Hunter, Prey
By Sapphire
Disclaimer in part 1
Chapter 8 – Rescue in GermanyGordon squirmed in his seat, feeling restless. He knew once they reached the danger zone there would be enough to do, but getting there always seemed to take so long, and there was always the fear that they would be too late and that when they finally arrived, the people they tried to rescue were already dead.
For her size and weight, Thunderbird 2 was pretty damn fast, faster than any other transport plane on the planet. Still he wished she would go even faster.
He cast a glance over at John, who was sitting next to him. His older brother had his eyes closed, though Gordon didn't think that John was asleep. He studied him, watching for any sign of the sickness that had made their father take him off the space station. But John looked fine. Well, Father had given John a green light, so he probably was fine. Still, Gordon decided he would keep a close eye on him, if he could.
When Gordon had heard that John was sick, he had worried at first that this was an after-effect of the underwater accident from last week. He had been really scared for John's life back then. Though it had been a relief to find out that the wound on John's side had been relatively harmless, he couldn't help wondering how he could have miss-judged the extent of John's injuries to such a degree. Not that he wished John any harm, but he could have sworn that that piece of metal had stuck pretty deep in John's side.
Gordon couldn't stand waiting in the seat anymore. He popped his safety harness and got up.
"Virgil, I'm going to check out the Mole."
Even though he could only see the back of Virgil's head, he knew that his brother was grinning. It was a well-known fact in the Tracy family that Gordon couldn't sit still for longer than five minutes.
"FAB. Take John with you. He can read the check list."
"FAB, Virgil. Come on John."
He nudged his older brother. John opened his safety harness and got up as well.
They took the elevator down to the flight deck level and opened the double doors between Thunderbird 2 and whichever Pod she was carrying.
Pod 5 contained the Mole, a big drilling machine International Rescue used for any rescue that required them to travel any distance underground. The Mole's drill head was made of a material even harder than diamond. Depending on the composition of the ground, the Mole could travel up to one hundred feet per minute. The cabin seated two persons comfortably, three if they didn't mind getting in each other's way.
Like all their rescue equipment, the Mole was always kept in tip-top shape, but still protocol required that they worked through a six-seven points long checklist every time a mission was imminent.
John pulled up the checklist on the computer and started to read it of. He seemed calm, as if he was on a rescue every day. Of course, in a way John was always on a rescue with them every time, but usually only as a voice from above, a watcher, and sometimes, Gordon thought with a little smile, their guardian angel.
"Are you okay coming along today?" Gordon asked, as he confirmed the function of the radar system.
"Sure. Why not?" John looked up from the computer screen to take a look at his younger brother. "Coolant system?"
"Coolant system: check. No reason, really. I'm just asking."
"Navigation system? I'm really fine, Gordo. Don't worry."
John laid his hand on Gordon's arm. It was cool to the touch and Gordon almost pulled his arm back, but John held his grip.
"Gordon, is it because of last week's accident?"
John waited, looking patiently at his little brother.
Gordon sighed. "I'm sorry, John I just can't help it. I had nightmares after the accident for three solid nights. I still don't know how you got out of this with barely a scratch. You really scared me."
John exhaled deeply. "I'm sorry I scared you, Gordon. But I'm fine. Really."
John let go of Gordon's arm, but held his eyes. Gordon could read the sincerity in there.
Finally, Gordon broke the eye contact.
"Let's go on with the list, shall we. Navigation system: check."
There was a short pause then John continued reading from the list.
oooooo
When they arrived at the danger zone, Scott directed them to land in a small park a little off from the half-collapsed building. Scott had learned that the vault was only a few hundred feet away from an old underground railroad tunnel and to save time, they would travel by that tunnel until they had to drill through.
After landing, Virgil jacked Thunderbird 2 up, exposing the large door of Pod 5.
Gordon and John were already on board, unloading the Mole the moment the ramp was down. Virgil joined them a minute later. The plan was for them to get to the vault as fast a possible. John and Virgil would then start to cut their way into the vault with the hostages, while Gordon would take care of the explosives.
The entrance to the old subway system was just large enough to allow the Mole through and they made good time to the spot they had picked for the breakthrough.
Now that the rescue had started, Gordon was all professional, his nerves from before forgotten. He was leaning over John's shoulder, watching Virgil fire up the drill head. Even though the dampeners the Mole had were the best there were, vibrations and a lot of noise still came through, and communications was only possible thanks to the head-phones they were all wearing.
"Scott, we're starting to drill," Virgil checked in with Scott.
"FAB. Be careful, there's still a lot of electronics embedded in those tunnel walls."
Virgil flipped a switch and a display sprang to life. He studied it closely, then adjusted the drill two yards to the right.
"FAB. The power's off, but I still found a place that is pretty much free of any cabling."
Gordon held on to whatever he could, as the powerful machine began to dig into the concrete walls. Virgil was careful at first, but after they hit the compacted earth behind the concrete walls, he increased speed.
John was reading the navigation and radar system, leading Virgil's path through the earth. He seemed to be calm, his voice sounding confident. Due to the confinement of the Mole's cabin he was pressed against Virgil's back, but didn't seem to mind.
It took them only a few minutes to reach their goal. Virgil had to slow down once again as they reached the steel enforced walls of the vault, but even they were no real obstruction to the strong drill heads of the Mole.
The moment they broke through, Virgil cut the engine.
A TV screen came to life, showing the dark and smoky interior of the large central vault. From the plans Scott has been given, they knew that there were four individual vaults leading off from the central room. Each vault had its own security system. While the bank robbers had worked on the vaults to the right, they had locked the hostages into one of the vaults to the left. This was also where the explosives would be.
Gordon palmed the door open. He was already outside, when he heard a warning call from Virgil.
"Gordon, wait!"
He turned back, but it was already too late.
The sound of a gunshot reverberated through the room. Something heavy slammed into his chest. Breathing was suddenly impossible. He looked down at himself, seeing a dark stain spread on his blue uniform. He tried to draw a breath, but then pain exploded all over him, spreading with lightning speed from his chest to the rest of his body.
From somewhere in the distance he heard someone calling his name, but he couldn't acknowledge it, couldn't move, couldn't think.
Then, finally, a dark hand reached out for him and he knew no more.
tbc
Oops, I killed Gordon ;)
More in the next chapter 'Resurrection'