Ch36

Penelope had insisted they take their trip to Scotland in the fastest possible time as she now contemplated the likelihood of making it to the Shetlands, Gordon was no waiting taxi, he was needed elsewhere. There was no getting away from the fact that if the only option for positioning the tracker was for her to wait it out in Edinburgh, she would do it in a heartbeat, but she would miss her ride. Not one to give in so easily, as swift calculations saw the man she loved slipping through her fingers she considered the options available, anything that would hasten her journey to strong arms, the latent smell of chlorine and the copious amounts of Hugo Boss deployed to mask it.

"Parker a slight detour, tyres to terra firma on the outskirts of Dundee."

Parker knew when to enquire and when to follow instructions to the letter, if he had learned anything in his ten years of service it was that look in her eye that put an instruction in the do not question me category.

"As you wish m'lady."

As far as she was concerned she had two shots, the first and more preferable the locator pinging the professors movements back to Five before his 5:00am flight. She knew, or did she hope that he would have booked a hotel near the airport, a contingency for not missing his flight. She was now banking on the fact he would be in no rush to make the journey, a solitary stay in a hotel was no substitute for the comforts of home. Penelope sighed and patted the leather seat while drifting along in the new scenario, whatever her bravado that she was taking the chance to hasten the mission for everyone's sake, she was in fact changing brief to ensure time with her boyfriend. As that thought crossed her mind she smiled, for all the games played and the declarations of love she had never for one second considered him her boyfriend until a few hours ago, the position vacant had been filled. Now it seemed she had talked herself into a long shot just to see him as she had promised but knew in reality was unlikely. But if correct and the professor would still be residence and she could make her longed for rendezvous with Thunderbird Two. If not, the reunion would wait but she had, as Gordon would put it, tried her darndest not to have complete her brief at Edinburgh International in the small hours or worse on the flight itself. Penelope's stomach started to cartwheel nerves at the jeopardy she now perceived before she admonished herself for a teenage reaction and her uncharacteristic neediness.

There was no getting the way from the fact that if he didn't make the promised third proposal that perhaps she would, she already had indirectly. Her dismissing the heartfelt drop to the knee in the cave as a joke had started to plague her on the journey and if necessary … well she would make it up to him. As the car took its natural habitat back onto the road Penelope turned her attention to the data stream hitting her communicator.

If you are free to talk we need to discuss the professors connection to the agent that met her end in Dundee. Professor linked directly to her visit. An update from Darwin, and Amelia … just contact me when you can. John

"Parker pull the car over, I need to regroup my thoughts before we pay a visit to the professor."

Parker took in her stoic expression in the mirror "Shouldn't we talk on the move m'lady, it's nearly six he may 'av booked a table for dinner. Shall I check the reservations?"

"Yes Parker, but please pull over… I need air."

Parker pulled the vehicle into the next lay-by, alarm bells ringing at the edge in his charges tone furnished with an unguarded desperation at the end of the sentence. It could only mean one thing, bad news. He opened the door; Penelope swung her legs around in her usually poised manner, no sense of urgency, slowly and neatly together in well versed manner. Perching on the edge of the seat, her face drained of colour, he noticed her hands were shaking as she took out her compact.

"John first Parker then Kayo" she whispered to herself more than the man hovering to provide assistance if required.

John's hologram shimmered to life and Penelope took a deep breath.

"I checked with her phone company myself John, Gordon was with me, it was the first thing we checked, I requested the records as soon as we took off from Perth."

She stopped to take stock of the school girl whine that had edged into her tone. She altered her posture with a slight turn, straightening her back, crossing her feet at the ankles and made sure when she next spoke it was with some semblance of authority

"She called no-one. She received no communications of any sort on the day she died. So how could she have received a call from the professor?"

John gave her a sympathetic smile "Ever cross your mind someone deleted her records. I have the professors and there is no doubt your friend Molly arrived at the National Engineering Laboratory in Glasgow at 12:30pm, at 13:10pm she received a call from him, two hours later she was in Dundee. An hour later and she was dead."

John saw tears brimming in Penelope's eyes and realised she needed time to compose herself before she could speak, so he continued.

"After phoning Molly he immediately phoned a Matthew Abbott, who when you see the pattern of calls in the last few years between the people you have made of interest to us, puts in quite an appearance. Penelope I think we can hazard a guess as to what she stumbled across. I'm just sorry I took you at your word and only checked her personal computer. I'm sorry Pen, should have dug deeper."

Penelope gave a resigned smile "You did everything I asked of you."

"The professor worked freelance for Glasgow on Nano technology. A tip off would have been all it took to alert him to enquiries about the theft. Penny I am guessing she went with you to Tilsbury?"

"Oh John! If she found something…. Why would she keep it to herself?"

"Maybe to prove her worth to you?" Instantly he could see she didn't buy that for one second "Penny it could be anything, some of the possibilities make her either greedy or stupid. I guess we'll never know, so no point trying to fathom it out. The facts are he was on a project linked directly to some the missing items from the Marina. Eos does not respect diplomatic privacy and I suspect neither did Molly. Once she had played her hand, she left them with no choice. Take a look at the data Penelope, then speak to Kayo, she's piecing together a timeline of contacts made by our hit-list to each other and looking at any recipient that turns up on more than one of their phone data records."

Penelope spat her wrath "And now we are going to let him leave the country."

"No-one would blame you if you wanted him brought in for questioning, but let's not forget those questioning will be working for your government. If the GDF pick him up in Norway you can be certain a cover up would be more difficult. Kayo is pretty certain you'd understand but speak to her, she has insisted it is your call to make."

Penelope smiled "She did?"

"Yes Penny, and we all agreed, the ball is in your court."

John you referred to other news in your data communication, Amelia?"

"Amelia was found dead in an apparent double suicide, side by side with the owner of the home. Penny I think you should know that Abbott's GPS signal puts him at the scene and we cannot be certain she didn't divulge your visit. So whatever you're planning do it quickly and meet with Gordon."

Penelope smiled at the irony, exactly what she was intending to do but for very different reasons that now seemed to be pushed into a veil of insignificance "There's something else John what is it?"

"We won't be getting anything from Darwin in a hurry. Colonel Casey has confirmed Hugh has been found dead and all his personal computer systems have been destroyed. I'm processing all encrypted messages that left Darwin HQ in the last week now, unsanctioned by Casey and highly illegal. Eos is throwing everything at it but it will not be a quick retrieval"

"Then we need the locator…we are ten minutes from his apartment. And John I assure you there is nothing in the world I want or need right now other than to meet up with Gordon but I will not leave until we have that in place. Once he's done in the Shetlands you need him and he does not wait for me, make that very clear to him."

She smiled gratefully as she felt Parkers reassuring hand on her shoulder.

….

Virgil took a seat in the ring, taking a moment while John was deep in conversation with Penelope to steady himself. It had been less than five minutes since a location had left Catherine's lips and the enormity of what it could mean started to sink in. Her few words were compounded by the conversation he had just overheard about hopes in Darwin as their only hope for immediate action. The delay in his ability to speak to John on his own helped him to organise his thoughts, Scott would see it as an opportunity to bring the Colonel to the Island to remove the prisoner but Virgil wasn't sure he trusted the information, without the tactile proof of his father in his arms he couldn't let their one primary witness go. He hoped there maybe something at John's disposal that could quickly confirm the likelihood of Follases as a location, a ship of that size would take some hiding; a cloaked vessel in the open would have shown up as an anomaly on a satellite image by now. He couldn't talk to John until the call to Penelope had been terminated, she would receive an update in due course. This conversation was for John's ears only and then as a united front they would contact Scott and Gordon. He didn't want to risk that anything could happen to his father because their London operative announced her interest in the Fjords to her boss inadvertently, they could not be certain she wasn't under surveillance, Scott in Shadow was their best shot. He couldn't help wringing his hands while he waited for the never ending conversation he had now stopped really listening to, to cease. When the time came he had wanted to be concise, deliver the information clearly as a starting point to the formation of an action but as Penelope's hologram disappeared and before he was aware he had blurted it out without explanation, the dam broke

"Folleses coastline … the airstrip near Florvag."

John looked startled, then reclaimed his usual air of calm "Virg it'd be helpful to start at the beginning, but as they are both in a country I now know the geography of off by heart, I take it the girl has spoken up?"

Virgil started to swallow back his threatened tears, his dad deserved better than this from a rescue party "John we've got him… well I hope. If she's not lying ...John can we scan the area for signs of a cave structure the same size or bigger than North Island?"

"Already done, I know that coastline like the back of my hand, I've had time to kill but just because I can't see it does not mean it is not there. Let's see what we get with the rig once we have the triangulation in place. We now have a significantly reduced target area. It's time to bring in Gordon and we'd better invite Scott to the party. He's going to go Virg, with or without confirmation, and let's be honest neither of us will want to stop him now. We just need to ensure that we make the best of his time; we'll drop underwater remote cameras off the coast and deploy drones over land then wait."

The ring sprang to life with the smiling form of Gordon, the blond jumped in immediately without really taking notice of his brothers, just relaying an automatic update.

"Rig two's proving a bitch, windy as hell and uncooperative but I guess I'll be done in half hour tops. I'll confirm when I've dealt with the third and I will wait it out until I have Penelope and Parker. I suppose commander reckless is getting itchy feet by now and will launch before we get back."

Virgil started to speak but the cracks of emotion stole his voice, John immediately stepped in to take the burden from his brother "Gordon we think we have him, Catherine has given us a coastline to target, the sooner we can look for signs of communications the better. I'm contacting Scott now … brace yourself because he's going to want to know why you're not on your way back to collect some hardware we might need"

Gordon stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth opening and closing, for once with little to say, the news delivered now surrounded by what if's, the main being whether they could trust the information of a girl that had ripped their world apart. He hardened his heart, listening to is head telling him she was having her cruel joke, paying them back for them taking her but something inside clung on the words we have him. Ok he qualified, thinking we have him but somehow hearing his brother say it, the best hope they'd had in close to two years, was enough and he was in spitting distance of him.

"I'm here. Five minutes to the coast if I dump this rig idea."

Virgil smiled at his brother renewed vigour and determination, his few words brought them all hope if Gordon's tone now rang with a renewed strength and belief "We need all three Gordon, it's still one hell of a coastline and first it's a covert information gathering exercise. What we need from you is still three rigs and confirmation they are picking up any communications. We will get hits and they will confirm they are working but until that frequency the drones were operating on in North Island is picked up there is nothing to be done just bring Thunderbird Two back here. I promise you little brother we'll all head there to join Scott. At best guess he'll be in the air in less than half an hour, so time to get a wriggle on and get my girl home. John will keep you company after the quick turnaround. I'll take One and join Scott as soon as we have something no matter how small to confirm she is telling the truth. Brains will take charge of Five"

John looked at him "Sounds like you've had this planned?"

Virgil shrugged and noticed Scott hovering in the background, a reserved reaction he hadn't gave him credit for "We had too much time to think and nothing to act on. You and Gordon had something to do, we needed hope and planning what we would do gave us that. Shadow's been prepped with weapons capabilities and two of Brains's counteractive drones are slung under her wing. We'll all have that protection but Shadow is the only one to carry missiles. The rescue craft will not be armed in any other way. None negotiable, dad wouldn't want it and neither should we, they stand for something and that something is his vision"

John smiled as he noted where Virgil's gaze had taken him "I'll be down after I've talked Brains through a few things and made the proper introduction to the idea to Eos. She can handle any data search thrown at her but changes she handles like a small child being asked to try a new food, highly suspicious. And I need to make a call, Ridley will be on her way to the airport in a few hours and I don't want her thinking I've deserted her." His voice trailed off as he registered the looks on brother's faces, he was grateful that now he was fully briefed Scott's tornadic force breached the periphery and marched into the centre of the ring.

"Virgil, you got it," He slapped his brother on the back "We've got a target area, I knew you'd do it" Scott didn't stop "Brief me in the hanger, I'm heading straight out."

John stalled him "Locations sent to Shadow's computer but Scott take five minutes to speak to Grandma, Alan and Kayo, I'll get them to meet in Al's."

Scott stopped to consider the request, as simple one, to do the other family members the courtesy of keeping them up to speed "OK but in the meantime you contact the GDF, I want that bitch gone."

Virgil placed a hand on his shoulder "Soon Scott, but let's just see exactly how useful the information is before we hand her over. Scott she's all we have, Hugh is dead we can no longer be certain we will gain anything from Darwin."

Scott took in the additional information, everything he said made sense but the thought of leaving the two injured behind with only their Grandma to provide the basic needs of their prisoner did not sit well. The plan's easily made with Virgil when they were dreaming of this moment now looked set to leave those as home vulnerable. He noted the questioning eyebrow that Virgil gave him. He waited to spill his concerns to his brother until Gordon and John's holograms had left the ring. Once their brightness disappeared Scott took a seat, his instinct was to suggest something that would not sit well with Virgil, he took a deep breath before admitting his contingency plan.

"When you leave you put her out. I want her on a sedation drip, I will not have her putting them at risk."

Virgil refrained, he hated this side of Scott, this was simply a means to an end with little thought for what was ethical for the human being they had no right to hold without the authority to do so. He admitted he could not deny the logic behind his brother's thoughts. It had been in the back of his mind as soon as he realised Penelope and Parker may take their time getting back to the Island. Still, he did not need to know there was a potential deviation in the plan and even under their own steam they would be here soon enough.

"Scott by the time we've left the Island, Parker and Penelope will be here. We'll get Brains to reconfigure the door lock so it's a two man job. I'll ensure Parker has to be present."

Scott sighed "You're right Virg. Sorry, I just can't take the risks. You coming with me to brief the others? The sooner I'm on my way the better."

Virgil extended his arms and pulled his brother from his seat "I'll join you in Al's, but escort Kayo back to her room. A few minutes won't hurt but not taking them will hurt her."

…..

Penelope had been watching the property of the professor from the comfort of a now less conspicuous FAB1, which had been transformed to her slate grey alter ego at the push of a button. She had ascertained there was someone home but had had to endure just over an hour before their target made his appearance. He on first perusal was an unthreatening man, a man well into his sixties, bald with horned rimmed spectacles and wearing a mismatched blazer rather than suit. He left in a hurry carrying a tatty holdall and a briefcase, loading them into the hatchback he looked furtively over his shoulder before entering the vehicle and starting the engine. Parker kept the standard distance for a tail, several cars behind in the city, with number plate recognition guiding him if he lost sight of the car within the city limits. When accompanied by the heavier traffic on the M90 he ghosted the vehicles lane movements in closer proximity. They had travelled a few miles on minor roads at a respectable distance but moved directly behind once through Dunfermline and on the route to the bridge. He brought his eyes to the mirror and gave the customary cough for attention.

"Shall I ensure we miss the Edinburgh traffic m'lady."

The suggestion was a poor substitute for what she wanted to do to the car in front, a missile rather than a airborne stinger would at this moment be her weapon of choice should she have had the luxury.

Giving nothing away she replied "If the road is quite Parker, and only then do we fulfil our good Samaritan role to be the professors road side assistance."

"Very well m'lady."

Parker flicked the switch releasing his weapon of choice; as soon as he reached a stretch of road clear of oncoming vehicles he fired the shot into the offside tyre. The car swerved in front of them as the professor fought for control. With the targeted tyre shredded the vehicle slowed, making lurching progress towards the side of the road.

"Maybe m'lady, you could offer the poor driver a little 'elp."

Penelope waited for FAB1 to pull up behind their target if she hadn't heard the sarcastic edge to poor driver, Parker may well have heard the sharp edge of her tongue, but as always he was her ally and having him there enabled the mask to fall into place

"I will set his mind at ease Parker." She leaned forward and passed a small tracking device to her driver "Once I have secured your assistance fix it to the briefcase Parker, the holdall may be surplus to requirements but the briefcase will stay with him at all times."

Penelope exited FAB1 and hurriedly made her way to the stricken vehicle, the man inside was still grasping the steering wheel as if his life depended on it, his hands visible shaking and his face deathly white with beads of sweat tracking down his cheeks from his brow.

"Oh you poor thing, are you injured? I'll phone the emergency services."

The professor instantly composed himself at the sound of her voice "No need, just a blow out. I'm shaken but absolutely fine. I have a spare but thank you for your help."

"Nonsense you are shaking. Please allow me to assist you; my chauffeur will have your tyre changed in two shakes of a lamb's tale."

The professor smiled "Well that would be a great help if you are sure." He chuckled, his face regaining a little colour under the scrutiny of her azure blue eyes "Vehicle maintenance is not my area of expertise."

"Then this is your lucky day, I have an expert at my disposal." She opened his door and led him by the arm "Much easier to jack the car without the additional weight. Please do take a seat in mine while you wait, it's a little chilly for the time of year and looking at those clouds, they can only increase our misery."

As Penelope walked towards the car Parker exited FAB1 doffing his cap in the direction of them both.

Penelope allowed the Professor to sit in the rear of the vehicle keeping him enthused in small talk. They were in the middle of discussing the current political argument for yet another Scottish referendum on independence when they were interrupted by the return of the chauffer.

"Left the tyre in the boot sir, it would be h'advisable to pick up a spare as soon as possible."

The professor thanked them both as he rose from the back of FAB1 to take his leave, he turned and took her hand and kissed it.

"Thank you so much for your help. You are lifesavers indeed."

Penelope took his hand in both of hers "We are just relieved you are unharmed, have a safe journey."

The Professor walked back to his vehicle waving an arm in the air as goodbye and pulled out onto the A90 to continue his journey.

"We'll m'lady no need to join the melee in Edinburgh now. The tracker is inside the briefcase, I've checked and there was nothing of interest apart from two phones which John can also use as location markers. I have copied their sim data."

"Well done Parker."

They waited for the Professors vehicle to leave sight before turning FAB1 around.

"If we head off the main road we should be able to take to the skies without alerting any interest."

"FAB m'lady."

There was little she could accomplish in the British Isles now unless she took herself into HQ and that she would savour only when they had Jeff secured. For now and with little else to do she settled back into the plush leather and made the call to her taxi service back to the Island.

Gordon's smile greeted her "Well hello gorgeous, I didn't expect to hear from you so soon. You just can't leave me alone."

Penelope laughed, a simple statement and the world stopped still long enough for it to wash over her and deliver just what she had needed.

"We'll see about that when I see you in person. We will be in the Shetlands in under half an hour but do save us from scouting you out from the air; I think you had better be a little more specific about location."

Gordon chuckled "I'm on my way …. Last one to Ronas Hill is buying the engagement drinks." Before Penelope could respond to burst his bubble on yet another unsanctioned attempt he cut the communication.

What he didn't see was a smile radiating from Penelope that just may have made him risk a serious attempt then and there.