Hour Sixteen
The following takes place between 3:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. on the day Washington, D.C. was destroyed.
03:00:03
Click.
Nurse Joanna Franklin's face changed from twisted glee to disbelief. Her gun was out of bullets. Sinking to her knees, she never took her eyes from Scott's face as she wobbled back and forth, her strength waning.
"You will die!" her hoarse voice ground out. "I'm just...making it...to Hell...before...you..."
With that, she lost her balance for the last time. She fell to the cold, hard floor, eyes wide open, breath coming in little gasps. Blood gathered, forming what almost looked like angel's wings on either side of her still figure. And then Nurse Joanna Franklin breathed no more.
03:02:21
Under John's careful guidance, Braman sponged Brains down to try and remove any last traces of carbon tetrachloride. He then moved him to a clean bed and took the soiled clothes and bedding and placed them into the hazardous waste container. Braman's two-way vid screen showed John the life monitors. Satisfied that Brains was on the road to recovery, John turned his attention back to Gordon.
"How's it going?"
"Okay. I've got the lift attached to the edge of hull that's over top of the cockpit window. Activating lift now."
Being he was patched into Gordon's DDS helmet, John couldn't see what was going on, but he knew the giant balloon would be inflating and beginning to rise. The hydro lift Gordon was using was a much larger version of the one Gordon and Scott had used to lift the column off Brains in Lake Anasta after the Hood had attacked him.
The Hood. John wondered if he'd escaped from the submarine. He fervently hoped he hadn't.
03:04:57
Battered and bruised, the Hood cursed himself for having lost Tin-Tin in the melee aboard the Poseidon. He'd just barely gotten his helmet on after being sucked into the diving suit room, and still wasn't quite sure why he hadn't died. Except that he took it as a sign from the Fates, a sign that he was meant to continue with his mission to destroy Acronym. And he was now doubly rankled, for Acronym had his niece as well as Lady Penelope, and had most likely killed the patriarch of International Rescue.
"That should have been my pleasure," he hissed.
He'd made it back to where he left his subjet, and wasn't completely surprised to find it missing. Cursing loudly, he knew Acronym must've stolen it. As chunks of the Poseidon floated down through the water, the Hood decided to try his next best bet: Thunderbird 4.
03:07:06
While Ruth and two officers remained in Virgil and Alan's room, Megan and the other three raced down the stairwell to the fourth floor. When they saw the two dead guards outside the ER and the trail of blood down the hall, all four feared the worst.
They barged into the Emergency Room bay and just stood for a moment as they took in Nurse Franklin's lifeless body on the floor next to the gurney. Megan went around to the other side of the bed. She could see Scott's chest rising and falling, and a check of his carotid revealed a nice, steady pulse. She let out the breath she didn't know she'd been holding.
"He's fine. We should get him outta here," Megan said. "Can you help me wheel him upstairs?" The men nodded and moved to help her with the bed. Adrenaline finally leaving her, she began to shake.
"You okay, Ma'am?"
"No!" she cried as they approached the elevator. "I'm not! I'm just a forensic pathologist! I work on dead people, for God's sake! I'm not a cop or a hit man! This is insane! How many more of you are on Acronym's payroll! Jesus Christ!"
"I'm not, Ma'am. I'm not on anyone's payroll but this city's. I'm George."
"Same here, I'm not on the take," the other officer added. "I'm John."
"John? Oh, God, John! He has no idea what's going on!"
The officers watched in confusion as she whipped a watch out of her pocket. She could see the interior of what she assumed to be Thunderbird 5, but John Tracy was nowhere in sight. "John! John, it's Megan, can you hear me?"
George and John the Officer looked at one another as the elevator doors opened. Both thought the woman before them had snapped. George whispered, "She's talking into a watch." John just shrugged. After what he'd seen so far today, nothing was surprising him anymore.
03:08:15
John, who'd taken a much-needed bathroom break, was just returning to his console when he heard Megan's voice. He ran the rest of the way and slammed down into his chair as he took in her pale face.
"Megan? You're shaking! What's going on? What happened?"
She shook her head and opened her mouth, but no words would come out. Right before his eyes, she fainted and fell to the floor.
"Megan!"
The picture from the watch whirled and rotated as men's voices floated to John's ears. He could tell one of them had picked Megan up, but the watch swung wildly in her free hand, so he couldn't make out exactly what was happening. It seemed to be forever until the picture became still.
"Megan! Somebody! Tell me what the hell is going on!"
"John, what's happening?"
"I don't know, Gordo, Megan just collapsed."
"Who's Megan?"
"She's one of our agents, she's with Scott at the hospital." John turned back to the monitor in time to see a very familiar face appear. "Grandma!"
"Hi, John," she said, smiling tiredly.
"Grandma, are you okay? Is Scott okay? What's going on?"
"I'm fine, John, and Scott looks to be just fine, too. Megan's fainted, I'm afraid. Too much excitement today."
"You're not kidding. I'm about ready to fall down."
"Don't you dare!" Ruth ordered.
"I won't, Grandma," he smiled. "I promise. Now, what happened over there?"
"All I know is that two nurses are dead, Scott's temple was grazed by a bullet, someone tried to kill Virgil...John, there are dead bodies everywhere!"
"But you're okay?"
"For the moment. How are Jeff and Penny?"
"Grandma..."
"John, tell me."
"Well...Gordon's okay. He's with Dad."
"He is? He's all right?"
John nodded. "But Dad...and Penny...and Tin-Tin..."
"John..."
"Gordon says Acronym kidnapped Penelope and Tin-Tin off the sub."
"Oh, no!" When John didn't continue, she said, "Jeff. Where's Jeff?"
"He's on Thunderbird 4, Grandma. He...he's been shot."
Ruth's face twisted as she tried to hold her tears at bay.
"I don't know for sure how he is. Gordon's got him set up best he can in Thunderbird. He's trying to move a piece of the sub that blew on top of her so he can get them back to Base."
"And we all fall down," Ruth whispered, reaching down and grabbing Alan's limp hand.
"What?"
"It just seems like...we're dropping like flies, John. One by one. And now Acronym...Canton...has Penny and Tin-Tin?"
"Yeah. Seems that way." Despair had started to creep over John, but he tried to shake it off. They were the Tracys, for God's sake! But truly, with so much against them, with so many things going wrong...how could they make it out of this alive?
"Johnny, what are we going to do?"
Strengthening his resolve, he replied, "Survive, Grandma. We're gonna survive."
03:12:01
Penny blinked. She felt hot and sweaty, and recalled feeling that same way as she and Jeff had entered the Poseidon 7. She remembered coming face-to-face with the Hood...she remembered Tin-Tin pointing the gun at her and at Jeff...but she couldn't remember anything else. Where was she? And why couldn't she move her hands?
Struggling through the fog that was slowly lifting from her mind, Penny felt someone against her. She looked down at the shiny black hair and gasped, "Tin-Tin!" Tin-Tin moaned and stirred. Penny soon realized her hands were tied in front of her, as were her companion's. They were still wearing their DDSs, but the helmets had been removed. "Tin-Tin, wake up!"
"Huh? What...Penelope?"
"Tin-Tin, wake up!" Having regained most of her sensibilities, Penny scanned the area. They were leaning against the wall of what looked and sounded like a small submarine. She was startled when a shadow appeared over them.
"Ah, I see my beautiful ladies are awake."
She looked up and saw a man in his sixties with gray hair and gray eyes. They could almost have been Jeff's eyes had they not been so cold. The thought of him caused her to cry out, "Jeff!"
"You can forget about Jefferson Tracy," the man spat.
Tin-Tin had pretty much worked herself back into full consciousness. She looked up and shrieked, "Acronym!"
"Acronym?" Penny repeated. "You're Acronym?"
He bowed. "At your service, your ladyship." He turned his attention toward Tin-Tin. "And you, my dear, should be thanking me. A rather nasty man had you in his clutches, but I saved you from him."
"You call this saving?" she muttered, twisting her hands against the rope that bound them.
"Where's Jeff?"
"Ah, Lady Penelope. I seem to think you've taken a fancy to dear Jefferson. I'm sorry to report that he's most likely shark bait by now."
"What?"
"I killed him. And the Poseidon is no more. I'd wager he's scattered throughout the ocean in little bits and pieces."
Penelope's lower lip quivered as tears filled her eyes. Not Jeff. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't be. He was Jeff Tracy! He is Jeff Tracy, her mind corrected.
"Mm, so I was right. It looks like you were taking dear Lucy's place in his life. When he had his life, that is. If she had only given me a chance, she would still be alive today. It's Jeff Tracy who killed her with all those bastard sons! Now he has paid his price. He has given his own life in return."
"Stop it!" Tin-Tin cried. "Stop it at once!"
Acronym just laughed. "I've got my sights set on Thunderbird 4 as we speak," he said. "It seems my former hostage is trying to get her going. Amazing contraption, that balloon he's using. Surprising it would work this far down."
The women knew he meant Gordon. But since neither of them had been aware of their surroundings at the time, they had no idea how the young man had gotten to Thunderbird 4, nor whether or not his father was truly dead. Acronym turned and walked away, clanking a door shut behind him.
"Penelope..." Tin-Tin began just as the heiress let out a gut-wrenching sob. "Oh, Penelope."
"He can't be dead, Tin-Tin! He just can't!"
03:20:41
Gordon got beneath the rising hunk of metal, planting his feet on the top of his small sub and using the back of his head and his shoulders to help push it upwards. His lower back screamed in agony, but his need to save his father kept him going in spite of the excruciating pain. At last the piece of hull lifted enough so its own weight caused it to slide down Thunderbird 4's side, metal screeching horribly against metal.
"I've got her free, John!"
"Is there any damage?"
"Doesn't look like it. She's pretty badly scraped... the dorsal looks a bit dented. But she'll make it back to Base. I'm going back in."
"F.A.B. Let me know how Dad is."
"I will."
Gordon moved to turn off the hydro lift. As the balloon began to deflate, he watched to make certain the metal didn't shift down onto one of his craft's side fins. He didn't see a lone figure enter Thunderbird 4's airlock hatch.
03:22:49
What was left of Arlington's police force swarmed into the city's largest hospital. They were stretched so thin due to the destruction of Washington, D.C. and the general mayhem in the surrounding area that they had no more than ten officers to spare for what had happened in the place that was supposed to heal people, not produce a dozen dead bodies.
Ruth and the few policemen that had been there explained what they knew of the situation to one officer, while the other nine spread throughout the hospital in search of anything suspicious, and to check on the patients and staff.
Just as Ruth finished giving her statement, she heard a soft moan from across the room. She jumped to her feet. "Alan!" she cried.
He licked his dry, cracked lips and tried to speak, but couldn't. Ruth grabbed a cup, filled it with water and plopped a straw into it, then brought that straw to Alan's mouth. He suckled it weakly, but did manage to get enough to wet his throat.
"Gr-Grandma," he croaked.
"Oh, Alan." Fresh tears trickled from her eyes as she stroked his singed hair and baby-chub cheeks. "You're going to be all right now."
"What...happ-happ...?"
"Shhh, don't you worry about a thing. You're safe now. You're safe."
Alan nodded slightly and closed his eyes, slipping back into unconsciousness. Ruth stared at him for long moments until she heard a throat clearing behind her. She turned to find large, golden-brown eyes staring at her. "Virgil!"
He smiled briefly before his mouth twisted in pain.
"Officer!"
"Yes, Ma'am."
"Get a doctor or a nurse or something. A real nurse! He needs painkillers!"
"No...Grandma."
"But Virgil, you're in pain," she soothed, stroking his chestnut-colored hair.
"No meds, Grandma," he said. "Gotta...get...outta here."
"Virgil Tracy, you're as stubborn as your father." Thinking of Jeff, though, caused Ruth's face to fall.
"Grandma? What is it?"
"Never you mind, now, never you mind."
"Where's...Scott?"
"He's right here, just against the wall over there."
"How...what...?"
"Shhh, now, just rest. Scott will be fine."
"Alan..."
"Alan will be fine, too. You'll see."
Virgil swallowed and closed his eyes. The pain emanating from his leg was nearly unbearable. All he could remember was the gas line exploding, and flying through the air towards a wrecked car. But why had his grandmother looked so strange when she mentioned his dad? And if Scott was in the room, why wasn't he coming over? Despite his grandmother's protests, Virgil pushed himself into a sitting position. His eyes came to rest on his older brother, lying on a gurney directly in his line of sight.
"Scott!"
"Virgil, calm yourself. I told you he's going to be fine."
Someone appeared in the doorway. Virgil turned to look and saw a woman he recognized. "113?"
She nodded, smiling. She looked pale and drawn, but seemed otherwise to be okay. "Hi, Virgil," she said, approaching his bed. "And it's Megan."
He nodded. "What's going on?"
"Insanity. Complete and utter insanity." She turned to look at Scott. Virgil noticed something in her eyes, something he hadn't seen in a woman's eyes for a long time. He followed her gaze as she asked, "Grandma, is he okay?"
She nodded. "Yes, dear, he's fine. How about you? You had me pretty worried there for a minute or two."
"I'm okay. I guess it was all just a little too much for me."
"What was a little too much?"
Megan turned back to face Virgil, her hand resting lightly upon his arm. "I'm so glad you and Alan are okay. Scott was so worried-" Suddenly a white strobe light began blinking. "What's going on?" Megan asked the nearest policeman.
"I don't know. That's the lockdown alarm. I'm gonna go see what's up."
Just then the officer's radio crackled to life. The words everyone heard come next froze them all with fear.
"A bomb! There's a bomb down here! It's a bomb! A bomb!"
03:37:48
Gordon had successfully pulled Thunderbird 4's nose out from under the edge of the sub's broken hull and was now speeding back to Tracy Island full-blast. Although his father was white as a ghost, his pulse was still holding, but thready and weak. He prayed he'd get him back there in time. Prayed for his father's will to survive.
"John, who's back on Base that can help with Dad?"
"Well, Brains is there, but he won't be of any use to you right now."
"Why not?"
"He was hit with carbon tetrachloride when the containment chamber blew."
"What? Wait a minute...you mentioned a hospital before...why is Scott at a hospital?"
"Oh, God, Gordo, you have no idea what's been going on."
"Apparently not. Isn't there anyone else on Base?"
"Just Braman. But he'll be able to help you. He saved Brains' life."
Gordon was surprised. John had never acknowledged Braman as anything but a glorified computer. "He? What happened to it?"
John smiled in spite of himself. "Well, if it wasn't for Braman, Brains would be dead right now, or well on his way to it. I figure anyone who saves a member of our family deserves to be called he."
"You got that right."
"Dad still holding?"
Gordon turned to look back at his father, who lay on the floor behind him. "Yeah, but John, he's not doin' well. Make sure Braman ready for us."
"Will do. Best speed, Gordo. Best speed."
Gordon nodded, oblivious to the extra passenger he carried back near his craft's engines. And to the small subjet that had begun to follow...
03:41:50
Braman returned to the laboratory. John had given him specific instructions to continue with the work he and Brains had been doing before the engineer's untimely collapse. He was able to work faster than any human being, but even as part of his positronic brain finished the formula to counteract UH-3, the other half was running calculations based on what Brains had originally told him of the necessary timeline.
In order for this to work, Braman had to not only develop the necessary compound in just the right quantities, but also had to mass-produce it, get it aboard Thunderbird 3 and wait for Scott to come back so it could be taken above the rarified atmosphere. Considering what he'd overheard about Scott Tracy's condition, Braman's computations brought him to only one conclusion.
"There is not enough time."
03:43:43
"Get this hospital evacuated now!" the officer yelled into his radio. He raced out of the room, the guards hot on his heels.
"They're half out already!" they heard a fading voice reply.
"Grandma!" Megan cried.
"Right. We've gotta get the boys outta here!"
Ruth moved to Alan's bed and unlocked the wheels. She began pushing him toward the door as Megan started unlocking the brake on Virgil's bed.
"No," he said calmly, placing his hand over hers. "I'll walk. You get Scott."
"You can't walk!"
"Just watch me," he ground out, removing the IV needle from his arm.
But Megan didn't stay to watch him. She raced to Scott's bed and put it in motion, pushing it to where Virgil had risen unsteadily to his feet. "Hop on board," she said.
He hesitated for only a moment before climbing up onto the bed, half-laying on his brother. "Go!"
Megan raced them down the hall with Virgil holding on for dear life. They met Ruth and Alan at the elevator just as it dinged and the doors slid open.
"Quickly!" Ruth said. They wheeled the beds into the elevator and she jabbed the button marked with an L. The doors closed and they began their descent.
"We have to get these people outta here."
"Virgil Tracy, you can't even walk, how are you gonna rescue all these people?"
"Grandma, that's what we do! We can't just let all these patients die!"
Megan grabbed Scott's watch from her pocket just as it beeped to life. "John! John, are you there? Come in!"
"Here, Megan! What's goin' on, I just heard the police scanners, there's a bomb in the hospital!"
"Yes, we're getting Scott, Virgil and Alan outta here! But John, the people...all the patients!"
"How much time is left on the bomb?"
"I don't know! The police officers we were with left before we could find out!"
"Wait...hang on..." John turned to listen to something, and then faced Megan again. "Ten minutes, Megan. You have ten minutes!"
"Oh, God," Megan moaned as the elevator came to a stop.
The Lobby was chaos. Gurneys and wheelchairs and people hobbling and dragging themselves through the throng of people with IV lines dangling from their arms...open-backed hospital gowns flapping open...yelling and screaming and crying...it was mass hysteria.
Suddenly someone rushed at them and began pulling Alan's gurney out of the elevator.
"Dr. Gray!"
"Come on, there's an emergency exit just down the hall!" he said. He pushed Alan's bed with one hand while pulling Scott and Virgil's with the other.
Megan and Ruth looked at each other, the same thought occurring to both of them. "Dr. Gray," Megan called out, "can you handle them?"
"Yes!" he yelled over his shoulder.
"We're going back up!" she cried. She saw him nod his head, then she and Ruth re-entered the elevator. "Those two people," Ruth said as the doors swished closed. "The prisoners on the eighth floor."
"I know," Megan breathed. Into the watch, she said, "John, Dr. Gray's getting your brothers out of here."
It didn't even occur to John at that moment that Megan had called the three men his brothers. But Ruth Tracy noticed, and filed it away for later.
"Why are you still in the elevator?"
"There are two patients up on the eighth floor! We have to get them!"
"God, Megan...Grandma..."
Ruth leaned over so she could look her grandson in the eye. "We'll be fine, John, just don't you worry about us."
03:55:12
Gordon was almost home. Almost safe. Almost there. He brought Thunderbird 4 up through the depths of the sea, nearer and nearer the surface. Nearer and nearer to Tracy Island. "We're gonna make it, Dad," he whispered. "You're gonna make it."
"Shit! Gordo!"
"What?"
"I haven't been paying attention...shit! There's a sub on your tail!"
Just then Gordon noticed a blip on his radar screen. It was at the far outside edge, but closing in on him rapidly. "What the hell?"
Gordon considered his options. Whoever was following him, if he went ahead and used the ramp up to Tracy Island's runway, they'd discover the secret base of International Rescue. He turned and glanced down at his father, who was looking worse and worse by the minute. He had to get up there. He had to save his dad. But what if the approaching vessel was hostile? They'd be in ruins, and it'd be his fault. And Jeff would die anyway.
"John!"
"Gordo, it's closing in fast! You can outrun it, get outta there!"
"John..."
"He's gaining on you!"
"I'm surfacing. I'm getting up on the island."
"Gordon..."
"I have to, John! Dad risked everything to save me! I won't let him die!"
"He's readying weapons!"
"No! Shit!" Gordon swore, spinning Thunderbird 4 around. At first he couldn't see anything through the pale light that filtered down through the water. But then his eyes caught movement. Soon he saw a small vessel appear. It slowed as it approached, then came to a dead stop only thirty feet away. Gordon opened the front panel of Thunderbird 4 and two canons emerged. He readied them to fire.
"No! Gordon! Wait!"
"What?"
"It's Penelope! Her GPS! It's weak, but...she's on that sub!"
"Goddammit, John! It must be Acronym! Tin-Tin's probably on there, too! What the hell do I do?"
"I don't know! Damn!"
"I will tell you precisely what you will do," came a menacing voice from behind.
Gordon whirled around and found himself staring into the eyes of the Hood.
"Gordon! Who is it? Who's there?"
"John! The Hood! The Hood!"
His eyes began to glow. "You will do as I tell you."
"No! Gordon! Don't look at him!"
But it was too late. Gordon was mesmerized. He stared into those awful yellow eyes. He couldn't help himself. He couldn't tear his gaze away no matter what he tried.
"That's right," the Hood said as he wiped dried blood from his face. "Now you will turn around and you will fire on that subjet."
Gordon turned and placed a hand over the firing control. His eyes stared down at it blankly as his hand moved closer and closer to the button.
John's voice filled the cockpit. "Gordon! No, don't! Gordon! Gordon!"
03:59:58
03:59:59
04:00:00