Jeff was sick when he heard the news. At first he took it out on Scott for not telling him sooner, but mellowed quickly. After the conversation with Scott, he just sat motionless. A million scenarios passed through his head of what might have happened to Virgil and what the outcome could be. But one thought dominated; the same thought rescue after rescue, the same thought that danced on his emotion, on his nerves. The thought that this might be the rescue in which not all of his sons return.
With his elbows on the desk, he ran his fingers through his gray hair. He stopped halfway through and just grabbed a fistful. He always thought Virgil had the highest risk of danger. Scott, although at all rescues, usually manned the Mobile Control. Alan and John split 50% time in TB5, a lonely but safe job. Gordon did the underwater rescues, but they averaged only about 20% of the total rescues. Gordon and either Alan or John would sometime double crew with Virgil, but that wasn't always necessary. TB2 is the workhorse of International Rescue and Virgil was her pilot. The only time Virgil missed a rescue was if he was injured. Now he was missing.
Tin-tin walked in and stopped dead in her tracks, "Mr. Tracy, what is the matter?" she asked worriedly. Jeff looked up at her with tear glistened eyes, "Virgil is missing in Cumaguay." She gasped clasping her hands over her mouth. Jeff continued to tell her the whole story. She sat down in the closest chair as Jeff called all the other household members into the lounge for a meeting. A meeting to inform everyone of a missing loved one.
The night was long and the boys slept fitfully if at all. At first light they were up and out. Armed with guns and first aid kits, grabbing energy bars and water, they exited TB2. Captain Rojo was approaching the IR men. "Buenos dias, Senores." He said. "Good day to you too, Captain." Replied Gordon. Captain Rojo said, "I have another patrol ready to go. If you want to get another of your scans, we can get going."
Scott, John and Gordon discussed that at length during the long night. The argument got heated at times on whether to do the scan or not. If they do, their technology would be used for the very thing International Rescue stood against; their technology being used to take a life. They know Virgil would rather die than to have someone else die from the use of their technology. He would be horrified if he knew that the scans that helped locate him caused the death of others.
Scott answered Captain Rojo, "I'm sorry Captain, we are out of film, we cannot take anymore images." He knew the captain would not know the type of technology they used, and hopefully would buy into the 'no film' excuse. The captain shrugged, "Ok, let's get started then. Where would you like to start?"
Scott answered, "Let's go to the site last night that was newly abandoned."
The party reached the small clearing and searched it thoroughly. There were footprints all over and the boys carefully scrutinized as many as they could. They could not find any of the distinct impressions that the boot of an International Rescue agent would leave. They all felt that Virgil was never there. Scott turned to the captain, "Sir, we do not know where to go from here. You would have the best knowledge where to look next."
"Senor, our best bet is to just go on patrol like we usually do. If we find any rebels, maybe they can tell us if they heard of an American that was captured recently."
They trudged on narrow paths through the thick forest. Periodically they would hear an exchange of gunfire in the distance. The captain seemed unfazed by it. The path eventually dead-ended at a small paved road. They headed south, single file along the side of the road. They were careful to keep an eye on the trenches on either side of the road where a body could easily be missed. Suddenly the captain signaled for everyone to take cover. The soldiers shoved the Tracy brothers into the underbrush and told them to keep quiet. Seconds later 2 old cars, a jeep and a hummer zoomed past. One of the soldiers said, "Humph, I recognize that hummer as one of ours. The rebels must have stolen it."
By mid-afternoon, they had made a circuit of the area and returned back to TB2. John called for a family huddle inside the great ship. "I don't know about you, but I would rather go off on our own searching for Virgil. We could use the imager then and Captain Rojo won't be the wiser. And, if you think about it, if he still goes out on regular patrols, then in essence, we have two search parties looking for him." Gordon was nodding his head in agreement, "And I think we should concentrate on where we knew Virgil to be last, at the side of the church."
Scott looked from John to Gordon back to John again and knew they were dead serious. He also agreed with them. "Ok, I will call dad to give him an update and let him know our plans. Both of you get some water, food and REST. There is instant soup in the kitchenette area. 15 minute break, then we're off again."
After their rest, they exited Thunderbird 2. Scott found Captain Rojo in one of the abandoned but still standing buildings in the town. Before Scott could speak, he said, "My men are tired, Senor, and still have other duties to complete. We cannot go out again today looking for your companero." Scott had been trying to think of a way to convince Rojo to let them go alone, and he was handed his answer on a silver platter. "I understand Captain, all we can ask for is for you to keep an eye open for him on your regular patrols."
"I can at least do that, Senor." The captain replied.
When Scott returned to his brothers, they were at the side of the church where they knew Virgil to be last. There were lots of tracks as John had removed the grabber then walked the area calling for Virgil. There were also children's' and soldiers' footprints scattered about.
"I found one!" cried Gordon. Scott and John rushed over to where Gordon was kneeling down studying the ground. It was the distinctive print of an IR boot. "John, were you ever over here?" Scott asked.
"No."
"It is aimed in that direction." Gordon said pointing towards the ravine. They got up and walked slowly towards the rock formation, studying the ground. Gordon pointed to another saying, "It looks like he was heading towards those rocks over there during the attack. Looking at the distance between tracks, he was running." The tracks ended at a huge mortar hole just a few feet away from the rocks. The three brothers all looked over the rocks and down into the ravine. John said worriedly, "Do you think he is down there?" Gordon answered, "Could be, look, some of the vegetation is broken."
"C'mon" Scott said and he leapt over the rocks and started sliding down the almost vertical incline. He grabbed a sapling to stop his descent. He waited for Gordon and John and was rewarded when they crashed towards him. Scott reached for Gordon as he sat into his slide. He snared the sapling. John was not far behind crashing into Gordon, also ending in a sit. Gordon started to say, "If Virgil fell down here……." But he couldn't finish the thought. John pointed further down, "Look!" Scott's and Gordon's gaze followed in the direction John was pointing and saw a bright yellow flash of color hidden in the dark green foliage. They all quickly climbed down to find a small piece of yellow sash. John picked it off the branch, the IR emblem was on it. Gordon went further down and found another piece of Virgil's sash. "OK" Scott said, at least we know he fell down here." And they continued their descent, dangerously fast. As they continued down, they found other pieces of his sash, and then some of his shirt or pants. They couldn't tell, as it was the same material. Unfortunately they also found his watch. Their anxiety increased as the time it took to reach the bottom increased. The ravine seemed bottomless.
They finally reached the bottom and felt mixed emotions of both relief at not finding his body and fear from just not finding him at all. "Which direction did he go in?" asked John. "This way" said Gordon, "he seems to be following the creek, downstream. He probably took one look up and decided to find another way back. He may have been too hurt to do that climb." They began following the stream, watching for his footprints. Gordon asked, "What's this strange impression I keep seeing beside his footprints?" Scott knelt down and studied it for a moment. "I think it is a crutch. Some sort of stick he is using for support." They tried to hurry along, fearing they would find a body at any minute, but their going through the boulders and river stones slowed them almost as much as it did Virgil. They followed the trail to a rock overhang. Gordon suddenly pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, the original imager scan. He studied it, then looked up. This image here, the one we said didn't have enough body heat to be human?…well, it is this location right here. Scott cussed under his breath. There were multiple footprints in the soft earth under the rock ledge. They didn't have enough light to tell if the tracks were made by one or more than one person. But there were prints from Virgil's boot. The trail ended there. "What do you make of this?" John asked. "Do you think the rebels got him?" Scott just shook his head, "I don't know, I just don't know." Gordon wanting to push on said, "I think we should look some more try to pick up his trail somewhere. We are too close to stop now."
Scott reluctantly said, "It is getting too dark. We aren't going to find anything down here. In fact if we want to make it out of here in one piece we should head back now before we get lost. We can start back here first thing tomorrow, with overnight gear. I saw a couple of places that look to be easier to climb back up than where we came down."
It was well past sundown when they finally returned to town. Captain Rojo was waiting for them. He looked disturbed. "Senores, we captured a wounded rebel late this evening. We asked him about your friend. He confessed to capturing an American fitting the description of your compadre. They said they killed him. He died before he could give us anymore information or where we could find his body. I am so sorry, Senores. We found this on him" and he held out his hand. There sat Virgil's gun.