Flashbacks and Memories (Part 12)
By Jenny Taylor
While the Tracy brothers were listening to their long-lost friend-cum-cousin Doctor Jaycee Anderson, Kayo had been searching for Colonel Casey to give her, her report on what she's learnt from her encounter with her uncle and the world's most wanted arch-nemesis, masterminding criminal, The Hood.
She was flying in Thunderbird Shadow when she had contacted the Global Defence Force Headquarters to alert the colonel upon her arrival, but only to be told that the colonel was meeting them at the hospital where Virgil is being treated.
She had asked the commander to alert the colonel in advance that she had intel on The Hood and Virgil, but she was surprised as well as the commander, that Colonel Casey had her radio off and the GDF could not raise her. Kayo nodded with thanks, cut off her comms. and turned her ship back into the direction of Sydney Airport, New South Wales, Australia.
During the flight, Kayo's mind was racing with curiosity, trying to figure out what has been happening during the past 2 nearly 3 days. First was that her uncle kidnapped Virgil and held him, what looked like at first, to ransom in exchange for International Rescue, which is not surprising given the fact that The Hood wanted the Thunderbirds ever since it first came into operation.
Secondly, ever since the remaining earth-bound brothers returned from that rescue at the Sydney Tower complex, they arrived with some plan to rescue Virgil, which sounded a bit too complex and sudden to be thought up by the boys alone, which meant that they had help, but whom and why, Kayo doesn't have an answer to yet and she's glad that she's not the only person who noticed it, Grandma Tracy and Colonel Casey had sensed this too.
Thirdly, despite following the rescue 'plan', which was a brilliant, up to the point when her uncle's minions pushed a bound and helpless Virgil off the Hubship from a height into the Pacific Ocean, which was then things had started to go wrong and amidst.
There was that mystery cable from the Hubship which, as Kayo found out in a horrific way, was attached to Virgil's legs and then there was one factor that no-one could predict, one of Mother Natures' predators of the ocean, a Great White Shark, attacked Virgil while he was tied to her uncle's ship.
This rose her curiosity into her uncle's mysterious actions and yet at the same time, sending her shocks of horror, dread and fear at the horror taken place in the ocean blue. Thankfully the arrival of the shark and the threat of an arriving fleet of the GDF Quad planes had forced The Hood to abandon his prisoner and fled the scene.
She was scared that she might lose Virgil to the predator and she was torn into either chasing her uncle for answers or rescuing Virgil, but thankfully the arrival of Thunderbird 4 at the scene gave her the decision she wanted, which is to chase her uncle and to find some answers to his unexpected actions as of late.
When she arrived at the Hubship and snuck aboard, she was even more surprised and confused into her uncle's angry statement of frustration. She had demand answers from him, yet the answers he gave her had led to even more questions, but she was forced to escape with what she had if she didn't want to become his slave/minion.
After she had just escaped from her uncle, she received a call from John, demanding her to pick him up from the island and take him to Sydney Hospital and it's this location that had given her another question. Why did the boys decide to take Virgil there and not the nearest hospital to the base, which is in New Zealand?
She had sensed at the time that's something fishy is going on and it had nothing to do with Gordon's pranks either, but given the severity of the situation in terms of Virgil's medical status, she was forced to put that feeling to the back of her mind as she parked Thunderbird Shadow at base, met with John and took off in Thunderbird 1.
Flying in Thunderbird 1 is very rare as the boys are very protective of their 'Bird' and will not let anyone else pilot them, but this was an exception and not for good reasons either if any brother should end up in a mainstream hospital so badly that all of the other brothers had to be present. That was confirmed when she and John arrived at the waiting and Scott updated them on Virgil's situation, and the possible results didn't sound good either.
And then there was something else that was niggling her. After she told the others (on Scott's orders), John went to the canteen to get some coffee and she followed him, but only to go to the girl's room, it was after she answered the call of nature that she waited for John and noticed that John was talking to someone.
She couldn't see at first who it was that John's talking to, but she didn't have time to find out whom as John left this woman (as she could tell at the time) and came to join her with the coffee and headed back to the waiting room. When they arrived, she noticed that when he handed Scott his coffee, John leaned forward and whispered something in the elder's ear, which was replied with another whisper from the brunette and a nod from the red-head.
Whatever it was that they were whispering, she suspects that it might have something to do with that woman she saw in the canteen. But then Scott came out with an order from Colonel Casey to all of them that they all need to make a written report to her about this incident, and then Scott sent her to go to the colonel first as she had some intel which is really important and needed to be reported asap.
She had nodded in agreement with Scott, which that in itself is rare as they are both stubborn, hot-headed and at each other's throats when it comes to arguing about how IR should be run. But this time she didn't argue as she's worried about the outcome on Virgil's life-changing/saving operations and determined to catch her uncle, if it's the last thing she'll do and reporting to the colonel with her findings might help in protecting Virgil during his stay in hospital, just in-case the Hood tries to kidnap him again while he's defenceless.
She had called Brains and Grandma to update them with the situation, which it isn't easy and Grandma was understandably worried and had asked Kayo to bring her to her grandsons, which Kayo politely declined saying that she had to see Colonel Casey asap and in person to inform her on what she found about The Hood's plans for Virgil.
Grandma Tracy was even more worried hearing this and demanded to be with her grandsons, but she had told her that the boys, for some reason wanted to be alone and they didn't tell her why, so she voiced her thoughts about the boys' actions over the past day and had promised Grandma that she'll let her know as soon as she gets some answers from them, but only after she had reported to the GDF.
Both Grandma and Brains had agreed with her that something isn't quite right with the brothers ever since the rescue at Sydney Tower and since she is very good in extracting information from them, Grandma reluctantly agreed with her and stayed on the island with Brains, while the latter heads off towards his lab with M.A.X. to prepare and plan some alterations to both the house and possibly Thunderbird 2, should Virgil return disabled and wanted to continue working with International Rescue with his limitations.
After that she had remote controlled her 'Bird' parked at base and gave it co-ordinates to pick her up from the Botanic Gardens, as soon as her 'Bird' arrived she got in and headed into the direction of GDF HQ, going through her mind in what to say to her along the way. However, when she called the GDF and being told that the colonel was at the hospital, made her even more curious.
She had a feeling that the colonel, might have headed there either to give them good or bad news about The Hood, or to give the boys some comfort and support since she is their Godmother, or to ask them the similar questions to what she's going to ask them, or all three of the options above.
Just as soon as she had just thought about those which of those options the colonel might take, her GPS had alerted her upon her approach to Sydney Airport. She announced her arrival to the airport and had Thunderbird Shadow landed next to the other side of Thunderbird 2, since she parked Thunderbird 1 to one side of the green giant, avoiding the GDF soldiers who stood guarding the Thunderbird crafts and one of their own Quad planes.
The presence of the GDF craft confirmed into what Kayo had been told from the GDF commander earlier on about Colonel Casey visiting the Tracy brothers in the hospital. She departed her 'Bird' on her motorbike, left the airport and headed off towards the hospital, still wondering why the colonel had her comms. switched off, which in a way is off character on the colonel's part, and Kayo couldn't put her finger on what so she pushed those thoughts aside until she finds their military friend.
Kayo arrived at the hospital a few minutes later, as she parked her bike in the carpark she noticed that there were small groups of GDF personnel dotted around the parking lot and the building as well as a couple of GDF ground vehicles. She left her bike and entered the building after showing the GDF guards her ID and asking them if the colonel is present in the building.
Kayo didn't need to ask the reception into where her 'brothers' and the colonel is as she instantly knew exactly where they are, so she went through the series of corridors towards the waiting room.
When Kayo turned into the final corridor leading towards the waiting room, she stopped dead in her tracks. At the end of the corridor is Colonel Casey, true she had seen the colonel plenty of times before, but it's the colonel's actions which stopped her. It looked like from the posture that the colonel is giving is that she's secretly listening to the boys and keeping herself out of sight.
No wonder she had her comms. off, she's spying, but why? Kayo thought to herself as she crept towards the colonel. As she got closer she can hear her 'brothers' and a female voice talking to each other, or more likely the boys are listening to the unknown female. Before she knew it Kayo was virtually standing next to the colonel, who is clearly focusing on listening of the group or so she thought.
"Hello Kayo." The colonel whispered softly, not looking at her.
"How'd you know it's me?" Kayo whispered back, feeling miffed into how the colonel knew of her arrival. Her question had forced the colonel to turn her head to look at her.
"It's easy since when I arrived and noticed that your voice wasn't present with the boys' conversation with my adopted daughter." She replied and turned to face back into listening to the conversation.
The colonel's reply had sent Kayo's mind into a spin. The colonel's adopted daughter is in the room talking to the Tracys? Why is she there with them? Kayo's mind was interrupted when one of the brothers' shock statement which brought both women into shock surprise.
"Wait, are you saying that you're our cousin?" Alan asked getting excited and there's a pause possibly indicating that the colonel's adopted daughter was nodding in reply to Alan's question, which he sounded pleased about it. "Awesome!"
"Cousin?" Both women looked at each other as they repeated the word in unison. Colonel Casey knew that her adopted daughter had feelings for Virgil and since she heard most of conversation before Kayo arrived, she was beginning to understand why, but being their cousin? It didn't make sense nor how for that matter.
However, thankfully due to John's curiosity, he did everyone a favour and asked that vital question into how the boys and the girl, named Jaycee from what Kayo could hear, ended up being cousins and her response was nothing from what they expected it to be.
When Jaycee gave them her answer as she's telling them a story, Colonel Casey looked down in shock surprise and then she nearly face-palmed herself in realisation into what Jaycee was saying. Her actions didn't go unnoticed as Kayo was standing next to her and her eyebrows rose with curiosity and silently questions the colonel of her actions.
"I'll explain everything to everyone after Jaycee has finished telling hers and her mom's story about the events that would probably lead up to the events of yesterday." The colonel whispered and then continued with listening to the story.
Kayo nodded in reply, she too wanted to know what's going on and spying on them alongside with the colonel makes it more interesting and possibly important, so she stayed silent and listened to the story being told to the brothers.
However, what the women didn't know that what they are going to hear would make their blood run cold and from the reactions from the brothers is that they didn't expect it either, but yet they trusted Jaycee and even knew her before they met Kayo, which made the latter felt uncomfortable and with guilt as she believed that it was her uncle that killed their dad, but that guilt was removed when Kayo heard Jaycee snapping at Alan.
"No Alan! The Hood had NOTHING to do with our dads' murder!" This made Kayo think back into what her uncle had said earlier. 'That damn, bloody shark had to ruin my plan to fake that Tracy's death so I can use him as my obedient, cyborg slave!' It's an indication that The Hood wanted the Tracys alive so he can use them to get what he wants.
But leaves more vital questions, Jeff Tracy was murdered? By whom? And why? And how did she know that Jeff was murdered? Does she have info about Jeff's disappearance which neither her, the brothers and nor the GDF have? Kayo looks up at the elder woman and notices her facial expression consists with a mixture of sorrow, pain, guilt, concern, worry and fear?
Colonel Casey is frightened? Why? Kayo wants to ask her, but the colonel had made it clear that she'll explain everything after Jaycee had told the boys her story, so Kayo is forced to wait and feels a lump of lead and sadness fall into her stomach as she hears the sobs coming from the group inside the waiting room.
She looks up at the colonel and notices that tears had started to form in her dark chocolate eyes and threaten to fall, normally the colonel would hold her emotions until she's off duty, but this was something else and it's affecting her, but not enough to let group know that she's spying on them so she stands there silently and waits patiently for the sobbing to stop and allowing her adopted daughter to continue with her life story.
Kayo too feels like crying as tears builds in her eyes and threaten to fall like the colonel, but she didn't want to give both her and the colonel away their positions either. So she slowly and quietly lowers herself to sit on the floor, trying her best to stop the tears from escaping with the heels of her hands and then waits silently, like the colonel, for the sobbing and grieving to stop, which will then allow Jaycee to continue with her story.
Both women knew that as more of Jaycee's life story is revealed, not only will their questions will be answered and more, but also the worst news which will ultimately change the lives of the family and friends of the Tracys and possibly International Rescue and Tracy Industries forever.