Chapter Thirteen: Fractured Faces

Slowly, life returned to a semblance of normality.

John travelled back to Thunderbird 5. Gordon, Virgil, Scott and their father returned to Tracy Island. International Rescue became operational again; its ranks swelling as first Gordon and then Scott were proclaimed fit for duty. Brains began tinkering with another experiment, while Fermat learned at his side. Kyrano cared for his plants and Onaha pottered about in the kitchen. Tin-Tin retreated to her rock overlooking the beach and wondered how everything could be so normal and yet so unbelievably wrong.

For despite the familiar tasks, the cracks were beginning to show. With each passing day, the tension on the island grew and the rare arguments that had once been a part of island life, quickly became an almost daily occurrence. The futility that everyone was feeling over Alan's condition; the fear that he would never wake up; the refusal to discuss what would happen if two months became six, twelve, eighteen … Slowly but surely, the Tracy family was falling apart and the one person who could bring them back together again remained unconscious in the medical centre, his body healed but his mind silent.

It had been over two months now since the accident. For the first several weeks, Alan had remained at the New Zealand hospital under the watchful eye of Doctor Makura. With every day that passed had come further disappointment as Alan remained comatose. Eventually, knowing the International Rescue couldn't remain grounded indefinitely, Jeff had requested that Alan be transferred to Tracy Island where Brains and Virgil could keep an eye on him until he finally awoke. Doctor Makura had been understandably reluctant to agree to such an unusual request but ultimately, the determination of Jeff Tracy and a satellite link by which the doctor could examine the medical facilities of the island, had earned her agreement. Jeff had signed a form to ensure there would be no repercussions should something happen to Alan under his care, and soon Tracy One was winging its way back towards the island.

Four weeks on and nothing had changed. They still took shifts sitting with Alan – or at least as much as it was possible. With Gordon and Scott still recovering from their injuries, Virgil inevitably ended up with the majority of the clean-ups and vehicle checks and had little time to visit his brother. Scott avoided it whenever possible, citing too much work or some other excuse. Tin-Tin would spend a whole day with Alan and then disappear for the next three. Only Gordon visited regularly, enjoying the quiet that the medical centre provided. Spending more time with Alan made him feel closer to his brother somehow, and it also gave him the chance to work in his shoulder exercises while outlining his latest prank to willing ears.

Willing, if silent, ears.

Gordon stopped in the middle of telling his younger brother about his plans to dye Virgil's hair pink and looked down at Alan's still face. He looked so much younger when he was sleeping. His smooth, unlined face and shock of blond hair could have belonged to a child, not the man he was. And certainly not the man who spent his days saving the lives of other people.

"Eugh – I'm having soppy thoughts again." Gordon rotated his shoulder gently, first forward, then backwards. "We can't have that, can we? I've already given you enough blackmail material on our brothers – you don't need any on me too. No, let's move on to a safer topic. Scott's mystery girlfriend –"

The alarm sounded, cutting Gordon off. He stood up, rolling his eyes in a mock fashion. "Great, another rescue. And with you being a lazy git, I guess we'll all be pulled in for it." He sighed dramatically and gave Alan a lazy salute. "See you later, little brother."

Gordon swung out of the room and hurried through the Tracy home, almost bumping into Fermat and Brains who had come up from the lab. The three of them reached the control room together to find the rest of the Tracy family waiting for them.

"S-s-so-sor-sor –"

Jeff waved away Brains' apology and turned back to the monitor. Gordon moved to join his brothers. "What's the situation?" he whispered to Virgil.

"Fire in a school in France."

Gordon blinked. "Another fire?"

"The chemistry lab exploded."

Gordon grinned. "Alan sure gets around," he joked without thinking.

Scott shot him a disapproving look and Virgil stiffened. Gordon immediately regretted his thoughtless words and his cheeks reddened slightly. It was the kind of comment that Alan would have protested loudly against only … only Alan wasn't here.

Gordon pushed that negative thought aside and turned back to the matter at hand. His dad was leaning forward, his hands on his desk. On the screen in front of him, John's face was tight and drawn. He looked exhausted and Gordon wondered how much it was to do with the impending rescue and how much of it was down to Alan.

Jeff straightened and turned towards them. "Okay. We keep to the normal set-up; Scott, you're in Thunderbird 1 and Virgil and Gordon take 2. You'll want to load the Firefly and the Mole – just to be safe. There're no reports yet that the building has collapsed but I think we all know from experience that with fire, there's no knowing what could happened."

Gordon shivered as he recalled the previous rescue involving fire … and the outcome.

"Mr Tracy, shall I go with them?"

Tin-Tin had entered unnoticed during the conversation. She stood just inside the door, her pretty face expressionless, her arms clasped loosely in front of her. Jeff studied her for a moment and then shook his head. "Not this time, Tin-Tin."

"But without Al – Alan your numbers are reduced. Let me help."

Gordon watched his father curiously. Jeff seemed torn between the logic of Tin-Tin's statement and a need to the protect her. What had happened to Alan had made everyone only too aware of their own mortality.

"Please, Mr Tracy. One more person could make all the difference."

Jeff ran a hand through his greying hair. "Alright. Tin-Tin, go with Virgil and Gordon." The slight girl moved over to join them but Jeff hadn't finished. "Scott, I want you to remain on Mobile Control whatever happens. You're leg's still healing and the last thing we need is you re-breaking it." Scott looked like he was about to protest, but Jeff ploughed onwards. "Gordon, watch that shoulder. Virgil, Tin-Tin, don't take any unnecessary risks. Be careful and above all, look out for each other. This rescue is going to have a different ending."

'Bienvenue à l'école de Mael-Carhaix!'

The welcoming words of the sign stared mocking at Scott as he glanced up at the French school. Even from this distance he could clearly see the flames that had consumed the chemistry lab. Now they were threatening to spill over into the rest of the science block and even as Thunderbird 2 settled onto to school's play field, Scott worried that the Firefly wasn't going to be strong enough to extinguish the blaze.

Even now people were still streaming out of the building. Groups of frightened school children clustered together, their faces pale underneath the soot. Some were crying, others seemed to have struck dumb by the sight of the leaping flames. Harried teachers swarmed around them, shepherding some across to where the local ambulances had been station and making sure that the rest remained a safe distance away from the building. A growing crowd was gathering at the edges of the school grounds and Scott tensed when he caught sight of several video cameras.

"Thunderbird 5 to Mobile Control. Come in, Mobile Control."

Scott turned back to the console at the sound of John's voice. "Mobile Control all received."

"What's the situation?"

"The area has been secured and Thunderbird 2 has just arrived." Scott glanced over his shoulder at the large green craft. "Her pod's being lowered."

"What about the fire?"

"From what I can see, it's spreading. We'll have a clearer picture once the Firefly gets inside."

"Tell Virg to be careful. The lab'll be full of flammable chemicals, liquids, gases –"

"This isn't his first time on a rescue, John," Scott snapped. "I think he knows what to do."

There was a brief pause. John's silence spoke volumes and Scott bit his tongue. He was about to apologise when a frantic voice caught his attention. A tall, slender man in a dark suit was running towards Mobile Control, waving his arms. His face with bruised underneath the layers of soot and a cut on his cheek bled sluggishly.

"Monsieur! Monsieur, les enfants – !" The man grabbed Scott's arms and shook him with surprising strength. "Les enfants sont toujours à l'intérieur!"

"Woah – slow down!" Scott pulled himself free and grappled for his limited knowledge of the French language. "Parlez-vous anglais?" The man didn't seem to hear him. He rattled off another stream of French, pointing desperately from Scott to the building. Scott swore and turned back to Mobile Control. "John, a little help here?"

"He said something about the children. I didn't catch everything."

"Les enfants –" the man repeated, his voice rising. "Ils sont emprisonnés à l'intérieur de l'école. Vous devez les aider!"

"He said that there are some children still trapped inside the school."

Scott swore again. So much for a straightforward rescue. "Ask him how many."

John obediently repeated the request in French. The man looked between Scott and Mobile Control, where John's voice was coming from, his brow furrowed with confusion.

"C'est d'accord," Scott assured him, the words he had learned in High School French slowly coming back to him.

John repeated his question: "Combien d'enfants sont emprisonnés?"

The man's expression cleared as he pushed his trepidation aside. "Cinq. Ils ont été emprisonnés par le feu!"

"Où sont-ils?" John pressed.

"Le laboratoire de chimie. Au fond de la salle par les compartiments de verre." The man ran one hand over his face and looked across at the burning building. His expression was heavy with guilt. "J'ai essayé mais je ne pourrais pas les atteindre."

"Ne vous inquiétez pas, nous les trouverons," John promised.

The man wavered. "Je devrais aider –"

"Vous devriez vous obtenir vérifié par les infirmiers," John corrected gently. "Vous avez fait votre travail nous laissez maintenant faire le nôtre."

The man looked down at his soot-covered clothes and blinked, as if finally realising his condition for the first time. "D'accord," he agreed finally. "Mais dépêchez-vous sil vous plait."

As the man hurried across towards the paramedics, Scott opened his mouth to ask for a translation. John beat him to it. "He said that there are five children trapped inside the chemistry lab," his younger brother said succinctly. "They got cut off by the fire and he couldn't get them out. I told him we'd save them and sent him to be seen by the paramedics."

Scott frowned, disliking the cavalier way in which John had made the promise. Such promises had caused problems for International Rescue in the past, when, tragically, they couldn't be fulfilled. But instead of arguing with his brother, he opened up a channel to the Firefly and filled Virgil in on the new development.

Virgil carefully guided the Firefly around the side of the building and towards the fire. The news that there were a number of children trapped somewhere inside the blaze hadn't phased him. What it had done was unpleasantly reminded him of what had happened the last time International Rescue had had to rescue people trapped by fire.

Scott with a broken leg, Gordon with a dislocated shoulder and Alan … He pushed the thought aside. Their dad had been right; this rescue was going to have a different ending.

A strong sense of déjà vu hit Gordon as he and Tin-Tin entered the school. The deserted corridors with their colourful display boards were a far cry from the dark, cloying depths of the welsh mine, but the sense of the rescue was the same. Even through the protective fire-suit Gordon was wearing, he could still smell the burning and he could almost feel the heat of the fire against his skin. As they rounded the corner and entered the science department, the sensation only worsened. Beside him, Tin-Tin flinched and he glanced across at her. With the bulky helmet of her fire-gear in place, it was impossible to gauge her expression but he guessed she was probably trying to hide her fear. While Tin-Tin was by no means new to the work of International Rescue, she didn't have a large amount of active experience on missions. And besides, with everything that had happened to Alan, it wasn't surprising that she would be scared.

Thoughts of his younger brother tugged at Gordon's consciousness and after a moment, he pushed them aside. As difficult as it was, dwelling on Alan now would only complicate matters. From what Scott had reported, this was turning out to be a far more complex rescue than anyone had first imagined.

"Not far now," he commented to Tin-Tin as they passed a door with the words 'Laboratoire De Physique' written on the glass.

"Where were the children again?" she asked, her voice sounding tinny through the headset.

"At the back of the room. The teacher said something about glass cabinets but God knows if they're still standing."

"How are we going to get them out?"

"We wait for Virg to put out the flames and then we go in and save the day."

As if on cue, Virgil's voice sounded in Gordon's ear. "Firefly has reached the lab."

"How's it looking, Virg?" That was Scott, sounding impatient as usual.

"It's a mess. The fire's spread into the next lab and parts of the roof have fallen in."

"Can you get inside?" Scott demanded.

"FAB. A couple of the ceiling supports have smashed through the outer wall. I could fit Thunderbird 2 through it."

"Let's hope it doesn't come to that," Gordon joked.

"Oh my God."

The breathless voice was Tin-Tin's and as soon as he turned towards her, Gordon realised why. They had reached the entrance to the chemistry lab – or at least what had once been the entrance of the chemistry lab. The buckled remains of the door were crumpled against the other side of the corridor; Gordon guessed it had been blown there by the initial explosion. Thick clouds of smoke rolled towards them and beyond, barely visible beyond the smoke and flames, was the wreckage of the classroom.

Scott's voice came across the airwaves. "Tin-Tin, are you alright?"

"Tin-Tin?" Virgil's anxious query echoed his brother's.

"She's okay," Gordon answered for her when Tin-Tin simply shook her head. "It's just – we've reached the lab. Virg is right, Scott. It's a complete mess."

"Okay, Virg, I want you in first to try and get the flames down. Gordon, Tin-Tin? Once it's clear, find those kids. Getting them out's our number one priority."

"FAB." The acknowledgement was echoed by three different voices.

Gordon turned his attention back to the fire and squinted through the smoke. Somewhere on the other side of the mass of debris and flame, five schoolchildren were trapped. Trapped and terrified – if they were alive at all. Part of Gordon wanted to run in regardless of Scott's command but he held himself back. With everything that had happened recently, the last thing his family needed was another son in hospital.

"Which means we wait."

Virgil felt a swell of satisfaction as the water of the Firefly's high-powered spray blasted into the opening. The flames hissed and died under the power of the jet. He inched the machine forward, moving towards the gap in the wall and then through it. Miraculously, none of the chemicals in the laboratory were caught by the dancing flames and under the powerful stream of water, the intensity of the fire began to lessen. The room was still far from being safe but as Virgil directed the jet towards another pocket of flames, he felt confident enough to contact his brother.

"Firefly to Mobile Control."

There was a brief pause and then Scott responded. "Mobile Control all received. Go ahead Firefly."

"The fire's coming under control. You can send Gordon and Tin-Tin in now."

"Are you sure?"

Virgil fought the urge to remind his brother that he had been working for International Rescue for many years now and if he wasn't sure then he wouldn't have contacted Mobile Control. "I'm sure, Scott."

"FAB. I'll let them know."

"FAB. Firefly ou –"

"And Virg? I want you to keep that fire down, okay? It's not just the kids inside the lab now."

Once again Virgil had to bite his tongue to stem a sarcastic reply. He knew why Scott was monitoring every tiny little movement any of them made. It had been the same on all of the rescues that his older brother had commanded since the accident. Unfortunately, just because he understood Scott's actions didn't mean that they weren't beginning to drive him – and everyone else – mad. It was becoming harder and harder to for Virgil to keep his thoughts and opinions to himself. If Scott continued to act as though Alan's condition was only affecting him … Virgil shook his head and attacked another clustered of flames. "FAB. Mobile Control. Firefly out."

When the order to enter the lab came through, Tin-Tin was relieved. There really was nothing worse than being forced to wait, knowing that barely ten metres away, a group of schoolchildren were trapped and helpless. As she followed Gordon into the thick, white smoke, her sense of purpose dampened the fear that was rising up inside of her. They were going to go in, locate the children and bring them out again. It was as simple as that.

All thoughts of simplicity evaporated from Tin-Tin's mind as she groped for the blackened and pitted doorway of the laboratory and saw the scene of the explosion with her own eyes. The room was much larger than she had first imagined; more than fifty children could comfortably have sat around the wide, hexagonal modules that dominated the central space. They were the only part of the room that seemed relatively unscathed – although all showed signs of fire damage. The fire itself continued to smoulder on the opposite of the room and through the rolling smoke, Tin-Tin caught glimpses of the Firefly as Virgil fought to control the blaze. And yet the absence of fire by no means meant safety on their side of the room. Several of the heavy ceiling supports had collapsed into the lab, forming a maze that she and Gordon would have to negotiate. Between the thick lengths of steel, the various pieces of splintered wood, the broken glass and the twisted metal, it was easy to see how the children had become trapped.

"Christ. Looks like a bomb exploded in here."

Tin-Tin looked around. "Didn't John say something about an experiment with magnesium …"

"That can be part of a bomb." Gordon picked his way into the room. "Making bombs in chemistry class. Wish they'd done that at my school."

"It's not funny, Gordon," Tin-Tin retorted, finding his joking tone completely inappropriate. "Someone could have been seriously injured! What about those kids?"

There was a surprised silence and Tin-Tin got the feeling Gordon was staring at her from within his helmet. "Yeah, sorry," he apologised and then quickly changed the subject. "Anyway, the kids. Scott said they were at the back of the room … this way."

Tin-Tin followed Gordon as he forged a path through the rubble. She felt like she should apologise for snapping and that feeling in turn irritated her. Gordon had been mucking around when they should have been devoting all of their attention to the rescue. She hadn't been out of line … had she?

In front of her, Gordon stumbled and caught himself on a nearby ceiling support.

"Are you okay?" Tin-Tin asked anxiously, her previous irritation forgotten.

"Yeah." He straightened and flexed his shoulder and arm slowly. Tin-Tin noticed it was the same shoulder he had injured in the welsh rescue. A chill ran through her body.

They moved onwards through the debris. Their progress was painfully slow and Tin-Tin began worrying that even if they did finally reach the children, they would be too late. Besides, how did they even know they were going in the right direction? Did anyone have a schematic of the lab? What if she and Gordon were just moving deeper and deeper into the wreckage? What if the lab collapsed on top of them – ?

"Over there!"

Gordon's excited cry cut off the frantic literary in Tin-Tin's mind and she followed the direction of his outstretched hand. Behind a pair of fractured ceiling supports, a number of tables had been overturned and pushed back against the cabinets affixed to the rear wall of the laboratory. Whether by accident or design, the tables formed a natural barrier against both the fire and the devastation it had caused and as they clambered nearer, Tin-Tin saw what Gordon had noticed. From the small gap between the tables and the cabinets, a dirty, terrified face was staring up at them.

Gordon immediately pulled off his helmet, and covered his mouth with his hand to try and protect his lungs. "Are you alright?" he asked, moving to crouch down beside the child.

The girl blinked at him. Her dark eyes were huge in her pale, soot-stained face and there was an ugly looking gash on her forehead. She was trembling visibly.

Gordon tried again, reaching his free hand out towards her. "We've come to get you out of here. Are you hurt?"

The girl shied backwards, her face a picture of distress. Tin-Tin suddenly realised what was wrong. She pulled off her own helmet and touched Gordon's shoulder. "She doesn't speak English." She moved alongside him and smiled at the young girl. "Salut. Je m'appelle Tin-Tin. Êtes-vous blessé?"

The girl smiled tremulously back and shook her head. Then her smile faded and a tear trickled down her cheek as a vast flood of words spilled out of her mouth. "Le laboratoire - il a éclaté! Chacun criait et le feu était si chaud... Nous avons essayé de sortir mais la fumée était trop épaisse et puis le plafond, elle est tombée vers le bas et nous avons obtenu emprisonnés en arrière ici. Monsieur Dubois a essayé de nous arriver mais il ne pourrait pas et il a dû obtenir le reste de la classe dehors. Ainsi nous sommes devenus à gauche derrière et Eric a indiqué que nous devrions pousser les tables plus de pour nous protéger..."

"Là où est Eric?" Tin-Tin asked, seizing upon the name of one of the other trapped children

"Il est de retour ici avec Ariane et Nathalie. La jambe d'Ariane est emprisonnée sous la table. Eric et Jacques avaient essayé d'obtenir son libre. Vous devez les aider!" Another tear weaved its way down the girl's cheek and she sniffed.

"What's she saying?"

"The five children took shelter behind here when the fire started," Tin-Tin reported, "but one of the girl's is trapped further down. The other three are with her."

Gordon nodded. He was about to speak when there was a tearing noise from above and a great cloud of dust, metal and fragments of wood rained down upon them. The French girl screamed. Tin-Tin covered her face with her hands and ducked. The dust caught in her lungs and she began to cough helplessly.

Hands gripped her shoulders. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." Tin-Tin looked up into Gordon's worried face. Her companion's left cheek was bleeding sluggishly and he too was having difficulty breathing. "What about you? Your cheek –"

"It's just a scratch. We'd better hurry though. I don't know how long this roof's gonna hold."

Tin-Tin turned back to the girl. The table over her head had protected her from the shower of debris and she was watching Tin-Tin and Gordon while silent tears slid down her cheeks. Tin-Tin reached out and took her hand. "C'est d'accord, chéri, nous vont vous obtenir dehors. Pouvez-vous sortir de dessous la table pour moi?"

For a moment she thought the girl was going to refuse but then she nodded. Using Tin-Tin's arm for support, she crawled free of her safe haven and rose unsteadily to her feet. Tin-Tin's eyes moved over her and she was relieved to see that apart from the cut on her forehead, the girl appeared to be unharmed.

"I'll get her out of here and then come back," she told Gordon, putting an arm around the girl's shoulders.

"Let Scott know what's going on. And be careful, Tin-Tin. I don't want to have to tell Alan that I let you get hurt."

Gordon's words brought the shadow of a smile to Tin-Tin's face. She could just imagine Alan's reaction if she came back from a rescue injured.

It was only as she was hurrying out of the entrance of the school, the French girl by her side, that she realised it was the first time since the accident that she had thought of Alan without wanting to cry.

Scott wished he could pace. Unfortunately, his very recently broken leg didn't agree with him and so he was forced to remain motionless behind Mobile Control, his eyes fixed on the burning building and his ears glued to the conversation that was passing between Gordon, Tin-Tin and Virgil.

After handing the first of the trapped children over to the paramedics, Tin-Tin had hurried back inside the school to help Gordon with the remaining four. Scott had listened as they had freed Ariane's leg and then turned their attention to the other children. Currently they were on their way out of the building … and yet Scott still couldn't relax.

Not even Virgil reporting that the fire had finally been quenched decreased his feelings of anxiety. Fire or no fire, his brother – and Tin-Tin, who might as well have been his sister – were still inside a building that had been threatening to collapse for hours. Only when they were standing in front of him, injury-free, would Scott begin to release the tension inside of him.

Job completed, the Firefly trundled back around the corner of the building. Scott watched as Virgil set about returning to vehicle to its pod. His brother was as efficient as always and after a moment, Scott's attention wandered. His eyes scanned across the area that the paramedics had claimed. The girl Tin-Tin had rescued and the teacher who had alerted them to the trapped children had both been taken to hospital to be checked over, along with a number of other children who had been suffering from smoke inhalation. Only two ambulances remained now, waiting to whisk the remaining four children away to safety.

Beyond the ambulances, the crowd of observers had grown as word spread around the town what had happened. A media crew was filming events and a number of photographers were taking pictures of the building, the rescued children, Mobile Control. The last would do them no good, of course, but it was unlikely that the photographers knew that and Scott wasn't about to fill them in. Not when the rescue still wasn't over.

His gaze drifted restlessly across the crowd, fixing idly on one of the men standing just behind the barriers. Small and distinctly rotund, he was staring avidly at Scott and Mobile control. His lips were moving, yet no one around seemed to be reacting. He was clutching a sheet of paper in his hands and every so often his piggy eyes darted down and studied it intently. They would linger there for a moment and then in the next second, they fixed on Scott again. There was something unnerving and yet strangely familiar about that unblinking gaze. Scott watched him through four cycles, feeling like he was some kind of exotic animal in a zoo. His irritation grew and he was seriously debating asking the authorities to have the crazy man removed when John's voice came across the airwaves.

"Come in Mobile Control."

Scott tore his eyes away from the man. "I hear you. Go ahead, John."

"Gordon and Tin-Tin are coming out with the rest of the kids."

"FAB." Scott paused and then frowned. "And why couldn't Gordon tell me this himself?"

"Well …"

The irritation that had been rising up inside of Scott surged forward. It seemed that every story about his water-loving brother began with the word 'well'. And rarely ended with it. "Do I really want to know?"

"Probably not," John admitted.

"Then don't tell me. The less I have to yell at him about, the better." Even Scott was taken aback by the bitterness in his tone.

There was a thoughtful silence. Then, "Scott, is this about Alan? Are you still angry about what Gordon said?"

His brother's words caught Scott off guard. "What do you know about that?"

"Just what Fermat said –"

"Yeah, well Fermat's wrong. And you're wrong. This has nothing to do with Alan and everything to do with Gordon constantly clowning around on rescues. It's stupid, it's unprofessional and it puts people's lives at risk."

"Don't you think you're over-reacting?"

If anything, John's calm and even tone only serve to fuel Scott's anger. "You can't see everything from your lofty perch, okay? When you're down here every damn rescue, then you can accuse me of over-reacting." Movement at the edge of his vision drew his head up. The double doors at the front of the school had been pushed open and the familiar uniform-clad figures had emerged. "The buildings clear. Gordon and Tin-Tin have just brought the last of the kids out." The report was automatic.

"FAB." There was a pause and Scott knew what was coming. John the 'Peacemaker'. "Scott – " his brother began.

"You know what, John? I'm really not in the mood for one of your lectures right now. Mobile Control out."

He cut the connection and turned to face the approaching Gordon. His brother's face was dark with soot and grime, and there was a fresh cut on his cheek.

"Kids are alright. Tin-Tin's making sure they get checked out. So, job done." Gordon grinned, his teeth flashing whitely.

"Where's your helmet?"

"Oh, one of the kids has it. Hey, do you want a hand packing away Mobile Control?"

Scott stared at him. "You just gave your helmet away mid-rescue?"

"The boy was scared, so I took it off. Then one of the girl's latched onto it …" Gordon shrugged dismissively. "Don't worry, I'll get it back."

"You'd better."

Gordon caught the warning note in Scott's voice and frowned at him. "I said I would, didn't I? What's the big deal?"

"You shouldn't have taken it off in the first place. It was totally unprofessional and you could have been seriously hurt."

"Oh lighten up, Scott! I was never in any danger."

Scott's eyes flashed. "You can't know that. You can never know that. Unless you've somehow developed the ability to see into the future – which I highly doubt."

Gordon stared at him, all his usual good humour rapidly fading out of his face. "I didn't screw up, Scott."

"No, you just acted like yourself."

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Irresponsible, irrational," Scott ticked them off on his fingers. "Do I have to go on?"

Gordon's voice was like ice. "You know, Scott, I'm getting really sick of your holier than thou attitude. Anyone would think you were the only one suffering here. But do you know what? Alan's got a whole lot more family worrying about him than just you. Family that's actually been to visit him over the last two months!"

"You are out of line, Gordon!"

"What's going on?"

The concerned voice of Tin-Tin cut through the argument like a knife through butter. She had approached unnoticed, a helmet in each hand, and a fearful expression on her face as she looked between the brothers.

"Nothing," Gordon replied flatly, speaking to Tin-Tin but staring defiantly into Scott's eyes. "Doing nothing, saying nothing, always nothing. That's the Tracy way."

It was an anticlimactic end to the rescue. Thunderbird 2 flew back to Tracy Island in silence, Virgil wondering what had happened to make his co-pilots so uncharacteristically quiet. Thunderbird 1 moved at record speeds so that by the time everyone else had returned, Scott was nowhere in sight. Ignoring his waiting father, Gordon stormed off to the pool without a word and Tin-Tin slipped out as soon as she had greeted her parents. It was left to Virgil to try and explain the sudden tension that he knew nothing about, all the while cursing Scott and Gordon for putting him in such a position.

Amidst the confusion, other important events were playing out, unnoticed. A man compared two lists of painstakingly calculated numbers, an eager smile stretching across his broad face. A woman walked into a camping shop and bought a box of heat tablets. And down in the deserted medical centre, slowly, painstaking slowly, Alan Tracy opened his eyes.