It didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. And it was making his brain ache, the crazy world that had somehow replaced reality spinning around him.

It wasn't dissimilar to that time when he and Virgil had worked their way through their father's whiskey collection and had spent the next morning regretting every drop. He couldn't remember now what they had been celebrating – if anything. But there had been little need for punishment to be delivered; the sorry state of the pair of them was cause enough for them to be so very sorry. And the memory of almost turning inside out with dry heaving for most of the subsequent day was more than sufficient to keep them far from liquor ever since.

It was just that he couldn't believe it. Or that he wouldn't let himself believe it.

And yet the facts had been laid out before them. Somehow undeniable and yet impossible at the same time.

And now they were stuck here. Helpless. Grounded.

They had no idea that anything was wrong. Not until Brains had happened to wander through to that particular area of the silo and had discovered something grey crumpled in the far corner.

Parker was now carefully positioned along one of the large sofas. Snoring somewhat blissfully under the influence of whatever they had drugged him with. Man, was he going to be pissed when he awoke.

The noise of the old man's narcotised slumber had been a distraction at first. Something to stop his brain from mulling all of this over. But after a while he had wanted to think and to decipher. It wasn't like he could do much else.

And so Gordon had wandered into the central office to consult his father. He found him stood by the wide expanse of the front window, staring out into the bright blue of another cloudless day. Well, outside at least.

"How you doing, son?"

The voice was quiet, uneven with emotion. And tired.

Gordon looked down at his bandaged hands and shrugged the reply that he knew was being watched in the reflective glass.

"God … what was I thinking …" Jeff continued almost inaudibly.

Gordon frowned and wandered further into the room towards the desk. Printouts of various satellite images and communiqués were scattered across the dark wood and Gordon parted them gingerly, seeing again the extent of the secret that their father had been keeping from them.

There was the complex that Scott had discovered, the decoded transmissions that had been concealed from John and the Intel that had thus far been strongly denied. It all pieced together to form a frightening picture and Gordon could not blame their father from keeping it from them, in fact he would have been happy to never know.

"There didn't seem to be any other option …" Jeff repeated softly the excuse he had offered to his stunned sons just over half an hour ago when all that he had kept hidden had exploded around him.

Gordon glanced up at the weary, defeated figure before him and held back the retort that he had already thrown at his father once. With a sigh, he turned his attention back to the tale arrayed before him and shook his head in disbelief.

It was a weapon. A very powerful weapon. Designed by some of the greatest minds that the world had ever known and people that Brains had once called friends. Originally intended as a defensive strategy, the EM generator could produce a beam so accurate that only the intended target would be affected, to a range so narrow that even the tiniest of power sources in the smallest of devices could be silently neutralised.

The possibilities were endless. The harmless pulse could be installed in any number of civilian and military areas, ending the reign of concealed threats. It could stop a getaway car, halt a hijacking, force a missile to fall inoperative from the sky.

It had begun with the best of intentions and had grown from a desire to make the world a safer place. But then so had the search for a cheaper, less damaging power source and history still shuddered at the thought of what had developed from the discovery that it was possible to split an atom.

Gordon sat down at the desk and let out a heavy sigh, knowing that it would all have been a different story now if just one player had been removed from the board. He moved aside the other papers and stared at the enhanced image that had been taken from the satellite feed. There was no denying it. It was him.

A gentle bleep tore him from his thoughts and turned his father away from his distant gazing across the ocean. Gordon reached out and pressed a gauze-wrapped finger on the receive icon.

"Hey …" Alan forced a small smile to his lips.

Gordon nodded a greeting and his heart went out to his little brother as he saw the telltale white tracks that marked his flushed face.

"Anything?" Alan asked carefully.

"No." Gordon sighed. "Brains and Virg are still trying to untangle the mess they left down there." He glanced down at his bandaged hands, silently cursing his apparent uselessness. "You?"

Alan shrugged slightly. "Just the same static from all angles."

Gordon nodded again, trying to convey understanding; it was all he could offer to his frightened brother. Stranded just as they were, Alan had the added delight of being completely alone. And his flushed face showed the strain he was trying bravely to hide.

"Hey, Alan." Jeff was suddenly at Gordon's side, face bright and smiling. "It's gonna be okay."

Gordon looked up at their father and found nothing of his former dejection. Jeff was focused and calm, the very image of resolve. Only an hour ago and he had cursed any and all of the deities that might have been listening, wishing that his youngest had not had the strength to save the life of one that was trying again to destroy them.

It was understandable. And when Jeff had revealed the truth to his fellow captives on the island it had been abundantly clear why he had agreed to participate in the offensive strike.

"Any news from Penny?" Jeff enquired evenly.

"Not since her last update." Alan replied.

Jeff nodded and his smile grew. "She'll think of something."

"She has to." Alan agreed, "She's the only one of us who's not …" He broke off with a sigh and closed his eyes.

Gordon turned his gaze from his father to his little brother and mentally concluded the thought. Stranded, crippled, captive. It was all the same. Although the unmoving locator signals transmitting from the Russia/Kazakhstan border were infinitely more ominous.

Jeff nodded, again giving Alan a believable smile of reassurance. "We've still got time." He reminded softly, "It's gonna be okay."

Gordon glanced at the clock and shuddered involuntarily. Precious little time. The only sane thing that their father had managed bring to the operation. Time for the civilians and scientists to get out. Which gave them another two hours.

He quickly did the calculations in his head and it wasn't good. It would take 90 minutes – give or take – to complete the pre-flights and get there. And then there was the uncertainty of what they would find when they did. Brains had thirty minutes to get the hanger doors open. And it had already taken too long to find the problem.

"Keep scanning all channels." Jeff instructed softly. "Let us know if anything comes up."

Alan nodded in agreement but sudden panic flashed across his face and Gordon understood how he felt.

"I'll be here." He moved into better view of the camera and mimicked his father's reassuring smile. "Keep this line open. Keep talking to me." He flexed his hands beneath their cotton swaddling and felt the sting of the slowly healing burns. It wasn't like he was much use for anything else, anyway.

"Okay." Alan took an audible deep breath and nodded in determined agreement. "Okay."

"That's my boy." Jeff smiled and patted Gordon's shoulder before making his quick exit from the office.

Gordon watched his father leave, seeing the telltale sinking of Jeff's shoulders before he was gone from sight and free to release all he had contained within.

"I can't believe this is happening, Gord …" Alan offered quietly after a moment.

"Ditto."

"You think Scott and John are okay?"

"Sure!" Gordon replied. Perhaps a little too quickly. "Dude, they're probably negotiating a surrender at this very moment."

"They can be pretty persistent." Alan agreed, a little lighter. "Hell, they're probably nagging those guys into a deal!"

"Shit, yeah!" Gordon laughed.

"Older brothers, huh? Who'd have 'em?"

Gordon nodded quietly and saw the same thought cross Alan's face. They both would have them. In a heartbeat. Lectures and distain and fun-stopping sensibility. They'd put up with all of it to have them back safe.

And the knowledge of that made it easier to understand that their father would do whatever it took to keep them safe. It was just more than a little terrifying to learn this new definition of 'anything'.

"Gordon, get down here!"

The sudden shout through the comm. tore him from his thoughts and he gasped in anticipation.

"Get down here!" Virgil repeated urgently, "And grab Dad. We've done it!"

tbc …