I really tried to get this story finished up this week, but I started full-time study in the last couple of weeks and I've been distracted. Anyway, enough of my problems, Gordon's got worse ones…
Remember – he's hiding in the toilet from a media scrum and has just had an argument with his father which resulted in him destroying his watch comlink…
Chapter 7
Danno knocked on the door of the men's toilet. Gordon scraped up the last of the broken watchcom and stuffed it into his shorts pocket. God forbid if he threw it in the trash and later someone found the transmitter, got suspicious, and traced it back to Tracy Island. It was an unbelievably remote possibility but with his luck it would probably happen.
Gordon opened the door and gave a grimace while holding his stomach. Danno patted him on the shoulder with a nod as if to say we are all men here and he understood.
Danno told him that the media pack had left as soon as they'd found out that the Chuckles hadn't really gotten that close to Migaloo4 and that it had sunk because of suspected un-seaworthiness. This last piece of information was given to the press by the police officer, which clearly offended Danno, even if it was the truth.
'They kept asking if I'd hit the whale,' Danno said in amazement. 'Like I would tell 'em even if I had of. That'd be crazy. I'd be called Danno the Whale Killer.'
'I wouldn't tell anyone either if I'd hit the whale,' Gordon muttered, then, seeing the look of hurt on Danno's face, added quickly, 'not that you hit the whale or anything. I know that!'
Danno nodded grimly. He had more problems to think about anyway. It turned out that Carl had phoned his mother, even after Danno had given express instructions not to, and told her he'd been shipwrecked and was now getting medical treatment for a sore toe.
'I could ring his neck,' Danno frowned. 'She's coming to pick us up, and drive us back to Hervey Bay. I can tell you, I'm not looking forward to seeing Lorraine.'
Danno explained that Lorraine was his brother's second wife, making Carl his nephew by marriage. Gordon picked up that there was bad blood between Danno and Lorraine.
Soon all five 'victims' were sitting outside the clinic waiting for Lorraine, who was due to arrive in a couple of hours. Gordon checked his watch a few times only to remember each time he stared at his naked wrist that he had smashed it.
He just wanted to get back to his hire car. It was registered in his real name and it wouldn't take the police long to identify Gordon Bellary as Gordon Tracy if the car was found abandoned later on. It would raise too many sticky questions, and he'd already collected enough of those.
They were all sitting silently, each with their own thoughts, when Lorraine drove up in a clapped out sedan. With pursed lips and hands set on her hips she looked in the mood for an argument when Carl asked if she could drive the others back as well.
'I don't seem to have a choice,' she grumbled. Unluckily for Danno he got to sit in the front passenger seat where he had to listen to Lorraine giving him a piece of her mind and demanding that he keep her awake so she didn't cross lanes into the path of an overnight haulage truck.
The rest squished into the back seat where Inga sat half on her boyfriend and half on Gordon. Carl fell quickly asleep and began snoring. It was nearly 2:30am when they set off back to Hervey Bay, Gordon dozing on and off the whole way.
The sun was nearly rising when they arrived in Hervey Bay. Lorraine dropped Danno, Gordon and the Swedes off at Danno's place and then took her son home so she 'could look after him properly.' She accepted Gordon's thanks with pursed lips and a scolding look at Danno.
Danno had no key, but it turned out he had the next best thing - a wife, called Sylvie, who he woke up by shouting out her name under the bedroom window. She wasn't too happy at being woken up and she didn't want to hear Danno's tale about his sunken boat as she let them in. She went promptly back to bed.
Danno raided the fridge and cooked up bacon and eggs. After scoffing this meal they each found a couch or chair to lay on and each grabbed some sleep. Danno decided he shouldn't push his luck with 'the wife' and lay down in the hammock on the back verandah.
Gordon woke just before midday feeling that he still had a sleep deficit of about twelve hours. Inga was coming out of the shower drying her hair. Sylvie said hello and gave him a towel. He thankfully went into the bathroom. Glancing in the bathroom mirror, he saw a man who looked like he'd been shipwrecked.
Later he found Danno sitting on the back verandah drinking a beer and eating some chicken. Gordon declined the offer of a half eaten drumstick.
He was eager to get to his car and head back to Brisbane.
'Sorry to see you go, mate. You were the only sensible one. But do me a favour, will ya? Take the blondes with ya. Don't think me wife wants them around. And, you know, it would do me a bigger favour if none of you woz witnesses, eh?'
Gordon was as eager as Danno not to have to answer any more questions from the police. They agreed that the three of them would 'shoot through' and a suitably bewildered Danno would tell the police that he hadn't a clue where they had gone.
With a friendly smack on his back from Danno, who despite everything they'd been through Gordon would miss, he and the Swedes got into Sylvie's car. She drove them to the port street where Gordon thought he'd parked his rental car. It was only when they found it that he realised he didn't have the unlocking control. It was now at the bottom of the sea with the Chuckles.
Sylvie had her phone with her and she called roadside assist. Sylvie turned out to be a cheery person and she told them they were lucky to be alive since Danno had a history of trouble at sea and with the police.
'He always blames the sea or the boat, but I always tell him he's the common denominator,' she said ruefully.
Gordon wondered why she was so happy, but then she explained that the Chuckles was well insured and at last they would be able to buy a decent trawler. She had plans to force Danno to sell up his business so they could move to the city. Danno could then get a proper job.
Gordon smirked to himself – he wondered what Danno's would say to that.
A short time later the technician had unlocked the car, Gordon had found the spare electronic key in the glove compartment, and he and the Swedes waved goodbye to Sylvie as they drove off. Gordon found an automatic teller machine and withdrew as much cash as his limit allowed. If the police traced it, too bad. The Swedes didn't want to head south to Brisbane, since they'd already been there and had been heading north before their misadventure with Danno. Gordon gave them a large wad of cash since they'd lost everything when the Chuckles had sunk. The grateful Swedes gave Gordon heartfelt hugs and kisses that left him in no doubts that if he'd wanted to spend the next few weeks partying hard with them it would've proved a very interesting time.
He waved them on their way and then started the long drive back to Brisbane.
His luck didn't hold out. He ran into a traffic jam on the coast road, just passed the very township in which they'd spent the previous night.
Police and media vans were parked precariously on both sides of the road and he stuck his head out of his window to ask someone what was happening.
'They found that whale. Just off the beach,' the man said. 'It's gotten messed up in shark nets or something.'
Gordon felt like he'd just been told the northern hemisphere had been obliterated by a meteor.
It took twenty minutes to cover the next kilometre. He finally gave up and at the first gap on the side of the road, illegally parked his car. He got out and followed some people in uniform who looked like wildlife rangers. Thirty minutes later he found himself on a small, remote beach crowded with about one hundred people.
Boats were out on the water, including official coast guards and others commissioned by the media. Two helicopters circled overhead.
Gordon couldn't see anything. A woman nearby was picking up live news feeds on her mobile phone. She kept a running commentary on what was happening to those gathered around her.
Migaloo4 was caught up in some fish netting. The coast guard had tried to cut the whale free but had failed. They were worried about Migaloo4 becoming more entangled in its distress and drowning.
'Ohhh,' she said suddenly. 'Something major is happening.'
Everyone looked out to sea where the boats circled tightly. They suddenly turned and moved off from where Gordon assumed the whale was.
Just then a policeman with a loud hailer came up behind the crowd and announced that no-one was to attempt to take film or photos. A news cameraman, who'd been interviewing people in the crowd for their opinions, grumbled.
The woman with the phone shouted out, 'It's International Rescue! They've just announced that International Rescue is on its way to save Migaloo4!'
Everyone looked out to sea expectantly but saw nothing. Several minutes went by before a man with binoculars pointed at the horizon.
'I see them! I see them!' he yelled. His ten year old son, jumping up and down, demanded his father give him the binoculars but he was ignored.
Gordon looked to the horizon and his heart leapt.
Thunderbird 1 zoomed in at great speed and arced around the little bay, swooshing directly over the beach before it turned back to sea and hovered high above where Migaloo4 was.
Within minutes Thunderbird 2 appeared, hovering several hundred metres away from the whale's position so its engine noise didn't distress it.
'What are they gonna do, Dad?' asked the son who'd finally gotten the binoculars off his reluctant father.
'Just wait and see. Probably use that submarine thingee they've got.'
Thunderbird 2 lowered closer to the water and then with a mighty 'splosh' released pod 4 into the sea. After a few seconds the door of the pod opened and Thunderbird 4 shot out into the water.
'Wow,' said Dad and son together.
The cameraman cursed. 'The most exciting thing I get near all year, and there jamming us. I can't even get a shot of the crowd's reaction.'
Tough, thought Gordon.
Thunderbird 4 popped up suddenly right where the boats had been earlier. Gordon could just make out the grabbers, but only because he knew where and what they were.
From this distance, nothing much seemed to be happening, but suddenly a white tail flicked from the water right next to the sub. Then something red appeared and Gordon's heart leapt into his throat, until he realised it was the floaters on the netting and not splashes of blood.
Seconds later a white back arced from the water and a plume of water announced that Migaloo4 was now swimming freely, heading for deeper water.
Thunderbird 4 waited for the whale to be out of range, before it turned in a tight circle and engaged its rockets to get back to the pod as quickly as possible.
Two of the official boats headed off after Migaloo4.
'That'll be the marine biologists,' said the woman with the phone, reading something off the news bulletin.
Thunderbird 1 turned and headed towards the beach as the crowd waved and cheered, before shooting off south-east out of sight. Gordon knew that Scott was giving Thunderbird 2 a wide berth so that he wouldn't get in the way as Virgil retrieved the pod.
The crowd ohhed and ahhed as they watched Thunderbird 4 re-enter the pod, the pod close up and Thunderbird 2 lower itself onto it, almost like a reverse birth. Its mighty downward thrusters roared into life, it gained height now with the pod secure, and it turned and headed directly east, out to sea.
Gordon had never seen it from this angle and appreciated for the first time how dangerous the retrieval process was. If anything went wrong, Thunderbird 2 could end up in the water, and possibly sink like a brick.
Once the 'birds were gone Gordon made his way back to the car, thinking about what he'd just seen. He was thrilled that Migloo4 had been saved from immediate danger, but annoyed that his 'bird had been involved in a rescue and he wasn't the pilot. Then he was thrilled again to see the reaction of the crowd. Familiarity with the Thunderbirds had dulled him to the marvel of the technology, and he now realised he was very privileged to be a pilot of one of them. He should tell Brains some time how smart he was for designing them.
Mostly he wished it had been him saving Migaloo4, just as he'd planned when he gone out on the trawler.
When he got into the car, he turned on the radio, and started the long drive back to Brisbane, listening to the breathless news reports all the way.
Like I always say 'more soon'.