Four
While Scott made his descent, John was biting the inside of his cheek to keep himself from grinding his teeth. Global One had a lot of very interesting equipment that normally he would have itched to get his hands on, even if it was just to see how it compared to his equipment, but it sorely lacked a space elevator, the exact thing he desperately wanted right now- the ability and freedom to drop out of the sky and get to his family whenever he wished to. "Or drop out of the sky and crush The Hood with it." John entertained the idea for only a moment, remembering how effective the mooring claw had been at taking a chunk off The Hood's ship, then shook his head to cast away that dark thought. He had better things to occupy his attention with right now.
Global One's saving grace was its very fast shuttles, all neatly docked in the central ring. They'd do almost as well as his 8-minute descent in his elevator and right now he and Dad were strapped into one, poised to drop as soon as they got the word.
Jeff of course had the pilot's seat and he was checking, recalculating and rechecking the flight path in his own distraction tactic to maintain a veneer of calm as he waited for the cue to launch. In the co-pilot's seat John tapped a rapid tattoo on his knee with one hand and kept the other on EOS' portable drive clipped to his baldric, his gaze fixed on the forward portal of the shuttle. He couldn't see much more than the circle of Earth sliding past the shuttle's nose cone, but he knew that if he wanted to he could call up one of Global's exterior cameras and see his beloved Thunderbird dark and still, askew in her orbit from the force of decompression and shrouded by a glittering cloud of frozen atmosphere.
He didn't want to see her like that.
It had been hard enough to leave her, forcing fear and panic into his voice for The Hood's benefit as he faked pleading with Scott while setting up the shut downs for the Island and the Thunderbirds. At the same time EOS hacked their bio-monitors, preparing to send false signs of distress followed by cessation of all life signs while Dad manually strapped him into his exo-suit with EOS' portable drive on his hip and John's baldric slung over his shoulder.
Dad had held on to him while they waited by the main airlock as the automated voice of the computer intoned 'emergency venting in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…', using the explosive decompression to shoot them out of Thunderbird Five and drift clear like they were two more bits of space debris, just in case The Hood was somehow watching.
John hadn't looked back then, and he didn't want to look now. Seeing Five hanging there in space, like a bird with a broken wing, would be too much right now.
The only thing worse than abandoning his station had been hearing the crack in Scott's voice as he gave the verbal authorisation required for the emergency venting and not being able to reassure his brother that they'd gotten out safely until they were in Global One and he'd been able to backdoor his way into IR's communication system to reach Scott on a secure channel. It'd been a long trip, he had to be careful to avoid any of the other manned stations or freighters in transit in case they were seen- 'Thunderbird Spotting' was almost a competitive sport these days with multiple dedicated websites- and he hadn't dared call ahead to O'Bannon in case The Hood had another spy in the GDF. It had taken several minutes of hovering outside one of the portholes and banging on the hull before they caught someone's attention and an airlock was opened to let them into the shelter that Global One provided.
"John." Sensing the mounting distress, Jeff reached out and put a hand on his son's shoulder. "It's going to be okay."
"How do you know that?" The question slipped out of John before he could smother it, his normally iron clad control starting to fray around the edges. He tore his gaze away from the view of Earth in front of him to look at his father and saw nothing but resolve in the grey eyes that met his.
"Your brother has survived worse on his own." Jeff reminded him. "They couldn't break him and they had him for months. The Hood's only had him for hours, Scott's got three of us right there with him and Kayo on his tail. That bastard doesn't stand a chance."
John simply nodded mutely but found disagreement bubbling up in his mind. Sure, Scott had been a prisoner in Bereznik, but they hadn't had a proverbial fist around his heart and his family in their sights. This was much worse than Bereznik as far as John was concerned.
A message from EOS popped up on John's HUD- '?' She'd been cautioned against speaking on Global One, the world wasn't ready for true AIs just yet. Even Rigby, a staunch ally and friend of Kayo's, didn't know exactly what EOS was- Kayo had told him that she was a smart computer assistant that John had made. Ridley had made an educated and accurate guess after one of her early visits to Five, John had made a carefully nuanced reply and they'd mutually agreed to have no further conversations on the topic because if she didn't know, she wouldn't have to lie.
'Look up Scott's military file.' John tapped out on his gauntlet computer in reply.
'I believe I understand now.' flickered into life a moment later.
The overhead hatch hissed open and Ridley pulled herself into the shuttle. "Any word yet?" She asked, grabbing a hand hold to hover in place just behind them.
"No, still nothing." John glanced back at her and answered, finding refuge and comfort in the familiar cadences of reporting and relaying information.
"The bomb?" She asked, lips thinned and pale at the thought of so much devastation poised to strike in the heart of New York.
"Brains radioed a minute ago." John couldn't help but clench his hands. "Readings confirm it is nuclear. The GDF have evacuated, they're waiting for Lieutenant Van Arkel, the nuclear expert."
"A nuclear bomb?" Ridley breathed out the word, a ghost from the past that only surfaced in horror movies and documentaries. "Is he insane? How did The Hood get enough fissionable material for that?"
"He wouldn't need much if it's a dirty bomb." Was Jeff's short reply, glancing up from the controls to her. "Hell, ten kilos of uranium yellow cake wrapped in C4 would be enough to look the part and give off a radiation warning, but it won't set off a nuclear explosion. But if he's somehow gotten his hands on a core from one of those stealth mines that Alan's been pulling out of the sky and handing over to the GDF, that's a whole different problem."
"So we're stuck waiting." Ridley frowned and brought up the next topic. "I'm already getting calls, people are noticing Five is out of action and IR isn't answering. What should I do?"
"Go through the motions." Jeff instructed. "We've got to keep everyone fooled for now, The Hood has to be monitoring GDF frequencies. Send someone you trust over to Thunderbird Five, have them report finding two bodies and Five dead in space, then have them keep station by Five to guard her. I don't want anyone getting it in their head to go poking around inside."
"Yes sir." O'Bannon nodded and pulled herself out of the shuttle.
0o0o0
At the same time the Mechanic was crouched over a rectangular bomb as long as his leg and knee high, a malevolent mess of cables, antennas and metal buried deep in the guts of the Tracy Industries building. It'd been found by chance, a maintenance bot crawling through a service tunnel reported an unknown device to the building's security centre. They'd sent a team and discovered it almost at the same moment The Hood's sniper had taken the shot at Scott.
Thanks to that, they had already been alerted and starting to move before they had to evacuate Tracy Island. He and Brains had decided to come here, knowing that any sort of device planted by The Hood would need their attention. TI's security had brought them down here via passages only they knew about and made sure that the GDF had no idea they were present. When the update had come in that it was nuclear, the GDF had sensibly evacuated and they'd moved in, contacting Van Arkel through a comms backdoor that John talked Brains through.
"The connection is good." Marion's voice sounded over the secured frequency. She was still enroute, but they hadn't wanted any more delays and gotten her online with the Mechanic to start the analysis. "Turn your head slightly left Mark, I want to get a look at the core."
'Mark' was the pseudonym he'd picked on impulse when she had asked him for his name. He turned his head, letting the simple video camera hooked up to his IR helmet pan over the mess of wires and bomb components. His IR uniform was similar to Brains' but dark grey and dark orange, closer fitting, armoured on the chest and forearms and his helmet faceplate was smaller and tinted- he didn't want anyone getting a good look at him. Given that Marion's only view of him was his forearms in the camera feed he was reasonably sure she wouldn't recognise him.
Beside him, Brains was carefully tracing the path of the receiver circuit, muttering to himself as he reasoned out the best way to trick the trigger system into not realising it had been disconnected from the explosives while MAX pulled tools from his back pod and prepared to link into the bomb.
"Can you see the core?" He asked the distant GDF officer.
"Affirmative." Came the reply. He could hear the fear in her voice. "It's one of the stealth mine cores, half a kilo of plutonium. This is the real thing. You and Brains must pull back until I get there."
"Negative." The Mechanic fought to control the snarl he wanted to make and keep his voice even. Though he and Scott didn't exactly see eye to eye, he respected the younger man and the thought of anyone else suffering what he'd experienced was more than enough to galvanise him to face even the threat of a nuclear bomb. "I will not let The Hood win."
"What? Are you insane?" Marion spluttered, her Afrikaans accent getting stronger. "Can the heroics, that thing's nuclear! Get. Out."
"The Hood has Scott." Was his short answer. "The longer we delay, the higher the odds he's going to kill Scott." He knew that with his temperament, the longer they delayed the higher the odds the IR Commander would kick against the goad and do something ill-advised. "The quicker this bomb is out of action, the faster we can save him."
"What?" He heard the sharp intake of breath. "Scott's in danger? Mark, what are you saying? Is this a hostage situation?" Marion asked carefully.
"Yes." He replied, then abruptly changed the topic. "Can you talk me through removing the core? Our suits are rad-shielded."
"Of course, I've been disassembling these things for weeks now." The self assured confidence was back. "The radiation isn't a concern as long as the core is intact. It's the trigger that's the problem."
"I believe I have that under control." Brains interjected, his trademark stutter silenced by the intense concentration he was using. "It's an encrypted double relay system using a ten second timer for the self check. MAX and I can fool it for precisely seven point two minutes. M-Mark," Brains corrected himself just in time, "can you remove the detonator and the core in that time?"
"I can have the explosives disabled in thirty seconds. Lieutenant?" The Mechanic directed that at the distant GDF officer.
"If you can move as quickly as I can talk, that core will be out in six minutes." She answered. "Just have your equipment ready."
"Brains, have your end ready, I'll prepare mine." The Mechanic instructed, reaching for his tools.
MAX chirped in response and pulled several devices from his back pod. "We'll be ready." Brains promised.
