KAYO
I'm fine, really.
No, honestly, I'm okay.
Hmmm alright then, nearly okay.
Thunderbird S is essentially an invisible ship. Designed for silent running, stealth.
And it's been stolen.
It was something none of us could have foreseen, that this chap we're after would have the tech to be able to "see" a stealth ship on his tail. He is the only person outside of IR to have that ability. And he designed the tech himself, without even knowing that there was such a ship in existence. I swear, this fellow Bob must be almost on a par with our Brains! That is saying something.
I had no idea he knew I was following him. Truly, I am an expert at security, and I know how to shadow people so they have no idea I'm around. It's just that with Bob, IR has met its match.
It kills me to admit it, but this man is GOOD.
I know everyone will have been concerned about me, Given that I've been on silent running for sixty hours or more, but honest, Shadow has only been missing for ten minutes.
And it won't be for too much longer.
The great thing about Brains' technology, is he designed and built it himself, and it has been designed to be as impenetrable as possible to outsiders. It does not contain the spy software created by Bob and his company, neither can he listen in on our comms.
As soon as I realised I had been lured into a trap I contacted Eos, and she immediately initiated full remote control of Shadow, and total lockout of Shadow's cockpit controls.
I can imagine Bob now, trying to override the remote, trying to unlock some complicated code to regain control.
Brains is cleverer than that. See, anyone clever enough to steal Thunderbird Shadow would have the ability to unlock any complex coding system, so he took it right down to brass tacks.
A remote command from base, and the computer chip that controls the cockpit controls is destroyed totally.
Bob may as well be sitting in a commercial airliner, playing with a toy console on his knee, because that is all it is good for now. Shadow is being controlled through our comms system, which connects all our ships to base. The only way to override that is for someone to actually be right there at base, physically connected to the network.
Hopefully, our security it such that that would never happen. Eos and Brains are sending Shadow to the most secure facility the GDF have, their headquarters in New Zealand.
Where the GDF hospital is also located, coincidentally.
And where Colonel Casey and Rigsby also are.
And where I need to get to.
Where is my lift? Someone? Anyone?
Thankfully, Brains realised that I was now stranded in South America with no fast way back to civilisation, and he sent someone to get me.
So right now I am sitting in the passenger seat of Alan's old biplane, Alan One.
A biplane! Alright, Alan is almost as good at engineering as Virgil and has tinkered with it to the point where it is much faster than any other biplane in existence…but it is hardly Thunderbird One! We are going to have to stop to refuel again before we tackle the last leg of our journey to New Zealand.
I should have asked him to take me to Tracy Island. I could have borrowed one of the family jets…wait, no. Tracy One is in for upgrade and repair, and Gordon and Virgil took Tracy Two.
Tracy One won't be ready for a while, because now our friend Bob is under control, Brains has put down his tools in favour of joining the rest of the family in camping around John's bed in the hospital. Scott flew back in his own jet to pick him up.
Good for Brains.
John and Brains may not spend much time in one another's physical presence, but intellectually, they get on like a house on fire. No one can beat either John or Brains at chess, but set those two against each other, and the tension really ramps up. Their record of winnings against each other at the moment is pretty even. I think John was the winner of their last match, and Brains is looking forward to his rematch.
Finally Alan and I got back to the GDF base, and I was reunited with Shadow. I found that Parker has finally been released from custody; but they wisely kept him from being spotted by Bob. You know…world-war three and all that…
Penny and the Colonel have been checking out all of Bob's "contacts" apparently, but they left Rigsby to it and rushed back to the base when they learned from Brains about Bob's temporary imprisonment in Shadow. I have been told he refused to cooperate or answer any questions, but he really doesn't need to. We have all the evidence we need now to close up his entire operation.
Now I have Shadow back, I just need to replace the control chip, and I will join Rigsby in his collection of evidence and closing down as many as possible of Bob's contacts.
It's the kind of thing that could lead into hundreds more different investigations if we let it. Bob and his gang have performed tasks for several people. Some of them important people, whom now owe him. Its evidence against them we need the most, because it seems there are more than one with the clout to get him and his gang out of prison and close down the whole investigation.
Penny and Casey did well jumping quickly onto that possibility and killing it.
There are now three members of the world council in GDF custody; one person from the British cabinet office; scarily, the deputy chairman of the board at Tracy Industries, nominated to take meetings and run the business when none of the Tracy boys are available was also one of Bob's contacts. It seems that he had some domestic issue that he could not afford to be seen dealing with himself, so left it to Bob's gang. I dread to think the kind of damage he could have done to the Tracys or to TI if Bob had gotten around to calling him on his debt.
Everyone Eos has found in her very thorough searching is being investigated. Some in person, others less directly but no less thoroughly. It's the kind of thing John would have excelled at, but he is not available.
Yes, about John. Or, more specifically, about Langstrom Fischler. The one who put the gang onto John in the first place.
Whilst it is true that Fischler should have had the book thrown at him long ago with all the trouble he has caused, there is nothing to specifically charge him with in this case.
The only thing he is heard to have said was that International Rescue needed to be kept out of the way for a couple of weeks so they could not interfere with his latest invention. When he was personally confronted with that evidence, his reaction was that he had wanted someone to bribe them, or to block their telephones or something, just so that IR would not be called out to interfere with him in any way. He had wanted someone he believed had the authority to tell IR to just leave him be.
Personally, I think he is talking rubbish, but there is no evidence that he intended for any harm to come to anyone.
In reality, I believe it. Fischler is a lot of things, most of them not very nice, but I truly believe he means well. He seems to have a problem with spending time and money on safety precautions, but in terms of his inventions, he actually has had some good ideas. If he had taken trouble to deal with the safety aspects of his work, he might have been able to do a lot of good in the world rather than so much mischief.
I am meeting with Rigsby right now. We still have a lot of work to do, and liaising with a lot of good GDF officers whom are helping us. They have all been checked out against Eos's list by the way, and are clean.
Casey is remaining at base now to make sure nothing else goes wrong. Penny and Parker are now joining our end of the investigation.
Hopefully we'll be done by morning. Then we can find out what is to happen to Fischler. Whilst we can't officially charge him with anything here, we can't let him carry on as he usually does either.
I suppose we'll find out in the morning.