Thanks for all the feedback for the last chapter. Sahara insisted on having it all to herself so I'm glad it seemed to work. Whirlgirl, thanks for the review, sorry I can't reply in person.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Sahara made good time back to the old factory building but even so, the journey seemed interminable. She'd deliberately chosen a base some distance from the Kent farmhouse where the Westminster Abbey hostages were being held. No one knew where she was, not even Sebastian, so if something went wrong she'd be untraceable. Now, though, she couldn't help wishing the journey was shorter, desperate as she was to start questioning the slumbering Virgil.
The jammers she'd ensured were activated didn't stop her from scanning the airspace around her, but aside from a few birds there was nothing there. She really was getting away with it! International Rescue weren't so powerful after all. They'd shown they were vulnerable the first time she'd gone up against them and now she was going to defeat them once and for all. With a Thunderbird pilot and Tracy son in her hands, they'd do whatever she wanted. Oh, she could have tried to wheedle what she wanted out of them with just Penny, but that had had no guarantees of success. Jeff Tracy might be revered as one of the greatest modern heroes, but Sahara knew that his genial public persona masked a ruthless and determined man. How else would he have beaten off all competition to lead a mission to the moon? Why else would he have a whole stash of Air Force medals? He might save lives now, but there hadn't been waxwork dummies in the planes he'd shot down, that was for sure. No, he might have been willing to sacrifice an agent, however close he was to her, especially one who seemed to have lost her usefulness to the organisation. But a son? Oh no - the one thing she knew for certain about the leader of International Rescue was that he put his family above all else.
The factory came into sight and she forced herself to carry out a detailed scan of the area before setting down, just in case. But all was well. The place was still deserted and there were only two life signs inside the building: Penny and Chen. Bringing her craft down several metres away from the helicopter Chen had arrived in - the General believed him to be overseeing his Air Force's manoeuvres over the Pacific - she turned off the engines before glancing over to the window of the factory where Chen was peeking out.
She waved at him, smiling broadly, but there was no answering gesture and the window was too grimy for her to make out his expression clearly. Not that she read anything into that. Chen wasn't the most demonstrative of men. He'd soon be dancing around the place, she thought, once he realised that their plan had really worked.
With the rotor blades finally still, it was time to get moving. "Virgil!"
When the man did nothing more than mumble something unintelligible before turning away from her, Sahara reached back, shaking his shoulder hard and calling his name more sharply this time.
"Huh? Wha...?" Virgil yawned, blinked and jerked his hands as though he was going to rub the sleep out of his eyes. But he'd clearly forgotten he was cuffed to the seat and he stared in confusion at the restraints for a moment before looking back up at Sahara.
"Are you awake now?" she asked.
"Yeah, I guess," he told her.
"Do you know who I am?"
"Sahara, right?"
"That's right. What did Sebastian say about me?"
Virgil smiled. "That you're my friend and I should do anything you want."
"Good." Sahara made sure her gun was sitting on her lap before unlocking the handcuffs. "What I want is for you to get out and pick up one of those pieces of metal over there." She indicated a pile of rusty scrap. "A sharp one, if you don't mind."
"Sure." Virgil did as she asked, turning to hold up a nasty-looking piece of old machinery.
"Perfect. Now stab yourself in the leg with it."
She held her breath as her grip tightened on her weapon. The slightest hesitation and she'd know Sebastian had either tricked her or that Virgil had withstood the conditioning, but to her delight, Virgil raised his hand and brought the makeshift blade straight down into his thigh. The yelp of pain didn't bother her - he hadn't been turned into a robot, after all - nor did the blood that began to soak the material of his jeans. That's for you, Eric, she thought. At least you did a bit of damage yourself, too. Knowing nothing of Virgil's fight with Parker, she assumed the bruises to his face had come from the fight he'd had with Eric Younger, the one where he'd broken the other man's jaw. Well, she'd gone some way towards getting revenge, although having proved he was hers to command she wasn't going to damage him any further - she needed him too badly to indulge her sadistic side any more than this. For now, at least...
"Well done, Virgil," she murmured softly as she came up to him and took the metal out of his hand, letting it drop onto the ground. Giving the watching Chen the thumbs-up, she patted Virgil on the shoulder. "Let's get you inside and take a look at that, shall we?"
"Did I do well?" he asked and Sahara smiled at his eagerness to please.
"You did perfectly. I'm sorry I had to hurt you, but I had to know you were really on my side."
"Of course I am!"
"I know. Now then, I've got another job for you, then we can get down to business. We've got a lot to talk about, you know."
Virgil laughed as Sahara told him what she wanted him to do next. As soon as the woman opened the door to the factory he headed straight for Penny, still tied to a pillar.
"Virgil! What happened to you? Are you...?"
"I'm fine. I'm here to tell Sahara all about International Rescue."
Penny's face fell. A bluff, surely? All part of an audacious rescue operation on the part of the Tracys. She just wished she could believe it. After all, if Parker could have been conditioned to betray her, why was it so hard to believe that Virgil couldn't be broken too?
Virgil smiled, but the usual warmth the expression held was absent and his eyes were hard and cold.
"Oh, yes. Everything. How I'm the pilot of Thunderbird Two and all about the set-up back home."
Penny closed her eyes in despair as Virgil limped back to a smugly smiling Sahara. "Good boy," she told him. "You definitely deserve a reward for that. I'll take a look at that leg for you, too." She turned to Chen and said something in a language that only the man understood. At his reply, she seemed to take a moment to consider something before turning back to Virgil.
"Your father's giving a press conference," she told him. "He's insisting you're innocent and accusing Scotland Yard of having some kind of vendetta against you."
"He's right," Virgil said. "I haven't done anything wrong."
"No. And why would you? You're one of the good guys, aren't you? Now then, have a seat." She waved him to the desk where Chen had set up his laptop. It still held an image of Tracy Island, though there wasn't much going on, just the gentle stirring of foliage as the faintest of breezes disturbed the stillness of the moonlit night.
"Tracy Island," Virgil said.
"Yes. Home to International Rescue." Sahara pulled a first aid kit out of the drawer, preparing to take a look at the wound in Virgil's leg.
"What?" Virgil laughed.
Sahara's head snapped up.
"What do you mean, 'What?'? You just admitted in front of Penny that you were part of International Rescue."
Virgil laughed again, louder this time. "You told me to say that. It was a joke, right? I mean, I'd love to be part of that organisation, who wouldn't? Those guys are awesome! Imagine flying something like one of those Thunderbirds. Or even working on the maintenance side. I'm an engineer but I've never come close to anything like that."
"You're lying." Sahara's voice was shaking as she raised her gun.
"I'm not. I wouldn't lie to you. Why are you pointing a gun at me?"
The sincerity was there in Virgil's voice - as was the fear, natural enough under the circumstances. When he put up his hands in the face of the gun, she could see the dried blood there from where he'd tried to stop the bleeding in his leg. He'd passed the test she'd set in order to prove that he was indeed under her control. But that would mean he was telling the truth - and she couldn't accept that.
Sahara's knuckles were white as her grip on the gun tightened. She knew, she just knew, that she was right - everything fitted together, she'd even identified Alan Tracy's voice print. Virgil had to be lying. Maybe International Rescue had trained their operatives to withstand brainwashing after all. Or maybe Sebastian had betrayed her in order to save his own skin. If he had, then she'd make it her mission to kill him - slowly and painfully. But first she had to break Virgil - one way or the other...
"You're lying! Your whole family are International Rescue. You fly Thunderbird Two, Scott flies Thunderbird One. Gordon's the swimmer, he has to pilot the sub and either your father or one of your other brothers flies the rocket. Your base is Tracy Island. There's no point denying it, Virgil."
Slowly and deliberately, she clicked off the gun's safety catch. "Last chance, Virgil," she said. "A bullet is going to do a whole lot more damage than a bit of metal in your leg."
But before Virgil could respond, Chen came running up, shouting something in his native language. Sahara didn't need to do a mental translation - the tablet he held told her everything. Ignoring the subtitles that had told Chen what was going on, she listened in disbelief to the excited commentary of the news reporter.
"It's hard to believe that once again FireFlash has had to call on International Rescue for assistance. This was supposed to be a routine test flight of the latest model but the fire that broke out in the engine unit has apparently damaged all the navigation and landing equipment. Thunderbird Two is manoeuvring above the aircraft getting ready to lower her grabs. It's a tricky job - FireFlash is holding steady right now, but we understand that the remaining engine could fail at any moment. If Thunderbird Two can't hold her she'll fall out of the skies and the crew of seven will face certain death..."
Chen informed Sahara, in an ever-increasing tone of anger and frustration that nothing had stirred on Tracy Island. Wherever Thunderbird Two had come from, it wasn't there. Nor could any Tracys possibly have left.
"That's impossible!" Sahara turned back to Virgil who was watching her nervously. "Where is your base?"
"I don't know what you're talking about."
"You do!" She was shouting now, the hand holding the gun shaking as her anger took hold. "I'll shoot you, Virgil, I swear it. Tell me about International Rescue!"
Virgil shook his head frantically, breathing heavily as he pleaded for his life. "I can't! I don't understand all this. All I wanted to do was play the piano at my friend's wedding and the next thing I know I'm being accused of masterminding the whole thing before being kidnapped myself. Now I'm being accused of being a Thunderbird pilot. I'm not and I can't pretend I am. I'd do anything for you, you know that, but I can't lie to make you happy. Mr Swayne said I had to always tell you the truth."
The mention of Sebastian infuriated Sahara all the more and suddenly she was right next to him, the gun waving wildly in his face. "I've got nothing to lose, Virgil! I'll just go back to the original plan. With my reward for my part in the kidnapping I'll be able to spend the rest of my life proving your family are International Rescue. I'll shoot you - you know I'm not bluffing. I've done it before, remember. You'll have died for nothing. You've got-"
Sahara broke off abruptly. Then, to Virgil's surprise, she let out a sudden sharp laugh and the gun she'd been jabbing hard into his side was pulled away, her free hand coming up to caress the line of his jaw.
"I should have done this right at the start," she murmured. "Take off your shirt, Virgil."
Virgil gaped at her for a moment, clearly struggling to comprehend this complete and utter change of mood. But he did as the woman asked, though the way he slowly fumbled with the buttons was clearly frustrating her.
"Hurry up!"
"Hey, you're cute and I'm flattered, but I don't usually do this in front of an audience," Virgil told her. "And your boyfriend doesn't look too happy. He's not going to shoot me, is he?"
"No, but he'll shoot Penny if you don't get a move on." She snapped an order at Chen, who obediently moved across to the other hostage. "Come on, Virgil. Here, let me help you." With that, she grabbed his shirt and yanked it open, causing the remaining buttons to fly off. Then she took a step back, telling him to turn around.
Virgil did so. Slowly.
"I know you're the pilot of Thunderbird Two" Sahara said, her breath hot on the back of his neck as she began to peel the shirt off him. "Like I said, I've shot you before. You'll have a scar on your back. Absolute proof. Whether Sebastian lied to me or you lied to him doesn't matter. Under my control or not, I'll still use you to get what I want. But now I'll have no reason to be nice to you. You're going to wish you'd cooperated from the start."
She couldn't resist a triumphant glance at Penny before turning her attention back to Virgil. But just as she went to pull his shirt off there was the sudden bang as a door was flung open, followed by a gunshot that sent her diving to the floor.
"It's over, Sahara! Put your weapon down and give yourself up. The place is surrounded."
It was Scott.