It was decided that Virgil would accompany Claire for her trip back to Denver. He had local knowledge of both the city and university campus. He was also a one-man removal team and when it came to brute strength for moving boxes Virgil was was your man. He was the obvious choice. Not that she had too much to move, her apartment was rented furnished so there was nothing bulky deal with.
It was with some trepidation that she unlocked her apartment and led Virgil inside.
The wages of a university lecturer were modest and her apartment was small. It was a far cry from the luxury of Tracy Island. Part of her worried that Virgil would look down on her for her humble living arrangements. It just showed how much she still had to learn about the Tracy brothers. They might live on a tropical island now but life hadn't always been that way. Jeff Tracy had made sure that his sons never forgot their roots. They had been taught never to take their fortune for granted and never to look down on those who had less than they did.
Her original departure to the island had happened in such a hurry that she couldn't remember what state she had left her apartment in. A quick scan of the living area revealed she hadn't left anything embarrassing lying around. Any mess was behind closed doors.
She breathed a sigh of relief.
The air inside was thick and heavy, warmed by the Colorado summer. She left Virgil perched on a compact sofa while she went around opening all the windows. Kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and the tiny work space that the agent had optimistically billed as a second bedroom but was really no more than a cupboard.
A quick scan of the kitchen revealed that anything fresh had long since gone off. She might not have been gone for long but the summer heat had had an effect. She grabbed a bin bag and started throwing out spoiled food. The remaining dried goods did not make an appealing prospect for dinner.
A shadow in the doorway showed that Virgil had already got bored of sitting down. He took an appraising look around the tiny kitchen and offered to head out for supplies. Claire gratefully accepted.
She used the time he was gone to hurry around, throwing items into bags and boxes. Scott wanted Virgil back and on duty as soon as possible so they planned to spend barely 24 hours in the city. One evening and morning to pack down the apartment then a quick visit to campus tomorrow afternoon to empty her office before flying home again.
The remaining foodstuff in her kitchen were checked and anything still sealed was packed up for donation to a food bank. She made sure to keep hold of the coffee. She had lived with the Tracys long enough to know that Virgil needed coffee to survive almost as much as he needed oxygen.
The living room, bathroom and bedroom were also simple to pack up.
The cupboard work space was not so easy. She had always kept the small desk that had housed her computer tidy and uncluttered. The rest of the room was crammed with anything that didn't have a proper home in the rest of the apartment.
When Virgil returned he found her sat on the floor trying to organise the accumulated mountains of life detritus. Old text books were stacked precariously. Boxes of childhood memories, carted from house to house but never unpacked, had been opened as though she needed to reassure herself that the contents were still safe. The task of sorting piles for keeping, throwing and donating had ground to a halt.
"Come on, time for a break. I got pizza" he grinned at her while holding aloft a couple of pizza boxes.
Claire gratefully got to her feet, dusted herself down and shut the door on the mess.
One thing she had quickly come the learn about life on the island was that food was unpredictable. Each member of the family had different levels of culinary skill and preferences. Each took a turn at cooking depending on who was available. The only thing you could be certain of was that if Grandma Tracy was responsible the food would be virtually inedible. Claire had come to the conclusion that the boys' stomachs must be as strong as the rest of their muscles.
"I wasn't expecting it to be so hard" she sighed between mouthfuls of pizza.
Virgil just looked at her, puzzled.
"All of that". She gestured vaguely in the direction of the cupboard where he had found her. "Trying to sort out what I need to bring. It feels stupid not being able to let go of things."
"So don't". He said it as though it was the simplest thing in the world. "You're moving to the island. We aren't asking you to completely give up your past."
"But there is so much of it."
"It's not like we are pushed for space. Everything here will fit in Tracy Two and we can always make some space available in the store rooms."
"It just seems stupid to cart it all around. There are things in there I haven't used for years."
"Any yet still you keep them. Memories are important, they make us who we are. Sometimes we need to keep a physical reminder of our past."
"Virgil Tracy, I didn't have you down as the sentimental sort."
He grinned. "Hidden talents, me. If it makes you feel any better you won't be the only one on the island with a teddy bear. Just ask Gordon to introduce you to Fishy some time."
They finished off the pizzas, disposed of the boxes and carried on with the task in hand.
Virgil gave her the space she needed to pack, limiting his main contributions to stacking up the finished boxes ready for loading up in the morning and carting out the inevitable bags of rubbish.
The apartment soon resembled a cross between a warehouse and an airport departure lounge. A motley assortment of boxes, bags and cases were arranged around the walls.
"Time to call it a night I think" said Claire. "The rest of this can be dealt with in the morning."
"Suits me fine" said Virgil, stretching out his back muscles after all the repeated bending and lifting.
"Um", she shifted about with embarrassment. "As you can see I'm not really set up for visitors."
"It's fine. I'll take the couch."
The absurdity of this struck Claire. The couch was small. Even sat on it Virgil had looked out of scale. The idea of his attempting to sleep on it was ridiculous.
"Stop being such a gentleman. Unless you are going to attempt some sort of human origami you'll never fit. You'll be much more comfortable in my bed."
As soon as the words left her mouth she realised how bad that sounded. She flushed scarlet.
"Um, I mean, I'll take the couch. I'm shorter than you. And you need to be fit to fly tomorrow." Talk about state the obvious. She wanted the ground to open up and swallow her.
"Thanks. Offer accepted." He flashed a trademark smile over his shoulder at her as he disappeared into the bedroom.
Claire flopped heavily down on the sofa and put her head in her hands. How could she have said that? The embarrassment burned into her soul. If Gordon or Alan ever got to hear that she had invited Virgil into her bed, even by accident, she would never hear the end of it.
xoxoxox
The morning bought a fresh flurry of packing fuelled by copious amounts of coffee.
The had hired a van to transport Claire's belongings to the airfield and this was nearly loaded and ready to go. As Virgil carried the last box down the stairs Claire looked around the small space that she had called home. It looked empty and forlorn, stripped of all her personal possessions.
Claire breathed a silent goodbye and shut the door on one chapter of her life.
The other tie that needed severing was her association with the university.
Claire didn't keep many possessions on campus so their visit should just be a brief one on their way to the airfield. All she needed to do was empty a few drawers, check she hadn't left anything on her work PC and hand back her security pass.
She left Virgil enjoying the sunshine in the quad outside so she could say goodbye to her colleagues without having to make awkward introductions. Not that there were many people around over the summer. She hoped she would be in and out within half an hour.
As she headed down the corridor to her office her Head of Department appeared, almost as though he had been looking out for her.
"Hi Claire. I was beginning to worry I'd missed you."
"Oh, hey Mitch. No, I've only just got here. Are there many in today?"
"Only me and Clive and he is locked away in one of the haz-mat labs."
"Ah well. It would have been nice to say goodbye to the team but I know what it's like. As soon as classes finish everyone takes the chance to grab a vacation."
"Hopefully the rest of them will come back though. You know, I was surprised when you said you were leaving. One minute you are booking up every lab slot available, the next you're sending an email to say you're off."
"I was pretty surprised myself. You just never can tell where life will take you."
"So where are you off to?"
Claire avoided the question by rummaging through her bag for the key to her office. She unlocked the door and Mitch followed her inside. He leant against her desk, watching her while she opened and closed drawers, retrieving forgotten belongings.
She booted up her work computer. She had been pretty disciplined about keeping her research on her own computer but she wanted to make sure there was nothing sensitive left behind on the university network. She systematically deleted files and transferred a few interesting articles onto her tablet.
The book shelf was next on the list. She packed the weighty tomes into the holdall she had kept spare for the purpose.
Mitch never left the office. It felt a little unnerving to have him watching her all the time.
Feeling the effects of all the coffee from the morning she made her excuses and headed down the corridor to the bathrooms.
When she returned Mitch was still perched on the edge of her desk. She had always got on well with him but she was starting to find his presence annoying. As she went to gather up the last of her belongings she realised something was wrong. Her tablet, which she had left on the far side of the desk, was now on the side closest to Mitch. Her suspicions were roused.
Making up a spurious excuse about checking whether she had left her lab coat in one of the supply cupboards she swiftly exited the office again.
Once she was a safe distance away she activated her wrist comm. Much as it pained her she knew she needed the help of one particular Tracy brother.
She opened a link to Thunderbird Five.
"John, I...I need your help."
"Go ahead, Claire." John managed to keep the puzzlement out of his voice, Claire still tended to shy away from contact with him. He could tell she was worried about something though.
"I'm on campus and something doesn't feel right. My Head of Department won't leave me alone and I think he might be after my work. Can you check if any access attempts have been made on my tablet in the last ten minutes."
"Sure." Claire's tablet had been connected to the International Rescue secure networks and it only took him a moment to call up the information he needed. "I can see four failed log in attempts. He didn't get anywhere though, our systems are not easily breached."
"Not this time but what if he has in the past. I always thought he was just being friendly before but now he just seems, well...creepy. I've always been so careful but what if he already has some of my research. I never kept a digital copy at work but what if he took photos of my notebooks. We were often in the labs together. If I wanted to work late he would usually volunteer stay on with me so that campus security wouldn't chuck me out."
The worry in her voice was now plain to hear. John did what he did best – calming people down.
"It's ok. I can run a check of his university network files. If I find anything I'll wipe them. I guess his network username follows the same convention yours did?"
"Yeah. It's all standardised. His would be Mhayworthy."
"Give me a minute and I'll see what I can find."
John quickly accessed Mitch's university profile. He rolled his eyes slightly at the simplicity of the university's security systems. Breaking through the defences wasn't even a challenge.
Going off Claire's suggestion that Mitch could have taken photos of her notebooks he started his search in the image files.
What he saw made his blood run cold.
There were hundreds of photos. The notebooks appeared in some of them but only incidental to the main subject of the images. Claire.
Claire at work.
Claire having lunch.
Claire walking through a park.
Claire leaving her apartment.
John didn't want to alarm her but the man evidently had a full blown obsession. The date stamps on the images showed he had been stalking her for some time.
"Claire, where is he at the moment?"
"In my office. Did you find anything."
"You were right, he had some photos." He decided not to enlighten her on the exact nature of the pictures. He didn't want the truth to send her into a panic. "I've sent a virus that will target all the image files on his computer. It will also access his other devices via his cloud account so anything he has at home or on his phone will be wiped too."
"Thanks John" and she genuinely meant it. She made herself a promise to make it up to the spaceman for all the ill thoughts she had harboured against him.
For good measure John tasked Eos with monitoring the man, an easy task for her that would barely trouble her processing power and not impact on her other duties. Life for International Rescue could get complicated this was reported to the police and Claire got caught up in a court case but he also wasn't prepared to let the man off scot free. It Mitch tried anything even remotely illicit in future Eos would alert the police through an anonymous tip-off and ensure that the full force of the law came down on him.
"Now Claire, I don't want you to go back in there with him alone. Give me your location and I'll send Virgil up to you."
Once he was assured that Claire was safe John got in contact with Virgil. His older brother was surprised to receive a call from his space bound sibling.
John quickly appraised Virgil of the situation, giving his brother rather more information that he had given Claire. His intrusion into Mitch's files had unearthed more than just the photos. After Claire had informed the man of her impending departure his chemical research had extended beyond his academic interests and into the world of illicit sedatives. Evidently the impending departure of the object of his obsessions had led him to darker thoughts than just watching her.
Less than three minutes later Virgil came pounding along the corridor and was by Claire's side.
Mitch looked up when he heard the door open. The smile he greeted Claire's return with soon vanished when Virgil entered the room.
Virgil was making full use of his height and weight advantage and positively loomed over the other man. He stayed polite for Claire's sake but his attitude screamed alpha-male.
"Unauthorised personnel aren't permitted in this corridor." Mitch was not pleased about the unexpected intrusion.
"It's ok Mitch. He's with me. He's a...a friend come to help me move my stuff." The Tracy name was well known on campus, especially so soon after Denver hosting the latest round of the Tracy Prize. Claire felt it better to keep things vague, especially since Mitch seemed unaware of the identity of her companion.
Virgil flashed his visitor pass to show he was there legitimately.
Mitch instantly dismissed Virgil as a being of no consequence. Someone picked for their brawn rather than their brain.
"So Claire, I was hoping I could take you for a farewell drink. It's a shame the department couldn't give you a proper send off but there is no reason why we can't mark the occasion."
"Sorry Mitch but I'm on a tight schedule."
"Maybe this weekend then?" He came across as hopeful, verging on desperate.
Virgil decided it was time to shut him down.
"Claire, we really need to get going. Have you packed everything you need? We can't risk losing our runway slot."
This was a lie. Tracy Two was currently in a hanger on the closest GDF base in case Virgil was urgently needed at a rescue zone. They couldn't risk being stuck for want of a take-off slot at a congested commercial airfield. Virgil wanted to impress upon Claire that it was better they left quickly, thankfully she got the hint.
"Runway slot?" Mitch asked.
"Um, yeah, this new job isn't local. I'm leaving town completely" Claire explained sheepishly. She made an obvious show of checking her watch then turned to Virgil. "You're right, we really need to be getting out of here."
Claire swept the last few items into her bag while Virgil claimed the holdall of books.
They left the building and made their way to the way to the waiting van unaware that Mitch was watching their every step. Unaware as he raised his phone to take some final pictures for his collection. Unaware of the curses that followed when the Head of Department found not only all the photos on his camera reel gone but the camera itself fully disabled.
John had done his job well.