SCOTT

I hate this! I hate it. I know, I know, I hate not being able to control everything, or being able to do everything myself. I hate that all I can really do is wait, but that's just life. So many things involve waiting. I guess impatience is one of my less desirable qualities, but this is about my little brother, damn it!

My first little brother. Johnny was the first baby brother I had. He was the first one I promised to look after and protect, the first one I swore to be beside and help forever.

Alright, John isn't a baby anymore, and I'm not that over-enthusiastic toddler I was when he was born, either. But I'm still his big brother, and it hurts that I am having to wait for news on him. I have to let others search, let others…

Ordinarily Johnny is no helpless victim, except we know that on this occasion someone shot him. Really shot him with a real bullet, and there has still been no report of him at any hospital anywhere on the planet.

Believe me, Eos has eyes and ears virtually everywhere. If she didn't before, she has now. The only places Eos can't watch is a place without tech, and those kinds of places Kayo is searching out independently. The rest of us are under instruction to wait for Parker who is under cover chasing a strong lead; but Kayo is not the `stay at home like a good girl and wait' type. She has a stealth ship with silent running which means she is, to all intents and purposes, invisible.

She can search where the hell she likes, and as she herself put it "Who the hell can stop her?"

When I say Kayo is angry, that is an understatement. Kayo is not just angry. She is ANGRY! An angry Kayo is a Kayo to avoid at all costs. Even Lady P and Colonel Casey have learned to mind their Ps and Qs when Kayo gets angry. Fortunately, it is pretty rare, but John is family. Kayo is super-protective of her adoptive family.

Apparently Colonel Casey asked Kayo and Lady Penelope to come to the Island; to keep an eye on us I suspect. Penny is here…she actually did as she was asked, and came here to Tracy Island. She says she knows us far too well, and that she and Kayo came to an understanding. Whatever. Lady P can twist us all around her little finger, and this proves beyond doubt that she knows it. At this moment, she is in the shower, having been busy working all night. Kayo flat out refused to come back without John or at least news of him.

I hope she finds something, but she'll need help if she does find John, or some sign of him.

Kayo's pretty hand-in-glove with Eos these days. If Eos were human, she would look like John, but have the determination of Kayo, I'm sure of that.

Right now I'm standing on the balcony on the island, looking out to sea, wondering what is happening, and hoping we get to Johnny in time. It's been ages. And ages.

The alarm goes off, and I jump a foot in the air. Eos's roundel appears above the holo-table.

"Eos! News!?"

"Parker has done it!" She replies shortly. "He's delivered the edible transmitter Brains created."

"Is it definitely John who swallowed it? What are you reading?"

"The bio-signals of the person who swallowed the transmitter matches up to John's life-signs." Eos tells me urgently, "but aside from the fact that the life-signs are weak, there is very little more I can read from it."

"The…the…the edible transmitters are de..designed only to send out a signal that can be heard and traced by Thunderbird F..f..five, nothing more I'm afraid." Brains confesses, sounding troubled. "It would be difficult to add a sc..scanning ability in a transmitter designed to be swallowed and ab…ab..absorbed by the body. I'll work on it though…"

Grandma rests a hand on his shoulder.

"That's fine Brains, the transmitter has done exactly what you designed it to do. Eos, have you alerted Kayo?"

"Kayo and the GDF." Eos replies promptly. I can't help heaving a sigh of mixed relief that John has been located, and frustration that we have to stay here as though we are unable to keep ourselves out of trouble.

Then again, too many cooks etc…

Beside me, Alan demands to know why we are all still standing around here when we could be in Thunderbird by now.

I close my eyes and turn away as Eos repeats her messages from the colonel and Kayo. I ignore the tumult that results.

John.

My baby brother Johnny.

Please be okay . . .