London 3

The London shadows lengthened as the day crawled on.

Neil and Scott, working deep amongst the debris, located the living - and the dead.

Alan and Gordon acted as stretcher bearers, bringing the survivors out into the fresh air, and when they had the time - releasing the dead as well.

Tin-Tin sat at Mobile Control, maintaining a link between those at work and those on Thunderbird Five and back at Tracy Island.

Brains poured over blueprints and made suggestions of ways to improve their search, and devised a more efficient form of TBM33.

Virgil cooled his heels monitoring the stresses and strains exerted by the suspension wires and their supporting cables, making minute adjustments when needed - and cursed his own foolishness.

And still the threatening shadows grew in size.

Scott and Neil picked their way gingerly through the rubble, aware that at any moment they could dislodge a beam or strut and the whole structure could come tumbling down onto them. They had rescued nearly everyone who was reported to be in the building and were doing a final sweep of the area. Miraculously there had been little loss of life although some were in a critical condition.

Neil hesitated, swinging the receiver in his hands in a shallow arc, trying to pick up signs of life. He froze when the pulsating light changed from red to green. "There's someone over here! And he's alive!" He and Scott pushed forward in the direction indicated.

"Thank heavens for that. Then we can clear out of here."

Their target was lying in the debris, trapped by a fallen beam. His eyes lit up when he saw his rescuers. "At last! I was beginning to think that no one would find me."

Working together Scott and Neil jacked up the beam and slid the man out from underneath. Neil gave him a quick examination. "Do you feel any pain?"

The man nodded his head. "Yeah. That leg's hurting pretty bad." He sucked in his breath and bit on his lip as Neil removed the cloth sticking to the blood that was congealing on his skin.

Neil gently probed the wound and then prepared to cover it with clean bandages. "We'll get this fixed up and then we'll see about getting you out" he said. He looked up when Scott tapped him on the shoulder.

"This guy should be the last, but I'm going to have a quick check that there's no one else trapped."

Neil nodded his head in affirmation. "Rightio mate. Give me a yell if you need a hand."

*****

Seated at Mobile Control Tin-Tin watched the screens, monitoring her colleagues progress, noting Scott's icon moving away from Neil's. She stiffened when a new image appeared on the monitor in front of her. She slammed the communications switch to open. "Scott! Neil! There's another bomb."

Inside the building Scott swiftly responded. "What? Where?"

"To your west." Tin-Tin was shouting now. "Get out of there now..."

She had no sooner finished the statement when she was engulfed by the force of the bomb.

A tidal wave of dust and debris spewed out from the epicentre of the explosion. A fireball forced its way into the sky. Smoke and dust filled the air making it difficult to breath and impossible to see.

Already weaker than the others, pylon four couldn't take the extra strain. It teetered, held its ground for a moment and then collapsed onto the remains of the demolished building.

People ran in a panic colliding into obstacles and each other, blinded by the rolling waves of dust. Alan, running in the direction of Mobile Control tripped over something in his path. It was Gordon, a cut on his head causing a trickle of blood to run down the side of his face.

Alan knelt by his brother. "Gordon! Are you all right?"

Gordon sat up and gingerly fingered his sore head; his fingers came away coated in blood. "Yeah, I'm all right. I hit the deck when the bomb went off and banged it on the ground. I'll live."

Alan helped him to his feet and together they ran to the Mobile Control. Brains was already there.

Virgil picked himself up from where he'd crouched behind Mobile Control. His mouth went dry when he saw the devastation. It looked like all his worst fears had come true. Scott's words came back to him. "If anything should happen - to me - you're to take charge." He took a deep breath and marshalled his thoughts into a plan of action.

Lady Penelope and Parker had taken advantage of the confusion to join the rest of the International Rescue team. Tin-Tin was desperately trying to raise Scott and Neil on their intercoms and the others were trying to find an explanation as to why their sensitive instruments hadn't detected the bomb earlier.

"It could have b-been started by s-some kind of remote." Brains theorised.

Virgil started getting back into his overalls in preparation for rescuing his colleagues. "With some kind of radio signal? But whoever set it off would have to be within close range."

"Which means they could be escaping now." Lady Penelope said grimly. "Parker, we have some work to do."

"Yeah," Parker growled. "And now it's personal."

As they turned to leave Virgil grabbed Parker's arm. "Don't do anything rash. We want justice not revenge." He turned back to Tin-Tin. "Any luck?"

Tin-Tin shook her head sorrowfully. "No Virgil."

Virgil looked at the remains of the building that entombed his brother and his friend. A fine haze of dust hung over the scene and the sun shining through gave the bomb-site an ethereal glow. He turned his back on the scene to outline the plan of action. Scott had said that he was to be in charge and as he'd been involved in more rescues than any of the others, no one was about to challenge his authority. "Tin-Tin keep trying. Let us know the instant you get a response. Don't radio base yet. No need to worry them unnecessarily. Brains you stay here, if anything else goes wrong you and Tin-Tin will have to direct the rescue authorities. Alan, we'd better get started. Gordon...you stay here." He was about to turn away when Gordon stopped him.

"No way I'm staying back here. Don't forget they're special to me too."

Virgil looked at his brother. "Okay" he relented. "Get Tin-Tin to clean and dress that wound. When that's done you can join us."

As Alan moved towards the disaster area a quiet voice stopped him.

"Alan."

He turned. "Yes, Tin-Tin"

"Be careful."

He could see tears in her eyes and he tried to put a brave face on it. "You bet. You know I'm always the one who has to rescue these guys." He turned on his heel and ran to catch up to Virgil. They climbed the few metres to the top of what remained of the building. They stopped to decide on their route.

The top of the building reminded Virgil of glacial ice that had cracked under the force of the pressures from the mountain above it. Only this was no slow landscape that had taken form over decades. This had happened suddenly and violently.

The TBM33 had held the roof together in parts but they could clearly see where the second bomb had gone off. It had lifted the roof into the air as the explosion had forced its way free and then slammed it back into the ground.

The fallen pylon lay almost exactly where they estimated Scott and Neil's last position to be, a mass of metal mixed with concrete and wood. Even the TBM33 had been pulverised at this point.

They started to work to Scott and Neil's last reference points when Alan found himself saying something he thought he'd never say.

"Virg. I'm scared."

Virgil looked at him and could see the fear in his youngest brother's eyes. "Yeah." He acknowledged. "Me too."

They started making their way through the rubble, their victim locators shining red.