Chapter 13 - Skyjacking

After a few hours of searching every angle he could think of, Gordon Tracy came up with absolutely nothing.

Mike Edwards simply came across as a school teacher, recognized by a few organizations with his work with kids and within the realms of Science and Mathematics. Gordon managed to also find a few articles detailing the man's racing efforts, but nothing that screamed trouble.

Still, his brother was bothered by something. Great, back to square one. Maybe I should call Alan back and-

Suddenly the monitor that was used to keep track of distress calls flared to life. The audio was initially full of static, but after Gordon tried a few adjustments that John had programmed into the frequencies, a rapid fire stream of French filtered through the stations speakers, only to be followed seconds later by heavily accented English.

"If anyone can hear my voice, our aircraft is under attack, repeat under attack!"

Swearing, Gordon pressed a button on the comm panel and spoke quickly. "Unidentified aircraft, this is International Rescue, please state your course and heading."

The voice from the other side sounded immensely relieved. "International Rescue, this is JetFrance One. We are carrying the President of France on board on a heading across the Atlantic Ocean to New York. We've lost contact with our control tower and our GPS has been sabotaged. We now have two smaller planes claiming to be from Shadow Force that are flanking either side of us. They're stating that they are responsible for the sabotage and that if they're not allowed to board our craft that we will be shot down!"

Jeff ran into the lounge at the sound of the alarm and quickly activated the command and control center. Monitors showing sensor readings flared to life, and Gordon's face appeared on the main monitor.

Jeff quickly set to work. "What's the situation, Gordon?"

"It looks like an attempted skyjacking, dad. France's President was in a jet heading for New York, but now the pilot is reporting trouble. Their GPS beacon has been sabotaged, and now they report at least two smaller planes flanking them. They have been receiving threats from the two planes to either allow them to board or the jet would be shot down," Gordon relayed with a worried glance, "Dad, the planes are claiming that they are from Shadow Force."

Jeff frowned. This had to be Shadow Force's most unusual kidnapping attempt yet. "What about a military response?"

"The French government has scrambled a few jets but they have yet to find them. Those two planes have to be using some sort of scrambler for the jet to be invisible to them. If it wasn't for John's settings up here that jet might have been invisible to us as well," Gordon replied.

"Ok, Thunderbirds are go," Jeff assured him as he saw John, Scott and Virgil rush into the lounge. He then turned and addressed them. "Scott, take Thunderbird One. Virgil, you and John follow along in Thunderbird Two. I will stay here and man the control center here. Head off Shadow Force and make sure those passengers get to New York."

Once in the air, Virgil contacted Gordon for the coordinates of the jet and made the necessary course settings. Once he had everything set, he turned to John. "So just how are we finding this jet when France can't?"

John replied. "When I was keeping tabs on the group, I intercepted snatches of their transmissions, but the rest of them were all static. I was able to analyze those transmissions and figure out the jamming frequencies that they were using."

"And if we know the frequency they use, we can bypass the jamming and find the jet we are looking for," Virgil finished the line of reasoning.

"Exactly."

Virgil then turned his attention back to his instruments and opening a comm channel. "Thunderbird One from Thunderbird Two. Setting maximum speed. ETA is forty-five minutes."

Scott's reply came through the speakers. "FAB Virgil."

Over the Atlantic Ocean, thirty minutes later-

Scott arrived on the scene first in Thunderbird One. Ahead of him he spotted JetFrance One, and he made sure to keep his distance from them before opening a comm channel. "Base from Thunderbird One - I have arrived at the danger zone. The two Shadow Force planes are keeping pretty close to the jet, so I'm not sure if we can distract them without putting JetFrance One in danger."

His father's worried face came up on a small vid screen in front of him. "So what we have is a hostage situation in the sky. Are you able to gauge their firepower from your distance?"

Scott made a check of the scanners available to him, and what he saw did nothing to reassure him. "Dad, those planes are hooked up with some sort of laser type system. My scanners can barely get a proper read on them and-"

Suddenly Gordon's voice broke through, interrupting Scott. "Thunderbird One from Thunderbird Five. JetFrance One has just reported that the planes are gearing up to attack. There's no time left!"

No sooner had his brother said those words, a brilliant beam of light caught Scott's attention. Looking up in shock, he watched as he saw one of the wings that had been part of JetFrance One fall apart from the Jet and landed in the ocean. The resulting spray of water was nearly twenty feet high.

Scott's instincts went into overdrive. "Dad, One of the planes just cut off the jet's wing. I've got to distract them or else the people on that jet are as good as dead."