A New Road

By Sapphire

Disclaimer: in part 1 (and yes, this is an AU, hence the warning that one should first read 'Fork In The Road'. Everything is explained there)

Part 2

Hiram Hackenbacker tightened his grip on his bag as he stepped off the plane in LA. The ticket – 1st class from Chicago to Los Angeles – had shown up within the promised hour. The envelope had carried the address of the Chicago office of Tracy Industries, a well know aerospace company. He actually had a rejection letter from that company in his box somewhere, as he had applied for a job as a designer. If he couldn't build rescue equipment, he might as well try to build safe air planes.

Searching the internet, he had learned that Jeff Tracy, the sole owner of Tracy Industries, indeed lived on an island in the middle of the Pacific. Though leading a fairly reclusive life away from the glitter and glamour of high society, there had been an article on him and his family just the other week. It seemed like a band of modern day pirates had tried to take over the island, but had been foiled by the timely intervention by four of Jeff Tracy's five sons. Obviously a family not to be trifled with.

Walking through the gate, he saw a dark-haired man holding up a card with his name printed on it.

He stepped up to him.

"I'm Dr. H-h-hackenbacker," he introduced himself.

The man lowered the card and smiled warmly. "Good to see you, Dr. Hackenbacker. My name is Scott. I hope you don't mind waiting a few more minutes, but I'm to pick up somebody else."

Brains was a little confused, but covered it well. "Of c-c-course, ehr, no problem."

For some reason, he had expected to be the only applicant for that special project. But then, why should he? He didn't know how big a project Jeff Tracy was planning on and how many people would be involved.

A few minutes later Scott's smile increased in wattage.

"Grandma, Tin-Tin, over here." He waved.

An old lady and a beautiful young Asian looking woman moved over.

"Scott!"

Scott gave the old lady a hug and a peck on the apple cheeks, then repeated the gesture with the young woman.

"Is everybody all right? We heard about the attack in Europe, but Jeff wouldn't allow us to come back earlier. We were so worried. What about Virgil? We heard he's been shot," the old lady said, giving her grandson a once-over.

"Everybody is okay, Grandma, don't worry. Virgil is doing just fine. We had some unexpected help, but I will tell you everything later. This is Dr. Hackenbacker," Scott introduced Brains. "He's coming with us to the island. Dr. Hackenbacker, this my grandmother, Josephine Tracy, and this lovely lady," he smiled at the other woman, "is Tin-Tin Kyrano, my father's personal assistant and a very good friend of the family."

Brains realized with a small shock that the man he had taken for a mere chauffeur, was indeed Scott Tracy, the oldest son of Jeff Tracy. What was the son of one of the richest men in the world doing chauffeur duty?

Everybody shook hands and then they headed off. Scott checked with Brains that he had no more luggage than the small bag he was carrying. Scott offered to take it but Brains refused. Not that he had anything important in the bag, but it just felt wrong to have Scott carrying one's luggage. This easy going, casually dressed man had probably more in his checking account right now than Brains had ever seen in his life. He still tried to make sense out of this weird welcoming committee.

They walked along the concourse to a door at the other end. While they were walking, Scott was asking his grandmother and the young woman how their trip to Europe had been, and Mrs. Tracy complied by telling him about the towns and places they had visited.

Through the door, the walked down a flight of stairs and arrived at a parking lot. Scott ushered them all into a limousine and took the driver's seat himself.

"We have a jet on stand-by in one of the hangars on the outside field," he explained to Brains. "One of the disadvantages of living on a remote island. We have to do a lot of flying."

Five minutes later, they arrived at the hangar and left the car in a designated spot. Brains, who had already been quite overwhelmed by the 1st class ticket and the limousine, could only gape in awe at the sleek silver plane. He knew, if he hadn't put his heart on designing rescue equipment, he would have built air planes. This plane was every designer's wet dream and he wished he could take a peek at her engines.

"The TI 2070, our latest model," Scott remarked, noticing Brains' interest. "Fastest plane on the private sector. She does Mach 2 in a bind. With her, it will only take one and a half hours to the island."

"You a-a-are also flying?" Brains couldn't stop himself from asking.

Scott smiled. "I'm an Air Force pilot, but when I have the time, I also test fly the new models we put out. My brother Virgil had a hand in designing her. So, what do you think?"

"She is b-b-beautiful," Brains said the first thing that came to his mind.

Scott's smile widened, showing off his dimples. "If you tell Virg that, you two should get along just fine."

They boarded. Scott disappeared in the cockpit while his three passengers made themselves comfortable in the luxurious cabin. Or as comfortable as somebody not used to all that opulence could make himself.

Brains was very conscious that he had stepped into a world that was very different than the one he was used to. Those people had Money with a capital 'M'. He guessed just the allowance for one of the Tracy sons would be enough to cover the running costs for his firm and have enough left to live comfortable.

So, what did Jeff Tracy want from him? What had roused Tracy's interest in him? He obviously had already good engineers working for him, and Brains knew that he hadn't done anything outstanding in the last couple of years. Besides Tracy Industries didn't build any rescue equipment he knew off. They concentrated instead on planes, trains and ships.

He wondered if he had made a mistake in coming here. Brains didn't really trust people with money and the power that came with it. What was that mysterious project Tracy had mentioned? What if he refused? With all that money, Tracy could squish him like a bug if he didn't get what he wanted.

"So, young man, what do you do for a living?" the old lady asked, interrupting his dark thoughts as they taxiing off towards the runway.

"I'm an e-e-engineer, ma'am."

"That is nice. My son and two of my grandsons are also engineers, Virgil and Alan. They're always going on about material this or design that. Not that I understand what they are talking about, really, but boys need their toys I guess."

Brains had to smile at that. The old lady sounded so proud of her offspring, just like any old woman would with her children and grandchildren. It didn't matter if said offspring was a wheat framer in Kansas or a multi-billionaire.

Take-off was smooth and soon the plane headed in Westerly direction.

tbc