Fortunately, we've been blessed with the addition of Lunar, and that gives us more options. I've been thinking over the past few days what we should do, and I've come to a decision. John has not yet fully recovered from his injuries, and cannot operate Thunderbird 5 by himself, but as John has relayed to me that he wants to go back, I've decided that John and Alan will join forces together on Thunderbird 5 for the next month to ease John back into it, which will make Lunar the primary controller of Thunderbird 3 over that period. Is everyone clear?"
"You mean I get to stay here?" Lunar asked, slightly confused. "I thought I was only going to be here until John went back into Thunderbird 5?"
"That was the original plan" Jeff said. "But with both Alan and John in the space station, I need an astronaut to pilot Thunderbird 3 on rescues. Besides, I've been impressed with you since you've been here. I would like you to stay on, full time as secondary astronaut, if that's what you want."
"Wow, ah, thank you so much!" Lunar exclaimed, looking around the room. Her eyes fell on John, who simply smiled. "I won't let you down, I promise."
"I don't doubt that. Now, if everyone else is OK with arrangements, let's get John up to the satellite. The less time we waste the better."
Lunar had already familiarised herself with Thunderbird 3's controls so much that a short trip straight up to Thunderbird 5 was no problem at all. It all still amazed her though.
"Initiating computer control for docking procedure" She said, leaving Thunderbird 3 to perform the procedure by itself.
"You're good at this" John said, sitting back in the secondary pilot's seat. "I'm not surprised dad wants to keep you on, you could become quite an asset to International Rescue."
"I honestly can't believe he wants me to stay. I know I've only been here a few weeks, but this has been the best experience of my life. Sometimes I can't believe it's real."
"I understand the feeling. Being in the satellite, hearing all the emergency calls; It opens your eyes to the world around you. Going on these missions, seeing the lives of the people you save. It's a special feeling."
"Did you think you were making the right decision when you left NASA for this?"
"Absolutely" John said, leaning forward. "This isn't the kind of job you could do half-heartedly. You know if you want to do it."
"You know, I really want to go on a proper space mission. The closest I got was when myself and Scott came across a couple of space pirates and I had to shoot them."
John laughed, "Well I'm sure you will soon enough. Space is not heavily populated, but something always seems to go wrong out here."
"DOCKING PROCEDURE COMPLETE"
"Welcome to Thunderbird 5" John said, escorting Lunar out of Thunderbird 3 and into the space station. She looked around in amazement, taking in all of the different elements, such as the many control panels and the panoramic view back down to Earth.
"I'm glad you like it" Alan surprised her, walking in from the bedroom. It was the first time Lunar had seen Alan since becoming a part of International Rescue, so she felt it only appropriate to give him a hug.
"It's amazing" Lunar said.
"I know" Alan replied. "Come on, I'll show you around."
"I don't care what Mr Lee tells you!" Linden Ashton Sr shouted down his phone, almost screaming in frustration. "50 is as high as I'm willing to go, and if he thinks he can get any more out of us, then I implore you to suggest to him that he takes a long walk off a very tall cliff. I run a business here, not a charity shop, and I will not be taken to the cleaners by wretched opportunists like Tiberius Xin Lee. If he wants to sell us the new solar deflection technology, then I am only going to pay him 50 million dollars for it. Otherwise he can take his radar dish and shove it up his-"
"You shouting at your assistant again?" Randall Miller asked, leaning against Linden's desk with a glass of whisky in his hand. Linden calmed down enough to cordially hang up before turning to his business partner.
"What are you doing here Randall?"
"I swear that kid doesn't get paid enough to get berated by you every other day. Anyway, I'm here because Congressman Jim Hallibert wants to have a chat with you about renewing our military contracts."
"Couldn't you have told me that over the phone?"
"He's downstairs" Randall said, watching Linden's face drop.
"You're being serious, aren't you? Oh for-"
"He's not happy. Not about the military contracts, he's fine with that, but he hasn't forgotten the fallout of our little trip to the Amazon where your kids almost ended up dying in a giant forest fire. If International Rescue hadn't shown up, things would have been a lot worse."
"Fine, we'll go and see him. Just don't laugh whilst he's tearing me apart."
Randall downed his drink, then walked with Linden to the elevator. It slid open effortlessly, the epitome of the efficiency of Ashton Enterprises HQ in Los Angeles, and they stepped into the plush interior.
"This place needs a liquor dispenser" Randall said, swirling around the ice cubes in his empty glass. Linden snatched it off him. Randall snatched it back.
"You need to stop drinking so much. I swear alcohol imports count for half our expenditure these days."
"I'll stop drinking when I'm dead" Randall said. "Now this elevator needs to speed up, I haven't had a cigar in about 15 minutes."
"Oh come on, we're almost there. We were coming from the 25th floor after all. You run out of patience far too easily."
Linden looked over to the digital display as they went past the 7th floor, then down to the 6th, and then to the 5th... The elevator stopped, pushing just past the 5th floor with a clicking sound and grinding to a halt.
"That isn't right" Linden said quietly, looking at Randall, who simply shrugged his shoulders and went back to staring at his glass. Linden went to push the emergency button, but as soon as his finger depressed the button there was a large rumble from above him. The elevator began to shake as the entire shaft felt as if it was falling apart around them; Randall fell over, though still managed to hold onto his glass. Linden hit the emergency button over and over with no response. There was a high pitched metallic screech as the elevator began to buckle. Before Linden knew it, there was a weird sensation in his stomach as the elevator began to fall, all the way down. He tried to hold on as it crashed to the ground, but the force threw him off the floor and into the opposite wall, before he slumped down to the floor. The red velvet of the elevator wall was the last thing he saw before his whole world went black. Then, nothing.
Randall slowly picked himself off the floor. The fall had rattled him, but he was just about still in one piece. He leaned over Linden;
"Linden! Wake up man."
Not getting a response, Randall slapped him across the face. Linden stirred, but didn't wake up.
"Well you're alive" Randall said. "I'll take that for now."
Randall moved away from Linden and looked around. The elevator itself actually looked in one piece, except that the roof had bowed slightly inwards. Randall could still see the maintenance hatch though, and unlocked it. But when he tried to push it open, he was met with great resistance. He pushed harder, but eventually had to back down. Something was weighing down the hatch. Next he moved over to the panel on the elevator wall, and started looking for anything he could use to get them out of there.
"I don't understand any of this" He admitted to himself eventually, so began pushing random buttons, but when nothing changed he hit the panel hard with his fist. Still nothing.
"That's not going to help" Linden said, startling Randall. He had propped himself up against the wall; He had a nasty looking bruise on his forehead, but otherwise seemed OK. "I tried pressing the emergency button before anyway, and it's not working. We're trapped down here."
"I suppose I've been in worse" Randall said. "At least this time I'm less likely to get stabbed by debris."
"I've got no signal in here, too much radio interference. Whatever caused the elevator to fail obviously caused a great deal of damage to Ashton Tower. This place is made of what? Concrete, steel, several types of plastic. But the elevator shaft itself is laced with Iridium and Indium structural components. That causes interference at the same signal wavelength this phone operates at, which is why nothing works."
Randall just stared wide eyed. "You are as bad as your kids, you know that?"
"Search your pockets, just incase there's something we can use to communicate."
Both Randall and Linden emptied their pockets, highlighting the differences in the way the men lived. Linden had his wallet, several business cards, a handheld alarm and several mints; Randall on the other hand pulled out 3 cigars, a poker chip and a miniature bottle of scotch that he hadn't actually realised he had.
"At least if I die, I can die happy" He quipped. Linden rolled his eyes.
It was all action stations inside Ashton Tower after the explosion inside Linden Ashton Sr's penthouse office. Everyone had been evacuated and fire crews called, but it was still something of a frantic situation. There was one main question on everybody's lips: Was Linden Ashton Sr in his office when it blew up?
"I've heard nothing, and I can't contact him or Randall Miller" Sierra Vasquez, chief PA to Linden, said to Mark Schulz, who was head of communications.
"Do we know for certain he was in the building?"
"Yes" Sierra said. "He had been in here for the last few hours. Randall was here too, he went up to tell Mr Ashton that Congressman Hallibert was here and wanted to talk to him."
"Wait, that means Mr Miller could have been up there too" Schulz said in realisation. Sierra nodded.
"Like I said, I can't contact either of them."
"We need to review the footage. The CCTV is saved on an external drive in another building, so it shouldn't be affected."
Schulz led Vasquez out of Ashton Tower and into the small adjacent building beside it. It was filled with monitors and giant computer terminals. It was a tech guy's dreamhouse.
"The explosion went off at 15:26, so I'm going to review all footage leading up to that time."
Schulz began typing in commands to the computer, until eventually the video feed from Linden Ashton's office came up on screen. Both him and Randall Miller were there, talking.
"OK, I'm going to play the footage" Schulz said. He and Vasquez watched as the conversation progressed, until both Linden and Randall had gone into the elevator. Then they waited some more. Then the explosion hit, and in an instant the camera was gone.
"They weren't there" Vasquez said. "They were in the elevator. But what happened to the elevator?"
"Let's find out" Schulz said, and booted up a different camera, one from inside the elevator itself. Linden and Randall were nicely chatting away until the elevator seemed to come to a stop. Then, right on cue, the explosion hit and the elevator began to fall to the ground.
"Oh my god" Vasquez said, watching as it went down, all the way down. She was relieved when both Randall and Linden- eventually- picked themselves off the floor. But it was clear they were trapped. Schulz quickly switched to a live feed of the elevator shaft at the bottom, and was met by a scene of destruction that he hadn't seen before.
"The entire shaft is hanging on by a thread. It could collapse any second. They're buried in rubble as it is... But this would finish them for good."
"What do we do?"
"Call the fire department, inform them of the situation. But something tells me that this is going to be beyond even their capabilities. In which case, there's only one things we can do- we call International Rescue."
It was certainly different having more than one person onboard Thunderbird 5. But John had made sure to pack a 3-way chess board, and now himself, Alan and Lunar were engaged in a game of epic proportions, which mainly seemed to be centred on laying siege to Alan's side of the board.
"I guess that's it's not all fun and games like this up here when there's just the one of you" Lunar said, taking Alan's final pawn with her queen.
"No" Alan said, wryly looking across the board. "But at least you're not being ganged up on by Star Gazer and Astro Texan 24/7."
"Don't you get lonely?"
"Yes" John replied, "Eventually. Half the time you have rescues to help co-ordinate, and most of the rest of the time you're trying to catch up on sleep. Plus you can communicate with everyone back on the island."
"I video call Tin-Tin a lot" Alan chipped in. "I knew long distance relationships were a thing, I just didn't expect one separated by several thousand miles of outer space."
"I'm just glad I don't have to do it" Lunar said. Suddenly, the console behind them started beeping, breaking the conversation.
"Oh here we go" John said. "Somebody needs rescuing. It's always a fun lottery to see just what kind of rescue you get."
"Calling International Rescue" The voice said over the communication link. "Can anybody hear us?"
"This is International Rescue" John responded, "Reading you loud and clear. What's the situation?"
"My name is Mark Schulz, I'm head of communications at Ashton Enterprises... Oh what does that matter. There's been an explosion at Ashton Tower, and Linden Ashton Sr and Randall Miller, the two owners of the company, are trapped at the bottom of an elevator shaft. The fire service is tackling the fire, but they won't affect a rescue because they believe the elevator shaft is too unstable. We thought if anybody was able to get them out of there, it was International Rescue. You're their only hope."
"OK" John said, processing it. "Do you have any eyes on the situation."
"We have cameras in the elevator shaft and inside the elevator itself, yes. Both people are fine for now, but the elevator itself is buried under a large volume of rubble. There's no way for them to get out."
"Understood. We'll see what we can do."
John turned back to the other two.
"Isn't Linden Ashton Sr the multi billionaire owner of Ashton Enterprises?" Lunar asked. Everyone had stopped playing chess by now.
"Yes" John replied. "Not only that, but it wasn't too long ago that we pulled his son and daughter out of a raging forest fire, along with none other than Randall Miller."
"Buildings don't tend to just explode like that on their own" Alan said.
"I see what you're getting at. It could be sabotage."
"It could be SkyeTech."
"Let's not make that jump straight away. There is a possibility, however small, that there could be another explanation. Right now we just need to inform everyone back on Tracy Island. We have a situation."
It had started raining on Tracy Island, and it was raining heavily. As rain wasn't something that came about often, for some it was a welcome relief. Tin-Tin especially was enjoying playing in the rain, having jumped into the pool just as the storm had begun to take hold. It wasn't cold, so what was there to complain about? Apparently that way of thinking didn't manifest itself in Gordon, who didn't seem best pleased to be the one who had to drag Tin-Tin out of the pool so that she could meet up everyone else for the end of the briefing.
"Ah good Tin-Tin, you're here" Jeff said. "I want you to go with Brains, he'll brief you properly on what's going on. In short, we have to rescue people trapped in an elevator at the bottom of an elevator shaft."
"F-First" Brains interrupted, "We have to load up the c-cage to Thunderbird 2."
"Is the cage really going to be able to withstand the damage to Ashton Tower?" Scott asked. He was all but ready to leave.
"S-So long as there isn't another explosion, we s-should be f-fine. I'm still slightly c-concerned about the structural integrity of t-the tower with the cage in it though, which is why I need you Tin-Tin, to help me run some tests."
"We don't have time to waste" Jeff said hurriedly. "Scott, launch Thunderbird 1. Brains, get the cage fitted ASAP and then Virgil can get away in Thunderbird 2. There are two men trapped at the bottom of a very unstable building, so time is of the essence."
"FAB father" Scott said as he left.
"Yeah" Virgil joined in. "FAB."
The sight at Ashton Tower was not pretty when Scott got there. The entire top level was still ablaze, and the fire had begun to spread downwards despite the fire service's best efforts. There were lots of people around, but thanks to Brains' cloaking mechanism that was no longer such a problem for them anymore. Still, Scott couldn't take any chances.
"International Rescue calling Ashton Tower, I am now in the vicinity of the danger zone and I'm coming in to land. How is the situation?"
"Not much change" Schulz responded over the radio. "But the fire is starting to slowly spread. We have no communications to Linden Ashton or Randall Miller down there, so they have no idea if a rescue is going to be coming."
"OK I understand" Scott said. "We'll try to be quick, but we're worried about the structural integrity of the elevator shaft. Our heavy rescue is due to arrive any minute, then we'll begin."
"I just hope you're in time" Schulz said. "It must be mighty lonely down there for the two of them."
As Scott finished his radio message, Virgil and Thunderbird 2 arrived. The cloaking mechanism was interesting, because you could still see the Thunderbirds with your own eyes, but if you took a picture of it then the picture would come up blank. Didn't stop them chasing people who took photos anyway.
"Thunderbird 1 from Thunderbird 2" Virgil said, "I'm here and ready to get this show on the road. Everything OK?"
"I think so" Scott said, having exited Thunderbird 1. "Turns out there are no communications down to our trapped friends, so they're not going to know they're being rescued until it happens."
"A pleasant surprise for them I'm sure" Virgil said. He was now hovering just above the ground, with the cage itself attached to the underside of the craft instead of a pod. Scott opened the hatch, then climbed inside the cage itself.
"I'm ready Virgil. Let's start this rescue."
"FAB" Virgil replied. He took Thunderbird 2 so that it was hovering over the top of the tower, above the now exposed elevator shaft.
"Thank god for these heat protection suits" Scott said. "The first couple of levels are going to be toasty."
Virgil laughed. "You bet. Should be OK afterwards though." He began to lower the cage, watching as it disappeared down the shaft. The rescue was now fully underway."
Brains took Tin-Tin into the lab. It was as pristine as it always was, yet still filled with as much clutter as Brains could be bothered to work with. Half built inventions filled one side, whilst super efficient computer units and state of the art testing equipment filled the other. Brains was certainly a man of two halves.
"I s-set up a simulation of Ashton Tower" Brains said, bringing up a holographic image of the tower, along with Thunderbird 2 and the cage. "I w-want to know how much s-stress using the cage would put on the weakened supports."
"I'll input the parameters" Tin-Tin said. "Cage dimensions, winch length and all parameters of Thunderbird 2 I'm inputting as standard. Should I represent the fire in the top level?"
"Yes Tin-Tin" Brains said. "But you should p-probably make it the top two levels as the fire is spreading."
"OK, everything has been coded into the simulation. I'm going to run it now."
As Tin-Tin began to run the simulation, Brains kept a careful eye on how everything was proceeding.
"The cage is s-smaller than the elevator shaft, so there are no problems there. Everything is going according to p-plan."
Brains kept a careful watch as the simulation got past the point where Linden and Randall were loaded into the cage. But then, as they started to be pulled back up, a warning sign appeared. Brains instantly tapped on it, enlarging that section of the hologram.
"What is it?" Tin-Tin asked, getting out of her chair and joining Brains.
"I was w-wrong" Brains said. "It's not the cage that is going to be a problem. But the combined force of Thunderbird 2's thrusters and the top level weakened by the fire will result in a total collapse, right on top of the cage. T-They'll be trapped. We have to warn them!"
Scott had reached the bottom of the elevator shaft.
"I'm here Virgil, but the entire top of the elevator is covered in debris. I'm going to try and cut it free so that I can open up the hatch."
"FAB" Virgil replied. "I'll keep you steady from up here."
Knowing they would have a problem with the debris, they had brought the torch cutter with them. Scott opened up the bottom of the cage and began to start cutting away, but it wasn't easy work. A lot of the debris consisted of metal support beams or other items that had been thrown out of the office and down the elevator shaft by the explosion. Scott worked away until eventually he had cleared enough room to open the hatch on the top of the elevator. When he did, there were excited gasps from below.
"International Rescue" Scott introduced himself. "I'm here to get you out of here."
"How the hell did you find us?" Linden asked, as confused as he was surprised.
"Oh give off it Linden" Randall said. "Someone was bound to notice we were gone. Hey, you're the same guy that pulled us out of the Amazon, aren't you?"
"One and the same" Scott said, impressed that Randall had remembered. "Now come on, we have to get out of here and fast."
Scott helped Randall get into the cage first, then Linden.
"OK Thunderbird 2, we're all aboard. Start winching us back up."
On cue, the cage started to be pulled back out of the elevator shaft. Randall had to avert his eyes as they made the ascent.
"Christ, I hate heights" He said, looking at nothing but the wall.
"There's a lot of damage around here. What actually happened?"
"Explosion" Scott said. Linden looked ever so slightly alarmed.
"An explosion? That would explain a lot I guess."
"SCOTT!" Virgil suddenly shouted over the radio. "We have a problem!"
"What's going on?" Scott replied, noting the desperation in Virgil's voice.
"The building Scott, it's collapsing. It's going to collapse right into the elevator shaft. It's going... It's going to... Scott! It's collapsed! Brace yourself!"
TO BE CONTINUED...