"Scott!" Virgil had found another 3 of the missing fire crew, all with injuries but all ambulatory. He'd tried to convince Elle-Zahn to take them back to the fire truck just down the street but she'd refused. Her team mates were still missing, as was his. She wasn't leaving till they were all found. The remaining crew felt the same way. "Come on" he said under his breath, "where are you?"

The small group was in the back of the factory now having swept the rest of the floor.

"Peterssohn!" Elle-Zahn called. "Mackie!"

Movement to his left caught Virgil's eye and he swung the torch around in time to see a debris pile shift and hear a groan. He was over in a flash, the exo-suit making short work of the rubble. He was simultaneously relieved and worried when the person buried beneath turned out not to be Scott.

"Peterssohn" Elle-Zhan said sounding relieved. "Did you see what happened to Mackie and the other man?"

"No" Peterssohn said resting his head back. Another of his colleagues shouldered Virgil out of the way and began looking him over with calm efficiency. "Wait, yes." His eyes were slightly unfocused but he tried to indicate towards the back of the building. "They were in front of the door, the shock wave took them through."

Virgil was already off and moving.

"Hey!" Elle-Zahn called after him. "We need to get him out of here."

"You carry on" Virgil called back. "I'll keep looking."

"Not on your own you won't." She jogged to catch him up. "The boys can take care of Peterssohn. We'll find Mackie and your friend."

Virgil was not prepared for what greeted them in the final section of the factory. Rather than the abandoned husks he'd been dealing with so far this room was well equipped. Rows of monitors lined one wall, there was a desk covered with data pads and discs. A man was stood at the only terminal, so engrossed in what he was doing he didn't notice the two enter. But none of that was what caught Virgil's attention the most. Scott was laid out on the floor unconscious, a man in a matching uniform to Elle-Zahn's next to him in a similar state. Virgil made a move towards Scott but the whirring of the suit finally gave him away. The man whirled around sending pads scattering to the floor.

"I don't want trouble" he said. His voice his with panic. "Just let me get this and go."

"What did you do?" Elle-Zahn demanded.

"Nothing I swear! There was an explosion, I don't know why. But they" he indicated Scott and Mackie "thought I was responsible for this" he waved his arm at the monitors "but I'm not. I'm trying to stop it."

Virgil had disengaged from his suit and had crouched down next to Scott who hadn't shown any signs of waking up. Virgil took in his brother's shallow breathing and the crack across the faceplate of his helmet. He quickly checked Mackie and found a length of rebar next to him, stained red.

"I suppose you didn't attack them either" Virgil growled.

"I didn't know who they were. I had to stop them in case they tried to stop me. This" he gestured to the monitors again "can't be allowed to go on."

Virgil finally looked up and saw and gasped. Each monitor showed a young man in a cage, the camera angled down from above. They all wore the same clothes and the majority just sat, looking like they were waiting. None looked clean and every one of them showed signs of a beating, or worse.

"What is this?" Elle-Zhan asked in a small voice. Unnoticed behind her Virgil opened a link to Thunderbird 5 and John set about recoding everything his comm could pick up.

"It has to stop" the man implored. "If I can get these recordings to the right people, I can make it stop." Behind him on the monitor one of the cages was opened and three masked men entered. The man in the cage looked up resigned and allowed himself to be led away.

A low moan caught Virgil's attention and he realised that Scott was starting to come round. Loathe as he was to remove Scott's helmet, given their situation, Virgil needed to check for head injury and concussion. As carefully as he could he got the helmet off.

"Easy Scott" he said. "Can you open your eyes for me?" It was clearly a struggle but blue eyes opened and cast around before finally settling on Virgil.

"Rg'l?"

"Yes, Scott. Do you know where you are?" There was an alarming pause during which Virgil carefully checked his brother's head. Despite the helmet Scott would have an impressive black eye but, thankfully nothing more.

"Yeah" Scott said, coming back to himself. "Yeah, fire, factory, monitor room. How's Mackie?"

"I'm good" came a reply from the other man. "Don't like the room service though, I'll not be coming again."

"FREEZE! EVERYONE HANDS ABOVE YOUR HEADS NOW!"

Scott jumped at the noise then winced. Virgil slowly raised his hands as armed men streamed into the room each wearing a black uniform. On their sleeves was the emblem of the new South African Government. They moved like military and immediately had the room covered. Two men went straight to the computer and pulled the wires out the back, killing the feeds to the monitors.

"You on the ground, hands above your heads now!" Their leader turned his attention to Scott and Mackie, who were both trying to get themselves up.

"They're injured" Virgil said placing himself between his bother and the gunman. For his trouble he found himself staring down the barrel of the semi-automatic weapon.

"You will speak when spoken to" the man said. A second man caught one of Virgil's raised hands and drew it behind his back before placing him in handcuffs. He then moved onto Scott, flipping him onto his stomach before cuffing him as well. Scott let out a grunt of pain at the movement.

"Hey" Virgil was incensed "leave him alone!" The man swung the gun around and jabbed him in the ribs with it causing Virgil to double over as the wind was knocked out of him.

"That's you're only warning" the man said. He then turned to one of his men and gestured to Scott and Virgil.

"Gee hulle terug nah ul skepe"

Virgil was roughly hauled to his feet, strong hands on each arm forcing him towards the door. He dug his feet in and tried to turn back for his brother only to see that Scott was getting the same treatment. But Scott wasn't able to keep his feet under him, the sudden motion seemed to be messing with his head and he kept shaking it as though to clear it.

"He's been hurt, can't you see that?" Virgil demanded but he was ignored. The men dragged them both through the factory and then they were thrown into the back of a van. Two of the armed men got in with them and the others vanished though when the van started up it was easy to guess where they'd gone.

Scott 's breathing had become laboured, and though Virgil had managed to push himself into a sitting position Scott hadn't made a move to.

"Scott?"

"Ribs" his brother closed his eyes as a bump in the road sent another wave of pain through him.

The journey was much shorter than Virgil anticipated. The van was bought to a rough stop electing another grunt from Scott but before Virgil could react the men in the van had focused their weapons on his again. The doors opened and Scott was dragged out by his feet, his cry as he hit the floor making Virgil's heart cramp.

"Uit" the man to his left said and gestured with the gun that Virgil should move. Virgil didn't know why he'd bothered as a moment later he was also hauled from the van and landed on the ground next to his brother.

"International Rescue is no longer wanted here" one of them said. "You will leave or we will open fire."

Virgil was manhandled onto his stomach before someone removed his handcuffs. He looked over to Scott to see that he had been similarly unbound then looked up at the shadow of his 'bird. Gordon was waiting at the base, the firefly already loaded, more armed men making sure he didn't go anywhere.

"Get up" them man gestured with his gun and very cautiously Virgil got to his knees and then went to assist his brother. "You have ten minutes or we will open fire. We have aircraft inbound."

"Pre-flight takes longer than ten minutes" Virgil said drawing Scott's arm around his shoulders. That his brother wasn't engaging was highly worrying to Virgil. Normally Scott would be toe to toe with a man like this for getting in the middle of a rescue op. He'd also try and fight Virgil helping him stand but as Virgil looked now Scott's eyes were half closed and as Virgil pulled them upright his head lolled.

"I suggest that it does not" the man gestured again leaving Virgil no choice but to turn his back on the armed men and walk the few feet to Thunderbird Two. His back itched the entire time but no bullet came for him.

Gordon's face was like thunder as the men covering him prevented him from helping Scott and Virgil the rest of the way.

"Eight minutes" the man behind Virgil said.

"There's still a fire raging, you know" Gordon clearly lacked self-preservation skills. "Remember, the reason we were called in the first place?"

"You were not called by our government and you are not needed now. Seven minutes."

Virgil got Scott up the ramp and let out a breath he didn't realise he'd been holding as it closed behind him shutting out the fire, the room with the monitors and the armed men. Gordon appeared on the other side and took some of Scott's weight.

"We need to get him to the med-bay, he shouldn't be this out of it" Virgil said, though he had a suspicion as to what was going on. Once there Gordon reached out to pull down the foldaway bed and they got Scott situated.

"I have Thunderbird One and Thunderbird Two is ready for launch" John said from nowhere.

"Gordon, go set course for the nearest friendly hospital" Virgil said without turning to him. He was running a scanner over Scott. As suspected, he had two broken ribs, with the lack of cognition Virgil surmised there was internal bleeding causing shock. Fortunately, Gordon didn't stick around to ask questions and Virgil soon felt his 'bird hum to life.

"Alright Scott, we're safe now" but his brother had lost consciousness once more as so couldn't respond.