Chapter 16 – Unfair Turnabout

Alan and Fermat both took off towards the raceway exit. They carefully ducked and weaved in-between the fleeing cars and had to ride over a grassy median, but they finally made it to the main road.

Fermat breathed better once they were on the open streets, and adjusted the amount of light from his headlight so he could keep track of his friend. Alan had a lead on him, but with a slight adjustment in speed, he managed to shorten the lead to only a few feet.

Precious minutes passed, and soon found they were in the outskirts of a residential neighborhood. Two streets over was a freeway on-ramp, and Fermat knew that they were running out of time despite being within sight of the vehicle.

And that was when he saw the car pull a curious maneuver, spinning around to face them. In the glare of his headlight, he could just make out small metallic objects that dropped from the car moments before it pulled its maneuver. What was it doing?

He had his answer a moment later when he watched Alan's bike wipe out in front of him. "Alan!"

Fermat made a move to stop his own motorcycle when Mr. Edwards stepped out the car and pointed a gun in his direction!

Eyes widening, Fermat swerved off onto a side road, just barely dodging the gunfire that had come his way.

He came to a quick stop and forced himself to breathe even out. It had been months since he had been through an extremely stressful situation, but a student lecture on the theories of space travel paled in comparison to this.

Fermat waited a minute to make sure that he wasn't followed and then with a shaky hand, he brought up his tele-com he had on his wrist and made the necessary adjustments. He hated leaving his friend in trouble, but this situation was not one that he could handle alone.

"F-fermat to International Rescue. E-emergency priority one!"

--

Alan was feeling a pretty nasty case of road rash among other things. He had become quite a proficient rider since dad had bought him the graduation gift, but he realized that he hadn't wiped out on his own accord.

Around him, he spotted little metallic spikes, shaped and formed to look like an extreme version of jacks. Once his front tire had shredded, it was all that Alan could do to lay the bike down on it's own to minimize the damage. He had counted himself lucky on that aspect.

Mr. Edwards stood over him, grinning maniacally. In one hand, he held a gun, and with the other grabbed for Alan's arm, dragging him unceremoniously to his feet. "You know the Hood kept saying how he was bested by a mere brat of a boy. I have to admit Mister Tracy, you have given me quite the challenge, but the last thing Shadow Force needs is International Rescue traipsing around and interfering with their plans."

"To kidnap government figures?" Alan shot back. "I heard your 'discussion' with the Hood. You guys can't possibly keep a lid on this, especially with Shadow Force using all of those fireworks to break a criminal like the Hood out of jail."

"This is bigger than the Hood!" he shot back. "But since they consider International Rescue a threat to their plans, you will make a nice distraction so they will leave us alone for a while. Now move!"

Alan's heart sank as Mr. Edwards prodded him into the awaiting car's back seat. Beside him, President Winters laid slumped against the opposite window, her eyes closed. She must have been drugged with something.

After got in the car and sat down beside her, Mr. Edwards grabbed for his arm again, and this time instead of a gun the man held a hypodermic needle. "Now Mister Tracy, this won't hurt a bit."

Moments later Alan slumped back into his seat, eyes closed.

--

Although the sun wasn't due to set for a few hours yet, Jeff was glad to be getting a little bit of sleep. It seemed like every chance he had, something had come along to toss his plans on their ear. After the rescue of France's president, Brains had worked overtime getting the dents out of Thunderbird One and getting her sensors back in shape. An avalanche and the aftermath of an earthquake had kept all on Tracy Island on their toes over the following days.

Head hit pillow, and he nearly had his eyes closed when the Klaxon sounded in his room. He shot up into a sitting position and grabbed for his tele-com. He had left instructions with Gordon to answer all incoming communications and not to disturb him unless it was urgent, so this could only mean trouble. "Jeff here. Gordon, what's going on?"

Jeff couldn't miss the pained look on his son's face along with the strained reply. "Fermat called in on the emergency channel, dad. Looks like both Alan and the President of the United States have just been kidnapped by Shadow Force."

Jeff sat on the edge of his bed in shock. "That's impossible."

On the small screen, he could see Gordon shake his head sadly. "I checked the media channels after I talked to Fermat, and it's on every major network channel, dad. At nine-fifteen this evening, the president had stopped off to view a local race with the state governor. She was announcing the start of the race when there was a tear gas attack. No one else was hurt, but according to witnesses when Alan saw that she was being taken away, he apparently tried to intervene by chasing them on motorcycle. Fermat followed them and saw Alan take a tumble. He tried to help but the kidnapper fired at him. The kid managed to snag a side road to get away and got me on the horn."

Jeff was already mentally back in uniform as he stood up, turning his room light on and thinking quickly. "Is Fermat all right?"

Gordon nodded. "He's shaken up more than anything else. It took him two tries to tell me all that happened - and dad, there's something else you should know. According to Fermat, Mr. Edwards from the Academy was kidnapper. Alan had me try and do a check on him two days ago."

That stopped Jeff in his tracks cold. Mr. Edwards - he was with Shadow Force, that meant that they were being watched from the beginning and this was much bigger than just the Hood getting busted out of Jail. Taking Alan must be a diversion or at worse a trap, but he was not about to let them mess with the likes of International Rescue.

Digesting the information his son was giving him, Jeff came to a quick decision. "Gordon, I'll get Virgil and John to go there in Thunderbird Two. Once they are in the air, give them all of the information you just gave me and tell them to get to that scene as fast as they can. Meanwhile, Scott and I are going to do a little Shadow Force hunting."

Don't get too used to this quick updating thing - I had what I wanted planned in my head for this chapter and lets just say I didn't get any sleep as a result. I put fingers to keyboard in self defense and here it is. More to follow as soon as I can. ;)