Hour Eight

The following takes place between 7:00 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. on the day Washington, D.C. was destroyed.

07:00:24

"This is Mobile Control to International Rescue."

"Receiving you, Mobile Control. Go ahead."

"Your friend, the one who was driving The Mole, he's been taken to the hospital."

"F.A.B."

"Uh...what should we do about The Mole? And about Thunderbird 2, for that matter?"

John thought for a moment. That was a very good question, and he hadn't a clue. There wasn't anyone left on the eastern seaboard that knew how to operate either vehicle. "Hang on, Mobile Control. This is Thunderbird 5 calling Base."

"Here, John."

"Scott, what's going on back there?"

"Kyrano's had a heart attack we think, but he's holding his own. Dad and I just got him into Thunderbird 1. I'm taking him to Sydney, then I'm going back to Arlington to see about Virg."

"Oh, good, that'll solve the problem then."

"What problem?"

"Agent 53 reminded me that The Mole and Thunderbird 2 are just sitting there."

"Oh. I'd forgotten about them. All right, post a few agents around them as guards until I can get back there."

"F.A.B. And Scott...make sure you let me know how Virg is doing."

"I will, Johnny. I will."

07:05:05

Kyrano was strapped onto a foldout flat bed that had been secured to the floor in Thunderbird 1's cargo hold. Megan buckled herself into a nearby seat and said, "Okay, Scott, we're good to go back here."

"F.A.B. All systems are green. Beginning launch sequence."

Scott started the great rocket down its ramp. Slowly she inched lower and lower through the tunnel that would take her to her launch bay. When at last she reached the lower level, the platform upon which she sat moved into position beneath the swimming pool.

"Thunderbird 1, ready for take-off."

"F.A.B., Scott, you're clear to go."

"Thanks, Father."

"Scott..."

"Yeah, Dad?"

"Take care of Virgil for me, son."

Scott smiled slightly. "Don't worry, Father. I will."

He clicked the gears into place and the engines roared to life, smoke and flames billowing out from beneath as it lifted slowly into the air, slipping up past the opened pool and rising gracefully into the sky.

"Scott, it's Kyrano! He's having trouble here!"

"Hang on, Megan, I'm switching to horizontal."

"Scott-"

"Hang on, hang on..." Scott leveled the ship more quickly than usual, then said, "Okay, Megan, what's going on?"

"Hold on, I'm getting a look at him. He's having trouble breathing! Oh, God, he's stopped breathing! Am performing CPR!"

"Keep him going, Megan, keep him going! We'll be there in less than 25 minutes!"

Please don't die, Kyrano, Scott thought as he opened the Bird up to 7,500 miles per hour. Please hold on. Just hold on.

Then his mind drifted to Virgil. I'm coming, he thought. Wait for me, Virg. Be okay. Just be okay.

07:09:16

Ruth watched helplessly at the same window she'd seen Alan through not too long before. They'd wheeled Virgil past her so quickly; she'd barely gotten a glance at him. Now, as they lifted him from the gurney onto the operating table, her face went white and she grabbed at the railing in front of her.

"Dear God," she whispered.

For sticking up about seven inches out of Virgil's right leg was a triangular-shaped piece of glass. It was covered with blood, as was, it seemed, Virgil's entire body. She closed her eyes, unable to bear the sight.

A nurse cut away the uniform from his leg, leaving the tourniquet above the wound that Aaron and Al had applied in the field. Dr. Gray examined the affected area and whistled long and low. "This isn't gonna be easy," he said quietly. "Looks like the artery's been severed...tendons, ligaments...oh, boy."

He straightened and looked at the five nurses, who were working like busy bees, each at their own dedicated task. One was finishing the removal of Virgil's uniform; one was hooking him up to the monitor; one was laying out the surgical instruments; one was hooking up pints of blood for transfusions; and one was preparing to wipe him down, to enable Dr. Gray to determine the extent of all Virgil's injuries.

"All right, Team," Dr. Gray said, "we've got a member of International Rescue here. Let's save another life."

"Hear, hear!" "Have at it!" "You got it!" came the chorus of replies.

07:11:51

"Thunderbird 5 from Base."

"Thunderbird 5 here."

"John, were you able to tap into the scans I set Kyrano up with before...before his heart attack?"

"Yes, Father. Scan is still running, but so far all underwater vessels have checked out. I'll be hitting the grid near Base in a couple of minutes."

"All right, keep it running, son. I'm gonna check in with Brains that Thunderbird 4's ready for action."

"F.A.B."

"Come on, Penny," Jeff said, grabbing her hand and heading for the elevator.

"What are we going to do, Jeff?" she asked as the elevator made its descent.

"Well, how long has it been since you've been on a dive?"

"Last time I went diving was here with Gordon and Tin-Tin last June. What's the plan?"

"I don't really have one yet, Penny. All I know is that they might be on a submarine right here in our own back yard. And we have Thunderbird 4. I'm not just gonna sit around and wait for Canton's next move."

She smiled as they exited the elevator. "I would expect nothing less of you, Jeff Tracy."

07:13:16

Gordon jolted awake. It took a few minutes for him to remember where he was, and why there was a warm body against him. Somehow after he'd dozed off, he and Tin-Tin had moved position and were now lying on the floor. Her head rested on his shoulder, her breathing was steady and warm against his neck.

Jesus, if Alan could see this, he'd shoot me, he thought wryly. Aloud, he said, "Tin-Tin?"

She stirred against him and mumbled something incoherent. He said her name again as he extricated himself from her and sat up. But this time she didn't move.

"God, I have got to get us out of here!" he said, rising to his feet. His back ached, boy, did it ache. He stretched back and forth, to and fro, trying to ease the pain. But it didn't look like it would be going anywhere anytime soon. He made his way across the room and his ears began to fill up. Suddenly he realized what had awakened him in the first place.

"We're diving," he said. "We're going deeper." He jiggled the latch on the door. "If I could just figure us a way outta here."

07:15:59

"A-All right, uh, Dr. Godfrey, we've a-assembled the materials you requested."

"Thank you, Christopher."

"Christopher? That's your name? Why's everyone call you Brains?" Dr. Payne asked.

"Uh, well, it's a-a long story, uh, Doctor."

"You'll have to tell me some time," Payne replied. "Now, what about this formula? Do you really think the C-60 will remain stable enough to add the nitrozine?"

"There's only one way to find out," Godfrey said. "How 'bout that Reaction Chamber, Christopher?"

"Uh, yes, it's in the next room. Let's get the nitrozine and, uh, C-60 over there. Dr. Otayuki?"

"Yes?"

"I-I need you to work on the, uh, sterolite combination. Remember, it, uh, has to be just right in order to coagulate the, uh, mercurolite sufficiently. I-If it's so much as, uh, one milligram o-off, the outer shell of the device will, uh, continue to degrade a-as it moves through the a-atmosphere."

"Very well."

As Dr. Otayuki moved to a workbench at the far end of the room, Brains picked up the beaker of C-60 and Dr. Payne picked up the beaker of nitrozine.

"Dr. Godfrey, I-I think you should work on recreating the exact formula for UH-3 that you, uh, developed at Canton. We're, uh, going to have to have some to, uh, test this mixture on once we've, uh, successfully combined it."

"Right away. Where's your store of uranium?"

"O-Over there in the Radioactive Storage Room. You-You'll find, uh, radiation suits hanging just outside the, uh, sealed tank."

And so the scientists went to work. Brains only hoped they'd succeed in time to stop the deaths of millions of people.

07:20:47

Jeff and Penny had been standing near the entrance to the lab, listening to the scientists patter back and forth about what they were doing. Penny had been surprised to hear Dr. Godfrey's name for Brains.

"Jeff, what is the long story Brains is talking about? Why does the doctor call him Christopher?"

"Well, Penny, that's the name Brains uses to get patents and publish his work."

"I thought he used Hiram Hackenbacker as an alias."

"Sometimes he does. But the woman who cared for him at the orphanage gave him the name Christopher Braman. After they found him, and no one claimed him, they realized he'd need a name. Brains once told me that Natalie Stephens, the woman who practically raised him, named him Christopher after her late husband, and Braman because it was her maiden name."

"Ah. That explains his robot's name."

"Yes. I think he kind of did it as his way of paying homage to her."

"Whatever happened to this Natalie Stephens?"

"She disappeared when he was five or six, I think. He didn't find out what had happened to her until last year, when he decided to go digging for information. It turns out she died of an aneurysm in her room at the orphanage. He was never told she'd died, just that she'd gone away."

"Oh, that's sad. Hmm. Christopher. I like it. It suits him. Why do you not call him that?"

Jeff shrugged. "He prefers Brains. Even though Christopher Braman's the name he's gone by publicly ever since it was given to him, I don't think he identifies with it other than where his memories of Natalie are concerned."

Penny nodded thoughtfully as Jeff moved forward. Dr. Otayuki didn't even look up from his microscope as the pair headed for the next room.

"Ah, Brains, there you are."

"Y-Yes, Mr. Tracy."

"I need to talk to you about Thunderbird 4."

"Yes?"

"Penny and I are taking her out into the Pacific. I've no idea what's gonna happen out there, and I want to make sure she's ready for action."

Brains placed a test tube of C-60 into one of the robotic hands inside the Reaction Chamber, and then turned to face his benefactor. "Well, uh, Mr. Tracy, last check was two days ago, and e-everything was a green."

"Right. We'll go do the pre-launch so we're ready as soon as John finds that sub. Come on, Penny."

07:29:17

"We're five minutes out, Megan. How's Kyrano?"

"I got him breathing again, but he's not doing well. I've slipped him another nitro tablet. His pulse is still very weak. I'm actually surprised he's alive."

"I learned a long time ago never to underestimate Kyrano," Scott replied. "Thunderbird 1 to Base."

"Reading you, Scott."

"We'll be landing at the hospital in less than five minutes."

"How's Kyrano holding up?"

"He stopped breathing, but Megan got him going again."

"Okay. Listen, just to let you know, I'm doing pre-launch on Thunderbird 4. John's still trying to find any trace of an unidentifiable sub in the Pacific. Once he hits on it, we're going down there."

Scott frowned. It had been a while since his father had piloted Thunderbird 4. And Penny? "Are you sure about this, Father?"

"No. But I won't sit on my hands if there's a chance I can find them."

"As soon as we drop Kyrano at the hospital, I'm heading for Arlington."

"Have Megan stay with you. Whatever Brains and the others work out, we might just need someone else we can trust on the east coast."

"F.A.B. Landing now. I'll be in touch."

07:32:01

Parker had been sitting two hundred miles off the coast of Southern California for several hours now. He'd been in touch with John in Thunderbird 5, but hadn't heard from anyone else as yet. Just when he began to wonder if he'd be sitting there floating on the water in a pink Rolls Royce all day, an incoming transmission broke through his reverie.

"This h'is FAB One," he said, opening the channel.

"Ah, Parker, how are you?"

"Oh, m'lady, h'are you a sight for sore ones."

Penny smiled. "Is everything all right where you are?"

"Yes, m'lady. H'I've been sittin' off the coast for a bit o' time now, bobbin' h'up an' down like a toy. H'It's getting migh'y rough h'out 'ere."

"What do the weather satellites report?"

"Bad wevver a'ead, m'lady. H'I'm afraid h'it won't be getting h'any easier on me stomach."

"Poor dear. Parker, Jeff and I will be taking Thunderbird 4 out as soon as John locates a bogey."

Parker's eyebrows shot up nearly to his hairline. "A bogey, madam?"

Penny couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, Parker. I'm afraid that if you hang about with Americans long enough, you begin to pick up on their lingo."

"H'I'll say, m'lady. Wha' can I do?"

"Stay right where you are. If Gordon and Tin-Tin are aboard a submarine, and Canton discovers we're on to him, he may head your way. I want you to be ready at a moment's notice."

"Yes, m'lady. Goo' luck, m'lady."

"You, too, Parker. Lady Penelope out."

07:38:42

"Okay, the final diagnostics are running. How's Parker holding up?"

"I think he's a bit sea weary, Jeff. The weather satellites show a large storm headed his way and the water's a bit choppy."

"Poor guy. Is he in place?"

"Yes. I've warned him to be on alert in case Canton appears."

"Good. Let's get back up to the Lounge and see how things are going."

07:40:12

"Okay, Megan, you can ride up front here with me. There's a fold-down seat here."

"Thanks. I think I'd get too lonely back there all by myself."

"Kyrano...will he be okay?"

Megan nodded as she strapped herself in. "Yes, I think so. They were amazed he was still alive, but he seemed to be pretty stable for the moment."

"God, this is bad. He was our only link to Gordon and Tin-Tin. Now we're gonna have to rely on technology to find them." Scott fired Thunderbird 1's VTOL rocket and she rose vertically into the air. "Hang on, Megan. I'm gonna make this Bird fly like she's never flown before."

She nodded and gripped the edges of the seat tightly as Scott opened the throttle. "You seem very close to Virgil," she managed to say as the G-forces started pressing her back into the seat.

Scott swallowed the lump in his throat. His mind filled with images from their past...from when they were eight and five, and Virgil had fallen in a patch of mud on their grandparents' farm. It had been their last trip to see them before Lucy died. Virgil had just lain there crying, certain their mother would be angry with him for spoiling his clothes. Scott came to the rescue, picking him up out of the mess. Virgil had clung tightly to him, begging not to be taken back to the house.

A filthy little Virgil wound around Scott resulted in the older boy being covered from head to toe in mud himself. When he'd taken Virgil back to the house at last, they'd gone straight to their room, where Scott stripped his and Virgil's clothes off and got them both in the tub. By the time their mother realized what was going on, he and Virgil were both clean and redressed, and Scott had even taken the soiled clothes to the washer. Virgil had been so grateful for his brother's protection that he'd climbed up onto his lap, given him a sloppy kiss on the cheek and said, "I love you, Scotty."

Tears stung Scott's eyes as another memory surfaced. This time Scott had been climbing a tree on the farm. He'd been fourteen and Virgil, eleven. The limb he'd been sitting on was a dead branch, and his weight soon made it give way beneath him. He'd yelped as it broke, sending him falling nearly nine feet to the snow-covered ground below. Virgil, who'd been in an upstairs bedroom painting at the time, had seen it all from the window. Having had the wind knocked out of him, Scott couldn't even speak, and was sure he'd broken his ankle, which throbbed painfully.

He'd begun to panic, wondering if he was going to lie there and die in the cold snow with nobody the wiser. Until at last a face framed by the sun had appeared in his line of sight. At first he was convinced it was an angel come to take him away. But then he heard Virgil's voice frantically calling his name. Virgil stroked his hair and told him to stay calm, to let his lungs start working again. He stayed there with him until Scott was able to rise to a sitting position, and then helped him hobble back home.

It was only after he'd come back to his senses that he realized Virgil had been out there with him for nearly twenty minutes, in below-zero weather and kneeling in two-foot-deep snow with bare feet and wearing nothing but a pair of cut-off sweats and an undershirt.

He flashed forward to the mine rescue in Israel. Explosives had been accidentally detonated, causing the infrastructure of the mine to destabilize. A cave-in left eleven miners trapped. He and Virgil had brought all but one man to safety when a beam above Scott's head creaked and groaned. Virgil looked up, saw it was about to give way, and tackled Scott to the ground, completely covering him with his own body.

When the beam broke, chunks of rock and dirt rained down upon them. One hit Virgil square between his shoulder blades. If he had not been there, if he hadn't risked his life for his brother, that rock would've hit Scott's head. He would've been killed for sure. Virgil had saved his life.

As he had so very many times. Sure, Scott had returned the favor, but he never felt like he'd truly paid his brother back for everything he'd done. Vigil was his listener. He was the one Scott talked to. The only one he could open up to. If it weren't for Virgil, Scott didn't think he'd have made it this far. He didn't even want to try and think of doing this without him.

Megan watched him, brow furrowed. She knew he was remembering things about his comrade. Probably different things that had happened on rescues, she reasoned. She was surprised by the depth of emotion in his voice when next he spoke.

"I can't lose him," he said, his voice barely audible. "I can't lose him now."

07:50:52

While Ruth waited anxiously outside the operating room, Alan lay in a semi-private ICU bay. Accordion walls had been pulled around his bed. His hair was still singed and blackened, but most of his skin had been cleaned. A white sheet and a dark rose-pink blanket covered him. His arms lay atop the blanket along either side of his body. Monitors beeped and blipped the rhythm of his heart. The steady whoosh of the ventilator pumping oxygen into his lungs could be heard. An IV slowly dripped saline solution into his body. A second IV fed him nutrients and a third, a derivative of morphine to dull the pain should he awaken.

At the foot of the bed, where the two sides of the accordion wall met, there was an audible click. Then one side of the wall began to open, sliding along its metal tracks with only the slightest of scraping sounds. A tall man with light brown hair and dark chocolate eyes, dressed in a white lab coat, stole through the opening and then turned to quickly shut the accordion wall behind him. This accomplished, he walked to the side of the bed where the ventilator machine and heart monitor were positioned.

"Alan Tracy," the man said, his eyes cold and hard as he stared down at the figure below him. "It's been a long time. A very long time."

He reached over and flipped a switch on the monitor. It powered down, the screen going dark, the beeps stopping. "There, now. We don't want any alarms going off, do we, Alan? You remember me, don't you? Bonneville Flats, 2023? You know who I am."

The man's hand reached over to the ventilator and hovered above the power button. "Frank Jacobs. Remember? You jacked me but good that day, you shit. Now somebody's given me a lotta good reasons to take my revenge." He looked thoughtfully at the helpless man lying in bed. "I just wanted to make sure. I wanted to make sure you knew who killed you."

And with that, he hit the power button. Jacobs exited the accordion wall in smug satisfaction as he heard the machine hissing to a halt behind him. Turning for one last look, he smiled. "Goodbye, Alan Tracy."

07:54:24

Ruth finally forced herself to look through the window again. The nurses and Dr. Gray were running around like mad hens shouting at one another. She pressed the intercom button so she could hear what they were saying.

"...losing him! Blood pressure's down, get it back up! Get it back up!"

"We need to seal that artery, now! Re-route using anterior femoralis! Clamps!"

"Here, Doctor," a nurse said as she handed him two small metal clips. "What are you going to do?"

"I think I can stretch the tunica adventitia enough to reach the anterior artery. I should be able to graft it on if I cut through just right into the anterior's endothelium. Scalpel!"

Ruth's head was spinning. She had no idea what the hell they were saying in there. But it was clear that Virgil was in trouble.

"He's dropping, Doctor! I can't get the blood into him fast enough!"

"You are not going to die!" Dr. Gray nearly bellowed as he worked to reattach Virgil's severed artery. "Nurse, irrigation!"

"Got it!" The nurse came over with a tiny combination vacuum tube and began spraying a small amount of water in and sucking the fluid out of the wound.

Ruth turned, her stomach flopping, and leaned back against the window. It was then that she noticed a rather tall man in a white lab coat walking her way. She frowned as she stood up straight. That man looked familiar to her. Very familiar. He kept coming toward her, and then went on by without even glancing her way. She walked out into the middle of the hall and watched him reach the end of it and disappear into a stairwell.

"I know that man," she said aloud, wracking her brain. "I'm sure I do." Several minutes went by. She could hear the doctor and nurses still yelling inside the OR, but something about that man...it just niggled at the back of her brain and refused to let go. Where had she seen him? It had to do with one of her grandsons. It had to do with what...boats? No. Cars? Cars...

And then it dawned on her.

"Oh, my God!" she gasped, turning and running the other way. "Alan!"

07:58:58

Alan's body began to tremble. A gagging, coughing sound escaped his throat as his chest heaved, as his body struggled to find oxygen, struggled to breathe. His arms and legs jerked, his head thrashing to and fro on the pillow. His esophagus and windpipe went into spasms in a violent attempt to expel the breathing tube from his throat.

At last his body gave up. His fight to live ceased. He flopped on the bed every few seconds, much like a fish removed from water. His lips began to turn blue. At the last moment, as his heart seized and his brain began to shut down, his clear blue eyes opened wide. A single tear escaped and ran down his temple.

And then his eyes fluttered closed.

07:59:58

07:59:59

08:00:00