With a groan Kayo moved, or rather, tried to move. There was something holding her secure, and for a wild moment she thought Scott was pinning her down, but the creeping feeling of something being wrong was increasing.
She opened her eyes and immediately closed them again. That brief look told her that her situation was far worse than she could have imagined. She was still in Shadow, buckled into her seat.
But Shadow was under water.
Kayo hit the comm on her wrist, but there was nothing. She hit the button on the dash but again…nothing. She watched as a small shoal of fish swam past her windscreen and bit her lip.
Thunderbird Shadow, thankfully, was waterproof as long as her seal remained, but Kayo was worried that the lightning hits she'd sustained might have done some damage. They had been very powerful and had fried Shadow's circuits – something Kayo had thought impossible with Brains' over-engineering.
She sighed.
It wasn't like Kayo could get out and check Shadow over and being in the cockpit meant she couldn't move to even check much of the interior either, so she just had to sit tight and wait for her brothers to come and rescue her.
Scott would know something was wrong. He'd been listening in after all, and his Scooter Sense would be off the charts right now. But it would take time for any of them to arrive – Kayo was quite sure that Virgil would stop their frantic big brother from trying to get here in One, a certain way to destroy the rocket – so she needed to exercise patience.
It didn't help that she had no idea how long she'd been unconscious, nor which lake she was in. These were things she could do nothing about, however, so Kayo concentrated on working out how she could help herself, and help her brothers locate her.
Searching the small hidden pockets in her baldric, Kayo pulled out a couple of Kendal mint cakes and smiled. She could always tell when it was Scott who had restocked the baldrics, he always put more than one cake in her supplies. She pocketed one for later and opened the other, only a corner and nibbled a little of the mint-flavoured sugar as she contemplated the best move for her to make.
Shadow was literally dead in the water, only her emergency lights remained on, and they wouldn't last much longer if that sudden flicker was anything to go by. She had several glow sticks in the tiny cockpit locker and a first aid kit. Well, she didn't need that yet, although the building headache could be a mild concussion…there was no blood so she hoped it was more to do with where she was rather than due to injury. There was no time for her to worry about concussion as well.
Brains over-engineers everything. It was almost a unwritten rule, a maxim they all lived by every second of their lives. It was often the only reason none of them were dead yet. And right now it was the only reason Kayo was still in one piece. She knew it, could feel it in her bones.
Oh. She was shivering. A part of her mind that sounded remarkably like Virgil told her she was going into shock, a delayed reaction to the suddenness of everything. Kayo clenched her fists and grounded herself by naming the five groups of moves in Silat followed by the seven levels and the classic weapons used while concentrating on her breathing.
Eventually the shaking stopped and she ate another corner of Kendal cake.
Shadow was dead…her brothers would be here soon if not already…what could she do to help them find her?
Putting away the rest of the sweet, her fingers curled around another item in her pocket. Kayo broke out into a grin.
She knew what to do.
…
Virgil tried hard not to take Scott's impatience personally, but they had been here almost an hour with no sign of Kayo or Shadow. They had scanned Ontario, Erie and Michigan but with Shadow off-line there was the distinct possibility that they could miss her. Five was still down and so their scans were limited.
Gordon wanted to take Four down, but which lake was the burning question.
Which lake? Which lake would Kayo be in?
'Guys? I think I might have found her.'
Everyone's head whipped round to Alan and the excitement in his voice.