The Ransom (Part 9)

By Jenny Taylor

Minutes of silence felt like hours to Virgil after the Hood sat in a chair next to him, keeping his hand on his forehead. This was extremely frightening for Virgil, but yet, after some while, for reasons unknown to him, the fear inside had slowly disappeared and was replaced with calm, warmth and confusion.

How did I become so calm? What happened to that evil aroma coming from the Hood, which had caused so much fear to me? Why has that evil replaced with warmth and comfort especially after what he's done to me so far? What's his game? What's going on?

Questions again filled the mind of the bound Tracy and yet his body is starting to relax to this strange feeling of warmth coming from his captor. His breathing slowed to a relaxing pace. He didn't struggle against this strange feeling.

But there's still this one question has the Hood hasn't replied to yet. Virgil asks his captor again, slowly, clearly and strangely calmly. "What is the real reason that you want me alive?"

The villain smiles at the now calm prisoner and uses his thumb to stroke Virgil's now dry and bare forehead. Normally this action from the villain would freak Virgil out, but instead and strangely accepts this unusual, but yet familiar movement. The movement represents warmth, comfort and home.

Home!? Virgil frowned at the thought of home. The home he remembers is the tropical island with his family and friends. The home he also remembers is the apartment in New York City with his brothers and Dad and his one and only childhood girlfriend and later discovered cousin, Jaycee. Another home he remembers is the farm in Kansas with his brothers, his grandparents and his parents.

Tears swelled in his forced - closed eyes as he remembers those whom he loves and loved, alive and dead. But it's remembering those who are no longer with him, to support him and his brothers that hurt the most, and there's only two people in the world that he'll never trade with and will greatly be missed and their deaths had hit him the hardest out of all the brothers, because he was extremely close to those two females, his mom and Jaycee.

Now, his dad is gone, taken, by same the hands that currently hold his head, the same hands that hold him prisoner, and the same hands that took him away from his fragile, precious and loved family. Fear and sadness starts to set into him again as he sensed from his captor's words, that he'll never see his family again.

Sensing the change of mood from his prisoner, the Hood decides to break the silence and answers Virgil's question, in a fatherly kind of comfort tone. "The real reason that I want you alive Virgil is…"

He pauses so he can increase the tension, making sure that Virgil registers every single word. "That there's a certain project that your father was working on, but never advanced beyond the planning stage and was abandoned, dumped, forgotten and unwanted during the early stages of your father's precious International Rescue."

"Which project?" Virgil asks sadly, quietly and confused. "Dad had so many, including those that I've never known or heard for various reasons that only he knows. So why are you interested Dad's projects? To gain knowledge so that you could rule the world? What's this project got to do with me? And how did you manage to get hold of them in the first place?"

The Hood chuckled at Virgil's confused statement. "Firstly, to answer your question into why I'm interested in your father's project is, not to rule the world but to own it, to build and create it."

"Even if it means stealing other peoples' ideas and technologies? Just to fulfil your twisted ambitions?" Virgil cuts in with a further confused statement. The Hood chuckled again.

"I would prefer the term borrowing rather than stealing in order to fulfil my… ambitions. Besides, this particular project was abandoned by your father. And how I manage to get hold of this… unwanted project of your father's is none of your concern."

"But…" Virgil asks, worryingly. "What's this project got to do with me?"

The Hood deliberately paused for a while, so he can let his helpless captive figure out how and why he's involved in one of his father's discarded project.

Several minutes later, Alan arrives to join the group so they can plan on how to extract Joe from the waterlogged wreckage. "Whoa! This isn't good!" Alan said in shock from looking at the scene before turning to his first-born brother. "So… what's the plan Scott?"

The Field Commander looked at the scene carefully before turning to the group with his plan. "I've already asked John to scan the wreckage to see which of these beams we can move without injuring the boy more and most importantly, without bringing the ceiling down on top of us."

And right on cue, a call comes in from the space station. "Scott, I scanned the debris and it looks like it's going to take some cutting before we reach the stage on freeing the patient. I'm sending you all the details onto your data-pads with pieces of debris that needs cutting and removing."

"F.A.B. John. Keep scanning the debris when we're cutting and removing, just in-case the situation changes during the process."

"F.A.B."

"Gordon, I want you to use the 'Jaws of Life' to help with the cutting and removing smaller debris around the kid. Alan, you're needed as the doc's assistant, just in-case the kid's condition turns for the worse. And I'll cut and remove the larger debris from above. Is everyone O.K. with this?"

"F.A.B." The two younger brothers chorused.

Then the three IR Members went to their designated jobs, with Scott cutting and removing the debris by using his laser cutter and the grappling cable from Thunderbird 1, Gordon using Virgil's 'Jaws of Life' to do his job and Alan positions himself next to Dr Anderson, awaiting for her instructions.

Jaycee looks up at Alan as he sits down next to her, overlooking the exhausted Joe. Looks like Monkey Boy has grown up since the last time I saw him.

"Is there anything that I can do, Doc?" Alan asks eager to help. Jaycee first assesses Joe and then takes a quick look in her medical bag.

"Are you a member of International Rescue?" Joe asks Alan eagerly.

"You bet'ya I am, the name's Alan. What's your name?"

"My name's Joe. And what happened to that other guy?"

"What?… Oh you mean my colleague. Well he's busy helping with my Commander so they can move this nasty stuff off your legs."

"So why aren't you helping them?"

"Because my err… Commander has told me to help the good doctor here, to make sure that you're O.K."

"What's a commander?"

"The commander is like err…" He pauses trying to think of a way on how to tell Joe what a commander is, until Jaycee finishes his sentence.

"A commander is like a boss."

"Yeah that's it!" Alan clicks his fingers then turns to the doctor. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." She shrugs as she picks out a hand-held All-in-1 Monitor Device from her bag.

"So you're here to help Rescue Girl?" Joe asks Alan.

"Err…Yeah. Yes I am." Alan replied feeling awkward and confused, before turning to Jaycee. "Rescue Girl?"

The doctor shrugged. "One of many nicknames I received during my career so far."

"Huh?" Alan looked at her in shock, before it dawned on him on who she is. "You're Colonel Casey's step-daughter aren't you?" He stated in surprise.

Suddenly, the room felt cold and the friendly, work aroma from the doctor turns to anger and hatred as she turns slowly towards Alan. Alan can see in her eyes, the coldness and anger filling them, a signal that she's going to blow. He can see that her facial expressions had turned from calm and friendly to anger and hatred.

Alan has just realised that he's opened a can of worms and this isn't going to go down well, for him nor his brothers and neither for the young casualty.