The Ransom (Part 8)
By Jenny Taylor
The Hood sits in his chair waiting for his captive to stir. He notices that his captive is stirring as he tries to move from his Mummified-like bonds, wrapped around his body as well as the weary groans.
He waits for a few minutes before speaking. "Glad to see and hear you awake, Virgil Grissom Tracy."
That voice sends shivers down Virgil's spine and plus, that voice is too close for comfort for his taste, which makes him shudders to fact that the villain is in the same room as him and worse he can't see him. Sensing the fear and confusion, which has taken hold of his victim, the Hood waits for his prisoner to speak.
"Wh – why are you doing this to me?" Virgil asks exhaustibly, breathing heavily trying and failing to hide his fear and is still cold from his earlier ordeal. "I – I thought that you want me alive?"
"I do want you alive, Virgil Grissom Tracy," The villain scowling at his victim, leaning forward with his elbows on the armrests and his fingers interlocked underneath his chin. Even though Virgil can't see the expressions produced from his captor, he can still feel the aroma of evil and anger emitting from the arch-nemesis. "But for different reason compared to what your family believes."
"Wh – What do you mean?" He asks frighteningly and confused to what his captor is saying.
The Hood gets out of his chair and walks towards his victim's head.
Virgil senses the villain coming towards him, he tries to break free, to get away from his captor, but sadly he is wrapped up tightly like an Egyptian Mummy from the cotton blankets, plus the straps and buckles which restrains him to his medical bed.
Also he's still tired, exhausted, cold and recovering from hypothermia, but fear has gripped him hard. The fear of what his evil captor has planned to do to him, so he tried to break free, but sensing and feeling that this sadly not an option to him, he froze.
Frozen with fear, which is being confirmed by the increasing speed of beeps from the heart monitor, Virgil has no choice but to wait for his captor's next move.
However he didn't wait for long, the Hood placed one hand on his forehead, which made Virgil gasp in fear, and with his free hand, the Hood removes the respirator mask from his victim's face.
The feeling of warm air entering his lungs is now replaced with the cold air of the room, made Virgil colder, but that's nothing compared to the sudden pressure and warmth placed onto his forehead. The feeling that his captor's hand is holding his head at the same time as removing the mask is freaking him out.
But there's more to come. The Hood decides to remove the blankets, wrapped around his victim's head, so that the prisoner can hear clearly on what he is going to say, by himself, but leaves the bandage-like blindfold in place.
The movement of his captor's hands on his head and by his face is more than enough to make Virgil feel to punch his captor in the face and flee in fear, but sadly, given the situation he's in, that's not going to happen.
So he lies there, breathing in and out, again trying to calm his fear and once again failing to hide his fear. Waiting and dreading for the answers coming from his captor.
After removing the blankets, the Hood clicks his fingers, a signal to his henchmen to bring his chair over to be placed next to Virgil's bed, then places his hand back onto his prisoner's forehead, this time Virgil's forehead is exposed which is freaking him out, and then the Hood sits in his chair still keeping his hand on Virgil's forehead, enjoying and feeding off the fear emitting from his terrified prisoner.
That Clown Fish have some nerve in sneaking up on people without anyone knowing, including wearing Virgie's 'Jaws of Life', and walking through 12 inches of water without making so much as a splash. Sheeze!
Jaycee shakes her head as Gordon enters into the waterlogged room, wearing Virgil's 'Jaws of Life' which doesn't fit him properly. Joe faintly smiles at the incoming aquanaut.
"Rescue Girl said that I'm as brave as you mister." He replied. Gordon looks at Jaycee and raises his eyebrow.
"Good man, the name's Gordon, what's your name?" Gordon asks joyfully as he kneels down next to the pair.
"My name's Joe." Joe replies excitingly, until the pain in his legs made him wince.
"Try not to move your legs please Joe," The doctor asks calmly, then reaches for the respirator mask, then places it on her young patient's face and then turns on the ENTONOX tank. "Okay Joe, the mask I've put on your face will give you some medicine in a form of a gas. And do you know what this medical gas is called?"
Joe shakes his head. "No. What?"
"It's called Laughing Gas." Jaycee smiled.
"Yeah, like I always say. Laughter is the best medicine." Gordon added joyfully. Joe started to giggle. Jaycee looks up at Gordon, concerned.
"How long is it until your comrades come and help to extract Joe from the wreckage?"
"Right on que." Gordon replies happily looking up, which made Jaycee, look up as well.
Through the hole in the ceiling, Scott arrives on his jet pack, holding and reeling a grappling cable from his 'Bird in his left hand and places the cable carefully onto the wreckage, before he lands next to Gordon, who stood up to greet him.
Here comes Speedy Gonzalez on his jet pack, all the way from his craft, The Supersonic Rudolf. And his big beak! Jaycee sighed as she watches the two men greet and spoke to each other.
"How is he?" Scott asks the doctor.
"He's currently suffering from mild hypothermia, two broken lower legs, shock and blood loss. His temperature is now steady with the thermal, waterproof blanket, but still low. His eye reaction is 3, his verbal response in 5 borderline 4 and his motor response is 4 borderline 3.
"His blood pressure is low, but stable, but that will change once the pressure on his injured legs is removed. Pain scale is 8, therefore I have given him 10mls of 5mg morphine and he is currently on ENTONOX to reduce the pain." The doctor reported.
Scott and Gordon looked at each other, the medical jargon that Jaycee produced went over their heads, but they know enough medical basics to know that this is serious and this rescue is going to be complicated and will need extra care.
"Alan, how long will it take for you to finish fixing the cables?" The Field Commander asked his colleague.
"About 5 minutes then I'm yours, Scott. I'm on the last 2 cables." Came the reply over the comms.
"F.A.B. Alan. John, are there anymore casualties trapped in the building?" Scott asks as he switches comms from his baby brother to the middle, lone and space-bound brother.
The Lone Ginger Wolf up in his station, playing with his radios again. Predictable. Jaycee thought as she looks up at her eldest cousin in Command Mode.
"Negative, Scott. Everyone's accounted for. You're the only ones left in the building." Came the no-nonsense voice of informed calm.
"F.A.B. What's the status of the building above?" Scott looks up, looking concerned to the state of the building above them.
"As soon as Alan finished with the cables it'll be stable, why do you ask Scott?" Scott looks down at the trapped boy in the debris.
"Because, there's an injured boy whose legs are underneath some of the debris which needs shifting in order to free him. Also the room we're in is waterlogged approximately 12 inches deep. Can you scan the debris so that we can remove it safely without injuring him any further?" Scott informed John.
"Consider it done, One." John replied.
"Rescue Girl?" The 3 faces turned to Joe as he spoke weakly. Scott looked at Gordon with a confused and raised eyebrow.
"Rescue Girl?" He whispers to Gordon.
"One of her many nicknames and judging from what I saw so far, I think that she's Colonel Casey's adopted daughter." Gordon whispers back. Scott's eyes widen and open mouthed at the statement coming from the aquanaut.
"You mean to say that she's the one who saw Virgil getting kidnapped?" He gasps as he looks towards the focused doctor.
"Yep, and you've just got your butt kicked by calling her a certain C word that she hates." Gordon smirked at his brother's misfortune. Scott glared at him in disgust and then turns his attention to Joe and Jaycee and walks over to them.
"Don't worry kid," Scott reassures Joe as he knelt down next to him in a big brotherly kind of way to comfort him. "When my team mate turns up, we'll get you out safely."
Jaycee looks at Scott. The way he spoke to Joe reminds her of the time when she comforted Virgil, when they lost their mom, when they were at school. And in return he comforted her for traumatised life and introduced her to his family so they can comfort with each other.
Sometimes, Scott would comfort her as well and treated her as his little sister. She missed those days, she misses them, badly.
But, sadly because of the unwanted and legally over-protectiveness of the GDF, she cannot rejoin them until the death threat over her family is extinguished. Meaning she cannot reunite with her little-known family until the terrorists, who destroyed her mother 2 years before she was born, is behind bars, permanently.
I hope you recognise me, please Scott. Please recognise me, for me and for Virgil. She prayed and begged silently inside herself, but she has to pull herself out of her traumatised 11 year old mind and to focus on the present. She has an injured child in her care who needs her.