Hour Twenty

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

07:00:29

When Jeff and Penny entered the lab, they didn't expect to find the humans standing dead still while Braman still worked furiously in the next room. They didn't expect to see tears streaming down Tin-Tin's face. They didn't expect to see Gordon and Brains staring at one another, eyes round as saucers.

The movement of them approaching caught Gordon's eye. When he took in the sight of his father fully dressed and walking under his own power, his normally laid-back manner disappeared as he rushed to stand before him. "Dad!"

Jeff reached out and pulled his son into a hug. "Gordon."

"Dad, you're-you're okay!"

"And you?"

Gordon pulled away. His face was pained.

"What's happened? Tin-Tin?" Jeff approached the young lady he'd always treated like a surrogate daughter. She launched herself into his arms and began to cry in earnest. Jeff cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Tin-Tin?"

"It's Acronym, Dad," Gordon offered as he and Penelope joined them. "He's got Kyrano."

"He what?" Jeff roared, gently pushing Tin-Tin away. "Where are they?"

"I-I don't know, Mr. Tracy!" Tin-Tin cried. "I held his thoughts for only a moment before something happened and now I can't reach him!"

"Gordon, get on the line to the hospital and police in Sydney."

"F.A.B.," he said, scurrying out of the lab.

"Brains, how's the UH-3 counter agent coming along?"

"Uh, just fine, erm, Jeff."

A small smile graced Jeff's face in spite of everything. He found it amusing that someone he'd known for so long had such a difficult time calling him by his given name. "Do you need help?"

"I-I could use a-an extra pair of hands."

"I'll assist you, Brains, if I can."

"Thanks, Lady Penelope. I-I'll need you to get into a-a HazMat suit."

"Very well. I know where they're stored."

"I'm gonna give Scott a call," Jeff said. He and Penny exchanged a look Brains couldn't quite read before Jeff headed for the Lounge.

07:16:39

Kyrano couldn't move, couldn't think, couldn't reach out with his mind. All he could do was lay there on the gurney as he was wheeled through the hospital, watching the lights pass one by one above him.

Canton strode confidently to the elevator. He looked for all the world like a doctor just transporting a patient. He wore a white lab coat and a stethoscope was hanging around his neck. Had anyone taken a very close look at the badge on his lapel, they would've realized it wasn't a true hospital ID...but as it was, Michael had made it this far without being questioned.

The elevator opened into a back hall of the hospital. He wheeled the gurney down the hall and right out the rear doors, where an ambulance awaited him. Loading Kyrano up into it, he secured the gurney, and then closed the double doors on his newest hostage. Smiling with satisfaction, he got into the driver's seat of the ambulance, started it up and sped away.

Bound to the gurney in the rear of the ambulance, Kyrano lay helpless. One lone tear escaped his eye.

07:21:00

"Thunderbird 1 from International Rescue."

"Father!"

"Hello, Scott."

"You're all right?"

"Yes, I'm fine."

"You don't look fine."

Jeff grinned. "What do you want from an old man who's been shot?"

Scott chuckled. The old man bit was a running gag between him and his father. His brothers had even started calling him 'Old Man the Second', a title he wasn't particularly fond of except when it gave the two "old men" a good laugh.

"Listen, Scott, bad news."

"I knew it was too quiet. What is it?"

"Acronym has Kyrano."

"No."

Jeff nodded. "I'm afraid so. Tin-Tin doesn't know exactly where they are. She's lost her connection to him. I've got Gordon on the line to the hospital and police to try and stop Acronym. But..."

"Don't worry, Dad. I'll detour to Sydney. That's good, actually. I can drop Ned and the Turners off while I'm there."

"Ned...Ned's with you?"

"Yeah, Dad. He got a wild hair up his ass to try and make it as far as Fiji on a World Navy hydrofoil and ended up getting stranded in the middle of the Pacific."

"Not the brightest of moves," Jeff replied absentmindedly. His son watched him work through something in his mind before he continued. "Scott, while you're in Sydney, have Ned get hold of some broadcasting equipment."

"Broadcasting equipment? Why? What're you up to?"

"Never you mind, Scott. But I want Ned and that equipment back here as soon as you've seen to Kyrano."

"But Dad, Ned Cook's a reporter! You want him to know where our Base is?"

"He can't see the route from the midsection of Thunderbird 1."

"But he'll know we're in Sydney, and it's only a short ride from there home."

Jeff sighed. "I have to trust him, Scott. He put himself on the line for us. He's helped us immensely. I just have to trust that he won't let us down. And anyway, if Acronym succeeds in destroying Southern California, it really won't matter anymore."

Scott nodded solemnly. "All right, Father. I'll let Virg and the others know what's going on."

"No...Scott...I'll call Virgil myself."

Scott understood completely. Jeff hadn't seen Virgil at all since this had started so many hours ago, and the last time he'd seen Alan was when he was fighting for his life at Arlington Hospital. He nodded and said, "F.A.B. Thunderbird 1 out."

Jeff ran a hand through his hair, realizing that this was now the third time he'd been sitting behind his desk and done just that. Asking for the broadcasting equipment...Jeff only hoped he was doing the right thing. Penelope had brought him up-to-speed before they'd gone to the lab, and he'd been watching the television since arriving in the Lounge.

He was relieved to discover the earthquakes in Fiji hadn't been as catastrophic as he'd feared, but still, more than one hundred people had died. And all those lost souls in D.C. Every one of his loved ones had been hurt in some way...and more people in Arlington were dead because of Canton's vengeance upon International Rescue. It had to end. Somehow, somewhere, it just had to end. And Jeff knew it was time.

He sighed as he opened a channel to Thunderbird 2. The world as he knew it, the world he'd worked so hard and so long to build, the organization he and his family and friends had poured their lives and souls into, was about to end. As much as it hurt, he knew it was the right thing to do. He had to work hard to keep his voice steady.

"International Rescue to Thunderbird 2."

07:32:40

Virgil jumped when he heard Jeff's voice. "Father?"

"Hi, Virgil. How are ya, Son?"

"Dad! You...they said...I thought you'd been shot!"

"I had. I mean, I was. But between Braman, Brains and Tin-Tin, I'm just about good as new. How's your leg? Speaking of which, how the hell is it you're flying Thunderbird 2 with only one leg?"

"Rudder controls by hand, Dad, remember? Brains just installed 'em about a year ago, but I've never had to use 'em before."

Jeff chuckled. "I can't believe I forgot that. I must be getting senile in my old age."

Virgil knew the old man routine and chuckled. "Funny, Dad. Although right now I'd bet I feel a helluva older than you do." Right on cue, a bolt of pain shot right through Virgil's body. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, praying he wouldn't pass out.

"Virgil? You all right?"

"Yeah, Dad."

"Don't go passing out on me before you get home."

What was he, a mind reader? "I won't."

"How's Alan?"

"Seems to be holding up pretty well, all things considered. He's in a lot of pain, I can tell, but he refuses to stay in sick bay. He's with Grandma and Dr. Gray dropping the Invisi-Shields from the hatch."

"You tell him to get back to bed!"

"Dad. Have you ever tried making Al do something he doesn't want to do?"

Jeff sighed. "I see your point."

"We've hit Barstow and Palm Springs and are just about on the drop point for LA. After that it'll be San Diego and then out to pick up Parker off the coast."

"Thank God Brains figured it out."

"Yeah. We would've lost time if we'd had to turn around and come back from Base."

"This Dr. Gray...you trust him?"

"Yeah, Dad. He fixed Al and me up, and he's helped us a lot. I trust him. I say we make him an agent for International Rescue."

"If there's an International Rescue left," Jeff replied grimly.

Virgil frowned. "Are you gonna go public?"

"I'm gonna have it set up so I can if the situation calls for it."

"But Dad, with the Invisi-Shields and the UH-3 counter agent, we'll be able to keep the people of Southern California safe."

"That's true. But how many more people are going to die because of Michael Canton's personal vendetta against me? We can't run around putting Invisi-Shields up every time he threatens a large population."

"So if we don't capture Canton..."

"I'm letting the cat out of the bag."

"Does Scott know this?"

"Well, I didn't tell him but I'm sure he's guessed," Jeff sighed, rubbing his chin. "I don't want that on his mind. He needs to find Kyrano."

"Kyrano? What do you mean?"

"Canton's got him."

"Damn."

"I know. Son, pick Parker up and get back here as soon as you can."

"F.A.B."

"Base out."

"Dad?" Jeff looked up as Gordon approached him. "Did I just hear you right? Are you outing us?"

"Not yet, Gordon. But I have to be prepared to. If for no other reason than to save Kyrano's life."

Gordon sank onto the settee. "I can't believe it could all end in just a few short hours."

"I know, Son. I know."

"We can't let it happen, Dad. We just can't! Not everything you've worked so hard for."

"Everything we've worked so hard for, Gordon." Jeff sighed and rose to his feet, coming around to perch on the edge of his desk. "This may have been my dream, but it's you boys who've made it a reality." Gordon watched his father carefully. He seemed...so sad. Not at all like Gordon was used to seeing him.

"You know, after your mother died, I-I just didn't want to go on. No...it's not that I didn't want to, I couldn't. I couldn't face the world without her. I couldn't face our sons." He stopped and looked directly into Gordon's eyes. "I started feeling that way again when Acronym told me he had you."

"Dad, I'm-I'm sorry."

Jeff dismissed the apology with a wave of his hand. "It's not your fault." He stopped and a flash of pain shot across his face as his hand touched the gunshot wound. "I don't know how it happened exactly...one day I woke up and realized...realized that even though Lucy was gone, I still had part of her with me, living right under the same roof I was. Five parts, actually."

Gordon smiled. It had been a very long time since his dad had talked about his mom's death so openly.

"That's when I knew I had to do something...something that would make her proud, something that would show her I'd take care of our boys for her. I couldn't let her down." Jeff came to his feet again and moved to sit down in the chair behind his desk. "But with all these people dead...I feel like I have."

Gordon stood and approached his father's desk. "I knew a man once," he said, "who got hurt real bad in an accident. The doctors told his dad he'd never live, or even if he did, that he'd never walk again." Jeff looked up at him, recognition evident on his face.

"But that man's father didn't listen to what everyone said was going to happen to him. He sat down right next to him one day after the doctors left. He sat down, he held his son's hand, and he said, 'You will walk again. You will live and you will walk.' The man didn't believe him at first. He couldn't move anything, his arms, his legs. Nothing. Day after day, his father came to him and told him, 'You will walk, Son. You will walk.'"

Gordon hesitated. He wasn't any more used to baring his soul than his father, but he felt this needed to be said...needed to be acknowledged between them. "And the man had such faith in his father, such belief in him as a person, that he started accepting his words. He started to believe that he would live. That he would walk." Gordon stepped away from the desk, raised his arms in the air and turned a slow circle. "And look at me now. You didn't give up on me, Dad, and I made it. Don't give up on International Rescue."

Jeff rose to his feet, steadying himself on the desk with his hands. He watched Gordon walk to the kitchen. Walk.

Walk.

And he smiled.

07:44:11

"Okay, Virg, I see Parker below in FAB One. Go ahead and release the Pod."

"F.A.B., Alan."

Pod 5 hit the water with a mighty splash, and then Virgil lowered the front flap. Parker turned off FAB One's hydrofoils and drove up the ramp. He secured the pink Rolls Royce, then signaled to Virgil that he and the car were ready to be picked up. Virgil slowly lowered Thunderbird 2 over her missing Pod like a giant bird settling in atop her egg. All clamps clicked into place, and Virgil fired his VTOL rockets to raise them back into the air.

While Ruth and Dr. Gray spoke with Parker inside the Pod, Alan headed for the cockpit to speak with Virgil. He had a notion...it sounded crazy given everything that had happened that day, but what started out as a niggling thought had blossomed into a full-out idea, and he couldn't let it rest.

"Hey, Virg?"

"Alan, what're you doing up here? You should be in bed."

"I need to talk to you," he said, wincing with each movement. He'd overdone it with the Invisi-Shield units, and he knew it. But at least it was done.

"Okay. What about?"

Alan seated himself in one of the chairs behind his brother and sighed. "When I woke up outside the hospital, Grandma was there with me. She helped me off the gurney and I followed her to the front of the crowd, where I saw Scott and Dr. Gray running toward us with you between them."

"Yeah..."

"And then when the crowd of people started in about this all being our fault...the destruction of D.C., the hospital, all the deaths...well, when Dr. Gray tried to tell them it was Acronym's fault, someone yelled out it was only because he wanted us to reveal ourselves to the world."

"Right..."

"Virgil? What if Acronym isn't doing this to get back at Dad?"

"I'm not following."

"What if he's got some other agenda, and he's just using us as a...well, as a smoke screen?"

Virgil turned sideways in his chair to look at his youngest brother. Alan's hair was cleaner now than it had been before, but it was misshapen thanks to having been scorched. And there was a large piece of gauze taped over his Adam's apple, where one of the worst burns had been. His IR uniform covered the rest of him, but Virgil knew that beneath its fabric there were many more scars that would need time to heal. Both inside and out.

He wondered if Alan were trying to justify what had happened to him in some way other than their current belief that it all stemmed back to their father's youth. As though somehow if he gave Acronym some other reason for doing what he did, it would absolve Jeff of any responsibility for what had occurred today.

"I know what you're thinking, Virg. And no, I'm not looking for excuses for Dad or anyone else. Besides, I don't blame him for any of this. Even if the only reason Acronym's doing this is to get back at him, it's not his fault the guy's a lunatic. I just...I can't help thinking there's something more, something we're missing."

"Have you talked to Dad about it?"

"I haven't talked to Dad at all."

Virgil turned and opened a com line. "Then maybe it's time you did. Thunderbird 2 calling Base."

"With you, Virgil."

"Someone here to speak to you, Dad."

Jeff watched as Alan's face replaced Virgil's in the portrait screen. "Alan. You look a lot better than the last time I saw you."

"Hi, Dad. I am, thanks." His face twisted as his uniform rubbed hard against a particularly large burn on his stomach. "You got shot, huh?"

"Yes, and it hurts like hell. Remind me never to do it again."

"Ditto for me firing nitro pellets into unexploded bombs."

"You should be resting."

"Not yet. I have to tell you something."

"What is it?"

"I have this idea..."

07:54:09

Tin-Tin had forced herself to get back to work. As much as she feared for her father's safety, she also had complete trust in Jeff Tracy that he'd do everything in his power to get him back. After all, he'd both directly and indirectly rescued her and Gordon from a seemingly hopeless situation. Besides, there were millions of lives to be saved in California. And right now, Tin-Tin was an integral part of making sure that happened.

She'd just finished putting together a load of the powdered counter agent and was transporting it down to Thunderbird 3 silo on a hover stretcher. As the monorail she was riding in passed the Containment Units, a sudden feeling came over her. A terrible feeling. A feeling like...like...

"Oh, no," she whispered.

Her hand reached out and hit the monorail brake. Then she opened the doors. Stepping out onto the access tunnel platform, she blinked her eyes once...twice...then closed them completely. She could hear his voice in her mind...the voice of someone she knew she shouldn't trust, yet somehow...his words made her want to trust him.

I know where your father is, my niece.

She began walking toward Containment Unit 2.

Come, my child. I will help you save him. Only I can find him. You know we share a powerful connection.

Half of her mind fought against the overwhelming urge she felt to go to him, this man of Darkness. But the other half wanted to find her father so badly, to ensure his well being. Logic failed her as a mist appeared before her eyes. Her breath came fast as she looked through a small window to the containment room. There, staring right back at her, were two eyes blacker than coal, two eyes that had inspired fear the world over, that had seen more death and destruction than any other in existence.

But Tin-Tin was not afraid. Her ambivalence toward this man that in reality she despised so greatly came not from her, but from the power he had over her. One phrase fed continuously into her mind.

We'll find your father. We'll find your father. We'll find your father.

He was right. She had to release him. He shouldn't be locked up. Not here. Not now. Not when he could find Kyrano. Not when he and he alone could save him from Acronym's clutches. Tin-Tin raised her hand to the control panel on the door's left-hand side. Her fingers flew over the number pad as she keyed in the unlock code. There was a loud click, and the door swung open. A deep, evil, throaty laugh echoed in the silence of the tunnel.

The Hood was free.

07:59:58

07:59:59

08:00:00