Walk on the Wild Side
By Sapphire
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Chapter 8: Climbing Giants
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The Hood watched from his hiding place how first the sleek blue-silver rocket named Thunderbirds 1 landed exactly in the place he had known they would choose and how a few minutes later the transport plane came in.
He had yet to see the pilot of the first Thunderbird, but as Thunderbird 2 came in, a door at the side of Thunderbird 1 opened and the pilot started to climb out. Even though the Hood was a good distance away, he immediately saw that it wasn't the usual dark-haired pilot, but a younger, blond man.
He still wondered why they had switched pilots, when the shadow of Thunderbird 2 darkened the sky, and he decided that it didn't matter.
The green transport fired its rockets and slowly manoeuvred to landing. Shortly after, the pilot of Thunderbird 1 walked over to the transport and waited for the side door to open.
For once, the Hood was in a perfect position to take pictures of the two planes, something he had been itching to do forever. But doing so, he would give away his position as their accursed camera detector was bound to alert the pilots of his action. It was something that had happened in the past and he was not keen on making that same mistake again. Besides, his objective today wasn't to take pictures. Today he wanted more.
The frame of Thunderbird 2 started to rise on its telescopic legs, revealing the pod she had carried from their secret base. Soon the large door was free and it opened with a soft whirring sound. Two of the Thunderbirds pilots left the pod's bay on hover cycles, heading for the wind farm on the next ridge.
In the mean time the blond pilot had vanished inside of Thunderbird 2, and now the frame of the transport plane fired its boosters and lifted off, leaving its pod and Thunderbird 1 behind.
For a moment the Hood thought about abandoning his original plan and try stealing Thunderbird 1 instead. But then he decided against it. The pilot certainly wouldn't leave his oh so precious plane behind unguarded. And then there was the question that even if he would manage to get inside the craft, he would need some time to overcome their security and by that time the pilots would certainly be back to disturb him.
No, his target today was to get one of those pilots on his own. And once the pilot was in his powers, he would tell him all the secrets of International Rescue.
And he would finally triumph.
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As Virgil left the pod of Thunderbird 2 he had the sudden feeling that somebody was watching them. But when he looked around, he couldn't see a soul, and he brushed it off as a figment of his over-active imagination. Brains didn't seem to sense anything, so he followed his lead.
They steered the hover cycles down the ridge the two Thunderbirds had landed on. Behind him, Thunderbird 2 fired her VTOL engine and lifted free of her pod, not unlike a giant green bird leaving behind an immensely huge egg.
As they headed across to the next ridge and their task, he thought about the whole rescue.
The last hour had been a whirl of activities, of excitement. Last night, when he had seen the Thunderbirds for the first time, he had been deeply impressed and the engineer in him had marvelled at the construction and the wonder those machines were. He had seen the glimmer in Scott's eyes and, certainly, he himself had wondered how they handled in real life.
But he never thought that he would actually take part in a real rescue, and he wasn't so sure what he was to think of it now.
When Scott had asked him if he thought they should get involved in this, he hadn't hesitated for a second. After all, it had been his fault that the people here were two men short. If he had only arrived sooner at the scene, he would have been able to spare the other Virgil his injury.
But he hadn't – the pirates on the island, they had scared him. He wasn't one for guns and having those people there, in their home, threatening his family, he had pretty much panicked. Taking out that one man in the round house had been scary, and only the thought that his family was still in danger had driven him to take the gun and return to the living room.
And then there was Dad and this pirate and also there was him, another him, that's it.
Even after everything Scott had told him, when he had still thought that the Scott he had been talking to was 'his' Scott, he had been pretty shocked. Who wouldn't have been?
When the pirate's gun went of, it was pure survival instinct that had made him pull the trigger.
Made him kill a man.
Yes, the pirate had been a criminal. Yes, he had done what he did in order to save one of his family. Yes, he had done the right thing.
He knew all that.
Still.
He took a deep breath, concentrating on steering the hover cycle up along the crater the earth slide had left in the ridge with the wind park.
Coming here, to save the two trapped men, was a way to right the wrong he had done.
Of course Scott wouldn't think this way. For him, it simply was the right thing to do, and that there was no question of atoning for anything.
From the beginning, he had seen that Scott thought International Rescue was the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel, if not since the discovery of fire. He had known for some time now that Scott wasn't exactly happy with the Air Force - Scott always had confided in him and he had complained more than once that they were pushing him more and more towards a desk job. IR was just the thing Scott had been looking for, and it was only natural that he wished to start something like that back home.
Virgil also knew that Dad would probably go along with the idea. It was, after all, finally something where he could be sure that his money was used the very best way. To be honest, lately, Dad had become restless. As much as running a worldwide company was keeping him busy, he had said on one occasion that he wanted to do something else, though what that 'else' was, he didn't elaborated. Mom had only smiled vaguely and said nothing, but they had all thought that it was some sort of midlife crisis setting in.
Mom - damn, he wished he could talk to her about the whole thing. He wished he could talk to her, period. What had happened, what he had done, back home, it had rattled him deeply. Speaking with Scott had helped a little, but still ….
It was so strange that Mom wasn't here, that she wasn't alive in this world. The thought what they would do without her wasn't something he really wanted to contemplate. She was always there when one of them needed her. Even though they all were grown men now - well, all but Alan, really - they still spoke with her at least once a week, no matter where in the world they were. And she always had time for them, listened and, when necessary, set them straight.
He wondered, what she would think of this here.
Ahead of him, Brains crested the ridge and they found themselves underneath the towers of the wind farm.
Hundreds of feet tall, the giant towers loomed high over them. The turbines' blades sped by, whooshing overhead. To their right, the fallen turbine still balanced precariously on one of its blades.
They aimed for the tower the fallen turbine was leaning against. Brains, not wasting any time, got off his hover cycle and ran to the door in the base of the tower. He did something to the lock and for a moment it was hidden behind a veil of steam. When the steam cleared, the lock wasn't there anymore and Brains opened the door easily.
Virgil shouldered the pack Brain had handed him before in Thunderbird 2 and followed the scientist inside.
Looking up the metal staircase that wound upwards the inside of the tower, he sighed and then started to jog up.
Virgil knew he was pretty fit. He took a run every morning - though usually a little bit later than Scott, who, besides being a health nut, also used to rise at an ungodly hour - and worked out whenever he had the time.
But climbing a two hundred and fifty meter tall tower wasn't something one did every day. To distract himself, he started to count the steps, giving himself a mental pat on the back every time he managed a round hundred. The first hundred steps were easy, and the second weren't too bad, really, but then it got tough. His heart was pounding in his chest, his breath was coming in short desperate bursts as his lungs tried to pull in as much oxygen as possible. The pack on his back was beginning to gain weight somehow, weightening him down.
Brains, still ahead of him, was pulling on the railing. Virgil could hear his gasps over the pounding of his own heart. But, he had to give it to the scientist, he wasn't giving up.
Virgil had just reached three hundred, when Brains stopped, bending over, gulping in large lung-fulls of air. Even though Virgil wasn't exactly opposed to taking a short break, he was thinking of the people trapped in the other tower, and he knew he couldn't take a rest now.
He stopped for a moment next to Brains, placing a hand on the other man's shoulder, then he resolutely turned his gaze up the staircase and took the next step. He had taken maybe twenty steps when he heard Brains following him again.
At four hundred the stitch in his side reached a never before felt level. No matter how hard he tried, he thought he wouldn't be able to take another step. Each of his legs seemed to weigh a ton. Air seemed to be a foreign concept, not something somebody could draw.
As much as he hated himself for it, he stopped, only for moment - at least that's what he told himself.
Why had he thought he could do that? That he should to it?
Yeah, right, those people trapped in the other tower. Scott, and the others, waiting for them to stop the turbine, so they could get to them and pull them out - save their life.
Somewhere, he did not know where, he found another source of strength and he pulled himself up another step and another.
He had stopped counting, but suddenly there were no steps left and for a moment Virgil trembled on the edge and almost fell. He pulled himself up and found that he really had reached the end of the staircase. There was a platform and an opening in the wall ahead. And beyond was the engine room with the generator that converted the rotation of the three large blades outside into electricity.
Standing there for a moment, his chest heaving painfully, he scanned the generator room. There had to be some sort of brakes around here.
Brains appeared on the platform. He looked around wildly, then, spotting Virgil, he moved slowly to his side.
"We need," he gasped, "find brakes."
Yeah, Virgil had figured that much already.
Luckily enough, a wind turbine was in principle a fairly basic machine and soon he spotted a metal box on a sidewall next to a machine that was not part of the generator.
The most efficient way of stopping the rotation of a wind turbine was by a simple electromagnetic brake. By dumping the energy from the generator into a resistor bank, heat was generated, speed was destroyed and the turbine slowed down. After the speed was low enough, mechanical drum brakes could be used to hold the turbine at rest.
This metal box had to house the brake controls.
Virgil forced himself to step forward and attempted to open the box. It was locked.
Brains appeared on his side and pulled on the strap of Virgil's pack. Understanding what the scientist wanted, but lacked the air to express verbally, he shrugged out of it, dropping it to their feet. Brains opened it and started to rummage inside.
After a second he pulled out a tiny laser cutter, but when he tried to use it on the box his hands were shaking too hard to be of any use.
Angrily he mumbled something Virgil didn't quite get, though he could take a guess on the principle idea.
He took the cutter out of Brain's hands and used it to cut the box open. Inside was a large throw switch labelled 'ON' and 'OFF'. Currently it was set to 'OFF'
He didn't hesitate and threw the switch.
A shudder rippled through the tower. It groaned like a living beast and Brains and Virgil had to struggle for the moment to remain standing. They hoped that this didn't mean that the other tower was falling.
The needle on an indicator to their left started to drop slowly. Virgil grinned at Brains and the scientist beamed back.
"You know," Virgil said, still somewhat out of breath, "that we have to get down there again. All those stairs."
Brains' eyes widened and he groaned.
TBC
Well, I'm not sure if I can post tomorrow, but I'll try. Merry Christmas to you all.