Thanks for the response to the last chapter. Whirlgirl, thanks so much for your review. It feels good to be back on track with weekly updates - even if FF did refuse to save the first lot of edits I made to this chapter!
Chapter Twenty-Six
It wasn't just the need to give the Tracys time to come to terms with being outed as International Rescue and to put together the information she'd asked for regarding Thunderbird Four which stopped Sahara contacting them again that evening. She'd had other things on her mind after she'd flown Penny to the disused factory buildings where she'd been hiding her helicopter.
Penny had hoped to be transported back to the farmhouse where she knew Simon would be waiting for her. Absence had certainly made the heart grow fonder - or maybe it was just guilt and worry - but she felt a desperate need to see the man she'd married, to make sure he was safe and to see if there was any way he'd forgive her for all her lies. Knowing Simon, he would, she thought, but the thought didn't make her feel any better, instead, the shame and misery just increased tenfold.
But a reunion with her husband wasn't to be - not that night, at least. Sahara had ordered her out of the helicopter, keeping a gun trained on her hostage all the while, then taken her into one of the buildings where she'd been cuffed to a concrete pillar. Penny quickly realised she had no way of extricating herself. She'd been forced to allow Sahara to feed her, although the indignity of being spoonfed pasta like a child was soon lost in the sheer relief of getting some solid food. It had been far too long since Penny had had a proper meal. The need to look perfect in her wedding dress - something that seemed so pathetically trivial now - had meant a great deal of sacrifice in the food department in the run-up to the wedding, something Parker had grumbled about as he'd informed her that she needed to eat properly, that even if she no longer wanted to be an agent, she still needed her health.
Thoughts of Parker added to her misery. Sahara had delighted in enlightening her about the man's final moments, gleefully speculating about how long it would have taken him to drown in the Thames' currents - if he hadn't succumbed to hypothermia first, of course. Penny couldn't believe he was dead - and yet, at the same time, the image of his body floating down the freezing Thames came all too readily to mind and refused to leave.
Then there was International Rescue and the fate of her friends, not least Scott and Virgil. Was the younger man in the hands of Eric Younger? Had her warning been in time? Sahara had gone into another room to make a phone call that and Penny soon had her answer. She strained to hear what Sahara was saying, with no real success, but a sudden sharp rise in pitch at one point suggested that there was something the woman wasn't happy about. For a few short minutes Penny felt hopeful, but that was soon dashed when Sahara returned and informed her that Virgil had indeed been taken hostage.
"You'll enjoy some company, won't you, Penny?"
Penny said nothing and Sahara smiled.
"Well, I certainly will," she told her captive. She glanced at her watch then wandered across to the window to look out. After a few minutes she smiled broadly back at Penny, her eyes lighting up. The aristocrat heard the faint sounds of a helicopter. Eric Younger with Virgil, she supposed.
But the man who entered the building only to be caught up in a tight embrace from Sahara was unknown to her. The mystery lover, she thought. The General's trusted aide who was secretly plotting against him. The language the two spoke in seemed to confirm this - Penny could only understand a few words, but she picked up enough to realise that the pair were more than happy with the way things were going.
Penny knew that her chances of escape - as infintesimal as they had been - had just got even worse now that her captors outnumbered her two to one. As if that wasn't bad enough, Sahara delighted in teasing her about having her own lover there whilst poor Penny had lost both Simon and Scott. Still, as she led the man away into another room, Penny could at least be confident that with such a big distraction, the woman wouldn't be troubling the Tracys just yet - and as she well knew from her long association with the family, the longer they had to put a plan together, the less likely it was that anyone would stand in their way.
Her friends were indeed busy plotting.
Throughout the night, as Sebastian Swayne whiled away the hours with a book, having spent some time coaching Virgil on how he should behave in order to convince Sahara that he'd been effectively conditioned, the Tracys, Brains and Parker, despite being scattered around the globe, still kept up a stream of discussion via their communicators.
Brains had been working flat-out on the Atlantic base. Used to going without sleep when he was engrossed in some experiment or other, he'd been making good progress, and was pleased to report that he expected to have Thunderbird One up and running within a few hours.
"Good work!" Both Jeff and Scott replied simultaneously. Jeff went on. "That gives us an advantage - if there's a need for a rescue at least One can respond."
"But how many rescues just need One?" Virgil had to ask the question. This wasn't the usual light-hearted banter between him and Scott, though. It was a valid point. John was still working on a means of hijacking the drone which was watching Tracy Island. If Sahara did carry out her threat to engineer a situation where International Rescue was needed before John was ready, it was unlikely that Thunderbird One alone could handle it.
"Virgil's right," Jeff said reluctantly. "Anyway, it wouldn't get you off the hook, Scott. She knows you're not on Tracy Island. You could still be piloting your 'bird as far as Sahara's concerned."
"Guess so." Scott drifted into gloomy introspection - at least he did until John came through some time later.
"Thunderbirds are go! I'm in. I can loop some innocent footage of the island and they'll never know what's really going on. It's not like the place is a hive of activity anyway. If we wait till lunchtime when everyone's going to be inside, no one will notice the same few leaves blowing across the terrace."
"Sound?" Alan asked.
"It's visual only," John said. "The range is too far for the drone to pick up any audio. Good thing too - we'd have been sunk long before now."
"We're prepping Two for launch," Gordon told them. "I'll fill a pod with the most basic equipment: the Mole, Firefly... That should see us through most situations. John's going to take her to that hideout in Malaysia we sometimes use, then fly home. Our agent there is already sorting out a plane for him. Getting back there will delay any rescue, but what else can we do?"
"Good plan," Virgil said.
Gordon went on. "We won't need to worry about Three. I mean how likely is it that Sahara could cause a problem out in space? Alan's got enough supplies to keep him going for at least a month."
Jeff nodded. "You're probably right there. But I'm more concerned about Four. After all, Sahara seems to have the most interest in your 'bird. What if she's needed?"
"Already thought of that," Gordon said. "I'll use the emergency launch procedure, park her a mile or so away from the island and swim back. If I use the diving gear no one will see me and I can get back in through the emergency tunnel. If we need Four I can get to her and be on my way while John's flying back to Malaysia. He can pick me up in Two if he shifts anything we don't need out of the pod."
"But without pod Four you can't get back on board," Scott reminded him.
"John can winch her up," Virgil told him. "It's not ideal, but if it comes down to it, we won't have much choice."
Jeff approved. "So we'll be able to respond to any situation Sahara sets up without suspicion falling on anyone on Tracy Island. Good work, boys!"
"I don't know," Scott said. "Unless they see Gordon and John on the island whilst the 'birds are in action, they'll still be suspicious."
"I'll work on the fake footage," John said. "I can put a sequence together that shows us both making the odd appearance. I'll show Grandma how to intersperse it with the real feed - she can potter around outside from time to time along with Kyrano so there are some more sign of life. We only need the fake stuff now and again."
"But how long would that fool them for?" Alan asked. "If it's a big rescue they'll work out sooner or later that they've been watching the same bit of footage."
"H'unless..." Parker spoke for the first time.
"Yes, Parker?" Jeff prompted when it appeared that the man had had second thoughts.
"H'isn't there some way we can set h'up a rescue h'ourselves?"
"You mean pre-empt Sahara?" John asked, rather surprised that he hadn't thought of that one himself.
"It's an idea," Jeff said slowly. "But how? If the 'birds are needed, it's always for something big. How far are we willing to go?"
"Alan, isn't there anything brewing that we might be needed for?" Scott asked.
Alan shook his head. "Nothing. No adverse weather, no earthquake warnings. We can't rely on a callout coming through. Parker's right, if we don't want Sahara doing something - and I wouldn't trust her not to let a whole lot of people get hurt in the process - we're going to have to set something up ourselves."
"John, get thinking!" Jeff ordered. "This is right up your street. A night-time rescue, I think - they can't expect to see you and Gordon out on the island if you should be sleeping."
"We're fighting back, aren't we?" Alan sounded pleased. He had no reason to love Sahara himself - apart from the false tooth he was still all too conscious of, courtesy of a savage punch from one of the woman's operatives, he'd been forced to fight for his brother's life, enduring one of the longest half-hours of his life as he'd performed emergency first-aid then flown Virgil to hospital. He could still remember the fear he'd felt as he'd waited to see if he'd done enough to save his brother. Tin-Tin had been on hand to comfort him then, he remembered. He wished she was here right now.
"We are." Jeff sounded pleased. "If we can convince Sahara she's wrong and you boys can get Penny back, then we've got a good chance of getting through this. Quite how I get the press off my back, I don't know. But we can clear Virgil's name once the rest of this is over."
"You'd better," Virgil said. "I've had more than enough of jail, thanks."
"What about Virg?" Scott asked. "Are we still going to give him up to Sahara?"
"I don't see we've got any alternative," Virgil said. "I'm not thrilled about the idea, Scott, but what choice do we have? John's no nearer tracking her down. Do you want to risk Sahara refusing to give her back if she's captured before we locate Penny? The other guys she's working with could take Penny anywhere and who knows what kind of revenge they'd exact."
"Guess so."
Virgil punched his older brother affectionately in the arm. "It's okay, Scott. Look, with a bit of luck - no, don't look at me like that, we've got to be lucky once in a while, right? With a bit of luck, Sahara will arrive with Penny and we can overpower her there and then. But if not and I have to go with her, well, you'll track me, won't you? Even if Johnny can't override those jammers so that the edible transmitter can get through."
Scott promised he would - or die trying, though he kept the second part to himself.
"You'd best get going," Virgil said.
Scott glanced at his watch. "Right. Virg, if I don't get a chance to see you before all this kicks off, promise me you won't do anything stupid."
"Promise. As long as you do the same."
Scott smiled. "Deal."
Neither believed a word the other said.
It was still dark outside when Sahara prepared to leave the next morning.
"Chen will look after you," she told Penny. "No attempting to seduce him now, Penny - not that you look particularly alluring at the moment."
Penny had never felt less attractive in her life: dirty, and wearing the kind of clothes she'd sooner burn than wear if she'd had any choice in the matter - she didn't think they'd been washed since the boy at the farmhouse had last worn them. The last time she'd brushed her hair had been... probably the morning of the wedding. No, she hadn't expected to be able to work her usual charms on the man, not that she'd have expected him to respond, anyway.
"I'll be back in a couple of hours with Virgil," Sahara said. "Then we'll speak to the Tracys again." With a final few words to Chen, she was gone.
The man disappeared for a moment then returned with a laptop which he positioned where she could see it. The scene on-screen was familiar and Penny's heart lurched in a mixture of sadness and joy. Tracy Island. The sun was shining, Gordon was ploughing up and down the pool and there was Grandma, apparently asleep on the terrace. Life went on as normal, she thought, and for a moment she was filled with a bitter resentment - didn't they care about her? No, of course they did - or at least, if they didn't, then they'd certainly care about Virgil, captured by their enemies. This had to be a pretence, something to convince Sahara that the Tracys were truly innocent of any connection with International Rescue. Although Chen zoomed in as far as he could, he had no luck in getting a glimpse inside the house where Penny was sure John and Brains would be putting together some kind of cunning rescue plan. Who was to say that Virgil's capture wasn't part of it?
Well, very soon, she'd know for sure.