Chapter 24 - An Underwater Journey

From the monitor in their cell, Scott and Jeff watched as both the president and Alan were both rescued from the hole seconds before the camera was destroyed.

Looking over at his father, Scott could see a look of panic in his eyes. The pit had exploded only minutes after Alan had been rescued from it, and even he knew that it would have been a very close shave. "They made it, dad," Scott breathed, "I know they did."

Jeff slowly nodded, his gaze never leaving the monitor. "I wonder why we haven't seen anymore information though."

Scott then heard a noise and looking at their Plexiglas window, saw the Hood standing outside their cell. His stance held the same bravado as when he first stopped by their cell. "Well Jeff, it looks like your family is more resourceful than I thought."

Scott smiled. He sure wasn't going to give the Hood the satisfaction of rising to the bait. "You don't know how much trouble you have started. Shadow Force will go down hard."

"Oh, I'm sure they will," the Hood agreed, "but the question is, who will come out on top?"

Before either Jeff or Scott could answer that question, the Hood laughed and then walked away.

--

Thunderbird One soon showed back up at the island. Once he landed, Alan got out and boarded Thunderbird Two. He made his way to the main deck where he found Virgil and John in deep conversation with Gordon via the video communication screen.

Virgil turned and greeted him. "Welcome back. Were you able to get the President safely tucked away?"

He nodded as he took a seat beside his brothers. "There was a US carrier not far from here. I had a quick talk with the Captain and made the drop-off."

John smiled. "Well that's one problem down. Now let's think about this. We know that Dad and Scott traced something to this island and were taken. The coordinates that Lady Penelope managed to get indicate a point in the water about five hundred miles from our current position."

Alan frowned. "I took the liberty of asking the captain if there had been anything unusual events or anomalies detected in the area. He had stated that there was quite a bit of submersible traffic detected in the immediate area."

From the communication screen, Gordon sputtered. "Submarines? But there are no bases in that area."

"Well, what if what we are looking for is under the sea? It would make sense," Alan reasoned, "There isn't anything else left on this island that indicates that they were there other than the goons that threw me in and the equipment used to disguise the place. There had to have been quite a few guys here to take down the likes of dad and Scott."

"It's a better hypothesis than what we already have," Gordon acknowledged. "John, let's get working on a scan of that area."

"FAB" John acknowledged.

Gordon worked on the scans twice over with John, and the results came out to be the same. "Are you sure of these coordinates, John? All I read in that area is open ocean. The scans are not penetrating undersea. You don't think they're cloaked, do you?"

John nodded. "Those coordinates were provided by Lady Penelope and they make sense. With Shadow Force disappearing in this area, trapping Alan and the president on this island like that and the lack of equipment, this was a trap that was meant to get all of us."

Virgil was frustrated. "Okay, so fine, we know what they are up to. How do we get the drop on them without tipping the rest of our hand?"

Alan piped up. "Guys, we are over thinking this. If we can catch them off guard with a 'distraction', one or two of us can get brought in and the rest can follow."

"That's the first amount of sense you've had spro- I mean Alan," Gordon hedged when his brother glared at him. "What kind of 'distraction' do you have in mind?"

--

A small motorboat settled over the one spot in the ocean and cut their engine. Wearing caps low on their heads, Alan and Virgil dropped anchor and moved to grab a large net. It looked like they were preparing to put out the net for a day of fishing.

About ten minutes later, the water around them rippled. A small submarine slowly surfaced a few feet away from them, rocking their tiny boat even more than the ripples.

The men watched the scene as two men dressed in military garb rose from the top hatch and pointed guns at them. They both looked similar with dark hair and clean shaven scowling faces, but only one of them spoke. "You two are trespassing over private waters. Bring up your fishing net and leave or we will be forced to make you leave."

Smiling, Virgil tipped up his cap and stared the two gentlemen down. "The last time I checked, these were open waters, gents. No one owns land around here unless you happen to live underwater. You guys don't happen to have gills do you?"

Alan snorted in laughter, which apparently infuriated the two even more. The two military garbed men scowled, and the one who issued the earlier threat spoke again. "You two think you are a bunch of comedians? You two will die!"

"I think the only ones that are going down are you two!"

The voice had come from behind them, so they were surprised when rough hands gripped each of the thugs and pulled them overboard.

Alan tossed his cap aside and looked on with some amusement as John poked his head back up from where he had given the two thugs an intentional ducking. "You doing okay, John?"

John grinned as he wiped water away from his eyes. "Gordon makes this look way too easy. Good thing you two distracted them long enough for me to jump off our boat and swim around them. Get over here Alan, because I'm not sure what else we will find on this sub."

Virgil tossed his own cap away. "I'll get the boat back to Thunderbird Two. Good luck and I will be waiting for your signal."