Jeff sat there, pale. After several minutes Scott said, "Dad, dad, are you ok?" It snapped Jeff back to the present and he answered, "Uh, yes, yes. What details do you have? Wait a minute, let me get everyone in here first before you continue." Jeff turned to the many buttons on the intercom and hit the WHOLE HOUSE entry. "I need everyone in the lounge right away."
He sat there quietly waiting, hands clasped, for everyone to appear. Kyrano, Tin-tin and Grandma were the first there because they were in and about the house. Brains came next from his lab and the other three boys were scattered in the Thunderbird bays. Gordon and Alan came in together since they were working together in TB4. Virgil came in last wiping his hands on a dirty rag.
"What's up?" asked Virgil when he noticed he was the last one in the lounge.
"Ok, Scott, start from the beginning." Said Jeff.
Scott started, "There was chatter on the line that caught my attention. It caught my attention because I heard the name Tracy. There seems to be a hostage situation at Tracy Industries. John is among the hostages." He paused for a moment to let that sink in. "While I was waiting for all of you to gather I picked up some more information from the police band. They have been in contact with our security people. There are approximately 30 people in the main conference room on the first floor. It seems that the original plan was to kidnap John and ask for ransom. Security picked up on it and prepared to catch them when they came out of the elevator on the ground floor. Somehow the kidnappers got wind of it, got off on the first floor above and caught the group of people coming out of the conference room just breaking for lunch. Dad, you will be receiving a call soon. I've picked up the talks between those men and the police and they are demanding that they talk to you. They will probably want money."
Everyone in the room just sat there, mouths agape and white faced. Virgil was the first to move. "Dad, I will take Thunderbird 1, I can be there…."
"No you won't!!" yelled Jeff.
Everyone just looked at Jeff, "huh?" Gordon said almost under his breath.
The phone then rang.
Jeff looked at the 'caller id' and it indicated the police were calling. He ignored it until it stopped ringing. "We can stall them if 'no one can get hold of me'. Now back to the situation. Everyone there knows us as the owners of Tracy Industries. We can't just barge in there as International Rescue. That would be the end of International Rescue."
Virgil said, "You aren't going to just leave the police to handle this are you?"
Jeff looked at Virgil and a small smile cracked his face. "No, I have no intention of letting the police handle it. That is my building, those are my employees and that is my son they have. We are going in as the Tracy family. We will take the larger corporate jet to the Tracy Industries airfield, and from there pick up a helijet. We will land on the roof and proceed with our plan from there. Gather around the desk, I have the building plans here. Let's formulate the rescue. Scott, contact John."
"Suppose he is not in the best position to get hailed right now?" Scott inquired.
"Just sent a vibration through. Let's hope they didn't collect valuables or take his watch. Only give it one short burst, Scott, just in case he doesn't have the watch anymore."
"Ok father." Scott kept his portrait communication open while he switched to John's watch. He wanted to hear what was happening in the lounge to put in his two cents. "Dad, I sent the signal, but so far nothing from John."
The failed kidnappers were discussing what to do amongst themselves. Between the gunshots and yelling the hostages were all very quiet. They were all seated at the tables which just moments earlier they sat at learning New Management Techniques in a Corporate Environment. John sat as close to the kidnappers as he dared without bringing attention to himself. He saw the dark one head to the wall phone and make a call. He wasn't close enough to hear and he feared that if they thought he was listening in, they would shoot him on the spot. They have plenty of other hostages to hold for ransom and could probably fool his dad into thinking he was still alive. John felt his watch vibrate. He was not sure if his family used the vibration because they knew about the kidnapping or because they weren't sure if he was in a business meeting. He started to cross his right hand over to turn it on when the blue-eyed creep turned and looked at the hostages. "You had better be very good little boys and girls if you want to get out of this alive." He then looked straight at John, a sinister grin growing across his face, and a mean glint lighting up his eye. "You had better hope 'daddy' takes care of his employees, eh Johnny? How many billions are you worth?"
The quiet one, with a very bland description of medium build, medium brown hair, brown eyes, medium height, medium skin color, the nightmare description for cops, swatted the blond guy and simply said, "shut up". He went over to the dark one, who was on the wall phone making his demands known to the police. They were trying to get Mr. Jeff Tracy on the phone. So far no one seemed to be able to find him.
When John saw Creep looking around the room he very slowly returned his arm to the armrest of the chair and froze. He knew that when the watch vibrated, there would be no picture showing. It would still look like a watch. He decided, when he had the chance to set it on one-way audio/visual. He would not be able to hear what they were saying to him, but they would at least know what the situation was.
"WE HAVE A PICTURE" Scott yelled, almost sending everyone jumping out of their seats. He sent it through to John's portrait. It was sideways, at waist height or thereabouts. It was a little disconcerting as it was slowly moving around the room, mostly sideways, but sometimes at a harsher angle, then sometimes flashing back to show just a wall, ceiling or floor. Grandma said, "Let me know what you come up with, I can't look at that picture without getting dizzy" and she closed her eyes.
It was so quiet that at first they didn't think audio was on. But then they heard the faint sound of someone coughing. The picture settled on three men huddled together near the wall. The Tracy clan watched carefully. "Do you think those are the kidnappers?" Alan asked. "They are the only ones standing."
"Hey look," pointed out Gordon, and when one of those three men turned ever so slightly they noticed he had a gun. "I guess that answers your question, Alan."
Jeff said, "Hmm, they look like they have semi-automatics. Not good. But we knew they couldn't have hostages without some kind of firepower." Turning back to the discussion they were having he said, "Ok, I think we have a plan here, does everyone agree?" They all nodded yes in agreement. "Good, go get the items from Thunderbirds that we need. Brains, get the thermal imager from your lab. Virgil, go get changed into business casual. It looks like the people in that room are dressed in business casual. We will meet back here and take inventory to make sure we have everything we need. Remember if we can't carry it, we can't use it."
Virgil looked at the video some more. It would periodically flow across the room before returning to the three men. He looked closely at what all the male employees were wearing. He said more to himself, "I know exactly what to wear" and he turned and left. Jeff turned to Scott after the room emptied of the young men. "Scott, monitor John's watch closely, turn up the volume in case he needs to whisper something. We will only be able to communicate through the watches since we will be without the Thunderbirds." He turned to his mother, "Mom, ignore the phones for about an hour. Then when you do answer, tell them that I am travelling. You don't know where I am at the moment. But get a number from the police where I could contact them if I should 'check in' with you. Mom, Tin-tin, we'll get John home safe and sound. These men have no idea who they are dealing with. Today will end up being the worst day of their lives. I will make sure of that. I will send a message that no one can get away with kidnapping a Tracy." The end of the sentence was emphasized with a pound of his fist on his desk. The young men started to filter back into the lounge. Virgil had changed into a navy blue polo shirt, khaki pants, and topsiders. Although the clothes were nice, it still afforded him mobility, and the shoes had a rubber sole for grip and silence. After reviewing all of the items that the men had gathered, Jeff said, "Let's go." And they all headed to the hanger containing not only TB2, but also the corporate jet that seats 10, plenty of room for the 5 men and rescue paraphernalia. Kyrano, Tin-tin and Grandma watched out the window as the jet took off with a roar and headed towards the city.
The phone rang again.
"Where's Waldo?" the blue-eyed creep asked. The boring one said quietly, "Don't let him hear you call him that, you know how much he hates that name." The creep retorted, "Hey, don't yell at me, his mom named him that!" After a deep laugh, "He got named after a hotel! Ha, maybe we should start calling him Mr. Astoria. Or how about Dorf?!" And he started to laugh harder. The darker fellow, who seemed the obvious leader snarled at the creep as the conversation was getting out of hand, "Knock it off, just shut up." He then walked over to John.
John's heartbeat sped up when he saw one of the kidnappers heading towards him. He thought his heart was going to explode out of his chest. The man walking towards him had fire in his eyes, he was not happy.
"Where's your f**king father?" he snarled and he grabbed John by his tie knot and yanked him up onto his feet. Even though John is taller than this guy, he is not built as big. This guy is strong. "I don't know." John responded softly, then to strengthen that answered, he said, "That's why I'm here, he likes to go off on trips all over the world. I got stuck this time to watch his company." John was trying to make it sound like he was not on the best of terms with his father. It would make what he said more believable. He knew his father and the rest were coming. But he couldn't let on to the kidnappers that fact.
Scott was watching the screen and could see one of the men come towards John. Suddenly the picture did a whoosh and seemed to swing around in circles. Scott had a hard time watching it, it was making him seasick. Then the pictured stilled showing the back of the chair. He heard that man yell at John followed by John's reply. He was glad the way John was replying, it worked in their favor buying more time. Scott was upset that he was stuck up in TB5. He wanted to be there, knocking that guys teeth out. He started pacing around TB5 but always had view of the screen. He kept watching very carefully. The picture seemed to return to the steadier side view that had been dominant through most of this ordeal. He saw the dark haired guy leave John and head back to the other two. Then in an almost inaudible voice he could hear "Scott, if you saw that send me another vibration."
Scott did.
John was relieved to feel his watch vibrate. It removed any doubt that they were coming. Now, all he could do was help stall.
The Tracys landed at the airfield and quickly transferred to the newest helijet. This particular helijet had a new system that could muffled sound for short amounts of time. No one would hear them coming. They would be at the building in less than 5 minutes. According to Scott, no one has left the room, so the roof should be clear.
The leader of the pack looked to the boring one, "I think they are stalling. Do they have a helipad on the roof? The cops could be planning to land on the roof right now. Do you still have the C4?" Boring fellow nodded yes and padded the bulge in his pocket. "Go wire the roof. If any cops try to land up there, KABOOM!" Boring fellow nodded and left.