Who's In Trouble Now?
By Spense
Chapter Four – And the Game is Afoot
Tracy Island was a-buzz with activity. Jeff Tracy had closeted himself in his office, searching for any leads he could find. He was constantly in contact with John, who, for his part was monitoring anything connected with Alan. Penny was hard at work from England, working with her contacts. Scott, Gordon and Virgil all tiptoed carefully around. All inhabitants of the island made it quite clear that it would be a long while before they were forgiven.
TB TB TB TB TB
Gordon came up for air after his early morning swim, the day following Jeff Tracy's arrival back home. Virgil tossed him a towel from the poolside lounge chair he was sitting in, without looking up from the papers he was reading covering Alan's disappearance. "Don't drip on me."
Gordon flicked a damp hand at him in response, smattering the newspaper with water drops."
"Ass," Virgil growled, shaking the paper to remove the excess water.
Gordon dropped to the next chair and began to towel off. He nodded at the pile of newspapers next to Virgil. "You don't think Alan was kidnapped, do you?" he asked, subdued.
Virgil frowned thoughtfully. "I don't know. At first, I'd have said no way, the squirt's running away. But it's been over two days and Al hasn't picked up his clothes, money, anything! I don't know what to think now." Virgil chewed his lower lip, and gazed unseeingly out at the ocean. "I really don't know, Gordon, and that scares me to death."
Gordon watched him knowingly. Virgil was the sensitive one in the family, a musician and artist. This had hit him hard, especially considering the fact that he had a hand in it. He reached out and touched Virgil's shoulder. "He'll be okay, Virg, really he will. He's a smart kid."
"Yeah?" Storm clouds covered Virgil's mobile face as he swung around to face his younger brother. "And what makes you so sure, huh?" Dawning comprehension began to loom. He slowly got up. "If you had anything to do with helping Alan disappear, so help me, I swear I'll . . ."
Gordon's stunned and equally angry denial was cut off by the klaxon announcing a rescue. Both knowing the matter was far from dropped, they headed down the hall at a run.
TB TB TB TB TB
The rescue was a cave-in, and it was dirty, tiring work. That aside, it was as routine as any rescue could be really be called, and it was finished quickly and successfully. Jeff had noticed all along the tensions between his middle and second youngest sons, although they had worked professional and effectively together. As soon as they arrived home, he gathered them in his office, before they'd had a chance to clean up. They had enough problems right now without having to deal with another incipient storm.
"All right, what gives," Jeff said, from where he stood, leaning against the edge of his desk. He'd purposefully remained standing, after making sure all three son's were seated. With all that was happening, he was going to keep a tight rein on everybody just now.
Scott, who had taken in the scene with knowing eyes, and thinking that they hadn't been arranged like this since they were kids, just shrugged and held up his hands in a 'not me' gesture.
Virgil opened his mouth to begin, filled with what he felt was righteous anger, born out of worry.
Gordon beat him to it. "Virgil all but accused me of helping Alan disappear!" he growled indignantly. He started to get up in order to pace the room.
"SIT!" Jeff thundered. Gordon sat, but didn't shut up. Scott mentally shook his head. Gordon and Alan both just never seemed to know when to quit.
"I mean, he all but said . . ."
"Well, did you?" Jeff asked the known prankster pointedly, breaking off the impending tirade effectively.
"HELL NO!" Gordon shouted.
Scott did his best to disappear into the couch, and pretended like he wasn't present.
"I feel as bad as everyone else, and I don't appreciate . . ." Gordon would have continued but for his father's barked order.
"GORDON!" Jeff was furious. "QUIET!" He nodded succinctly at Gordon who subsided.
Outside the office, Fermat and Tin-tin had been approaching with some mail for Jeff that had just arrived on the island. At the shouting voices, they stopped dead, and looked at each other.
"Maybe just d-d-d-deliver it later?" Fermat asked tentatively.
"Definitely." Tin-tin nodded succinctly.
The two tuned on their heel immediately and hurried back down to Brains lab, where they had been spending most of their time lately. It was really the only safe place on the island right now.
Back in the office, Jeff had turned to his middle son. "Virgil. What make you think that Gordon is involved?"
"Come on Dad! Gordon? He can make anybody think just about anything! Think about just last month! He had Scott believing that new tennis ace, the one that looks like a model? Was in love with him. He had gone so far as to set Scott up at a restaurant, supposedly by her invitation and on her tab. Scott being, suspicious, had John run checks. Gordon had even doctored bank accounts, airline tickets, and the works!"
Scott felt his cheeks turning pink as he swore to himself. Nice going, Virgil. Now he was in trouble for using IR resources for personal reasons. But it had been elaborate . . .and effective. And had Gordon written all over it. The older Gordon got, the more complex his planning had become. He felt his father glance pointedly at him, hearing the unspoken 'we'll talk later' before he turned back to Virgil.
"But do you have any kind of proof? That's a serious accusation to level at your brother, especially in light that he was part of the problem to begin with, just as you were."
Virgil sat silent, shifting uncomfortably. After a long pause, he had to admit he didn't. "No."
Gordon started to bounce up to drive the point home, but was stopped in time by a hard, unobtrusive tug on his flight suit by his oldest brother. He subsided back to his seat.
Jeff rubbed his temples for a moment, then crossed his arms. "Do you boys realized what you're doing? Our goal right now needs to be to work together to find Alan. Not blame each other. Right now, all of you are acting like you're about thirteen! Now, all of you, go find something useful to do!"
With a chorus of 'yes sirs', the three brothers filed out of the room. The minute they'd cleared the door, the angry, whispered, argument started up.
"Nice going, ace!" An angry Gordon hissed at Virgil.
"What the hell were you thinking, telling Dad that I'd used IR recourses . . ."
"You're always the one who starts everything . . ."
Jeff hadn't moved from where he was standing. He stood with arms crossed, gave a long suffering sigh, and didn't even look up. "BOYS!"
The voices stopped immediately.
Jeff said purposefully, "Scott, go clean the mole. It's due for servicing."
Virgil and Gordon looked at their older brother in sympathy as he winced.. That was a truly vile job.
"And when you're done with that, I'd suggest you go over the Firefly carefully as well. Virgil, I think the beaches need to be remapped after the recent storms. Gordon, please clean the pools and the hot tubs. Then you can check with Kyrano about any other household maintenance and chores he needs done. I believe some work on the gardens is in order as well."
The chorus of subdued 'yes sirs' met him again, and the three began to split off for their various assignments. Jeff couldn't believe it. He'd just had to split up his grown sons to keep them from fighting and keep them out of trouble. Did he have something in age regression happening here?
"Thunderbird five to Base."
"Yes John!" Jeff looked up immediately.
"Dad! I think I have something on Alan!"
His three other sons were immediately crowding the doorway. Jeff waved them in as he turned towards the vidphone.
John was shaking his head. "You won't believe it, Dad." He stopped for a moment as he took in the faces of all four Tracy's, apparently registering that something had just happened.
"Go ahead son," Jeff urged, ignoring John's questioning look.
John made a mental note to talk to Scott later, he said. "Ann Marie Watkins called." Ann Marie was Jeff's longtimeassistant at Tracy Enterprises, and was one of the few who knew everything about the Tracy's, including International Rescue. "She'd been trying to reach you, but I intercepted the call since you were on a rescue. Apparently, she's been on vacation since Wednesday."
"Right," Jeff acknowledged.
"So, when she read the papers, she called right away. It seems that Alan called her Tuesday. He'dlost his cash card and couldn't access his account, and couldn't get hold of you."
Jeff frowned. So far this sounded reasonable. It was what he'd always told his sons to do if they needed money. Ann Marie knew them all well – she had since they were babies.
"The kicker is that I guess Alan told her that in addition to his usual spending money, he needed to access the money in his school account for a class trip. Airfare, hotel, meals, etc., and that he'd also managed to lose his school books. So she wired him the money after telling him to open a new account right away for all of it," John hesitated for a moment. He still couldn't quite believe it. "Not only did she wire him what he requested, she replaced what was in his oldaccount so she could close it, she also added some on top because he sounded so upset, and she thought it might take awhile too get his account straightened out." John paused, then disclosed the amount.
There was dead silence in the room for a moment, then Gordon whistled in appreciation and began to laugh. "Gotta hand it to the kid."
Jeff closed him down with a glance. "When was this, John?"
"Four pm Tuesday afternoon. I've traced the call. It came from a pay phone on the school grounds. The money was picked up twenty minutes later, in town, at a place within walking distance from Wharton Academy. I've pulled the security tapes, and it was Alan all right. He didn't even try to hide; he all but smiled at the camera! And, no new account in Alan's name has been opened."
Dead silence reigned once againin Jeff's study while the Tracy's assimilated this information.
Scott finally said quietly, "Dad, you arrived at the school at 1:30 on Tuesday."
"And Alan called from the grounds at 4pm. He was still there!" Virgil finished incredulously.
The silence was broken once again by Gordon, who apparently would go where angels feared to tread. He was shaking his head in admiration. "Go Alan." He shut up immediately at a look from his father. Jeff looked at all three sons.
"Don't you boys have something your supposed to be doing?" He asked pointedly.
They took the hint, and with another chorus of 'yes sirs', quickly dispersed.
John looked on in amusement and asked, "What was that all about?"
"I seem to have acquired three more teenagers of about Alan's age," Jeff commented wryly.
John gave a startled burst of laughter, and making a mental note to get it out of Scott later, returned to the subject. "Dad, Ann Marie feels terrible. She had no idea what was happening."
"I'll call her. This isn't her fault. She was doing what I'd instructed her too, and don't think that I don't know how good Alan is at doing the 'I'm the youngest' act and using those big blue eyes of his to perfection.. He's been able to wrap any adult around his little finger without much effort from the time he was two." He grinned knowingly at his son. "And don't think for a moment that I'm not aware of how many times any of the four of you have put him up to it for your own advantage."
John squirmed uncomfortably. "Right Dad," he returned to the subject at hand quickly. "Do you want to call her back, or shall I?"
Jeff grinned at John's embarrassment and replied, "I'll call her. Nice work John."
"Thanks Dad. Thunderbird Five out."
