Virgil bought Thunderbird Two into an easy hover before setting her down. On every side the Australian outback stretched on, dust and open scrub only sight for miles. Not for the first time Virgil wondered to himself just why his rescuees were out here, but now another question rose - how had they got out here?
"Thunderbird Five, I've arrived at the danger zone" he said powering down the engines and raising the mighty green machine up on her struts with practiced movements.
"FAB Thunderbird Two, our contact is waiting for you" John said his eyes somewhere else. Virgil wasn't surprised. John was currently coordinating four rescues what with Alan and Kayo on Lunar Base and Scott literally on the other side of the planet. Until recently Virgil had been providing support for Gordon as he and Thunderbird Four did deep repair work on a dam in China but eventually John had been forced to make the call to send Virgil here.
"I've been monitoring a situation in Australia" he'd said. "Two extreme outback explorers - self titled - have been calling in saying that one of them has fallen down a sinkhole. Local authorities should have been enough to handle it but now one has stopped responding. It seems he's conserving air and his partner estimates he will run out before the local services can arrive. Thunderbird Two can be in and out before Thunderbird Four requires lifting out."
So, Virgil had gone. His plan was simple: survey the area to determine whether he needed the mole or just some muscle power from his exosuit, then make an entrance either for himself or breathing equipment and extract the victim. The only complications would be terrain and any injuries his victim may have received in the fall.
He exited the craft deciding against donning the exosuit. Looking at the ground it was most likely going to be a job for the mole. The hard packed terrain looked as though it hadn't seen water in weeks.
"Thank goodness, you need to come quick. Paul fell in here, he's not responding" a man with a strong Australian accent and wearing sand coloured kakis raced up to him. His skin was heavily tanned by the sun and his shirt looked as though it had been worn for a few days.
"Alright, stay calm and tell me exactly what happened." Virgil allowed himself to be lead towards what turned out to be a crack in the ground. Though long it was only a few inches wide and Virgil frowned.
"We were walking" the man said talking fast "and the ground just opened up. I've never seen anything like it! One minute he was here and the next gone!"
Far be it from Virgil to openly contradict someone in the stress of the moment but something just wasn't adding up here. The ground looked completely undisturbed and he knew from scans that EOS has provided that the ground was stable. A quick run over with his wrist scanner said the same thing.
"You're sure it was here that your friend fell?" He asked. It wouldn't be unreasonable to think the man had got mixed up, there was very little in the way of identifying features out here.
"Yes, yes! Right here!" The man pointed to a patch of ground that looked just like every other. Virgil turned, intending to go back and get a better scan from his 'bird but as he did the man grabbed his arm, gesticulating wildly at the ground. "Can't you see? I haven't heard from Paul in over an hour, you have to do something!"
That timing was all wrong according to the brief he had from John. The small niggle of worry forming in his mind started kicking for attention.
"I need to go and get stronger scanning equipment" he said gently extracting his arm from the het up man.
"No, no! I'm telling you he's here" the man made to grab him again but this time Virgil easily evaded and turned just in time to see a plume of dust streaking towards Thunderbird Two.
"What the hell?" He said, raising am arm to the communicator on his baldrick with the intention of getting more information from his space bound brother. He was surprised when his arm was caught in a much firmer grip than before.
"Can't let you do that" the man said, his Australian accent gone and replaced with American.
"I need to get better equipment in order to find your friend" Virgil said easing back and testing the grip the man had on him.
"Yeah, about that" the man started but that was all Virgil needed to get moving. He might not be as proficient as his sister in hand to hand but he knew enough and, more importantly, he had at least forty pounds of muscle on the man. A swift downwards yank on his arm and he was free and sprinting for Two. He slapped his comm.
"John! We've been-" whatever he was going to say ended in a grunt as he was tackled from behind. The man was now on top of him and scrambled to pin him to the dust and Virgil desperately tried to keep his arms free and get at least one leg under himself to buck the man off. He risked a glance upwards and his heart sank. The trail of dust revealed itself to be a jeep and Virgil new that, even if he got free in the next ten seconds, he'd never get to his bird before the jeep did.
Clawing his arms free he did the only thing he could. A few quick taps on his wrist controller and Thunderbird Two lowered herself back down, ignited her VTOL and took off for home. A few more taps and the controller died. Virgil couldn't recall Two if he wanted to.
A second pair of hands appeared and captured his right arm. A third took his left and he was dragged to his feet.
"Better late than never" came a grumble form behind him.
"Shut it Caleb" said the voice to his right.
Virgil threw all his weight to his left trying to unbalance his captors. The scuffling of boots raised small dust whirls but did little else.
"You're gonna wanna settle down before the boss gets here" said the voice to his left. "He's gonna be pissed enough with that stunt you just pulled."
Internally Gordon's voice told them all to go to hell. Externally he aimed a sick kick into the knee of the man to the right and was rewarded with a crunch and a yell when he connected.
The punch caught Virgil off guard, whipping his head round and causing him to stumble. He didn't stop fighting, though it wasn't getting him anywhere, as the jeep stopped in front of him.
"Full of spirit, isn't he?" Said a new voice. Virgil look up warily as a further four people exited the jeep, each one dressed in desert camouflage and each one armed. "That's better" the new voice said as Virgil stilled. "Now, this is very simple. We don't want you, we want your machine. Call it back and you go free."
"No" Virgil said putting as much conviction into his voice as possible.
The man smiled and punched him hard in the gut. The blow took his breath away but the two holding his arms kept him from folding in on himself.
"Well?" He was standing closer now, close enough to that Virgil could read the name Stanford on his dog tags. Virgil doubted he was anything other than a mercenary though. His bearing and gear spoke of a military past but his clothes and hair said he'd let that side of himself go a long time ago. Virgil new from his two brothers that had served that some habits were hard to break. Both still rose with the dawn, one still obsessively neat and one able to snap into a focused mode so fast it made your head spin.
"No" Virgil said breathing heavily against the pain the from last blow and the anticipation of what was coming.
This time the punch split open his cheek. For a few moments he couldn't seem to gather his thoughts. He didn't initially notice as his wrist communicator was yanked off. Not that he could have done anything to stop it.
"He did something on this" Caleb said. "Then the Thunderbird launched itself."
"Huh" said Stanford as he poked at the machine before sticking it under Virgil's nose. "How do I turn it back on?"
"You don't" Virgil said wincing at the flash of pain that talking caused. "I killed it. Permanently. I couldn't bring the Thunderbird back if I wanted to and believe me, I don't."
"In that case I don't have a use for you" Stanford said before drawing his side arm and shooting Virgil point blank in the stomach.
Shock was the first thing that registered.
He… he hadn't… Stanford didn't just… did he?
Then the pain hit and Virgil's legs buckled. He wasn't released though, the goons either side of him keeping him upright as Caleb stripped him of all his remaining equipment.
Stanford came in close fisting Virgil's hair in his hand and forcing Virgil to look him in the eye.
"You should have thought it through" he whispered in his ear. "We only wanted the ship, now I'm going to leave you here to die."
Stanford released his hair and the goons dropped him, his vision whiting out as he hit the ground and desperately tried to curl around the fire in his stomach. By the time he had any control over his breathing and the pain the jeep was far into the distance.
Virgil needed to move. He needed to get somewhere safe, somewhere he could call for his brothers.
His fingers on his right hand dug into the dust as his left wrapped around the hole in his stomach but the pain stopped him from moving any further.
He couldn't move. He couldn't get himself somewhere safe. He couldn't call for help. Around him the wind blew a gentle breeze over the unrelenting empty outback and Virgil realised he was alone.
Completely alone.