To say that the four gunmen took Scott by surprise would be untrue. He had begun to feel suspicious in the previous cavern, sure, but this seemed like overkill. Four men just for him? They all jumped him at once and he had a really good chance.

And then one of them shot him.

It wasn't the first time he had been shot. It wasn't even the first time he'd been shot on a rescue. But for some reason this one seemed to hurt more. Maybe it was just psychological, because this time he knew none of his brothers were in the immediate vicinity, or maybe it was because he knew that they all would have heard it. He kept quiet while the men decided whether to collapse everything on top of him, holding his breath until they decided not to.

But he dared not answer his comm once the men had left. Because he wasn't alone. Seated at the opposite end of the cavern, obviously cloaked because four life signs only had registered, was the one man he hoped never to see. Sitting impassively on an outcrop, sat the Hood. Just staring at him. So Scott ignored the calls of his Grandma and stared back.

When the Hood didn't seem inclined to move or comment, Scott dragged himself backwards until he was propped against the wall, wondering if he should risk telling his family what was going on. The bullet had gone through the side of his thigh, so no broken bone but two holes meant he was bleeding quite a bit. He'd left a trail.

Suddenly the Hood stood up and walked over, soundless footsteps not giving anything away. He was holding something in his hand, and Scott watched in apprehension as he threw whatever it was high up onto the cavern wall. Immediately the sounds from his comm stopped. A cloaking device. Now that there was complete silence from everything, the Hood had his complete attention.

'I can't say that I'm surprised it was you who attended, but I had hoped it would be your younger brothers that came. Still, it is of no matter. They will come for you and that is all that counts.'

Scott stared at him. The thought that this had been set up to deliberately target Gordon – Virgil would never have made it down that hole, and actually it was questionable whether Gordon could with his swimmers shoulders – fired up his blood. As did the fact that the gunshot was just a way of keeping him under control, and possibly his brothers too, and now Scott was really angry.

The Hood must have seen that anger, for he simultaneously smiled and pulled out his own gun. Grinning like the cat that got the mouse – for that's exactly how Scott felt – the Hood backed up to his original seat. 'Well, we seem to have some time on our hands. Why don't you fill it by telling me about your machines and your base?' Scott ignored him. Getting a bandage out from the tiny first aid kit he carried around, he proceeded to wrap his leg, trying hard not to let the fact that the Hood was watching him, seemingly amused, bother him too much. He was quite thankful that the Hood didn't really seem in a talkative mood.

Scott knew he was in for a long wait. He hated being bait for his brothers.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

Virgil hated being in this situation. Being on the other side of the world when a brother was in trouble sent his nerves into hyperdrive. Thankfully, they were almost finished, he just had to pick up Four and drop off the riggers and sailors. He'd already warned them that they would be dropped at the nearest landing place on the coast and had called the local coastguard to arrange transport for them.

It would take Two, at top speed, almost an hour and a half to get to Papua New Guinea, and that was before they found Scott. Grandma was regularly trying to raise him, but it had been five minutes and still nothing. Five minutes might not seem long, but the gunshot made it feel like half an hour. Why did he have to be so far away? At least they were closer than John and Alan.

John was cursing in…no wait, Alan knew this one…German he guessed from the guttural sounds. And Alan felt like joining him – in English – only Grandma was listening. Although they were already on their way back, they were still at least two hours away, and there was a dread that was pooling in the pit of his stomach at the thought that Virgil and Gordon were going in alone. There was no way that they would wait, not with Scott not answering his comm, despite the near certainty they were entering a trap.

The cursing got louder, more exotic and involved more brothers when EOS suddenly announced ten minutes later that she had lost Scott's signal. Fifteen minutes after that there were four life signs approaching One directly. John and Grandma both instructed EOS to initiate defence protocol gamma, and they all watched with some satisfaction as four men bounced off. It didn't stop them from trying again. And again. And again.

They kept their comms open the entire time, but no-one spoke. It wasn't until Two was on the verge of arriving that John and Virgil began discussing how they were to go forward. Needing to get to Scott was their top priority, but it had to be done while keeping Two safe, and there was no way Virgil was going to stay in Two while Gordon went down alone, military training or not.

TBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTBTB

Scott was almost relieved when the Hood suddenly stood up and left, nothing had been said for ages, and the sitting still had caused his leg to go numb. Cautiously, and using the wall to help, Scott stood up and almost promptly collapsed again as his leg refused to bear his weight initially, but he grit his teeth. He needed to find out what the Hood was up to. It certainly wouldn't be good news for any of his brothers.

The ten-minute walk through the caverns took forever, but Scott noticed that the Hood's light footprints had not left the same way that he had come. Torn between getting out now and following the Hood, he decided that the Hood was more of a priority. He needed to get there now, the Hood had too much of a head start and Scott was beginning to fear what he was up to. It became more evident that this was a well-planned job when Scott noticed those small signal disruptors throughout the pathway he was following, always up higher than he could reach.

He didn't have far to go. The cavern ended in a set of ancient steps carved into the stone, and Scott carefully made his way up. The stairwell gave way to a crumbling corridor, and Scott realised with a start he was in the temple he had passed before. That wasn't all he realised.

He could hear Two, and while she was a very welcome sound, it was also worrying. Because he didn't know where the Hood was.

It was at that moment he heard the whoosh. It was a sound he was very familiar with, one he had not heard in years, one that made his blood run cold. He knew what a rocket propelled grenade sounded like.

Two might be built like a tank, but that didn't mean she could take a hit like one. Especially if one knew just where to hit. Which evidently the Hood did, for Scott could hear the screaming of VTOL struggling to cope and the crashing of his brother's 'bird as it crashed through the jungle.