The Ransom (Part 12)

By Jenny Taylor

After a few minutes of silence in the Hood's ship's infirmary, the bound and blind prisoner-cum-patient Virgil Tracy decides to ask his captor and arch-nemesis, the Hood, some more questions, which Virgil hopes the answers he'll receive from the evil mastermind will help to complete the mental and complex jigsaw puzzle, which had appeared since he was kidnapped and captured back in Sydney.

"How long have I been your prisoner?" He asks, frowning. The Hood smiles as he looks up to a digital clock before thinking aloud and answering his prisoner.

"Oh… now how shall I put this… My minion kidnapped you from the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney about quarter to three, yesterday afternoon. Plus 12 hours on the road in the back of my minion's vehicle, travelling from Sydney to my ship which was parked a few kilometres north of White Cliffs.

"Then…you woke up about seven and a half hours after you arrived on my ship. Plus…fifteen minutes of preparation before I contacted your family, to which the conversation lasted about three quarters an hour. And lastly…after removing you from your cell into my ships medical bay, which you are currently in at this present time, you having been in this room about…two and a half hours now.

"So in total…you, Virgil, have been my…acquaintance, in my presence, for a total of nearly 23 hours." The villain smiled, making sure that his prisoner takes in the figures to heart.

Virgil is in half shock. He knew that he's been in the hands on the arch-villain for a long while, but not that long!

So the question is, how much longer is he has to wait before the villain decides to fake his demise, to make his family believe that he's dead and to end up being the villain's… acquaintance, as the Hood puts it, and end up in the darkest of the human nature have ever been created, since the birth if mankind, the criminal underworld of the Black Market?

"How long, until you decide to…fake my demise to my family?" The captive and worried Tracy asks. The evil mastermind smiles down at his helpless victim's question as he retracts his hand from the victim's chest.

"I have decided to give your family 24 hours to make their decision…or should I say…your oldest brother's, since it was I, who chose who…will make that fateful decision of the century."

"What?" Virgil gasps with shock and worry. "You chose Scott? Why?"

"I thought that the reason why would be obvious to you." The villain sounded disappointed. "Have you worked it out or do I need to remind you the reasons why?"

Virgil shook his head, which is restricted by the Hood's hand, and his facial expression tells the villain that his blind and bound victim knows the answer.

"So…" The wrapped up Tracy began slowly. "When did the countdown to my…demise start?"

"I told your family that the countdown will start at midday Australian Eastern Daylight Time. Which was…" The bold-headed paused as he looks up at the clock and calculates how long ago since the countdown started. "Oh, about…an hour and a half ago, I should say."

Virgil sags into his medical, restraining bed, frowning at the fact that the countdown has already started and he's got less than 22 and a half hours left before that fateful decision being made by his big brother, Scott.

"Are you okay doc?" Scott asked, concerned.

"Not really, no," Dr. Anderson replied in a small, sad voice, before looking up at the International Rescue Commander. "I've never had a mom or a dad, but I really, really, really wished that I did have a mom and a dad, to comfort and protect me from the ordeals that I suffered in my childhood, if I had a childhood." She looked down towards the half submerged patient, with tears threatening to fall from her eyes.

Scott looks at her, places his hand on the top of her back, between her shoulder blades and gives her a comforting rub in small circles. Even though she hadn't told them the whole story, he can sense that Jaycee had a really hard time. Hard is an understatement. She had a terrible, horrific and traumatic childhood that she's desperate to forget.

"Jaycee," He spoke in a calm and reassuring voice, which made Jaycee look up at him in the eyes. "As I said earlier, I promise that I would do my best to help you in any way I can. But right now, let's help Joe. Okay?"

The doctor nodded. "Okay." She sighed and then takes a deep breath to regain her composure before going back into work-mode, or as the locals would call her in a situation involving rescues, her aptly nicknamed Rescue Girl.

"You're an orphan Rescue Girl?" Joe asked in surprise.

Jaycee nodded sadly. "All my life. Joe. All my life." She paused before she spoke to her young patient. "But, I would happy if you didn't tell anyone about what's being said today Joe, because… if the hated GDF finds out what I'm doing, I…" She breaks down with tears pouring down the sides of her face and the heat from the tears fogs up her helmet from the inside.

Scott once again takes the doctor's helmet off, takes a piece of tissue paper, wipes away the condensation and tear droplets and then uses the same tissue paper to dry off the tears, taking care in avoiding her glasses, of the crying and slightly startled Jaycee, before placing her now-dried helmet on her head.

"Hey. Take it easy there, Jaycee." He said calmly in a big brother kind-of-tone, again rubbing her back in small circles. Jaycee takes a few deep breaths before thanking him, which he accepts.

"Rescue Girl?" Jaycee and Scott both look down at Joe.

"Yes?" She asked nervously.

"Don't worry about it. I'm good at keeping secrets." He said calmly and understanding. "I just find it hard to believe that the GDF would do something like, what they did to you."

Scott nodded in agreement, he too couldn't believe that the GDF would treat a traumatised child/teenager like what Jaycee described on what they did to her. He knows that something must be done, but right now he's got a child to save and then hopefully he can rescue his intermediate little brother from their evil, arch nemesis, The Hood.

Just then, the trio was disturbed by the two youngest brothers, who were busy cutting and removing the debris, carefully so they do not harm the young patient any further and to prevent the ceiling from collapsing on top of them.

"Scott?" Alan called for his eldest brother.

"Yeah Alan?" The Field Commander responded to his little astronaut brother.

"We've just finished in removing the bigger and heavier stuff and we're now on the point of extracting Joe from the debris." The aquanaut, who's wearing his engineering-cum-medic's 'Jaws of Life', announced.

"Are you guys alright down there?" The astronaut asked in concern. "It looks like the doc had a breakdown again." He lowered himself towards the trio via Thunderbird One's grappling cable.

"She's shaken and a bit emotional Alan, but she'll be okay." Scott replied, before turning to face Jaycee. "May I suggest Jaycee, that after we get Joe to hospital, that you should take the rest of the day off? You look like that you really need it after today." He smiled.

"Providing that I don't wake up from broken dreams or horrible nightmares again," She replied sadly, making Scott, Alan and Gordon, who just joined the group, at first look at each other before looking at her in concern. "I suffer from those on a daily basis, causing me to have sleepless nights."

"How long have you had these sleepless nights?" Gordon asked. The doctor sighed, before revealing the answer.

"12, nearly 13 years straight." Everyone around her looked at each other in shock and dismay at the un-expecting answer.