A Hard Place part seven – Taking a Chance
by Angel Mouse
John rolled over, glancing at the clock and smiling to himself as he saw the time. It showed 3 am and it was time for him to put his plan in motion. Slipping out of his bed he padded over to the door and took out the piece of wire he had managed to steal earlier. Kneeling down he broke the wire in two and began to work, thinking to himself he'd have to buy Parker a big bottle of scotch when he got home in one piece to say thanks for teaching him how to pick locks one quiet Sunday afternoon at Penelope's mansion.
He chewed his lip in concentration and then finally grinned as it clicked open. The only thing was that it was loud and John quickly sprang to his feet, moving to one side of the door. He knew that there was a guard and he was hoping the early hours would work to his advantage. The door began to open and John sprang into action.
He reached out and grabbed the gun that the guard was poking through the door, pulling the guard inside. The guard stumbled and John took advantage of this by bringing his knee up and slamming the guards head against it, stunning him badly. John then slammed his fist into the guard's stomach, doubling him over and then John followed up with a blow to the neck which knocked the guy out. John quickly dragged him inside and quickly tied him up using the man's belt.
Grabbing the man's gun he stuck it in his belt, grabbing the guard's keys as well and sneaking out he closed the door behind him. Hugging the wall he began making his way towards where he hoped the radio room was. He had seen something that looked like a radio room when he was being dragged back to his room yesterday by the guards. John just hoped to heaven that he was right, as he was risking a lot by doing this.
John rounded the corner and ducked back quickly, cursing under his breath in a few different languages. If his brother's could hear him curse they'd all be shocked. John grinned slightly as he imagined the look on Scott's face. His some times straight laced older brother was fun to shock with the occasional bought of profanity from John, so when he did have occasion to swear, you usually did so in another language, so his brother's didn't know what he was saying.
John glanced around the corner again and sighed with relief as the guards rounded the corner and moved away from the door that he hoped held the radio room. He hugged the wall, staying in the shadows as much as he could. He reached the door and quickly began trying keys until one fit and unlocked the door. He went inside, closing it behind him, listening for a moment. There was no noise in the room so John felt around and turned the light on.
He smiled widely as he saw the radio set up by the window and made his way over to it quickly. He glanced around and saw some tools and grabbed the box. He opened it and grabbed out a screwdriver. Closing the tool box and absently replacing it, he got to work quickly. He didn't know how much time he'd have before it was discovered he'd escaped.
He knew he should be working his way outside and into the jungle but he knew he had a better chance if he could let his family know where he was first. He popped off the cover and began quickly examining the wires. A rather feral grin graced his fair features as his hands began to work at a frantic pace.
After a few intense minutes he sighed as he finished fixing one connection and then closed the panel of the radio back. It was a chance he was taking, taking the extra time to get the rewiring right but he had to. If he was going to give his family a chance to find him, every little advantage he could give them would be great. Crossing his fingers John hit the button and began speaking softly and clearly, his tone soft and pleading in some places. This just had to work.
"Calling International Rescue, come in please. Calling International Rescue, you have to come in, please."
Thunderbird Five
Alan tumbled out of bed when the alarm went off. It was the special alarm he had programmed as soon as it was discovered John had been taken. It was an alarm programmed to go off as soon as any of his brother's voices came over any channel other than the secure thunderbird frequencies. He stumbled in his haste to get to the radio and was suddenly very glad that the all the systems were set up to record all incoming calls automatically. He got to the radio and gasped when he heard the voice on the other end of the radio.
"I hope your monitoring because I don't know how much time I have before they discover me. I'm being held somewhere on an island, somewhere near South America I think, not sure. This guy, Meriza, plans to use me as bait in some form of hunt in the next few days. Track and triangulate this signal. Guys, I really want to come home, come and get me. Are you listening? Can you hear me?"
Alan reached out to call to his brother, his heart breaking at John's words when suddenly over the radio there was a crashing sound. Worried for John, Alan stayed his hand and kept listening. He didn't want to distract John at a critical moment. He listened with rapt attention, glancing at the instrument panel to make sure everything was recording.
"Step away from the radio John." Alan gulped and couldn't help lean forward to listen.
"All right, hold your horses." There were the sounds of steps moving away and Alan fully expected for the radio to go dead once the transmit button was released. But then Alan remembered that this was John that he was dealing with, his brother the communication expert that could make any communication device sit up and beg for mercy.
"Not very smart was it John, trying to call your friends to come and rescue you. Now, take the gun from out of your belt and drop it, kick it over here slowly." There was a metallic sound, the gun hitting the floor obviously and then there was silence for a few moments.
"Now what Meriza? Back to my room and then more waiting is it?" Alan cheered mentally for his brother. John was cool, calm and collected under the most intense circumstances, Alan wasn't sure he would be the same in this situation.
"Well yes John that will be the case. But first an object lesson must be administered, you understand that don't you?" There was a dramatic sigh and then John spoke again.
"Yes I think I do. But just remember, if I'm too damaged or beaten up I won't give your guests a good hunt."
"I know that young man, but I don't intend for the damage to be permanent. Just make it a little harder for you to put up to much of a fight." Alan gasped and threw his hands out as if to try and stop what was coming from happening.
"No! John!" The next few minutes there was soft sounds coming over the channel and Alan winced at everything he heard. It was the hardest thing he'd ever been called upon to do in his time in International Rescue. Finally after a few minutes the sounds stopped.
"Good work men. Take him back to his room and double the guard. He's not to go outside until I call for him."
"Yes sir." There were sounds of a scuffle and then the man called Meriza's voice came on again and Alan's stomach chilled to almost cryogenic levels.
"I hope you've learned your lesson John." There was soft laughter that Alan knew was John's.
"Yes, it's taught me that my friends will always come for me. Sooner or later, because I know that they care for me in ways you couldn't possibly imagine."
"Hope all you want John, in two days time you are going to die and nothing you can say or do will change that." John's voice was fading, like he was being dragged away but his words still hearted Alan.
"Oh you have no idea what I'm capable of Meriza. No idea what so ever and for that your going to pay in ways that you can't imagine." Meriza just laughed and Alan didn't hear anything else from his brother. But what he heard next wasn't what he wanted to hear.
"Sir, this radio's been tampered with."
"In what way?"
"I'm not sure sir. Who ever did it is good."
"John."
"I don't know sir, but he is International Rescue."
"Exactly. Shut it down."
"Yes sir." And moments later the radio went dead. Alan knew the futility of trying to trace it any longer, but he had enough to get a fix on it. It was the same island that Scott had been curious about. They finally had confirmation. John was alive and now they knew where he was. Time to wake the family up with the good news and he knew that it would be well received.
Tracy Island
The family came stumbling out of their bedrooms and into the main lounge room, all in various states of sleep wear. Jeff hit the button and Alan's face appeared.
"Go ahead Alan." Alan looked pleased with himself but also a little upset.
"Father, something's happened." Jeff braced himself for the worse.
"I heard from John, he's okay." This got various exclamations of joy and jumbled questions from his brothers. Alan held up his hand to stop the flow of questions but he knew exactly how each of them felt. Just knowing that John was alive and healthy for the moment was enough. An enormous sense of relief ran through the entire family. Jeff gestured for everyone to calm down and Penelope moved to his side, a hopefully expression on her face.
"Okay Alan, what did he have to say?" Alan gulped a moment and then nodded.
"Okay Father, I'll play back what I recorded. Um, some of it isn't pleasant but you have to hear the whole thing." Jeff gulped and steeled himself. He nodded for Alan to begin the play back and Alan pressed the button out of sight of them and the playback began. John's voice came ringing out and it was clear, calm, collected, but each brother could hear the slightly pleading tone in his voice. It was strange to hear John pleading for anything. Each of them concentrated on his words.
"Calling International Rescue, come in please. Calling International Rescue, you have to come in, please. I hope your monitoring because I don't know how much time I have before they discover me. I'm being held somewhere on an island, somewhere near South America I think, not sure. This guy, Meriza, plans to use me as bait in some form of hunt in the next few days. Track and triangulate this signal. Guys, I really want to come home, come and get me. Are you listening?
Can you hear me?"
Alan looked up for a moment as he stopped the playback at that spot.
"Father, the next bit doesn't get very pleasant." Alan suddenly gave them a brief smile. "We don't give John enough credit sometimes. The next bit is all because he must have done some fast work before they caught him. Out of all of us, I don't think any of us would have thought to do what he did."
"Just play it all Alan, we all know John can do anything with a radio."
"Yes Father." Alan pressed the button and the play back resumed.
"Step away from the radio John."
"All right, hold your horses."
"Not very smart was it John, trying to call your friends to come and rescue you. Now, take the gun from out of your belt and drop it, kick it over here slowly."
"Now what Meriza? Back to my room and then more waiting is it?"
"Well yes John that will be the case. But first an object lesson must be administered, you understand that don't you?" There was a dramatic sigh and then John spoke again.
"Yes I think I do. But just remember, if I'm too damaged or beaten up I won't give your guests a good hunt."
"I know that young man, but I don't intend for the damage to be permanent. Just make it a little harder for you to put up to much of a fight." Silence reigned for a few minutes punctuated by the soft sounds of someone being hit.
"Good work men. Take him back to his room and double the guard. He's not to go outside until I call for him."
"Yes sir."
"I hope you've learned your lesson John." John's soft laughter rang out and it heartened all the brothers to know that their captive brother still was in there and fighting.
"Yes, it's taught me that my friends will always come for me. Sooner or later, because I know that they care for me in ways you couldn't possibly imagine."
"Hope all you want John, in two days time you are going to die and nothing you can say or do will change that." John's voice was fading, like he was being dragged away but his words still hearted Alan.
"Oh you have no idea what I'm capable of Meriza. No idea what so ever and for that you're going to pay in ways that you can't imagine."
"Sir, this radio's been tampered with."
"In what way?"
"I'm not sure sir. Who ever did it is good."
"John."
"I don't know sir, but he is International Rescue."
"Exactly. Shut it down."
"Yes sir."
Alan looked up and stared at his brothers and family.
"That's where the transmission ends Father. But I triangulated his position, the radio was on the air long enough for me to do that and it was as we suspected, he's on that island that Scott over flew the other day." Jeff gave a huge sigh of relief. Just hearing John's voice was enough to relieve some of the worry he had been feeling and now to have confirmation of where his missing son was, was just the icing on the cake. Jeff turned to his boys, pleased to see all of them looking pleased and confident that John was okay, and obviously fighting who ever had him.
"Right boys, we know he's fine, for the most part. And now we can confirm where he is. So, let's put Penelope's plan into action. Penelope, first thing in the morning contact your friend that got invited to the hunt and persuade him to let you and Captain Striker take his place."
"Yes Jeff, I'll get right on it." Jeff smiled his thanks at her. Penelope had always been a massive asset to his organisation and sometimes he would be lost without her.
"Thank you Penelope. Right, we know the hunt is set for two days time. So, on the morning of the hunt we spring into action." Scott frowned and took a step forward.
"Why wait Father? Why not get a force together and go get John right now?" Jeff nodded in response to Scott's question.
"Valid question Scott. We're going to wait because we want to get all the people involved, not just the man behind the whole thing. I want also to get all the people that encourage this type of thing. Not only him, I want the whole kit and caboodle." Scott nodded, understanding but desperately wanting to race out the door to get his brother back.
Scott glanced at Gordon and Virgil and could clearly see the same desire in their eyes as well. Scott looked back at his Father and after a long moment, where he pushed back the worry and desire to rescue John to the back of his mind for the moment. But it took a supreme effort on his part.
"Okay Father, let's keep going." Jeff smiled his thanks gently to his eldest son. He knew how hard it would be for Scott to blindly accept not being able to go rescue John straight away, he was the same, but these things had to be taken care off in one foul swoop.
"The three of you will fly out in Thunderbird Two, with Thunderbird Four. You'll get to within thirty kilometres of the island, the limit of their radar Brains discovered, and drop Gordon. Gordon, you'll wait off the south edge of the island, near the beach to pick up John, Penelope and Captain Striker. After dropping Gordon Virgil, you and Scott will take Thunderbird Two to the nearest island with a military base on it, Isla Vera, where you will pick up Special Forces military personal those have been specially picked. Upon receipt of Penelope's signal that they have John and are heading for the rendezvous, you'll launch and attack the island. I'll also have the World Navy on standby and as soon as we give the word, they'll surround the island so no one can escape, by sea or by air. You'll land and disgorge those troops. They will then take everyone on the island into custody. You'll then leave, pick up Gordon and Thunderbird Four with the others on board and take John to the nearest World Navy vessel where I want him checked over by a doctor. Then, bring him home boys. Can any one see in any holes in the plan?"
Silence reigned over the room as each of them digested the plan and thought it over. It was simple, easy and they were usually the best plans. Scott shook his head and smiled the first genuine smile since John had been taken.
"Not a one Father, not a one. So, let's get down to the nitty gritty. We've got a welcome home party to plan for our brother. And somehow I think it's going to be a dozy of a party."
