THUNDERBIRD 1 reached the site of the tunnel first. Scott landed his ship outside on a helipad and went inside with his jetpack. "Thunderbird 2, I'm going to take a look at the train," he said. "Follow me with a Mag-Lev-Pod once you arrive."

"F-A-B, Scott," acknowledged Virgil. "I'll be there in five minutes."

"F-A-B."

Even with his jetpack, it took Scott a good few minutes to get towards the location of where the train was supposed to be. But the deeper he got, the more he began to notice something wasn't right. The tunnel was illuminated by lights. It was the magna-rail itself that wasn't currently working. But it seemed to be getting dark despite the lights being on.

"This doesn't seem right," Scott said out loud to himself. "The train should just be round this corner" He then turned the corner and stopped dead in his tracks. "HOLY-" he exclaimed. He could just make out the train a short distance away, and the blackness was revealed. It was smoke. Around where the train was he could make out the distinctive orange glow of flames. "Virgil! The situation's worse than we thought. The train's on fire!"

Virgil swore to himself. "The whole train or just part of it?" he asked.

Scott moved in closer to take a look. "It looks like the middle car," he said. "I can make out that it's a ten-car unit. He then noticed a figure waving at him from the train's rear driving cabin. "Better get your fire-fighting gear on as well as setting up the Pod."

"F-A-B," said Virgil. "Will be there in one minute."

Scott discovered the figure waving to him was the conductor of the train. He couldn't open the door for some reason so he attached a communication disc to the side of the train.

"International Rescue?"

"That's right, sir."

"Thank God!" said the Conductor. "The Bar Car is ablaze. We've sealed it off at both ends but it's starting to burn away the corridors between the cars."

"What about the evacuation of the car?" asked Scott.

"Already done," said the Conductor. "We managed to get everyone out."

"Good," said Scott. "My brother can put out the fire. But we'd better get the rest of the train clear of it first so that it doesn't spread." He thought for a moment. Then he had an idea. He activated his wrist-controller. "Launching drones."

Underneath Thunderbird 1, a small hatch opened and two small blue and grey drones came out. They then headed into the tunnel, homing in on Scott's signal. They entered just as Thunderbird 2 was arriving on the scene.

"What's the plan for the drones, Thunderbird 1?" Virgil asked.

"The bar car is sealed off internally from the rest of the train," Scott explained. "I'm going to cut the couplers and then use the drones to pull the remaining cars clear so that you can deal with the flames and not risk the others catching alight."

"Nice idea," Virgil said. "But will the drones be able to move the cars by themselves?"

"They should do," Scott replied.

"Remember what happened to one when lifting the Crablogger?"

Scott bit his lip. "Good point, Virgil," he said. "I'll get the drones to pull the front portion of the train away from the fire. You can use the Mag-Lev-Pod to move the rear part."

"F-A-B," said Virgil. "Suiting up now."

Virgil was soon in his fire-fighting grey suit. He'd also made sure that his Jaws of Life were attached to the rear part of the Mag-Lev-Pod which was being configured inside the Module. He climbed inside and waited whilst Thunderbird 2's remote system lowered the Module down over the rail track. The door opened and the Pod hovered out over the rail before fixing its clamp over the rail itself. Of course it couldn't take power from the rail but it didn't need to. This was just a guide for it. Its powerful engines were enough to send it hurrying down the track into the tunnel.

Scott had managed to cut the coupler on the far side of the burning car. The drones from Thunderbird 1 had arrived and had fired their magnetic grapple lines onto the front of the lead car. Scott worked the remote control and they began to pull the front five cars slowly but surely forwards and away from the blaze. Scott then ducked down again so that he could avoid getting touched by the flames to get to the other end. He could feel the intense heat burning against his suit. "Gee, I need to ask Brains to make a suit like Virgil's for me," he said to himself. He then saw Virgil's Pod arriving. "Good to see you, Virgil. Attack a line to the train. I'll cut away the coupler so you can pull it clear."

"Be careful, Scott," warned Virgil. "Those flames look deadly."

"Yeah, I can feel it," said Scott. His face was starting to drip with sweat as he began using his laser to cut through the coupler.

BANG! An explosion ripped through the bar car causing Scott to get thrown down to the floor.

"SCOTT!" yelled Virgil. He leapt out of the Pod and ran over to pull his brother clear of the danger.

Scott groaned. Amazingly he wasn't badly hurt. "Ouch," he said.

"Stay back," Virgil said. "It'll be easier for me to simply put the flames out from here. He turned to face the inferno that was tearing through the bar car. The passengers inside the other cars watched anxiously as Virgil edged as close as he dared to the flames. He then adjusted the shoulder-mounted foam cannon and began spraying high-density foam into the car.

It took a good few minutes but eventually the flames began to die down and were then extinguished.

"There!" said Virgil with a smile. "Fire out."

Scott grinned. "Way to go, bro," he said.

Fireflash Flight 209 was making its way to the runway. Sarah was aboard along with over one-hundred others. As she sat at the window, looking back towards the Terminal, she couldn't have known that the man who'd tried to shoot her in her car was watching from one of the windows. She hoped Kevin wasn't there either. She also hoped that he didn't know where she was going. She checked her briefcase again, just to make sure that the documents were still there. Then she checked her watch. Take-off was imminent.

In the Fireflash's cockpit, located in the tail-section of the airliner, Captain Rene Dubois made the pre-take-off announcement. "Ladies and gentleman, this is your captain, Rene Dubois. On behalf of myself and everyone at Air Terranean, we'd like to welcome aboard Fireflash Flight 209 to Charles de Gaulle. Our flying time will be just over two hours. We'll be climbing to an altitude of 59,000 feet. Our cruising speed will be Mach 3. The cabin will remain pressurised to a comfortable 6,000 feet, and you'll barely notice the speed. Enjoy the flight." He then got onto the control tower. "Dallas Tower from Fireflash 209. Have we clearance for take-off?"

"Dallas Tower to Fireflash 209. Request granted. You are clear for take-off - Runway 5."

"Roger. Commencing take-off," said Captain Dubois. He turned to his co-pilot. "Pleine puissance."

The throttle was opened and the Fireflash began to accelerate down the runway. Slowly at first, but it got faster and faster until it reached lift-off speed. The nose lifted up first, followed by the rest of the airliner and it majestically rose like a Swan rising from a lake and climbed away from Dallas International Airport heading for its designated cruising altitude. There was a boom as it passed through the sound barrier.

"Mach 1," said the co-pilot. "20,000 feet."

"Level off at 59,000," said Captain Dubois.

"Roger."

Sanchez had returned to the car park to watch the Fireflash take-off. He observed the magnificent airliner through a pair of binoculars before calling Kevin up on his phone. "The Fireflash has taken off," he said. "There's nothing more I can do."

"You did what you could, Miguel," Kevin answered over the phone. "Leave it with me. Go get yourself a beer. I'll give you the money when I next see you."

"Very well," said Sanchez. "Hope the, um, test goes well."

"Thanks, buddy," said Kevin. "I'll let you know." He turned off the phone and looked out of the window of his private Helijet which was coming into land on a man-made island located in the North Atlantic roughly one-hundred miles off the coast of the USA. This was where all the tests for his aeronautical company were held, and today it was the turn of a specific one that he'd kept hidden under wraps.

Once on the pad, Kevin disembarked from the Helijet and walked over to the control room nearby. He paused briefly to look over the ground towards a launcher which had his secret creation on it.

"Good morning, Mr Hunter," said Dr Midler, the chief scientist. "We are ready."

"Ready?" asked Kevin.

"Ready," said Dr Midler. He seemed to make a subtle hint that only Kevin recognised.

"Good," said Kevin. He turned to face the room of controllers as well as a monitor screen showing his creation - a tactical homing drone missile known simply as The Buzzard.

Buzzers sounded at The Vault. Guards stood ready to make sure the inmates did as they were told. The cells doors opened and the prisoners exited. "BREAKFAST TIME!" shouted a guard. "COME ON, MOVE IT!"

In the female area of The Vault, the prisoners came along quietly. Among them was Nina Gallagher, who had not spoken a word to any of the guards or any of the other inmates since arriving. Not even to those who were her fellow Luddites who'd also been incarcerated there.

Nina remained silent as she ate her breakfast alone at a table. She had no idea that on a balcony above the eating area, Hayley was looking down upon her in a shadowy corner along with The Warden.

"You can stand out here, Captain," The Warden said. "You won't be any different from any other officer who has stood here."

"Thanks, Warden, but I'll stay put," said Hayley. "99% of those people won't have a clue who I am. But the one person who does will possibly cause a scene."

"And who might that be?" asked The Warden.

Hayley pointed to Nina, sitting alone. "Gallagher," she said. "She and I have a common problem, and I would rather not have her create any trouble whilst I'm here."

"Fair enough," said The Warden. "I shan't ask."

Three other female inmates came and sat on the same table as Nina. They too were members of The Luddites. Nina gave them a slight look when they sat down but she made no effort to communicate with them.

"Good morning, Lady Luddite," said one of the women. "We've been trying to get in touch with you."

"We received word that Lord Luddite is making plans for a jailbreak," said another.

Nina remained silent.

"We'd like in on the jailbreak," the first woman said. "Whatever instructions you have for us, we'll do."

Nina finished the last of her food. She wiped her mouth clean and then stood up. She was about to walk away but then stopped. She turned back to the three women. "You want an instruction? Fine," she said. "Get lost and LEAVE ME ALONE!" The room went silent as everyone looked at her. Nina turned and stormed off. She approached a guard. "Take me back to my cell," she ordered. She then left with the guard, leaving the others and especially the three Luddite ladies in a stunned silence.

Hayley's eyes narrowed. That hadn't been what she'd have expected from Nina to her fellow Luddites at all.

With the fire out, it became a simple task for Virgil's Mag-Lev-Pod to tow the rear portion of the train out of the tunnel. Thunderbird 1's drones, it was decided whilst able to move the front part, weren't strong enough to get it all the way out to the end so they left the regular Emergency Services to help deal with those passengers whilst International Rescue focused on the rear.

"Nice job, Virgil," Scott said once they were clear of the tunnel.

"Thanks," Virgil replied. "Can we go home now? I need my bed."

"Me too," Scott agreed. "Grandma's milkshakes only work for so long."

After making sure that the local services would take good care of the passengers, the two brothers loaded their gear back into their ships before getting back in themselves and taking off to make the long journey back to Tracy Island. Due to their tiredness, they put both ships onto autopilot so they could sit back and relax a bit.

On Hunter Test Island, a small orange remote-controlled jet fighter target aircraft was heading down the runway and lifting off into the air.

"Target plane airborne," said one of the controllers. "Ready to commence countdown for Buzzard."

"Roger," said Dr Midler.

"Fifteen seconds to countdown," said a controller.

"Buzzard is operative," said another.

"Relay cameras, operative."

"On-board computer, operative."

"Stand-by for countdown. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Ignition!"

With a rumble and a roar, the rocket motor on the Buzzard ignited and it zoomed off the launch pad into the sky, chasing after the small orange target aircraft.

Fireflash 209 was now crossing the coastline and starting to make its way across the Atlantic. They had now left the jurisdiction of Air Traffic Control of Dallas and were now in Washington Airspace.

"Washington Control, this is Fireflash 209. Good morning," the Co-Pilot said into his radio set.

"Washington here. Go ahead, 209?"

"We're climbing to Flight Level Two-Seven-Zero. We will accelerate and climb thirty miles east of Sea Isle to Five-Nine-Zero."

"Fireflash, this is Washington Control. Turn right to Zero-Three-Five. Some inbound traffic and you'll avoid it by making that course change."

"Roger, Washington."

The Fireflash made its minor course change and proceeded to continue climbing on it.

Little did anyone know that the ATC communications were being monitored by the listening station on Hunter Test Island. This was normally to ensure that their tests were kept well clear of flight paths so as to not cause any problems. This time however, Dr Midler was listening in for the Fireflash's course and position. Now that he'd heard it, he began to make some minor adjustments to the on-board computer. He was doing it in secret as only he and Kevin were aware of the diabolical plan. He changed the intercept course to Zero-Three-Five.

The Buzzard had an on-board camera mounted in its nose which allowed everyone in the room to be able to see what it could see. Up until this point, they could only see clouds as well as the target aircraft in view as it had been closing in on it. It then came as a shock to the remaining controllers when it suddenly began to veer off to the right and head North instead.

An alarm began to buzz. "Attack drone is off-course!" said a controller. "Stand-by for termination."

As with all test weapons, the Buzzard had a self-destruct system built in in case anything went wrong.

"Standing by," said another controller. He turned off the alarm.

"Terminate!"

"Terminating," he said and pressed the top red button to set off the detonation charge. Nothing happened. "Alternate destruct!" said the controller. He pressed the red button underneath. Still nothing happened. "Drone is not responding to commands!"

This was because Dr Midler had not only changed the course settings, but he'd also overridden the self-destruct control so that nobody could take it out.

Kevin stepped down from his position at the back of the room. "What the hell's going on?" he asked. He needed to make sure nobody other than him and Dr Midler knew of their plan and therefore had to act like nothing was meant to be happening.

"We've got a malfunction in the termination switch," said the first controller.

"Can you bring it back?" asked Kevin.

"Negative. We have a computer malfunction," said Dr Midler.

"What's its heading?" asked Kevin.

"Zero-Three-Five," replied Dr Midler.

The room went deathly silent. Looks of horror crossed the other controller's faces. They knew what that meant. It was heading directly towards the flight path of Fireflash 209. All eyes turned towards Kevin as they waited for him to give instructions.

Kevin wanted to just let the Buzzard continue, but quickly realised by not saying anything would only make the controllers realise that's what he wanted. He therefore spoke up. "Everybody relax," he said. "Tell Washington Control what's happening." Deep down, he felt even if the Air Force scrambled to intercept the weapon, it would be too late to actually do anything.

"Attention all aircraft. All aircraft, please maintain present flight altitudes and vector spaces. We have an emergency! Repeat - an emergency! We have a malfunctioning drone off-course from a test range. The Navy is responding!"

John suddenly found himself wide awake upon hearing that, even though it was faint. He jumped off his bed and hurried to the control room.

"John? You're supposed to be resting!" EOS said.

"I've rested enough!" John replied abruptly. "Where was that drone message from?"

"From Washington ATC," said EOS. "I've got a fix on the drone. No idea yet where it's come from but it's heading straight for the Eastbound flight path out of Dallas International Airport."

John looked at the position of the drone on the hologram monitor and compared it to aircraft in the area. He then noticed the icons for Thunderbirds 1 and 2 were coming back across the Atlantic in almost the exact opposite direction to the flight path. "Thunderbirds 1 and 2, this is Thunderbird 5. We have a situation."

"Another one?" asked Scott. "What's up this time, John?"

"A military test drone has malfunctioned and is heading straight for the Eastbound flightpath out of Dallas."

"Are there any planes in immediate danger?" asked Virgil.

"Not yet," replied John. "But there's a Fireflash getting rather close to it. Hopefully it can pass before the drone gets a lock onto it."

Scott retook the controls of Thunderbird 1. "Thunderbird 2 I think we should make for that area just in case something bad happens," he said.

"I agree," said Virgil. "You fly ahead, Scott. See if you can locate the drone and keep other aircraft as far from it as possible."

"Although don't try and get it to lock onto you instead," warned John.

"If it does, I'm sure I can outrun it," Scott mumbled as he pushed Thunderbird 1's engines up to max.

Fireflash 209 was now at its cruising altitude. But Captain Dubois and his co-pilot were no longer relaxed, for they had just heard the warning over the radio about the drone. They had instructed all crew and passengers to remain seated and strapped in until they got an all clear.

There was silence in the passenger cabin as well. Whilst the passengers hadn't been told what the exact nature of the situation was, only that it involved military air traffic, some couldn't help feeling worried. One of which was Sarah. She had opened up her briefcase containing the documents that she'd taken from Kevin's house and began to look through them as discreetly as possible. She took a long, hard look at the photo on one of the sheets of paper. It showed a jet-black missile-like object labelled - The Buzzard Attack Drone. She'd had no idea that her boyfriend had been involved with creating a deadly weapon, and was even more disturbed to learn there were potential buyers for this weapon. Among them being some of the Anti-Government groups in Bereznik. There was also another mysterious potential buyer who hadn't given a name, but a codename instead: Agent 79. She didn't know what that meant, but she really wasn't sure that she wanted to find out. As much as it pained her to do what she was doing, she couldn't let herself sit by knowing that the man she thought she loved was going to be selling weapons to America's potential enemies. She lowered the paper and lay back in her seat, screwing up her eyes and began to weep.

Kevin, Dr Midler and the rest of the controllers watched the screen linked into the drone's camera in silence and with anxiety for all concerned. Kevin more than most, although he was doing a very good job of not showing it. For a good while, all they could see were the tops of the fluffy white clouds and clear blue sky. But then almost everyone's hearts skipped a beat when a multi-blue-coloured airliner came into view and passed directly across the path of the drone. It was Fireflash Flight 209. As it passed across, the locking system of the drone caught it and went red. It then began to turn to follow the airliner.

"Drone locked on target," Dr Midler whispered to Kevin.

Kevin didn't respond, his eyes transfixed on the screen.

Sarah opened her eyes and wiped them clean with a tissue. She then looked out of the window, hoping to try and distract herself from the misery. But then she froze. Her eyes went wide as they fixed on the small, black shape that was rapidly approaching from the south. She didn't need to look at the photo again, she recognised the shape instantly. It was the Buzzard. "Oh my God…" she gasped as a huge wave of panic began to sweep through her body. "OhmygodohmygodOHMYGOD!"