The Sands of Anasta.
Jeff wondered what was going through Brains' mind after he'd returned from the ill-fated Anasta expedition because the moment he had returned with Tin-Tin the engineering genius had just secluded himself in his laboratory. After 3 days between rescues - it was quite quiet for International Rescue at the moment, something Jeff was happy with since it meant no lives were at risk - Jeff decided to do something about it.
But first, he wanted to get some insight from the only other person who had been there and was involved, but as he sat and waited for Tin-Tin to arrive after he'd called for her, Jeff wondered how this conversation was going to go, but he needed to find some way of putting the disastrous Anasta expedition to bed.
Tin-Tin and Brains had been attacked with the archaeologist they'd accompanied by some strange man who had some kind of weird hypnotism powers. The strangest thing about the man was how he had dressed as a native Arab, and yet according to Gordon, he had a 3-E submarine, which sounded extremely odd.
From what Gordon had told him later, the model of the submarine was good enough for the job because of its size and portability, but it was also expensive, which only added to the mystery of the attacker. But it was Scott who came up with the theory it was the same person who had been after International Rescue and who was responsible for the whole mess with Fireflash which could have claimed Tin-Tin's life. Scott had only come up with the theory because of how the photo alert in Thunderbird 1 had gone off. International Rescue's equipment was so advanced and powerful, it could destroy life. Much of the technology, as were the super submarines and ships and other craft utilised by the World Security Patrol branch organisations, such as the World Aquanaut Security Patrol, were based on modern-day ideas of Supercar's technology, and the thought of their tech being used to destroy was a painfully worrying one.
Jeff had not worked long and hard with the boys in forming International Rescue only for their work and technology to be taken from them. One of their precautions was to ensure their machines and aircraft were fitted with automatic camera detectors which would alert Scott and the others of camera activity. A competent scientist could come up with a lot from a single photograph, and Jeff and Brains knew it.
The submarine was destroyed, and so was the Temple but Jeff wanted to speak to Brains, but the engineer was not making it easy for him.
"Mr Tracy? You wanted to see me?" Jeff looked up and smiled at Tin-Tin, who was looking much better after her ordeal; Virgil had been terrified when he had found her, just sitting and staring into space.
"Yes, Tin-Tin. I did. Please, have a seat," Jeff pointed at the chair in front of him, and Tin-Tin did as she was told before he got up and fixed Tin-Tin and himself a drink of water.
"Here," he said, holding out the glass.
Tin-Tin smiled at his manners but she took the glass and placed it on the desk. "What was it you wanted to see me about, Mr Tracy?"
"I wanted to talk to you about what happened at the lake, Tin-Tin," Jeff said, inwardly admiring her businesslike attitude although he would have preferred a chance to have some small talk before they got down to business.
Tin-Tin shuddered visibly. "Okay, but I've been trying to stop myself thinking about it," she said.
"I can understand that, considering what you've been through-."
"With respect, I don't think you could. I was just getting ready for bed, looking forward and preparing myself for a day of making a more in-depth survey of the temple when this strange man appeared. When he spoke, his eyes seemed to glow with a strange light, and I felt like I was slipping away into a dark hole in my mind," Tin-Tin interrupted him. She was clearly not in the mood for someone to play the 'I know how you feel' card.
Jeff frowned a little, but he had to remind himself she had every right to be short with him.
"But what worries me is how he knew so much," Tin-Tin went on, a worried and terrified frown on her face, but Jeff wasn't going to comment on it seeing as how it was worrying him as well and she had met this guy, "I mean, from what he said he knew Brains and I were International Rescue, but I just don't know how. Did Virgil tell you while I didn't know him and I hadn't recognised him, a part of me felt sure I knew him from somewhere, somehow?"
"He did," Jeff nodded, seeing there was no point in keeping this quiet.
"Well, I've been trying to rack my brain, but I can't think how or where," Tin-Tin shook her head before she picked up her glass of offered water and took a sip. "I also heard how Scott feels this might be the same spy, or whatever he is, who's been trying to gain hold of International Rescue secrets. That would fit. He knew we were members. He tried to take photographs of Thunderbird, but he was more focused on the treasure than anything else. On top of that, he was using a disguise. We know the agent is a master of disguise."
Jeff frowned at the grim reminder of this little piece of the puzzle. Ever since the day they'd started, they had learnt a great deal and yet learnt very little about the criminal who showed an enormous interest in International Rescue.
They knew he was incredibly smart, capable of coming up with some interesting plans which in the long term endangered others while he didn't care one bit.
They knew he was a master of disguise.
But now, they knew his determination to find out the secrets of International Rescue truly knew no bounds. At the same time, he seemed to be very well informed about the organisation's movements and activities. That was unacceptable, but Jeff didn't know what to do about the problem when they knew next to nothing about his own operations.
"After you were shaken out of your trance and you and Brains were on the mend, and you discovered the photo alerts had been triggered, why did Brains go into the lake late at night?" Jeff finally came to the part he wanted to ask.
"Brains felt he had caused you and International Rescue a lot of trouble by attracting the agent and endangering our lives, and he wanted to redeem himself," Tin-Tin said.
"What? By actually endangering himself?" Jeff could not understand how Brains could be so foolish. "Didn't he realise when he followed that cable, he could actually get himself killed?" From what he had learnt Brains had been confronted with the stranger and was subsequently hypnotised.
"I don't think Brains recognised the depths of his mistake until it was too late, Mr Tracy. By the time he did he was unconscious, and when I realised that I got the others up."
"And I'm glad you did, Tin-Tin," Jeff sighed while he tried to think about what else he wanted to ask the young woman about before he slowly began to realise what was possessing Brains. He could understand the need for some people to answer and pay for their own mistakes, but for Brains to risk his life like that…
If it was anyone else he might go as far as to claim Brains had a death wish.
"I think I might have Brains assigned to more rescue missions so he doesn't make this kind of mistake again; I don't care if he thinks we went to a lot of trouble over this treasure thing. We didn't. I was the one who ordered Scott, Virgil and Gordon to head out to Anasta. He was in trouble and we were worried about him, and he makes some stupid mistake like that," Jeff shook his head.
Tin-Tin didn't say anything. She had gone over this with Brains more than once but the scientist simply refused to listen. She didn't bother defending Brains because she knew Mr Tracy had a point.
X
It didn't take long for Jeff to find Brains. The scientist usually secluded himself in the library or the laboratory, or even in the hangers built into the natural cave system of the island, and there were only so many places for him to hide. Eventually, he tracked Brains down in the Thunderbird 2 hanger, which was the largest of the underground complex.
Jeff walked up behind Brains, seeing the scientist was going into one of the pods although which one it was, he could not say. When it became clear to him Brains hadn't realised he was there, he called out, "Brains?"
Startled, the scientist swung around and dropped the rolls of schematic paper and his toolbox. "M-Mr T-Tracy?" Brains stuttered out in disbelief.
Jeff smiled genially at him, seeing the worry in the other man's face, and he picked up the schematic rolls and the toolbox and handed them over to Brains, who took them worriedly. "I want to talk to you, Brains."
"A-About what, Mr T-Tracy?"
"About what happened at Anasta."
Brain's expression wilted and his eyes turned downcast. "Oh," was all he could say.
"Shall we head inside the pod, so we can talk?" Jeff suggested - while the hanger was currently empty as far as he could tell, at the same time he wanted Brains more at ease.
"S-sure, Mr Tracy," Brains replied with his usual stutter and the two men headed inside, and Jeff saw that Brains had opened up the pod with the firefighting equipment. Jeff didn't immediately engage the other man about the Anasta expedition at first, he could see how nervous and terrified his friend was, and he wanted Brains to be more at ease.
It seemed to work.
Aside from a few off questions when he had worked out for himself that the dreaded conversation was not going to come in a hurry, it seemed to work; Brains did begin to relax as he got into his work. After discreetly checking his watch and realising he had put this off for over 3 quarters of an hour, Jeff decided to get it over and done with.
"Brains, why do you think the Anasta expedition caused us a lot of trouble?" Jeff started the dreaded conversation for the scientist, making sure to refer to International Rescue as 'us,' rather than call it International Rescue. He wanted Brains to know this concerned all of them, not just International Rescue.
Brains had gone stiff when he had heard the shift in the conversation, and he looked up slowly into his friend's and boss' face, shame written all over his features. "Because we led you straight into a trap because there could have been people who were more desperate for y'your help," the scientist replied.
Jeff could see that the other man had a point - International Rescue dealt with so many different kinds of rescues, but at the same time, they were not picky about who they saved. In any case, it wouldn't take much for Scott to get going if another call had come through from John on the space station, and if they needed to change pods then Virgil would simply have to return to the island, but that was life at International Rescue.
For six months before International Rescue went into operations, Jeff had seriously considered the possibilities of the boys being out on different calls at once. There was the chance it would happen for real and if that happened then they would need to be quick and speedy from Danger Zone to Danger Zone and the boys would need to be prepared to change their equipment in a hurry, and they had practiced by going out stealthily to remote parts of Australia, America, Africa, and even Russia and parts of Europe after Jeff had called in his agents and asked them to find a large, remote patch which they could use. One of the problems with this set-up was Thunderbird 2 could not carry all of the pods, unless they had wanted the ship to be so big they would see it in the ocean and think it was an island, and they would never be able to get it off of the ground, to begin with.
For six months Jeff, Brains and the boys had trained themselves to quick and prepared for the eventuality they would be called out on a rescue only for John in Thunderbird 5 to receive another call, and they would need a pod with unrelated equipment. They had even built remote control guided motors into the computers of the individual pods themselves to move the pods out onto the runway so when Virgil returned to the island he wouldn't waste time going into the hanger. When he returned he would only need to exchange one pod for another, and then go out on his way; while Thunderbirds 1 and 2 were hypersonic aircraft, there would still be a great deal of time spent returning to the island and then leaving it with the fresh pod.
But the boys were prepared for the eventuality, and Brains knew it.
"You do have a point there, Brains. But at the same time you're forgetting the practice drills we ran for six months before we launched ourselves for real, and the drills we still practice to this day," Jeff said.
Brains looked down. "I-I know that, Mr Tracy, but we still-."
"Brains, listen to me. You are not the one who called International Rescue. I am the one who made the decision. I am the one who weighed up the potential consequences of giving that order; we had nothing to go on, only that you and Tin-Tin didn't contact us as scheduled, but we were worried about you," Jeff rubbed his face and looked around the pod, at the form of Firefly and he smiled as he remembered Brains' excitement when the idea for the firefighting vehicle came into his mind, and he was relieved whenever Brains came to him with yet another idea, the scientist was always bubbling with excitement like a kid with sweets or a new toy.
"I knew there was a chance the boys would need to go out on call and head for another rescue, and that you and Tin-Tin would be potentially in danger if we left you, which would never have happened since there was no way we would ever let that happen. I knew that Brains, I am more than aware of the possibility of the boys being forced to conduct dozens of rescues in a row and they would need to come back for different pods. But you are forgetting the mission of International Rescue and why I set it up in the first place; our goal is to save lives, regardless of what is happening around them. We do not ignore calls for help, within or outside of our organisation. Sometimes this causes us to endanger our lives, and it could even mean giving up our lives for the sake of others," Jeff did not once take his eyes off of Brains' face, he wanted to see how the other man took the statement.
He knew Brains had not forgotten the creed of International Rescue, and he never would. But what annoyed Jeff was how selfless Brains was being, willing to think the plight he and Tin-Tin had suffered was more troublesome to International Rescue than helpful. "And don't forget, Brains, from what Scott and Gordon told me when you guys got back, you were buried up to your neck in the sand. You were badly dehydrated and Tin-Tin was in a coma induced by a weirdo, who could very well be the same man who's been trying to get hold of our secrets. I'm not angry with you for that; I want this bastard out of our lives for good, and every encounter we have with him only increases our knowledge and awareness of his activities, but what I am angry with you about is how you recklessly went down into the lake without telling Scott, Virgil, and Gordon what you were doing. Now, I can understand someone wanting to make up for a mistake, but you were hypnotised again. You put yourself in unnecessary danger when you knew Scott had decided to send Gordon down into the lake in Thunderbird 4 anyway, but at the same time, it says a lot about you and your bravery despite taking a terrible reckless risk. But you should have returned to the camp and told the others about your suspicions and the cable, that way they could have come up with a better plan."
Jeff sighed as he ran a hand through his hair. "I'm not angry with you Brains. Far from it. I'm just disappointed you took such a risk when it wasn't even necessary. For that reason….," Brains' entire body language went tense, clearly, he expected some kind of punishment, "I am going to send you off onto rescue missions. I feel you need to gain some hard experience so you do not take such a foolhardy risk ever again," he finished off with a stern glance at Brains. But the engineer was staring at him with something akin to awe and amazement that he would even say something like this.
But Jeff wanted to make it clear to Brain that was not a reward, and he knew just what to say to make that clear to him.
"While you're out there in the field, you will see how the boys cope and make decisions that can have life-altering consequences. At the same time you'll also see them work together, knowing they will have backup," Jeff added, knowing he needed to be harsh while making it clear to Brains he would not tolerate this kind of error of judgement ever again, but he knew the other man wasn't stupid enough to do that.
But at the same time, Jeff wondered when the criminal behind this would come back.
But how did he know Brains and Tin-Tin were International Rescue?
Author's note - Desperate Intruder was one of my favourite stories thanks to the submarine element, but it was fun writing this. Hope you enjoyed it.