EOS

I am not accustomed to my John refusing me access to things. He cannot stop me. I can access anything. I respect his wishes because he is my creator. The one responsible for my existence.

My father.

If he is requiring privacy when he converses with this person, then it means he is starting to have a particular fondness for her.

When he started to have a particular fondness for Ridley O'bannon I did not like it. I thought he would then choose her over me. I was in error. He has always treated me like his best friend, and with Ridley he has stopped any actions that would make them closer friends. She is unhappy about it, but he was direct with her, and she had no choice but to accept that they will never be more than friends.

The fact that she still visits him to play their ball game in the zero-gravity gym puzzles me. When I asked John, he just said,

"Everyone needs friends, Eos."

This person he is starting to like interests me though. She is the doctor who saved John's life. I do not know what they converse about, for he has not told me and I have not broken his lockout. But I am anxious that she is everything she appears to be. I have full access to all the hospital files, so I will look into her background.

John protects me, so I will protect John.

I have even spoken to Brains and Virgil about the possibility of giving John the kind of tracker that will not disintegrate over time. After all, when I investigated the idea, I discovered that humans have been doing something similar to household pets for decades. A microchip that connects the animal to its registered owner.

I did not suggest that of course, but merely something that could be tracked from Thunderbird Five. I do not want anything to happen to John ever again.

Well, nothing unpleasant, anyway.

Virgil's initial response was to laugh. Then he stopped laughing and looked like he wanted to cry. Brains on the other hand looked thoughtful and started tapping away on his tablet.

Virgil and Brains have now started working on a special tracker, tinier even than a grain of rice, but sensitive to scans of a certain frequency. Brains' idea is to make the frequency different for each person, and to give me the frequencies. I will then be able to find a missing Tracy anywhere on Earth (or its vicinity) with a strong scan from Five. Virgil's suggestion is that such a device would be placed on a person's hand, in the flap of skin between the thumb and forefinger.

Whether anyone in the family would agree to such an implant is another matter altogether. However, after nearly losing John, I am confident that everyone will at least be willing to consider such a thing.

Virgil is impressing upon me the vital need for rules regulating when and how the technology should be utilised, and he says, never for the sake of spying, or `being nosy'.

I do not have a nose. However, I understand the concept of spying, and I agree with the principle. John would be the perfect person to think up and compile such a set of rules.

I know there have been times when he has lost sight of one or other of his brothers whilst on rescues, and he has been on tenterhooks until they were found.

I have been searching through records and databases and I have found nothing of significance that signals danger about Rose Deacon, surgeon. She was born in England, in a city called Southampton, and lived there until her family emigrated to Canada when she was three.

She has an older brother called Martin and a younger sister called Jane. Her brother is a veterinary surgeon, practicing in Banff, in Canada. Her sister Jane who was born in Canada is a newly qualified electrician and has started working for her local authority council.

Rose is on record as a child declaring that when she grew up, she wanted to be a lion-tamer. I am uncertain what to make of that, but there is no record of her ever achieving such a dream before qualifying as a surgeon.

I cannot find anything that concerns me about her, so if John decides that Rose Deacon should become an additional member of John's family, I am prepared to accept her.

John has had his first check-up on the mainland today, and he wanted to fly himself out there in the family jet.

Everyone said no.

That is the quick version of the conversation. Believe me, you do not want a recital of the long version, but suffice it to say, in spite of John's insistence that he was a grown man and did not need hand-holding, Kayo went with him. Not with him in the jet, but she went alongside, in Shadow, in stealth mode.

Kayo is an expert in security. Although John knows she will be around, neither he nor the doctor will see or hear her unless either of them get attacked.

I am keeping an eye on them. When the check-up was over, the two of them left the hospital together and went on a walk through the local park. Right now they are in the hospital canteen enjoying….coffee and doughnuts.

I suspect my John will find more reasons to visit the hospital in the coming weeks…unless he can persuade Scott to let him bring her to the island.

Let's wait and see.