Hi all! Thanks for all those who read and reviewed chapter 8. Have another one to get your teeth into!

loonytunecrazy: I know, far too short a chapter, that one. Hopefully this one'll be a bit longer for you.

The Eyes of the Beholder

By Phoenix Sparrow

Chapter Nine – Virgil's Worst Nightmare

"Thank you so much!" Toni said after they'd pulled her out of the rock pile. "Ah, jeez! My arm hurts."

"It will do for a while, it was pinned under quite a large rock. It's bound to hurt," Virgil said, leaning up against the side of the Excadigger.

John walked over from the Domo, stretching and yawning as he went. "What's the matter, John? We keeping you up?" Scott called out.

He grumbled. "No, I'm fine, just hurry up so we can get back to base."

Scott shook his head and patted John on the shoulder. "Look, Brains is coming back in Thunderbird 1 with me because he wants to check out the mobile control console. Wanna come with us? It'll be faster."

John glanced at Virgil who was beginning to climb back into the Excadigger to return it to the pod. "Can I? Thanks. I'll let Virgil know."

"Hmm? Oh sure, go ahead, I'm ok, just put the Domo back first!" Virgil said, looking down at his brother who was leaning in the door of the cabin.

"F.A.B., Virgil," John said, jumping back down to the ground. 'Good, I do this one little thing, then I can go back home to bed!'

Virgil looked out the window and watched his older brother run over to the other vehicle. He shook his head. 'He's definitely not a morning person!' he thought to himself.

He chuckled and started up the engine, driving the great machine back to its housing in the pod to be returned to their island base.

Back out in the moors, Carson was running at breakneck speed. He had left a car in the nearby car park, but on leaving the pod, he had run in the wrong direction to avoid detection. Not that he'd yet realised.

He continued for another few minutes then stopped realising that he wasn't where he should be.

"Oh no!" He looked about desperately trying to see anything remotely like the car or even the familiar landmarks on the way to the car park, but couldn't.

"Oh jeez! I don't believe this!" He turned round and looked, spun to his left and looked there, twisted to face behind him. Nothing. He pulled a pair of binoculars from his backpack with such force; the small component fell to the ground and landed in the marshy land underfoot.

Raising the binoculars to his eyes, he began scanning the horizon for some sort of clue, shifting his feet as he went, unintentionally smothering the piece under the disturbed mud.

He sank to his knees and pulled his pack round to be in front of him. Putting the binoculars back, he looked inside for the small radio.

The bag was actually quite large for so few items. Simply the radio, binoculars and the piece, or so he thought.

He brought out the radio and activated the link with Mr Stutt. He didn't know he was dealing with the man who'd tried many times to get International Rescue's secrets, the man who had a psychic link with his half-brother on their island base, the man who was more well known as the Hood.

"Mr St-St-Stutt? This is Carson." He waited a few moments for the man to answer his call. As he did, he rummaged round his bag, noticing something was missing. "Uh oh!" he whispered to himself.

"What do you mean 'Uh oh'? You have called me for a good reason, I should hope."

"Well, uh, I had the component and got out of the area with it, but…"

"But what, Mr Carson? I am not a patient man. Do you have the piece or not?"

"I, uh, did, but it's gone! I was contacting you to inform you I had it and that I needed help in locating my car."

"You've WHAT??" he roared. Carson shrunk away from the radio, holding it at arm's length. "You do not deserve the help I gave you! You have two choices; you can accept my directions to your vehicle and come back and face me, or stay in the moors!"

Carson's eyes were wide, he'd lost all the colour in his face and his hands were shaking badly. Then he did something he didn't think he'd be able to do; he switched off the radio, dropped it and ran off again. 'There's gotta be a visitor centre or something round here somewhere that can help me…'

He ran. 'Where could that piece have gone? Oh man, I'm a gonner out here! If I could find that piece I'd return it to get outta this place!'

Little did he know that his tampering had caused more of an effect than he thought.

"Thunderbird 1 to Thunderbird 2, come in Virgil," Scott said, watching John trying to get strapped into the chair in the compartment behind him. He chuckled.

"Thunderbird 2, what's so funny?" Virgil asked over the comm.

"John trying to do his safety straps up!" He ducked out of the way so the video link camera was focusing on John and so Virgil could also see the struggle.

"Oh dear! John, do you need any help?" Virgil said, chuckling.

"Ha, ha!" John replied, sarcastically, closing down the screen on the glass between him and Scott.

"D'you think we upset him?"

"Nah! So, why did you call me?"

"Oh yeah, we're just about to take off. When'll you be leaving?"

"Um, soon as I've shut the pod doors and stuff like that. Matter of minutes."

"Alright, see you back at base."

"F.A.B.," he replied, closing down the link. He looked round the cockpit as he pulled the pod door lever, closing it with a bang. He leaned back in his chair, stretching his tired muscles, before starting up the motors and taking off.

Down in the power unit, the rewiring job was starting to take effect. The circuits were warming and the wires were already hot due to being put back in the wrong places. Component boards were fusing and transistors were blowing.
Virgil looked over his control panels. He couldn't understand why he hadn't gained much speed. He glanced over the panels and readouts but they showed nothing wrong. He knew, though, there was. He leaned over in his seat and pressed the button on the comm. system. Nothing happened. His eyes went wide in realisation. Suddenly, he got an idea.

"Scott, come in, this is Virgil. Come in!"

"Whoa, whoa, Virge. What's up? Why are you using your watch?"

"Because the comm. system isn't working. There's something wrong. I'm gaining height but little speed."

At the other end of the line, Scott's face was covered with a shocked expression. "Right, I'll notify father and I'm coming back!"

"Hurry, please!" He stopped as suddenly he heard an explosion come from further back in the ship, the power units. "Scott!"

Scott had spun Thunderbird 1 round sharply and received a moan from Brains. "Scott, what are you d-d-doing?"

"Sorry, Brains, but Virgil's in trouble! We gotta get to him fast! Sit down and buckle up!"

He pushed the levers forward and took off full-throttle to where he'd last seen Virgil.

Virgil looked out his view screen and saw the Dartmoor marshes rushing up to greet him. He pulled desperately on the wheel in front of him to try and level his descent with no effect.

The ground came closer and closer and Virgil covered his face with his arms as the mighty machine crashed into the swampy ground.

Scott cruised over the green moors. He couldn't see any sign of him. He looked closer.

"John, does that look like what I think it does?" he asked, pointing to a black billow on the horizon.

"Smoke."

"I don't like the looks of this!" He pushed the craft to reach the smoke in the distance.

"Oh my God! That is Thunderbird 2! It's on fire! Virgil!!" John shouted.