The sun was rising from behind the peak of Tracy Island casting an orange glow across the green of the tropical forest. Already the temperature was comfortably warm. Virgil was sitting on a bluff, looking wistfully out to sea. He felt no comfort as he remembered both the previous evening and the following night. Once again he'd been woken dramatically by his nightmare and once again he had no idea what the dream had been about. Alan had suggested that he should keep his sketchpad by his bed and draw whatever he remembered as soon as he awoke. The problem was that he'd been so distressed at that point, that all memories of the dream had been driven away. The sketchpad still lay beside his bed, top page unblemished, pencil still sharp.
He sensed rather than heard someone come up behind him.
"Morning," Gordon said.
Virgil didn't look round. "Morning," he replied dully.
"Breakfast will be ready soon."
Virgil grunted a reply.
"Something wrong?"
"Thinkin' about last night."
"Dream or piano?"
"Both."
"Oh." Gordon sat down beside him.
"You all walked out on me!"
"I know we shouldn't have," Gordon admitted, "but… Your piano playing is as much a part of our family life as…" he tried to think of a simile, "living on this island. I guess it was too much for all of us, not only Grandma. Did you continue practising after we left?"
"No. I didn't feel like it. I didn't like the idea of chasing you all out of the lounge."
"Are you going to try again today?"
Virgil shook his head. "No."
"You can't give up! You've never given up. On anything! You especially can't give up on your music!" Gordon was practically pleading. "It'd be like cutting off your hand, it's such a part of you."
"It's not a part of me now though, is it? I don't know what I'm doing. I don't remember. And I don't want to upset anyone."
Gordon had a flash of inspiration. "There's a keyboard in your studio. You could practise on that until you get your confidence back."
"Great," Virgil said flatly. "Something else I've got to relearn."
"Scott would show you."
Virgil gave him an unenthusiastic look and then looked back at the ocean that was now less purple and more blue.
"Give him a chance," Gordon begged. "He's okay."
Virgil continued his inspection of the blueing ocean.
"Hey," Gordon said gently. "I'm the one who's supposed to look out to sea when I'm feeling down."
Virgil sighed and flopped back so he was staring at the sky.
"And John's the one who feels better looking at the heavens..."
Virgil turned his head so he was looking at Gordon. "And me? What am I supposed to do when I'm 'down'? I don't even know that!"
"You listen to music."
"Music." Virgil resumed his despondent inspection of the skies.
"You'll learn again," Gordon insisted. "You've got a natural talent. Come on! Cheer up. You're more like Alan than Virgil at the moment."
"Maybe I'm more like Alan because I don't know what Virgil's like," Virgil stated. "What makes Alan feel better when he's sad?"
"Annoying us all with his sulking."
Virgil didn't even smile. "And Scott?"
"Bossing us all around…" As soon as he'd said the words Gordon wished he hadn't. "I'm kidding. He takes out his frustration in the gym… That's why he's spent so much time in there these last couple of days... He reminds me of a cat we used to have. He'd get frustrated if we were ignoring him or weren't feeding him. Then he'd find a bit of paper and start ripping it into confetti. Grandma would have a blue fit when she'd see the mess he'd made."
This recollection evoked no reaction from his brother.
"Come on, Virgil. What's really bothering you?"
Virgil hesitated before answering. "Who are you?"
Gordon tried to work out if this was some kind of a joke. To his shock he realised it wasn't. "What? I thought I'd explained all that."
"You've told me that you're a family. You've told me that you're my family…"
"That's right."
"You've told me that you're an organisation that has these fantastic machines that fly anywhere in the world to help anyone who needs it."
"Yes?" Gordon was wondering where all this was heading.
"Just the five of you?"
"Six! Tin-Tin helps occasionally…"
"I was including Tin-Tin."
"I was including you."
"Just one family of four brothers…"
"Five," Gordon interrupted.
Virgil continued on as if he hadn't. "…And Tin-Tin…"
"And Brains occasionally," Gordon reminded him.
"It sounds too implausible," Virgil stated.
"Why?" Gordon couldn't keep the surprise out of his voice.
"You say you're able to do these amazing things. Things that sound impossible."
"When you've got the right tools anything is possible." Gordon protested. "Why would we lie to you?"
"You tell me."
Gordon was at a loss as to what to say or do. He decided that the first step would be to cheer Virgil up. Surely he'd see sense when he wasn't feeling so dejected.
Gordon Tracy resorted to his greatest weapon. He sighed melodramatically. "Okay. If I tell you the truth will you promise not to tell the others I let the cat out of the bag?"
"You're obsessed with cats, do you know that?" Virgil looked at him warily. "You'll tell the truth?"
"Do you promise?"
"Yeah. Okay," Virgil agreed
"We're aliens."
Virgil lifted his head off the mossy ground, looking at Gordon incredulously. "Aliens?"
Gordon nodded earnestly. "From outer space."
"From outer space," Virgil echoed.
"From the planet Coelacanth."
"A coelacanth is an ancient species of deep sea fish," Virgil told him.
"Our planet is in the constellation of Pieces." Gordon insisted. "We've come to your planet with our advanced technology to lure you Earth People into a false sense of security before our people invade and take over the world."
"Okay. I'll bite. Where do I fit into all of this?"
"You're a pawn in our plan. We've removed your brain so you will do our bidding."
"I'm almost prepared to believe the removed brain bit. What are you going to get me to do?"
"Something important."
"What?"
"I want you…" Gordon said dramatically.
"Yes?"
"To…"
"Yes?" Virgil said impatiently.
"Take me to your leader!"
Virgil stared at him. Then he laughed.
Gordon was greatly relieved to hear the sound. "I'm serious!"
Virgil laughed again. "Yeah, sure."
"Don't tell the others I told you," Gordon warned.
"Why? Are you frightened they'll die laughing?" Virgil sat up. "Don't worry. Your 'secret' is safe with me."
"Good. Now how about breakfast?"
"Yeah, why not?" Virgil stood, brushing bits of vegetation off his trousers. "Thanks, Gordon. You've cheered me up."
"All part of the service. Now as a repayment, will you please try to talk to Scott?"
Virgil sighed. "Yeah… okay."
They began the walk back down to the villa.
Gordon was thinking about what had just happened. He didn't want to show it, but he was concerned. He debated briefly with himself and decided that he wouldn't mention it to anyone else. They had enough worries, without him adding to them.
Virgil's next statement drove all previous thoughts from his mind. "Are Alan and Tin-Tin serious?"
"About each other? As serious as Alan can be over anything that doesn't have a motor and go faster than a Tiger Moth bi-plane. They pretend they're just friends, and we play along to keep them happy. Why?"
"Just wondering…" Virgil said quietly. "Tin-Tin seems nice…"
Gordon stopped abruptly. "Whoa! Hang on, Virgil. Tin-Tin's strictly off limits to the rest of us. We regard her as our little sister. Nothing more!"
Virgil held up a placatory hand. "Calm down. The thought of a relationship hadn't even crossed my mind. It was just a comment."
Gordon looked at him warily. "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. If for no reason other than the idea of dating someone who knows more about me than I know about myself is not appealing at the moment. Besides," he chuckled, "where could we go?"
"Oh…" Gordon looked at his brother shamefully. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay."
They continued walking. Gordon, trying to think of a safe subject to talk about, said, "I didn't know you knew what a coelacanth was."
"I wouldn't worry. I don't know what I know. I wouldn't expect you to."
"No. I mean I didn't know that you knew what a coelacanth was before you had amnesia. You've never shown any interest in sea life…"
Virgil stood outside the door to the bedroom. He took a deep breath and knocked. A voice said, "Come in!" and the door slid back.
Scott was seated at his desk. He looked surprised to see Virgil standing there. "Hi."
"Hi," Virgil said awkwardly.
"Uh," Scott tried to think of something intelligent that would explain Virgil's presence. "Do you have a message for me?"
"No. I… I thought…"
"Would you like to come in?"
Virgil flashed a nervous smile and took a step into the room. The door slid shut behind him with a snap, causing him to jump.
"Sorry about that," Scott said. "There's something wrong with the mechanism. I keep meaning to fix it, but I never seem to find the time."
"Oh," Virgil said.
"Have a seat," Scott indicated a comfortable chair. "Can I do something for you?"
Virgil accepted the invitation and sat down, twisting his fingers together nervously in a subconscious gesture. He appeared to want to speak, but was unsure what to say.
Scott waited.
Virgil glanced at Scott and then looked at the floor. "Gordon and Fath… Da… People tell me that you and I were close."
Scott looked at the file in which he'd been writing. He slowly closed it. "I'd like to think we were."
What followed was an awkward silence.
"Um. Thank you for showing me the piano last night," Virgil eventually said.
"Uh. The piano? Not a problem."
Scott looked at his hands and frantically thought.
Virgil looked at his hands and frantically thought.
"Um. Did you enjoy playing the piano?"
"Uh. The piano? I didn't sound as good as you did."
Scott reflected that it must have been the first time ever.
The awkward silence returned.
"Gordon says there's a keyboard in the studio," Virgil said.
"Do you want me to show you how to use it?" Scott asked wondering if this was the real reason for his brother's visit.
Virgil nodded and once again the silence hung heavily in the room. Eventually he moved as if to stand. "I'm sorry. I'm wasting your time. I'll go."
"No don't! Let's talk," Scott begged.
"No, I've interrupted you," Virgil insisted.
"I've finished this," Scott picked up his folder and thrust it into a drawer, closing it quickly. He didn't realise he'd jammed the papers so they were partly protruding.
They both sat there wishing they could think of something to say.
Virgil was the first to speak up. "What were you doing?"
"What this?" Scott indicated his desk and then noticed the file. He removed it from the drawer and tried to straighten it out again. "Making some notes about yesterday's rescue. I like to sleep on it. See if there's anything we did really well, or could improve on."
"And was there?"
"Well, things by and large went well. We got the victims out."
"Have you heard how they are?"
"John picked up some radio report about them both being in a critical condition, but apart from that, no."
"Oh." Virgil was quiet for a moment. "Did you have any concerns…? About the rescue?"
"The only concern was the way Gordon reacted to the wind gust. "
"The wind gust? But surely he couldn't control that."
"No. But he could control what he did in response. He risked Alan's neck..."
"What happened to Alan wasn't Gordon's fault." Virgil was sticking up for his protector.
"Yes it was," Scott said evenly.
"What?" Virgil frowned.
"Gordon didn't react to the wind gust the way he should've."
"How'd you know?" Virgil asked defensively.
"He told me."
"He told you?" Virgil's defensive attitude changed to one of surprise.
"When it comes to International Rescue, Gordon's a total professional. He knows that in our business you can't afford slip-ups like that. It could cost someone's life. He was lucky it wasn't Alan's this time."
"How do you mean?"
"If it had have been a sideways movement instead of straight up into the air, he could have slammed Alan into the rocks, or the car. If it had happened when he was lifting the car the force of the collision could have been enough to destabilise Thunderbird Two's flight. The occupants of both the car and Thunderbird Two could have been killed."
Virgil thought about this for a moment. "But how was it Gordon's fault?"
"All our flying craft have sensors designed to detect wind gusts. They allow us, or the onboard computer, to compensate. Gordon wasn't concentrating on his wind gauges. When the gust hit, he overrode the computer causing Thunderbird Two to gain altitude. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to be dangerous."
"How can you prevent something like that happening?"
"It's a familiarity problem. Gordon's not as used to flying Thunderbird Two as…" Scott refrained from saying 'you were'. "It's one of the disadvantages we have in each of us specialising in one particular craft. We forget the nuances of the other vehicles in our fleet. So I'll take him out on some familiarisation exercises in Thunderbird Two this afternoon. Get him back up to speed."
"You'll show him what to do," there was a faint edge to Virgil's voice.
"And sometime soon he'll take me out to re-familiarise myself in Thunderbird Four. And Alan will give us both training in Thunderbird Three. We'll regard what happened yesterday as something of a wakeup call. As Gordon said, the simulator's no substitute for the real thing. We all need get in practise in each other's craft."
"All except me."
"Yeah… well…" Scott said awkwardly and his flow of speech dried up.
They lapsed back into the uneasy silence.
Scott reflected that he had just explained some of the intricacies of Thunderbird Two to someone who under normal circumstances should know more about them than he did. He felt that it was Virgil who should be doing this afternoon's re-familiarisation session, not him.
Virgil reflected that he didn't know why he was here with this man, except to please Gordon, and wondered if he should try to make another exit.
Scott made another attempt to get the conversation flowing again. "Is there anything I can tell you about yourself? I've known you longer than Gordon has."
"I don't know. I don't know what I don't know."
Scott worked his way through that sentence. "It can't be much fun for you at the moment."
"No."
"If I can help, you only need to ask."
"Thanks."
Scott couldn't remember things ever being this awkward between the pair of them before.
Virgil couldn't remember.
"Can I tell you about your schooling?" Scott asked hopefully.
"Gordon covered that."
"Hobbies?"
"No."
"Jobs?"
Virgil shook his head.
Scott thought desperately, and then brightened when an idea came to him. "I know something Gordon won't have told you about, because he won't know," he said triumphantly.
"What's that?"
"I can tell you about the day you were born."
Virgil decided to listen politely.
Scott gave a rueful chuckle. "Obviously I was pretty young when I was told that I was going to get another sibling. I was upfront about it. I wanted a little sister. I demanded a little sister!" He slapped his desk in emphasis. "Don't ask me why? I think that because I already had a little brother in John, I wanted a set. Probably I knew some other kid that had one of each. I went through Ma's entire pregnancy insisting that she give me a sister…" He flushed slightly. "Uh, you do know what I'm talking about… don't you?"
"I remember that much," Virgil reassured him.
"Good," Scott said in relief. "Anyway Ma kept on telling me that she couldn't guarantee that the baby would be a girl, because she didn't know what it would be herself. And then, on the 15th of August 2041, Grandma told me that the baby had been born."
"A boy," Virgil said.
"Yep. I was really disappointed when I was told that I had a new baby brother. I sulked all the way to the hospital." Scott grinned at his own foolishness. "So I had another brother. Big deal. I didn't want it. And if Ma wasn't going to give it back, I decided that I was going to ignore it… forever. That'd teach Ma for not giving me a sister."
"What changed your mind?" Virgil asked in interest.
Scott realised that his brother was beginning to relax, and relaxed himself. "Grandma took me into Ma's room. She was in bed holding the baby. At least that's what I thought she was holding. All I could see were blankets. 'Do you want to see your brother?' Father asked. 'No,' I replied. 'He wants to say hello to you,' Ma said. 'Don't care,' I said, 'he can go back where he came from."
"Well, at least everyone knew where you stood," Virgil chuckled.
"Oh, I made that clear enough. Then Ma said, 'Would you like to hold Virgil?' and I'm thinking 'What is a Virgil?'"
Virgil laughed.
"Anyway, Grandma convinced me to sit in one of the chairs, and Father took those blankets from Ma and put them on my lap. I held on tightly, but I was not going to look! I was going to ignore this Virgil! Then you made a snuffling sound and I looked down to see what kind of creature you were. This big pair of eyes were looking right at me as if to say 'Oh, it's you, Scott.', and then you closed your eyes and went to sleep... I suddenly realised what it meant to be a big brother. As far as I remembered John had always been there, so he didn't count. But to have someone who trusted me enough to protect him, on his first day in the world, that he would fall asleep in my arms… It felt pretty special. It was at that moment I was glad I didn't have a little sister."
"You've got a good memory," Virgil commented, "if you can remember all that in such detail."
"Well," Scott said, "I was reminded. Remember? At your 25th birthday party, Father…" he paled. "Oh, heck. I'm sorry. Virg… Virgil…" Scott clenched his fists tightly in a gesture that said he wanted to crawl up into a ball and hide.
"It's okay. You're lucky you're able to forget…" then Virgil chuckled. "That's ironic isn't it. Me saying that."
Scott managed a chuckle of his own. "I'll tell you something else Gordon won't have told you about. I'll bet he hasn't told you about Gordon."
"Yes he has."
"Not the stories I know, I'll bet…"
Half an hour later found them both laughing hysterically.
"… So while Alan's trying to convince the teacher that the mouse was a fake one, and that she was mistaken in what she saw, Gordon's sneaking behind her trying to catch the live one. He didn't have a chance."
"He got caught?" Virgil asked through his laughter.
"She heard him, of course, and caught him red handed. It's a bit hard to explain away a live mouse in one hand and a homemade fake mouse in the other."
"Did they get into trouble?"
"I'll say. The way Father went on you'd think it was a capital offence. Mind you, the school wasn't too pleased at having the mouse stolen from the biology lab, cotton wool taken from the first aid room, and yarn swiped from the sewing room. The paint all over the floor and walls of the art studio from where the teacher had dropped them when she first saw the mouse didn't help either. Gordon's explanation that he was helping Alan with an art project only got him into more trouble, since Alan wasn't taking art at the time. Gordon had to clean up the paint spill, had detention for a month and was grounded at home for just as long. Alan's punishment was detention and grounding for a week. It didn't put Gordon off practical jokes though, and it didn't stop Alan from helping him either."
Virgil shook his head ruefully and wiped tears of laughter out of his eyes. "They're a couple of characters aren't they. They've been trying to make me believe all sorts of weird things. They even tried to tell me that International Rescue's got a plane that flies out of the swimming pool."
Scott grinned. "We do."
Virgil looked at him in amazement. "You're kidding me!"
"Nope. Want to see?"
"Of course I do! Which one is it?"
"Thunderbird One," Scott said proudly.
"Your plane?"
"That's it."
"Why through the swimming pool?"
"Would you think of looking for an aeroplane underneath a swimming pool?"
"No," Virgil admitted. "How do you get it out?"
"Didn't you see me launch yesterday?" Scott asked.
Virgil shook his head. "No. I was still trying to get my head around John's picture coming to life and the wall eating you up."
Scott laughed, rising as he did so. "Come on. I'll show you Thunderbird One. I can explain everything down there…"