3

Vigil and Alan were deep in discussion with their father on Scott's arrival. They stopped abruptly when Jeff visibly paled at his desk. They flipped around to see Scott walking towards them still in his uniform.

'Oh my God Scott, your face!' Virgil exclaimed.

'Sheesh! Thanks, Virg way to make me feel better!'

'Boys; let's reconvene in 15 minutes, Scott sit down and let me take a look at that please'.

Thankfully Scott did as he was told; Gordon had seen Scott enter and had already run back with the first aid kit. He handed it to his father. Jeff sat directly opposite Scott and started to open the kit. He grabbed a vial and started to draw the clear substance into the needle and syringe. Thankfully Scott had never played up for his inoculations as a child, Alan on the other hand was terrible and Jeff had always hated taking him to the doctors. He had to bribe him with so many things and even then, on occasion he would still run off if you didn't watch him!

'This might sting son'.

Scott just nodded curtly and let him inject the local anaesthetic. He flinched involuntarily as the needle penetrated the soft flesh above his cheek. They waited for it to take effect.

'That's quite a slash there son, why didn't you get it seen to at the hospital?'

'You told me to come home, it was a code red. I couldn't wait for her so I figured I couldn't get treatment either.' Jeff more than got the hint of resentment in Scott's voice. He sighed.

'Scott, I panicked ok? You had just been shot at, I needed you out of there – to make sure you were safe.'

'But Father, she probably isn't safe, she screwed things up for that sniper! What if they go after her! Hell! she might not even survive!'

Jeff was now carefully flushing the five-inch cut to sterilise the wound before suturing. Scott's uniform darkened where the solution fell, Jeff swallowed uncomfortably at the amount of blood on his son's uniform. The poor girl must have bled out quickly. Scott was covered all across his chest and there was a blood-stained hand mark across the middle of his chest, the hand print was too small to be Scott's. It was only serving to reinforce to Jeff how close he had come to losing his son today. He had never seen his son so grieved for a stranger. Jeff gently began to stitch Scott's face.

'Scott, I owe that girl as much as you, she saved my son's life! Rest assured we will care for her and protect her where possible. It's already in hand.'

Scott visibly relaxed a little.

'I can check on her later?' Scott was referring to their client confidentiality procedure.

Jeff nodded, he was sure they could wave it aside in this instance. He was concentrating on making the sutures as neat as possible. Scott always forgot that his Dad was good at this kind of thing. He had trained up on the space station to assist the Doctor there, back in the day and had picked up several useful skills as a result.

Jeff ran a hand over Scott's cheek, Scott made eye contact. His father didn't have to say anything Scott knew the devastation his Father would have suffered if he hadn't come home today. Jeff coughed and abruptly stood up. 'Time for debrief'.

They reassembled in front of Jeff's Desk after Scott had grabbed a quick change. His Face was numb distorting his speech somewhat, if it wasn't such a serious situation Gordon would have been in hysterics. Penelope and John were joining them, their presence facilitated by their portraits on the wall and the screen on Jeff's desk.

'John what news do you have?' Jeff spun his chair to face John.

'Well I've been listening to the police feeds and so far, they have no leads and no evidence. No foot or fingerprints were found at the spot the sniper was at, only Rose's observation and the trajectory of the bullet places him there. They were able to identify the marksman using a car that had cloned plates; this obviously is unlikely to help them as it is likely the plates will be changed. There is no video footage of the scene as we requested no filming.'

'Safe to say we are dealing with an expert.' muttered Alan.

'What about you Penelope?'

'Much the same I'm afraid Jeff, although Parker has been studying the information and has managed to trace the bullet and weapon. The Bullet is made of a rare alloy but the rifle is pretty standard. Parker is already consulting some of his contacts to see if they have dealt with this particular marksman or use these bullets. If we can find the manufacturer they may have records of sales that we can work though.'

'Good work Penny, keep it up…and be careful.'

'Will do Jeff over and out.' Penny's pretty face blinkered out of existence as the portrait flicked back into place.

'Boys whilst this investigation is under way I am tempted to suspend international rescue operations until we can secure your safety-'

Several indignant cries arose from the boys situated around him. Jeff raised a hand.

'Let me finish. I know that this wouldn't sit well with any of us so we will still operate but with heightened security. Brains will ensure that we have a live 360-degree CCTV feed from each earth-based Thunderbird.' Brains had been observing quietly from the sidelines but was now furiously scribbling a list whilst voicing 'Y…yes Mister Tr..Tracy.'

'Good, John you are going to ask the police to be in attendance at each rescue, no matter how remote. If they aren't there then we won't land, understand?'

'Yes sir'.

'Finally, I know that we agreed that we would no longer carry firearms as we were a rescue organisation and our primary goal is to save lives, not to take them. From this moment on I am reinstating your fire arms; you need to be able to defend yourselves should you be attacked again.'

'Are you saying it could happen again father?' Virgil interjected.

'Yes, son I am afraid so, we need to be on our guard. Any questions?'

'Yeah' Scott piped up. 'How's Rose John? Have you heard anything?' Scott knew his brother had been listening to the police reports.

John looked as though he had clearly hoped Scott wouldn't ask him. 'The police are waiting to speak to her as she is one of the only solid witnesses. At present they have been informed that she is in a critical condition but out of surgery. I promise I will let you know more when I can.'

'Thanks John. May I be dismissed father?' Scott's expression was pained.

'You may' Jeff replied gently watching his son go. He wanted to tell him not to feel guilty but he knew that wouldn't change how Scott was feeling. The rest of the boys dispersed.

Two days passed without rescues but everyone was still on edge for the next call, there had still been no further information on the incident so the would-be killer was still at large. The brothers had gathered in the games room and were practicing shooting targets. Alan was a natural shot and often hit his target, Gordon's training naturally made him better with distance shooting rather then close range and he was venting his frustration at not being able to hit the target. Virgil was taking a break and watching Scott. He had his earphones and goggles on and was staring intently down the barrel of the pistol. He had been like this for five minutes now. Scott was typically a precision shooter but he was…off today. Several times Virgil had watched him squeeze the trigger but not fully. He was fighting an internal battle of some kind. Virgil suspected that he was still reeling from the close call he had the other day. He knew that his brother had barely slept since if his pacing in his room was anything to go by.

Just then the buzzer went off. 'Finally, a call!' Gordon quickly stored his weapon before running up to the lounge, his brothers followed. They entered just in time to hear their Father take the call. 'Go ahead John'.

'I have had an emergency call from a distressed pilot over the Pacific Ocean. The air bus has suffered a catastrophic engine failure and is losing altitude quickly. There are 30 passengers on board.'

'Time is of the essence, Scott – Virgil and Gordon you know what to do.'

'FAB father'.

They began to head to their respective birds. Jeff felt relieved that it was an aerial rescue and not at a precise location or in the UK again. Less likely to be targeted if heaven forbid it wasn't a singular incident.

'Keep me informed John'

'Will do, Thunderbird 5 out.'

'Well at least this rescue should be ok.' Alan settled back onto the couch.

'I sure hope so' Jeff felt the anxiety brewing quicker than usual.

'Virgil, I'm approaching danger zone E.T.A 5 minutes. What is your E.T.A?'

'About 10 Scott'

'Alright, see you soon.'

Scott now had a visual on the airbus. It was certainly dropping quickly, a plume to dark smoke out the back. He tried to make contact with the craft directly.

'This is international rescue, do you copy?'

'Help! Help us please, Oh God we're all going to die!' A distressed women's voice came through the speaker.

'Please, try to remain calm help is on the way. For now, I'm going to try and slow your decent.' What Scott was going to attempt to do was incredibly risky; they could both end up in a freefall if he wasn't careful. He didn't have the power to clamp on and tow the plane to safety but he could create some drag to slow the thing until Virgil arrived. He let the cable loose and the grapple made contact on the first try. He then applied his retros to start slowing them. Although Scott could slow the plane and probably gently dunk her in the ocean he had no means to winch the passengers to safety and he only had one cable which wasn't enough to lift a plane with a failing engine.

Just then, Virgil pulled up along side him.

'Boy am I glad to see you!'

'Come on Scott time to let the big boys play.' Virgil smiled to himself.

'Alright show off'. They both knew he was referring to the giant green machine that Virgil had the pleasure of piloting. It would be big enough to carry the weight of this small air bus easily to safety. Virgil started to hover above the plane and deploy the cables.

Scott radioed through to the pilot of the stricken craft again. 'International rescue calling. If you can hear me I need you to reduce the speed if you can and cut the engine on my cue'.

'Help! Help us please!' The Women's voice cried again. Virgil had now fully lowered from above and secured the cables. They were all freefalling. Scott had a sickening feeling in the pit of his stomach.

'What's your name pilot?'

'Oh God we're all going to die!'

'Virgil something's not right! Disengage now!' Scott severed his cable link with the plane.

'What?! If we do that these people die, we are nearly at impact.'

'Please – Virgil!'.

A thunderous explosion erupted, flashing across Scott's view point in a bright orange fireball. The sheer force of the blast knocked him off course at the side of the plane. He had to fight with the controls to regain control. He also had to shield his eyes momentarily as he was bathed in a sharp orange flash of light.

'No, no, no!' shouted Scott swinging thunderbird one up and around. He could temporally see coloured spots in his vision before he could see that Thunderbird two was on fire, the flames cascading from her underside and thrusters. She had taken the full impact from below, the most vulnerable place that she could have done. She was no longer on a flight path but plummeting to the ocean below, surrounded by the wreckage that had been a plane just a moment before.