"M'Lady." Parker coughed apologetically.
"Yes Parker?" Penelope looked up from the magazine she was perusing.
"The Aston Martin 'as not returned."
Penny raised an eyebrow. "Maybe Marie took Virgil on that pub crawl. Jealous Parker?"
"A pub visit while using the Aston Martin? I surely 'ope not m'lady." Parker shuddered.
"Then again, I don't think Virgil and Brains want to be left out of
our conference with Jeff at 2:00." She consulted the gold and diamond confection
that was really a watch.
The thugs who had done the kidnapping were methodically stripping their victims of watches, keys, and any other possessions except for the clothes they wore and their shoes.
The van pulled over briefly, the personal effects were placed in the Austin Martin along with a small but deadly thermal bomb. Two minutes after the van left Parker's beloved Aston Martin blew up and melted into sludge.
Two crates were subsequently loaded onto a scruffy looking cargo plane
which winged its way off to a far off destination from London - somewhere
no one would look for them.
"I'm sorry Jeff, I can't think what could have happened to them. Virgil and Brains are not answering and I cannot raise Miss Ryker either. "
"How well do you know this Miss Ryker?" Jeff Tracy hated to sound overly suspicious, but if Virgil was anything, it was punctual.
"I know her quite well, but I have to admit that I've not seen or heard from her in over a year." Penelope admitted reluctantly.
"Maybe it wasn't a coincidence that she and Virgil were on the same flight together."
"Maybe not. I'll look into it." Penelope promised. "I'm beginning to be worried."
"Me too." Jeff admitted feeling more like a father than the head of
International Rescue.
Waking up was not pleasant. All thoughts of playing possum were wrenched from Virgil's mind as his head felt like a split open melon. He raised a shaky hand to his head expecting to find blood or his brains spilt. He could hear moaning and groaning in stereo. His fighter pilot's reflexes cut in and he rolled to his knees. His eyes adjusted quickly to the gloom of the small room. Cold rock cut into his knees and abraded his palms. Brains was curled in a tight ball next to him breathing heavily and moaning.
"Brains." Virgil was surprised that the name came out of his mouth, his tongue felt like it was twice the size it used to be and as dry as the Sahara. He licked his lips. Darn, even that caused a stab of pain to his head.
Marie was lying on her stomach. He put a shaky hand on her back and was relieved to feel the slight rise and fall that showed the woman was alive and breathing. The muscles under his hand shuddered and a small keen of pain escaped her lips.
"V-vir-gil." Brains managed to roll slightly. His eyes were unfocussed behind his thick glasses. The back under Virgil's hand shuddered and shook as Marie began to move more. "Nu…begrame…don't leave me…" She muttered.
"I'm here." Virgil patted her shoulder trying to comfort someone who probably felt as bad as himself if not worse.
Luckily within minutes most of the worst symptoms seemed to have abated leaving all three with pounding headaches.
Even though Virgil was the first to get to his feet, Marie seemed to recover first.
"We were d-drugged." Brains said with unaccustomed distaste in his tone. He tried to clean his glasses on his shirt. Marie took them gently in her hand and lifting up her blouse polished it on what seemed in the gloom to be some sort of undershirt.
"Silk." She said. "Cleans glasses a charm." To Virgil's continued surprise he felt a pair of strong hands grip his neck and begin to massage the last stiffness out.
The door which seemed to flush with the wall suddenly whooshed open with a pneumatic sigh.
"How pretty. I think I've done you a favor." A tall sinister character kept to the shadows, though his three armed to the teeth henchmen made the presence known.
"Come closer and I'll do you a favor." Virgil gritted out aggressively. He had taken to his feet immediately at the first hint of the strange sound.
"Don't be greedy Virgil. I'd like to pound him myself." Marie and Brains had moved to flank him. Both had the relaxed stance of confident and practised hand-to-hand combat experts.
"One each and one l-left over for the qu-quickest." Brains added.
The guards shuffled nervously. As if by a silent agreement the three took a step forwards.
"You can have your moment of bravado, but I shall laugh last." A hollow sinister laugh came from the shadowy man.
"How trite."
"B-boring."
"Overdone."
"All right. Just die then." The sinister voice was a trifle petulant. "This whole mountain will blow up in 24 hours. You can amuse each other." At some silent signal the man and his 3 guards left them.
"I think we ruined his theatrics." Virgil said. The metal door slammed shut with finality and they heard the snick and clunk as the electronic bolts slid into place.
"You guys sure have some interesting enemies." Marie said rubbing her aching head.
"Th-th-that was the Hood." Brains sounded astounded. "N-now w-we know
wh-what he is up t-to."