Scott was adamant that he needed rest.
That it wasn't his fault.
That he would fix it.
But it was this last thought that prevented Virgil from giving into his grief.
Fear of what his brothers might do.
He trusted his family ever so much, but Scott was fiery, Gordon somewhat deadly and John...he closed his eyes.
They would do so much for love.
So, coming to a resolution, he threw his brother off, cleaned himself up and forced his body to do what he needed it to do.
He ignored his shaking hands.
A visit to his littlest brother in the infirmary, Scott on his heels. Alan was sleeping ever so quietly. His face peaceful. Almost...
His fingers tightened around his little brother's cool hand.
"He's going to be okay, Virgil." Scott's voice was soft.
Virgil didn't comment. He placed Alan's hand back on the covers, turned and walked out.
There was an argument in progress when he stepped into the comms room. Gordon's tones bordering on insubordinate. John's holographic but calm words cutting across his brother.
"What is going on here?" Scott's voice was sharp.
Gordon's tone dripped sarcasm. "Johnny here, says we are going to shut down."
"We are."
Gordon froze at Scott's words. "What? I thought you said..."
"They've succeeded, Gordon. Whoever they are, they've succeeded." The silence that followed was punctuated by only the waves in the distance, the breeze and the occasional bird.
"But-"
"For now." And there it was. The fire. "We shutdown, for now. We find out who did this."
More silence.
"Then what do we do?" Gordon's eyes were almost glowing.
"Stop them from doing it again."
Virgil was standing slightly behind his eldest brother, to his left. The tension in the man's shoulder was so tightly wound it looked bone breaking.
"How did they do it?" It was a quiet voice and a shadow of its usual baritone depth.
John's holographic eyes darted to Virgil. They focussed and examined him as if his space brother could pull vital stats simply by staring hard enough. "The slab was borderline in weight. I had our New York agent do another scan from a distance. The weight is different. Not by much, but enough."
"I scanned it multiple times. It was within tolerances."
"Not according our agent's scans." John pulled up Two's scan results and set them alongside the report from New York.
The numbers were different. Not by much. But enough to strain Two beyond her capabilities.
The math danced in his head. He would never have attempted a lift with those numbers.
The numbers blurred a moment. "How?"
John's lips thinned. "I'm not sure. Kayo is undercover on scene. Lady Penelope is on her way." Turquoise eyes caught his. "We will find out."
There must have been something on his face, because Scott's hand was suddenly on his arm. "We will find those responsible."
Sixty-three people.
Something ignited in his belly.
"Yes, we will."
-o-o-o-
All three brothers sat down on the lounge, Scott directly next to Virgil and Gordon one seat over.
They were hovering.
He shunted the reason why aside.
Staring up at his holographic brother, he found himself missing John in the flesh. Instinct wanted to draw his family close and keep them safe from whatever the hell was going on, but John, as always, was far, far above them.
Alone.
"Can I tell him now?"
Well, maybe not quite alone.
"Eos!"
"It's not fair to Virgil. You tell me to be honest and open and yet you treat your brother like this? Not very consistent at all."
Virgil stared at John and his brother suddenly appeared uncomfortable.
Turquoise eyes darted to Virgil's left...and back.
On Virgil's right, Gordon sat up straight. "What is going on?"
Already barely composed, Virgil continued to stare up at John as the astronaut fidgeted before sighing and letting his shoulders drop. His eyes darted once again to Virgil's left and the engineer knew who was truly hiding something.
Honestly, he had had his suspicions. Scott had been acting weird since London and the roof.
Hovering.
Was it logical to avoid looking at his eldest brother? As if not seeing eye to eye could avoid discovering something he knew he really didn't want to know.
But he did.
"What did you find out?" The words were pushed through his larynx and his vocal cords creaked.
"Virgil-"
He spun where he sat. "For fuck's sake, Scott, what is it?!"
Shocked silence as blue eyes widened. One advantage of being the sensible and stable one was when you did crack, it had impact.
Calmer. "What are you hiding from me?"
Young and flippant. "It's quite simple really-"
"Eos!" John's tone was sharp enough to cut cahelium.
Virgil turned back to his holographic brother. "No, John. Let her speak."
"Virgil-"
He cut his brother off. "Eos, report!"
"Okay." Her high-pitched voice was almost eager with glee. "I found something. It was quite a challenge. Triple layer encryption, hidden, not even on a hard-wired network. I had to sneak in on a mobile connection and decode onsite." She was obviously quite proud of herself. "John was impressed."
John obviously wasn't quite as impressed right now, his arms folded across his chest, his expression both sad and pissed off at the same time.
Virgil forced what little calm he had left. "What did you find, Eos?"
"Notes. From a meeting. Not very legible. Her handwriting is atrocious."
"Whose?"
"Councillor Wainwright. Honestly, her phone is a mess."
"You hacked a World Security Council phone?"
"Hmph. Hacked is such a human concept. I simply visited."
He refused to look at Scott. Refused. "What did you find?"
"A photo of notes. A short list of International Rescue's vulnerabilities."
"Vulnerabilities?" Gordon was definitely stoking a fire. Virgil was unsure whether the note-taker or a couple of brothers were going to be the ones roasted. "What vulnerabilities?"
A photograph of scrawled notes appeared beside John. Paper was rare and obviously used for security reasons, but to then photograph it and turn it digital…someone was an idiot.
Virgil frowned at the barely legible handwriting. The letters 'IR' were scribbled at the top, Five Tracy names scrawled below, each crossed out except for Virgil. Scott's and Gordon's name had the word military in capital letters next to them. 'Space' was written next to John and Alan.
Further down the page, almost at random in relation to the rest of the scribble, was the word 'Vulnerabilities'. Underneath was a list. A very short list.
1. Popular opinion
2. Political standing
3. Virgil Tracy
Something else was scrawled next to his name, but it was illegible having been crossed out quite vehemently.
Virgil swallowed. "Who wrote this?"
It was John who spoke up, his voice wary and a little hesitant. "Handwriting matches Wainwright's."
"Why?"
"It's bullshit, Virgil." Finally, Scott said something.
Virgil turned to face him. "Yet, you hid it from me." The hovering. The visit to Jack.
Jack.
"You told Jack."
"Of course, I told Jack." Scott threw himself to his feet, obviously unable to contain himself any longer. "It's a threat from the government. Our own government, Virgil."
John cut in. "No, it is from one councillor."
"One bitch." Gordon was on his feet now, echoing his eldest brother with his furious energy, unable to keep still. "Wainwright obviously has an agenda. An agenda that doesn't care about those sixty-three people!"
Virgil flinched.
"We have no proof that Wainwright is connected to today's incident."
"Circumstances disagree, John." Gordon was glaring up at his holographic brother. "I find it hard to believe that Thunderbird Two's scanners being messed with and the resultant media shitstorm is not related to this. Too much of a coincidence. They're targeting Virg to take us down!"
"Gordon!" Scott's voice cut across the room.
Virgil let it all wash over him. He was being used, he was a vulnerability, but that wasn't the important thing.
Not important.
Not important.
He pushed himself to his feet. Gravity seemed more of an opponent than usual. He straightened up, looking up at his holographic brother as if he was some deity offering answers.
"Why?"
"You're not a vulnerability, Virgil." John's voice was soft and concerned.
Virgil had no patience for it and waved it away. "No, why are they doing this? Why does someone, Wainwright or whoever, want us out of the picture?"
"Because they want to replace us." Eos' voice was far too chirpy and bright for the topic of conversation.
"Eos, tact."
"What? Oh. Sorry. Please let me rephrase." A moment that allowed John's lips to thin just that touch more, the tightly strung muscles in his shoulders prominent enough to stand out in relief despite his uniform. "There is a possibility that the World Security Council is seeking expressions of interest from business entities interested in providing first responder services for the government."
Virgil blinked.
Beside him, Scott shifted. "What? John? Explain." Virgil didn't have to look at Scott to know the frown would be cavernous.
Their space brother sighed. "Eos has tracked a number of gaps in calendars, meetings that didn't happen, several coincidences that are far too coincidental to be genuine. Lady Creighton-Ward Senior contacted me about half an hour ago with some information that confirmed my suspicions." There was something in John's expression.
Scott frowned. "What aren't you telling me?"
John looked down a moment as if steeling himself. "You know Lady Penelope identified several upper echelon GDF suspects following the Janus incident." His eyes latched onto Scott's as if in challenge. "What you don't know is that we have had them under surveillance since that time."
"We?" Scott's tone was cold.
"IR security." John's tone was unapologetic. "Kayo, Lady Penelope and myself. There were things we needed to know."
"And I didn't?"
"Not at the time." John shrugged, but Virgil could see it was forced nonchalance. There would be discussions later, but to be honest, Virgil hadn't expected anything less.
Virgil ignored Scott. "Who is involved?"
"Wainwright, General Strond and the CEO of Robotics Industries, Jim Lucas. Eos has only just now collected enough data to confirm the connection. Lady Creighton-Ward's advice backed up the conclusion."
Scott was a pent-up explosion waiting to happen beside him.
Virgil just felt numb. He held out a hand. "So, these people want us replaced. They've found our...weaknesses..." Gordon literally snarled beside him. "...and they have succeeded in shutting us down. The question remains...why?!" And if that last syllable came out louder and a little more desperate, so be it.
John shrugged. "As Parker said, 'Power'." His brother frowned and looked off to his left, a hand poking hidden buttons. "And, I suspect, control. We are free agents, not under any direct chain of command. We are an unpredictable variable. You do realise how much power we can wield, Virgil?"
Virgil let his shoulders drop. Power, other than to help people, really wasn't something he cared about, but John was right. The IR logo inspired a lot.
Or it used to.
He sat back down on the sofa and rubbed his face with his hands.
His military brothers remained standing. Gordon started pacing, the aquanaut's furious energy spilling over onto the floorboards.
Scott looked like he wanted to stab someone.
Virgil was busy not thinking about the sixty-three people he had killed just because some asshole wanted to control-
"So, what do we do?" Gordon was standing almost on Scott's toes. "We can't just sit here."
"I'm aware of that, Gordon."
"Then what's the plan?" Russet-brown eyes stared up at their eldest brother and Virgil found himself hoping to god that the commander had an answer.
"We shutdown, lick our wounds and bide our time." Gordon opened his mouth and Scott held up his hand. "For now." It was firm and demanded no argument.
Gordon let out a disgusted sound, but deflated.
Scott turned back to John. "Thunderbird Five, you will send me a full report...immediately."
"FAB."
"Gordon, contact Brandy. Enquire with caution, but find out if WASP has any information on the topic. We do not want to alert those involved that we know what we know. Be subtle."
Gordon grunted. "I can be subtle."
Scott's mutter was non-committal. "Virgil, you need rest-"
"No. I'll be in the hangars repairing Two." He stood up and turned towards the elevator.
"Virgil-"
"NO!" Both his hands were up, defensive. "No, Scott, I'm...I'm just going to fix my 'bird." He didn't give his brother any more time to protest, spinning on his heels and stalking out of the room.
He didn't bother to look back.
-o-o-o-